We just returned from a quick 4-night vacation at the RIU Palace in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Overall it was a very nice hotel - beautiful resort, rooms, pools, views. Would I stay there again - maybe, but like most people we like to try different places so based on that unlikely. Would I recommend it - sure. Ranking on a scale of 1 to 10? I would give it a 7.

We chose the RIU primarily because it was either cheaper than, or equal to, the prices at the other resorts we were considering. Given that the RIU was an all-inclusive it was worth it. We saved alot of money just in the breakfasts, lunches and drinks.

At check-in I asked for a room away from the disco. The hotel is huge, sort of a u-shape. Our room was outside view looking down the beach towards downtown Cabo. The rooms (jr suite) were very nice - great air conditioning & fan. 4 bottles of liquor in room (tequila, rum, vodka, brandy). Small fridge with Pepsi, Pepsi Light, Orange soda, 7-up, club soda, corona and plenty of small & large water bottles. They refilled it every day. You will need to buy your own mixers if you want anything else besides what they provided in the fridge. I thought they might have at least provided margarita mix - but no such luck. I would suggest bringing or buying your own plastic cups. The small glasses they provide in the room are too small for drinking. We saw lots of people with their own large beverage cups/coffee cups. The tv stations were somewhat disappointing - mostly mexican stations - not a great selection for english speaking channels. The beds are pretty stiff, but we were used to that and didn't have any problems. The hallways outside your rooms can echo alot of noise from any noisy guests - especially when they are loud coming back to their room after a night of partying.

Health club opens at 7am and it was pretty busy every morning between 7am and 10am. People were lining up at 7am for the treadmills. They have signup sheets for the equipment but not all guests were aware of this. Just be patient and remember that you are on vacation if you have to wait 30 mins. for a treadmill.

They say that you are not supposed to reserve lounge chairs at the pool but everybody does. I had our towels down on 2 chairs by 7am every morning and then left and ran on the treadmills. We felt comfortable leaving our towels and books on the chairs several times during the day as we took breaks for breakfast/lunch. As other reviews have mentioned, one pool (next to health club) is the quiet pool (non-heated) and the other pool next to the mexican restaurant is the activity pool and is also the heated pool. We stayed by the quiet pool. The water temp was just fine. The pools are great, lots of places to swim or play or they have built-in lounge chairs right in the water. Each of the pools has its own bar and swim-up bar with chairs and tables right in the water. The hard-core partyers tended to use the swim-up bars/pools so they were slightly more busy/rowdy.

Food. Well, I heard somebody compare the RIU to like being on a cruise ship and that seemed to fit pretty good. First day we didn't arrive until 5pm so we ate in the large buffet restaurant. The food was good/decent. Plenty of choices. They could have used more wait staff to clean tables after people finished but still not an issue. The other 4 restaurants require reservations 1-day in advance. The reservation desk opens at 6pm and people were in line around 5pm. I got in line just after 5pm and was about 25 spots from the front. It's not bad - just grab a chair, enjoy the views of the water, they serve you the free drinks. They even had entertainment on the stage for us. The restaurants have staggered seatings - usually a 630 and 645pm seating or 845pm and 9pm seating. So you have to decide what is more important - your eating time or location. We ate in the "Gourmet" restaurant - there are only 4 choices for entree's: snapper, filet, lamb or duck. The service and food were very good. I felt like they were trying to make this 'gourmet' place be a french restaurant. NOTE: MEN ARE REQUIRED TO WEAR PANTS AT THE RESTAURANTS THAT REQUIRE RESERVATIONS. THEIR BROCHURE ALSO STATES THAT MEN ARE REQUIRED TO WEAR LONG-SLEEVE SHIRTS BUT THEY ONLY ENFORCE THE PANTS. I WORE A SHORT SLEEVE SHIRT AND THERE WERE MANY OTHER MEN WEARING SHORT SLEEVES. I DID SEE THEM TURN AWAY A MAN THAT TRIED TO GET IN WEARING SHORTS. HE HAD TO GO BACK TO HIS ROOM AND CHANGE.

I guess the deal with the all inclusive is that alot of people like to get out and see the town, try new things. Because you have paid for an all inclusive and get all meals/drinks free you feel like you should get your money's worth and just eat at the RIU. But after 2-3 days you are tired of the same location and will want to go into Cabo to try something else.

They have shows each night with a different theme. We watched part of the Karoke (pretty funny) and then went to the disco. Somewhat disappointed. The disco is only open from 11pm - 2am. Way too loud, very bright obnoxious light show, smoke/fog, and the music wasn't getting us out on the dance floor.

We took a taxi ($10 USdollars) into town 2 nights and had awesome dinners at 2 places: Casa Rafael's (sit outside by the pool) and Lorenzillo's at the Marina, then we went to Squid Roe for a few drinks, laughs and dancing.

Weather was great - 85 degrees with breeze. Cools off at night so bring pants/long-sleeve/sweater.

We spent a week at the RIU in Cabo San Lucas for our honeymoon, and we had a great time. We were a little concerned about some of the reviews we read before confirming our trip, however our experience was very pleasant. The food was good, the room was great, the view from our room was wonderful, but above all the people were friendly and efficient. We felt pampered the entire time. The only thing we would have changed was the theather location, our room was right above it and sometimes we had to wait until the show was over to catch some sleep.
The town was great, and we did not have any problems with the people selling time-shares - we just said sorry we are leaving tomorrow and do not have time right now.
One recommendation I would like to include is that you bring sun protection when you go on some activities like parasailing or boat rides. The people in the activities desk were a bit rude and always forgot to mention that we were going to spend close to an hour in the boat waiting for our turn to ride. Some people did not bring shirts or sunblock, and they were hurting. Overall we had a great time, and we would recommend the place.

We stayed at the Riu Palace from March 30 - April 6, 2005 - 3 sets of neighbours from Ontario!!!

All 6 of us felt that this was a truly enjoyable experience - we all loved the food, the service, our rooms and the entertainment. Having a group of 6 not everything will be your favourite but all enjoyed....

Yes, the reservation system needs to be looked into - but on second hand - the resort was full and the longest we waited was 45 minutes and during this 45 minutes is when we met some of people we enjoyed our holiday with. Lots of friendly staff and guests - go Leafs....down goes Buffalo!!! Ha Ha...

One word of advice - the walk on the beach into town does take 1 hour to get directly to the marina and mall - stop at the Office on the way - get spot to relax.

The only issue we had was people who complained -

The view, the sun, the resort- including staff and service - was fantastic - if you are there - look for Said and Adrian - great guys - great service!

Open yourself and enjoy the experiece - Cabo was fantastic -
We always said we would never return to the same resort as there are so many to see but we will be back Riu Palace - see you soon!

Shawn, Debbie, Mike, Caroline, Garry and Cecila

Riu was cool!

Pros: breakfast buffet- very good; the mimosa's were awesome i usually drank 4-5 each morning

rooms- very cool decor; loved the bathrooms!

staff- awesome! Tamayo makes the best drinks; try the Caipirina--

Cons: it smells like sewage-- but if it's too terrible (i'm finding this out now) you can switch to another room

the beds are harder than laying on bricks....

Tip: if you're with a group-- have one very patient person wait in line and make your dining reservations for like 10 or the maximum amount-- or make friends and when you see them see if you can dine with them----

I absolutley loved it, the view, staff and culture made it a very relaxing vacation!