The rooms were average to above average, but the grounds were beautiful. The food was good, especially the burgers and fries. I tried to only have one plate of fries, but they were always fresh and hard to pass up. Thank good they had a good gym. The location couldn't have been better. Make sure you get a car because it's only a 5 minute drive to everything in San Lucas. Make sure you take the trip on the Cabo Rey for snorkeling and great pictures of Lover's Arch.

I can not say enough about the Riu Palace Hotel. My wife and I had our honeymoon there from September 19 – 23, 2008. We had a Junior Suite / Ocean View room. I have nothing but good things to say about the Riu. If there is a 5 Star Rating, I would give this resort a 6 Star Rating (even with the very minimal negatives that we experienced). I love reading reviews online, but you have to beware of competitors (posing as guests) posting negative reviews and hotel owners/staff posting positive reviews. I’ll start by saying that I am neither. My thoughts are 100% honest based.

THIS IS NOT HOTEL RELATED – BUT IMPORTANT TO READ**********************
BEWARE of the Time Share snakes. Do NOT talk to anyone inside the airport doors. Accept help with your luggage directly to the waiting transportation. If they stop you (at what they will lead you to believe is a Hotel Desk)… take your bags back and walk them yourself. They disguise themselves as helpers to get your bags to the taxi. When you say that you are going to the Riu Palace, they immediately identify with you. In our case, they brought us to solicitors at the airport for a timeshare resort called the Mayan Palace (saying that all of the Palaces are the same, just different owners – LOL). They immediately start asking you what activities you plan to do. For my wife and I, we said that we wanted to do the Wave Runners, Zip Line (Canopy), and Snorkeling. Adding them all up would have cost something like $300 total for both of us. They gave it to us for $100 total as long as we attended the 90 Minute Sales Presentation.—45 minutes of which is eating a free breakfast. It goes MUCH longer than 90 minutes, they get very pushy, you have to go through 4 people of saying no to them before they give up. Once they finally release you, they mock you behind your back but you can definitely hear them. We did save $200 on activities. But, still wonder if it was worth the hassle.

NOW, THE HOTEL…..
Lets start with the negatives (so that we end on a positive note). The clock radio in the room was not that great. It was never the correct time and the staff never came to properly set it. I can set a clock, but this one moved really slow. I would have spent my whole vacation setting the time (although I could have unplugged it at 12:00am and set it then….duh). The room service food was kinda mediocre. Ordered wheat toast, they brought cold white. Coffee was lukewarm and there was milk in place of cream. That’s it. That’s the only negatives there are. And, neither of those are enough to even TRULY make a difference in the stay.

CHECK IN: - Flawless.

RESERVATIONS - For the specialty restaurants is pretty easy. The reservation desk is right to the right of the check-in. You can make reservations for 2 nights at a time. You will most likely not get a reservation for that same day, but you can (for example) make a reservation for the Steakhouse tomorrow night and the Japanese Restaurant the following night. We never used the reservation that we made.

ROOM SERVICE – If you put the menu item card on your door the night before, they will bring your breakfast the next morning at the time you request. Our breakfasts were delivered exactly (I mean to-the-minute) at 7:00am one morning and 7:30am on another. When you call to order room service, the food is usually there within 15 – 20 minutes. All of the food and drinks are covered with cellophane wrap to keep the flies off and keep the drinks from spilling.

BUFFET MEALS – We mainly ate at the buffets. Great selection of food. Great service. Our waiter was Oscar on many of our meals (his night off is Monday). He is great, talkative. He brought us a chocolate cake when he found out it was our honeymoon. A mariachi band came by to sing for us.

IN ROOM SAFE – Definitely recommended if you are worried about theft. The safe is not large enough to hold a laptop for example. But travel documents, passports, etc are good to keep there. I left my laptop at the front desk with ease. There were some times when I left the laptop in the room and it was there when I returned even when housekeeping had been there.

WIRELESS INTERNET – Is free and available in the lobby floor bar and courtyard. Several tables are near power outlets for you to plug into.

TRANSPORTATION – Not ever a problem. No wait for a taxi ($12 for a ride to Downtown Cabo – split that as many ways as you can…).

TIPPING – I have read people’s comments about no one there doing something for you without expecting a tip. That is true, but that is the nature of their employment. $1,00 per day for housekeeping, $1.00 per meal, $2.00 - $5.00 per sitting at the bar (depending on how long you are there and how long you drink). $1.00 for the bellhop. Common courtesy is really all that is involved here. They serve you, you tip them in kind. Many people think that because this is an all-inclusive hotel that you don’t have to pay for anything. Normal tips at restaurant are 15%, but when you aren’t paying for the meal, people forget to tip. And what is 15% on something you don’t know the cost of?

If anyone wants more info or you have specific questions, email me.

