This was our first time in Cabo San Lucas and we are so happy that we chose the Riu Palace. From the first moment checking in we started to enjoy our visit, Thank-you to Oscar at the front desk for his help with our room which was beautifu and quiet with a partial oceanview. I pulled the drapes on the window back before sleep and awoke to the most amazing colour of the start of the sun coming up on the ocean..breathtaking. The food everywhere was some of the best we have ever had at a resort and the a-la-cartes were superb.
Everyone at the resort were so nice and helpful such as Omar at the steakhouse restaurant and Esmeralda waitressing..and Bernardo down at the beach activity/scuba. shop..you made our stay so enjoyable..thank-you..you can tell the staff at the Riu love working there.
The scenery and the location was beautiful with taking a water taxi to Lovers Beach and the Marina. We did a parasailing trip with Airies Water it was such a blast,,we also did a catamaran whalewatching trip and witnessed humpbacks jumping and a pod of gray whales..amazing..
Thank-you so much to you Victor for taking the time to meet us...you are as wonderful as our friends told us you were....We will definately see you all again...Karen and Bert..

I had the pleasure of staying at Riu Palace Cabo San Lucas for one week in February 2013. As usual, I chose this resort based on what I felt were reasonable reviews on Trip Advisor. Having travelled extensively throughout the Caribbean and Mexico, I will provide you with my thoughts on this resort.

Check in/Checkout was as smooth as could be. After a 45 minute bus ride, including one stop to the Riu Santa Fe, we were escorted off our bus by the Sunwing rep, taken to the sports bar, served a fresh drink and handed our room key, along with getting our wristbands. By 10:45 am, we were in our room with our luggage, and by 11:15, we were already on the beach! One thing to note, is that Riu Palace patrons do have an advantage over the Santa Fe patrons in that we had use of both facilities and a bit more "preferential" treatment. I will provide more insight to this later in the review.

Rooms were as many others had stated. Dated, but clean. A simple change of bedspreads/curtains would give these rooms a good makeover, as the floors and bathrooms were beautiful marble and the furniture was decent, with the exception of an orange couch, which we jokingly referred to as the DNA couch, due to some stains. TV was the old box style "Zenith". But we didn't go to Cabo to sit in the room. We had requested a room away from the lobby and were happy we did. I would recommend a 3rd or 4th floor room for better views.

Noise was definitely a factor in the rooms. Every morning, we could hear the maids' carts going down the hallway starting at 7 am....not sure why sound travelled here, but it did. On another occasion, we had an alarm clock that had gone off in an adjacent room at 7:20 am. The patrons of this room had since checked out and even though we called the front desk to check it out, the raging alarm went off for an entire hour. Same thing the next day, until they finally located the room with the blaring alarm.

Maid service was fantastic! They cleaned the room in the morning, and turned down the bed at night. When they turned down the bed, they replaced towels/toiletries again if required. We always had 4 or 5 clean large towels on hand.

Food and service were the BEST that I have ever had in an all-inclusive hotel. If you can't find something to eat here, then something is wrong. We also enjoyed the options of restaurants. For lunch you had 3 buffet options plus the Japanese a la carte. For dinner there was 1 buffet and 4 a la cartes to choose from. The Japanese restaurant does not need a reservation at anytime. We noticed on several occasions that people were lined up to make reservations at 10 am or so, however we lucked out (heck we were awake at 7:20 every morning) to get into Krystal (gourmet restaurant), and the Steakhouse restaurant on the days we wanted. Krystal was by far the best, with both food and service. The steakhouse was good, however, the servers seemed very rushed...actually running from table to the kitchen to keep up with the schedule of 3 seatings. I would think this could be eliminated if they staggered reservations. Initially, it gave me a uncomfortable feeling, but after about 30 mins, they stopped running. The Japanese restaurant was pretty good, with very good service.

Drinks were average to good, depending on which bar/restaurant you were at. Our first day, I had a glass of wine, that I could not stomach. It tasted like white wine vinegar. Most wine throughout our stay was like this, with the exception of the wine at Krystal restaurant. I would think at a so-called 5 star hotel, they could provide better wine. The best (and most potent) drinks were from the Sports bar. They had an extensive list of 12 martinis, which we are happy to report we tried each and every one! They also carry port and top shelf liquor. Drinks by the pool were average fruity/slushy drinks. I've had better, but also had worse. It was nice to have service for drinks by the pool and beach.

The beach was interesting to walk on. The sand is very coarse and the slope is very steep. Not the easiest to walk on, but after a day or 2 of walking each day, we got used to it. Of course, we had to walk towards town, to make a stop at The Office or Mango Deck for a lime margarita....real lime margaritas! There are many beach bars/restaurants within a 20 - 30 mins walk down the beach. It was a great reward for walking the beach! I would also recommend the food at Mango Deck. Fantastic!

We went right into Cabo San Lucas twice, once to go whale watching (incredible), and once to go for dinner at Lorenzillos (fantastic seafood restaurant overlooking the marina). I highly recommend both, although recognize that a dinner for 2 at Lorenzillos with a couple of drinks will cost you over $125 USD minimum. We booked our whale watching excursion in advance through whalewatchcabo.com - I highly recommend this Canadian company. All tour guides have a marine biology background and are very knowledgable. We also hired a boat from Dario at Full Speed Rentals on the beach to go to Lovers Beach and snorkelling. For $15 each we had a return trip including snorkel gear. Dario's a lovely man who has a white canopy on the beach, about 15 mins walk from Riu.

