We stayed at the Riu Palace May 16-23 2005.
We couldn't have asked for a better Honeymoon. I don't usually write reviews but I find that usually the only people who write reviews usually have something to complain about. I want to make sure that this resort is recognized for being a quality resort.

The Riu chain has a good name and the location could not be more beautiful. I have included some pics so that you can see for yourself. The service was very friendly, and helpful. The rooms were spacious and clean. The alcohol dispenser was a treat and ice cold coronas in the fridge daily was very nice after a long day at the beach.

The restaurants were great. We ate at the Jananese Restaurant, the Steak House and the Gormet - Sir Lawrence. All were very good. And as far as buffets go, this was great. I saw one review that said the steak was tough, we had rare & med steak and I was suprised that it was not tough, I had low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. The line ups were crazy long to make reservations and have seen better set ups forsure, we gave up on the line ups and ate at the buffet after 3 restaurant line ups.

We had a massage at the spa and it was a good price and the best massage I have ever had. W also took advantage of the hot jacuzzi's which overlook the ocean. We went downtown one day and we decided to be adventurous and walk. Well let me tell you the walk there was ....well long let's say, the walk back was downright awful. I thought I was going to pass out.

Taking a cab the next time was worth every penny. If you go with a couple of people it is cheaper - try to do that so you can split the cost.

We went to a restaurant downtown called Quesadilasss, very good. We went to the Flea Market for t-shirts because the Malls were expensive but nice and different. We went to a couple of different bars - Cabo Wabo, The Giggling Marlin & El Squid Roe. There were a couple of smaller bars that were pretty cool as well - Slim's Elbow Room and The Love Shack. We went to some during the day and in the evening.
The weather was great literally not a cloud in the sky and very warm, the nights in May were very cool and breezy but it was still nice.
Definately try the Mojito very refreshing...and please tip the staff they work very hard.

My mother, myself and my son stayed at the Riu Cabo San Lucas from August 20-August 31, 2005. The riu is situated about 20 mins from San Jose Del Cabo (34 dollar taxi ride each way) and 10 mins to Cabo San Lucas (10 dollar taxi ride each way). Cabo San Lucas is the party town with the famous CAbo Wabo, Squide Roe, Hard Rock Cafe, Ruth Chris's and other restaurants and night clubs.

I have been to many all-inclusive hotels AND I must say that this was by far the best hotel ever. I have read many of the reviews, some negative about the food. I cannot imagine how people can complain about the food. All the restaurants were very good. If you were unhappy with your meal in a restaurant, you could then go to the buffet for food. Lunch had many choices - Always a salad bar, pizza. multiple types of fish, pasta, tortillas, cheeses ( many different types), meats, shrimp. hamburgers, All there choices were available every day. I cannot believe that one reviewer stated that there were not many choices. I cannot imagine that she has that many choices at home. NOTE: Although all the literature that I read said that men had to wear long pants, I saw many men in shorts going to the buffet at all meals, and into the restaurants with shorts on. Dress is casual. At breakfast and lunch most people ate in their bathing suits with cover ups on and men with a t shirt.

The hotel rooms were absolutely beautiful. We had a junior suite with 2 double beds. There are double sinks in the bathroom with granite counter tops, built in hairdryer, built in large tiltable magnifying mirror, tub/shower that is surrounded in granite. A huge closet with at least 40 hangers!! The beds were firm and the pillows wonderful (some thick and some thinner so that you can pick) There was a very warm fleece blanket in the room if you are bunking with someone else who jacks up the air conditioning. We had more towels than we knew what to do with. A shampoo dispenser is full in the shower/tub area, and hair conditioner and body lotion is provided daily. There is a mini bar with 4 bottles of alcohol (tequilla, rum, vodka and brandy) Refrigerator with Coronas, pepsi, diet pepsi, orange crush and bottles spring water. All mini bar items are included in all - inclusive pricing. In addition, continental breakfast via room service was included if desired. I would have coffee and several pastries delivered early and then hit the absolutely exquisite breakfast buffet later. The watermellon carvings were amazing. Some can be seen if you go to the Riu website and check out the pics for this hotel.