Visited RIU Palace 09/13/08 to 09/20/08 couple in late 50’s with 20 year old daughter, flew by West Jet out of Toronto what a great all around experience by happy caring employees having some fun at their job, keep it up guys
On arrival at the small airport Airlines & Tour companies should come together to ban or at least reduce the number of time share sharks that attack you as you come through customs at the airport going to your bus, you just have to be plain rude to get passed them, not a great way to treat visitors after a 5 hour flight
Nice 45-minute drive to the RIU arrival greeting was impressive with a quick welcome with a cold drink overlooking the ocean with the magnificent views & a cruise ship docked just to add to the elegance & a welcome cold Corona
Front desk (lots of good English spoken) was quick & efficient although I was disappointed that the two junior suites, #3093 & 3094 ocean view were OK but set back some from the ocean front with only a partial ocean view over one of the pools but doors right into the main lobby
Clean & spacious, well stocked mini bar & liquor dispenser, maid service OK, lots of towels, facecloths etc but only what you would expect from a 5 star hotel
The Palace is impressive in all respects, the bars, restaurants, pools, beach, views, & the staff so friendly & good English spoken
I was surprised that they used the old-fashioned safe lock & key instead of the digital safe
Went on Dolphin Experience (watch out for the USD 25.00 per Photo, crazy) & the glass bottom boat out to the arch & shopping around the neat marina, both well worth doing
Cabo San Lucas is certainly struggling with the influx of tourists & time shares, just take a look at their downtown infrastructure it’s a mess
We were glad we went in mid September I would hate to be around Cabo in peak season although we did run the risk of hurricanes & storms however weather was terrific but hot mid 90’s some days
Will plan to revisit next year again & take the family, as it is such a good all around large hotel/resort

We have a superstar Travel Agent and she was kind enough to warn my wife and I that this was not going to be the same experience we had on our honeymoon to Palm Island in St Vincent & the Grenadines of the Caribbean. But we had a budget and certain dates we were traveling during. We asked her to find us something within our budget (1500-1800 usd) for a week's vacation from Dallas, TX. We read several reviews of the Riu Palace, and mostly were hesitant after reading them, but we had already committed. Here are some thoughts...

Emphatically trust no one...they are out for themselves, not for customer service. Example...anyone traveling into Cabo should do nothing but pass on all people who are trying to help them as they will be asking for a tip and likely be trying to get you to visit their property and get you to buy timeshare. Do not speak to anyone who is offering help until you get outside of the doors of the airport building. irregardless of what your agent says, they will all say that they work for your agency...look for your agent's uniform and only their uniform. For some reason there is a space reserved just for promotions people to stand right outside of the arrival and customs area but licensed transportation cannot be in there at all...do not stop until you are actually outside in the daylight where the drivers and shuttles are...even then, be very very suspect of anyone unless it is your confirmed shuttle from either the hotel or booking agent. they know you know nothing and pride themselves in coming across as super nice and accommodating. they are manipulative.

Arrival at the RIU was pleasant and our room was ready prior to check-in, so we were able to go to the room , settle in, and head to lunch. Rooms were nice, good A/C, stocked mini-bar was well done, shower was less than awesome, but overall the room was nice, great view with a junior suite oceanview. We were given our wristbands when we checked in(food & drink) and headed off to the buffet (steakhouse at night). Food was decent, but after almost a week, it got old. Luckily the resort had thematic restaurants that you have already likely read about, if not, read the other reviews, there is ample commentary on them. Again, waiting in line at 7am just to get a reservation was insane, but the opportunity of variety was a needed one. The rules to the 'reservation game' varied day to day....you will get screwed and you will eventually get good food as a result...this poor guy almost blew a gasket on some of the staff when he was second in line and the reservations girl said that they were already all booked up. He got them to accommodate though, so I guess it was good for him to start yelling as he did! All thematic restaurants were delightful. Service was good at all places, but once anyone showed tip money, the service got better without hesitation...shameful increase in attention like dogs who knew they were going to get a biscuit if they sat up and begged! The opposite of customer service, more like conditional service.

The services the hotel offered were moderate. Each travel agency had an approved representative that you were to see to about booking excursions. My wife and I wanted to tandem parasail...we were told that there was a weight restriction of 285lbs...well she weighed more that 35lbs and that put us over the limit. So we trusted him and went individually. We loved it. On our way back to the hotel we saw other people who were more than willing to set us up with one that would hold both of us just fine & we booked it in our hotel 150ft away from the dude in our hotel that told us no one had a parasail that could hold more than 285. We were pissed. Not to mention the walk he sent us on. The water is far too rough on the beach by the RIU to have any water taxi pick you up...we had to walk down the scorching hot rough sand for '15 minutes' to get to the water taxi that then took you to the boat to parasail. Everything was a '15 minute' walk on the beach. If it were my resort I would get a vehicle that could shuttle people on the beach to their destinations, but that would include being customer-centric on behalf of the management of the RIU. We are not afraid of walking, but this seemed to be a common comment among the guests we talked to. The management and staff were accommodating at best during our stay.

We will not likely return...we had a great time, great views, great tans and sunburns, met great people...but we are not there to get drunk so the minibar was barely touched. The drinks we did have were fairly weak, but again this really did not concern us as much as it did some others.

Hotel room, pretty good...hotel food, pretty good...hotel staff, pretty nice...all in all not bad. Not great, but not bad either.