We just got back from the Riu Palace in Cabo San Lucas. Here's my review.

We arrived to a beautiful hotel with magnificant landscaping. It looked great. The inside was wonderful. An open lobby. But unfortunately they have overbooked the hotel by 50 rooms and we were one of the selected to be moved to another hotel. Would be an inconvienence, but they paid for the cab to/from the other hotel and the room for the night. They sent us to another all-inclusive so it was comparible.

When we finally did arrive the next day, our room was clean and ready. We got an ocean front room, which I recommend to everyone. The sound of the ocean was wonderful.

The food is for the most part wonderful. Getting reservations was a little odd. You had to stand in line and make reservations for one of the 4 restaurants if you didn't want to eat at the buffet and then they would say it was almost booked. But when you went there that night, there was maybe 1/4 of the restaurant booked. What the heck!

Anyway. We saw 4 weddings while we were there, just beautiful.

I don't necessarily blame the over booking on this hotel as we were one of the TONS of patrons at this hotel that switched last minute from Cancun because of hurricane Wilma.

Great job!

My husband and I had a fantastic time at the Riu Palance in Los Cabos. We certainly were aprehensive after reading several hotel complaints in TripAdvisor. However, having read the reviews we were very prepared to bypass any obstacles to a great time. We learned to bring lots of $1 bills for tipping which brought us very attentive service from maids, waiters and bartenders. If the beds are too hard for you, just ask the maid to put a foam mattress topper on the bed for you. It is very comfortable. Before breakfast, we brought our Riu pool towel cards to the towel booth at the pool at 9AM to get our towels to put on lounge chairs by the pool to reserve them. Then we went to the breakfast buffet, which was incredible. Everything and more was available at the buffet. There is so much to choose from. Take one spoonful of each item and you will be more than content. We loved Lionel who was our most excellent waiter every morning. After breakfast, we got in line for restaurant reservations at 10AM sharp, right outside of the breakfast buffet on the terrace and made our dinner reservations. However, the dinner buffets are amazing so don't stress if you don't get a reservation. Then we went straight to our pool chairs and enjoyed the pool and/or beach, the hotel activities, tropical drinks and snack bar all day. The animacion were very friendly and so much fun. Julio and Enrique were such a pleasure to sit with and and laugh together during lunch. The shows were very entertaining. Tomayo, the bartender by the stage took great care of us. We were only approached by one time share representative outside of the hotel in Cabo San Lucas. Politely say no thank you and walk away...no problem. Cell phones either don't work or charge roaming fees...get a $10 phone card at the front desk in case of emergencies. Make sure you ask the front desk how someone in the U.S. can reach you at the hotel. I think the code is 001 and then the phone number. Luis Valdez, at the front desk is top notch. He was extremely helpful with all of our questions and needs. If you rent a car, first, get a map from the conceirge and second, obey the traffic laws. The police are specifically looking for tourists to pay them under the table. Todos Santos is 1 hour and 10 minutes from Cabo San Lucas. La Pas is 1 hour and 10 minutes from Todos Santos, 2 hours and 20 minutes from Cabo San Lucas. If you plan on shopping, go to Costco which is practically across the street from the hotel, Sorianna which is similar to a Wal-Mart or the Mercado on Green Street in Cabo del San Jose for the best (non-tourist) prices. If you want to rent a wave runner or para sail or rent a glass bottom boat to "El Arco and Lover's Beach, walk down the beach between hotels to one of the vendors who are not affiliated with a hotel. They tend to be less expensive. The only thing I wished for was more latin dancing. The Pacha disco in the hotel was all American music. I would have liked to dance more salsa, merenge, mambo, bachada, ragatone, etc. I did tell this to the front desk and two managers so maybe next time we can get a little more Latin in our Mexican trip. Other than that, everthing was perfect. The Riu truly is a palace. Every inch of it was breathtakingly gorgeous with manicured fountain gardens and infinity pools and an amazing view. We can't wait to go back.

We stayed at the RIU Palace in Cabo San Lucas during the week of October 24th, 2005. Here is our summary of this resort.