My son had a terrific time. There were people from the unitied states, mexico, and the caribean that I met. People were all ages and all sizes. I met honeymooners, young families. older couples. and at least 10 woman that were 6 months or more pregnant. The pools were incredible. They appeared to be almost 1 1/2 times the length of an olympic swimming pool. There were two alcoves in each pool with jacuzzi jets, as well as built in "Tiled beds" so that you can suntan while being submerged in 8 inches of water. The pools are infinite pools overlooking the ocean on the ocean end. In addition to the 2 large pools, were 2 adult pools at the 2 poolside bars with stools and tables to sit at. At the pool there was never a problem finding at least 5 beach loungers together - all have cusions and umbrellas. In addition there are beach loungers, cushions and umbrellas on the beach if you chose to go there. Infortunately, the water is too rough and swimming is not recommended at the beach. Still.... some people did try. There is a swimmable beach that is a 10 minute walk along the beach to the right of the hotel where swimming is safe. Large beach towels are provided and can be exchanged multiple times throughout the day for dry ones if needed. The pool was fine by me, waiters come every 10 mins to bring your drinks.... no tipping, no paying as this is all incluced!! There are ping pong tables at the pool area to use. I must say, the service at the pool was unbeatable and many people tipped the servers anyway, on their last day of vacation, as they treated all of us like royalty.

The entire hotel is open, without doors. All the walkways are done in beautiful tiling - I advise ladies to leave the stilleto heels at home as the tiles can be slick if wet. Everywhere throughout the hotel, one can find a plump comfortable cusioned chair to sit and read a good book, to play cards, or to listen to the ocean.

At night time, there is always entertainment. There were Mexican dancers, singers, talent show, bands etc... There is a disco also, and early in the evening they show movies for the children. There were people of all ages at this resort. The environment was so relaxed that everyone, staff and guests, were friendly and happy to be around. The evening entertainment is held in the middle of the hotel which is opened to the outside and has 2 bars and waitress service for your drinks (again no tipping as this is included) The drinks were fabulous always with a fresh pinapple or peice of fruit. In addition, the bar tenders made wonderful "Virgin" drinks for the kids. My son just loved going to the bar and getting a strawberry-banana milkshake whenever he felt the urge!!

There is no need to leave the resort. If snorkeling is an interest, go to the website for baja wild. This is the major company offering snorkeling and kayaking excursions. We booked our excursion at the hotel lobby, however, it would have been nice to have looked this up prior to my arrival. We went on the all day kayaking and snorkeling excursion through baja wild. It Was 95.00 per person which included a light breakfast, lunch, transportation and kayaks and snorkeling equipment. I had never kayaked before and was apprehensive as I am not the best athelete and neither is my mother. The water was calm at this spot and was very east to kayak. The drive unfortunately is almost 2 hours each way to get to the location, but definitely worth it!! (The last 10 mins is on a very bumpy dirt road to the beach on the sea of cortez. There are no hotels or homes on the beach where the kayaking and snorkeling is. The water is crystal clear, beautiful and very calm. The landscape is not marked with buildings and was breathtaking. I recommend doing this!!!

I booked my shuttles to and from the airport online with cabos dot com website. I was sent an email with specific instructions where to go and was greeted by a person holding a sign with my name on it. All that I needed was a copy of the confirmation and we were on our way, Shuttle was $90.00 for three people inclusive both ways to and from the airport. They arrived on time to bring us back to the airport, and did not require a confirmation phone call.

One warning, after you go through customs at the Cabo Airport, go straight outside and catch your shuttle. You will be greeted by very aggressive salesmen wanting to sell you a time share. The salesmen will tell you that your shuttle will be there in 30 mins and that you have to wait with them inside. This is a ploy. Just ask for ID, and if they do not have your shuttle companies logo on their ID badge or sewn on their shirt, then they have nothing to do with your shuttle company and just want to sucker you into hearing their sales pitch.

I hope that this information is helpful to you. If you need any further information, you can go directly to the riu web site and get the hotel phone number. I called them several times with questions as different web sites had different information on them.... some correct and some incorrect. I forgot to mention, there is a kids club with a nice building by the pool area. My son did not take advantage of it, however, many others were pleased with their services which were "also included" I cannot tell you have wonderful this vacation was. I felt like a queen as the service was impeccable, the hotel beautiful, and Cabo is Fabulous!!!