I mentioned the options of going to Riu Santa Fe. We chose to do this one night to see a show. It appears that the evening shows would play one night at Santa Fe, then the next night at the Palace. The difference between resorts was like going from an Ivy League fraternity to an "Animal House" fraternity. The Palace is very calm and quiet for the most part, and Santa Fe is loud and rowdy. The option is great if you feel like experiencing that, and then go back to the peaceful Palace. We actually heard the crickets walking back to the Palace one night....which was the perfect analogy.

As for the shows, this is another area where I feel Riu could step it up....pretty cheesy, low budget shows. We saw 2 shows in their entirety, and 2 shows where we left to go to the Sports bar after 15 mins.

All in all, we would definitely return to Riu Palace for the friendly staff, beautiful grounds, great food and proximity to town. For the price we paid, it was well worth it!

I've stayed in several all-inclusives in Mexico, but this was my first in Cabo. The hotel is large, beautifully decorated and impeccably kept. The grounds were manicured, the pools sparkling clean (one is heated) and restaurants were good. While you need to reserve a table at the specialty restaurants the morning of the evening you'd like to dine there, we found that by 9:45am both the Japanese and the French restaurant were booked. The buffet in the Medano Restaurant (offering breakfast and dinner) offers variety, quality and quantity of every kind of food you could ask for....the specialty restaurants were not necessary for us. The breakfast buffet can be compared to that of a huge ocean liner......expansive....the waiters are extremely attentive. Some nights were theme nights, e.g., Asian, Mexican, etc. The afternoon lunch at the Mar De Cortez has lots to offer in the way of salads, vegetables, fruits, chicken, tortilla's, burgers, chicken and more variety than you can ask for. Seating is outdoors overlooking the sea....very nice. Given all the guests having lunch or dinner at the same time, surprisingly, there were never piles of dirty dishes around (to attract flies) The waiters did an excellent job of clearing the dirty dishes and tables. I never saw an overflowing garbage pail.
The guest rooms are plain......no robes, no slippers, no sound dock and an old fashioned box TV...no flat screens here.......but they did supply some nice toiletries and the bathroom towels were large and fluffy. What the room decor lacked, the view from the balcony makes up for. We had room 3062.....a spectacular view of the pools, grounds and the sea. We had great housekeeping and plenty of soft drinks and beer etc in the mini fridge. Room service is somewhat limited.
Entertainment was fair.....we didn't visit the disco...not much to do at night. The La Ventanas 24 hr bar has a spectacular view of the the famous arches with TV's and pool tables. This is the best place to view the sunsets. We happened to be there for Superbowl and the Riu didn't disappoint. They through a fabulous Superbowl party complete with chips and salsa, wings, fish, drinks, guacamole and chicken tortilla's and a huge flat screen TV. It was a great party!
While we preferred the "quiet heated" pool, there was lots of music and games going on at the activity pool (unheated). Just beyond the activity pool is the San Jose Restaurant. They serve Italian for lunch and then "Mexican" for dinner (?) but it a nice alternative to the busy Mar de Cortez for lunch.....good view too.
The beach in front of the hotel was not swim able, however, just a 15/20 minute walk down the beach (towards Cabo) there is a swim able beach with ropes and booey's - safe for swimming - right in front of the Villa de Palma....the water is clear, clean and beautiful (but cold).
The biggest attraction to Cabo is the dry desert climate, and when combined with the bright blue sky and the green Sea of Cortez, this is a gem of a place indeed. We will definitely return.

My family and I went to the Palace Riu Cabo in January. I am the type of person who read most if not all of the reviews before I went. I have never taken the time to write one myself though. We have been to four all-inclusives, including one in Cozumel. This by far is the BEST. I give it a 6 star rating. This place truly makes one feel like royalty. The front desk staff is very friendly, and helpful. They will go out of their way to please. If you did not enjoy this resort, then you are just not happy about anything.
The rooms are very spacious and extremely clean (I looked under the bed before we went home, to make sure I didn't miss anything. Not even a speck of dust.) We did not have an ocean view room, but standing on our balcony we had a nice ocean view. This resort is first class all the way.
The only negative thing that I found was the buffet was always the same. The food was good, and there was so much of it that if you couldn't find something to eat, again there is something wrong with you. I did eat a salad one day out of the fridge next to the 24 hour bar that I believe made me sick. I was only sick for a couple of hours though.
The hotel next door is Santa Fea, and is the party hotel. If you go to the Palace, you can go to Santa Fee too. But, if you’re staying at Santa Fee, you can't go to the Palace. If there is no difference in the price of your trip, then you should stay at the Palace. If there is a great price difference, then the Santa Fee was very nice also.

I read one review that mentioned to purchase your excursions from the Dive Shop at the resort. I highly recommend this. Charlie (or Carlos) is the best, but they all take good care of you. The prices are the same as the guys in the lobby. Charlie will make sure you get on and off of the boats safely. We met women there that went into town, and took a water taxi back to the resort. They didn't have a ladder, they also didn't have Charlie. She ended up in the under tow, under the boat. She was terrified. She was not going to take another one all week. I talked her into going to see Charlie. She said he took great care of her the rest of the week she was there.
There is a strong under tow in front of the resort. You can't swim there. There is a beach about a 15 minute walk where you can swim. There is not really any snorkeling there. There is one spot called pelican island. But, it is just a bunch of tuna, and some striped fish. Not anything to exciting.
The town of Cabo is great. Cabo Wabo is fun. The nachos are awesome. I felt much safer in Cabo then I ever did in Cozumel, Playa Del Carmen, or Cancun.
I would love to answer any questions about this resort, or the town that I can. Please feel free to send me an e-mail if you want to ask a question. Sushi730@comcast.net, put "Cabo, Palace" in the subject line.
P.S. Hubby says the Whale watching was worth the price of the whole trip. The fish for dinner was great. Make sure to try the aracha beef.