We stayed at the Riu from August 8th to 15th and we really enjoyed our vacations. The weather was absolutely gorgeous every day and the place is very nice. The resort itself is elegant and beautiful, specially the room. We had 4125 far from the disco, overlooking the pool and nice view on the ocean. The resort is very busy since it has more than 650 rooms and I have to admit that it impacts the service. If you eat at the buffet, most of the time you will have to find you own table and sometimes you have to find your utensils. The employees are very nice and they will always take care of you, but there are just busy. I didn't mind. If you go at the speciality restaurants the service is very good. We tried the Gourmet and the Steak House. Don't bother the steak house. The Gourmet was good. You have to try the Italian restaurant on lunchtime. Beautiful view and good food. It was empty most of the time. We left tip for the housekeeping and it paid off. We don't drink beer, so I left a note to get it switch for soda and they did it right away and every day. I tried the Spa and it was very good. I got mine outside and it was a great experience and the prices are fair.

We took the bus to go in town. It cost 6 pesos to take the bus compare to 10$ US for the cab. Cabo San Lucas is a small town very "americanized". My husband played golf and even if it's very expensive, he says that it was worth the money.

There are only two things that bothered me: the fact there was no area for adult only (the quiet side is not really quiet) and the crowd. It's the first time I go to a place where there is so many rude people per square feet. People get very impatient and rude toward staff for no reason, lots of yelling around the pool area, etc. Honestly, it was annoying after a while. Overall l really liked my vacations. The area and the hotel are both very nice. Enjoy your stay!

My boyfriend and I spent a week at the Riu in July. We were really excited having seen all the beautiful pictures are were expecting it to be a great vacation. When we first arrived they had lost our reservation. We booked with Apple Vacations. Which we had used before and had not run into any problems with, but for some reason there must have been a miscommunication between apple and the Riu. The problem was quickly fixed. And they offered us our welcome drink and room key. Our room was great!! We had a beautiful balcony that overlooked the beach and the wonderful scenery. The room was complete with a stocked mini fridge (soda, water, corona's). The room was dirty when we first arrived and smelled of smoke, but this may have been due to the fact that they lost our reservation so they didn't freshen up the room prior to our arrival. Although we had a rocky start (we almost got bumped off our plane on the way to los cabos) we were quickly reassured by the beauty of the Riu. The resort grounds were sensational. The pools were beautiful, we loved the eternity pools! Throughout the week we discovered that the food was pretty bad. Very dissapointed in the restaurants. Part of the reason we decided to book at riu was because of the large variety of food choices they seemed to have. First of all getting a reservation was annoying. We had to stand in line to book for the next evening. The first night you arrive you are allowed to make 2 reservations at any of the restaurants except for the gourmet (we'll get to that in a min) my advice, make the reservations for as soon as you can get them. All the restaurants were acceptable but not very impressive. However the gourmet restaurant was really terrible. They literally recycled food from the buffet to the restaurants. I had mussels at the gourmet restaurant that I swear poisoned me. The buffet was another story. Breakfast WAS GREAT!! Lunch was ok, hamburgers and hotdogs, basic stuff, again nothing impressive. But dinner at the buffet was pretty terrible. Make sure to make other arrangements on the Asian night. The Mexican chefs working at the Riu have no business trying to make asain food. It was HORRIBLE. By the end of the vacation my boyfriend and I were basically living on quesadillas (they were amazing and at every meal). Everything always looked good but lacked in flavor (except for the Mexican food which was always good). It was my impression that these chefs really needed to take some more cooking classes, the level of quality of the food really took away from the rest of the resort. Fortunately, everything other than the food was amazing. The shows at night were great, the the drinks at the cocktail bar were fabulous. We had a couples moonlight message at the spa for $160 and it was so great we almost did it again the next night (but our better judgement stopped us). If you decide to do this makesure to do it on the spa balcony and not on the beach, you won't be bothered by other people on the balcony and you get the same effect (waves, stars, music, your love). The service was great. I left my digital camera out in my room at least 2 times and it wasn't stolen. After our first night, with the dust and the smoke we talked to the front desk and the maid thoroughly cleaned our room and brought in an air freshener so it was fine. If we choose to go to Los Cabos again we probably won't stay in the Riu, but if food isn't that important to you than its a great spot!