Arrival: Be careful on what you pay to transfer from the airport to the hotel. We got ripped off, and decided to take a limo for 100 USD because we were told the shuttle buses would take 2.5 hours to get to our hotel. Who wanted to waste that time while you were in Mexico? But we soon discovered from other couples at our resort, that the shuttle (which only cost 14 USD per person) took the same time as our limo!

Hotel: Check in was smooth and went quickly, and the minute we walked in, we were offered wonderful frozen drinks! The hotel itself was absolutley beautiful with open air lobby, coutyards, etc. It still looks pretty new, as it is only 1 year old. Everything is marble, and the staff was constantly cleaning to make sure everything just looked perfect.

Staff: Every single person (and I mean everyone) we interacted with was extremely friendly, and did their best to accomodate us in whatever we wanted. Sure, there was some language barriers, but nothing that you could not overcome with a smile and some patience. You are in Mexico remember, they are trying to speak English as best they can, and most of them speak English just fine. And it is all inclusive, but remember a doller tip here and there is very much appreicated!

Pools: The two pools were beautiful and always kept very clean. The pool water is pretty cold, but feels good in the hot sun. The swim up bars are also pretty cool. But I was a bit dissapointed that there was no hot tubs to soak in outside.

Food: We mostly ate at the buffets. I will have to say the food was nothing to rave about, but it was not horrible either. For being all inclusive, I was not unhappy about the food. The buffets offer a large selection of food, and you can eat as much as you want. Of course, the drinks kept flowing too, any time you wanted. By far, my biggest complaint about the hotel was the reservations for the sit down restaraunts. You have to wait in line for 1 hour or so to make reservations each day. Who wants to waste thier time standing in line to make a reservation, when you can be out in the sun? This is the biggest thing I think the hotel needs to work on. And in our opinon, we enjoyed the buffets better anyway.

Beach: La Playa beach was beautiful, and offered great views of Land's End (The Arch). The water was warm and a beautiful blue green. However, it was more for looking at than swimming in, as it did get a bit rough.

Activities: We decided to take a glass bottom boat tour over to Land's End to see the beaches, sea lions, and rock formations. It was well worth the 12 USD a person, as the views were beautiful! You can spend as long as you would like on the beach area. We also rented wave runners, which were a blast!

Overall we thought this resort was absolutely wonderful! Even though the resort was completely booked (overbooked in fact), it never felt too crowded. We never waited for anything (except making reservations), there was always pool and beach chairs available, drinks were always served quickly, etc. If we ever made it back to Cabo, we would stay somewhere else, but only because we like to try new places-not because we did not like the hotel. We loved it! Go stay at the RIU, and prepare to relax and just have a wondeful time-taking in the great views!

Hello all there is a lot to read so please take the time to read this:
I just wanted to give you some idea of what to expect about going to this hotel. Just to let you know this building is just beautiful from the moment you step into the lobby you can see it's just a wonderful welcoming set up of the building itself. The staff are friendly and always willing to help out.
**just to let you know staff with bowties are the ones who speak english staff with no bowties do not speak english. & staff that walk around the pool in the day speak english and the entertainmetn staff who wear red shirts and sometimes grey shirts and black jeans speak english. other then that all other staff meaning cleaning crew, maintence crew do not speak english but always give a friendly smile.
*******when using calling cards do not be fooled when the front desk tells you it's free. NOTHING IS FREE! do not buy or use calling cards from the hotel because you will notice the day of check out you will recieve a note under your door telling you have a bill to pay. they will charge you $10.00 USD for connection fees even if you call and no one answers on the other end at home. you be charged. DO NOT USE CALLING CARDS AT HOTEL!!
My boyfriend and i were not made aware of this and the day we left our bill was $105 USD. we only used the calling card 5 times and were billed. also about calling cards........if you buy a $10.00 calling card it will only give you 18minutes. So please learn from my mistake.
*** food is wonderful for breakfest let me repharse that you can only taste foods at breakfest at the buffet.
when yu see a sign that says international night/oriental night/etc...it's only the servers dress code. the food will always be the same. so do not be fooled for different themed dinner nights at the buffet.
*** Also becareful when checking in your luggage before you leave to go to los cabos. when I arrived my luggage arrived but for some thiers did not leave toronto. the best advise i can give is if you arrive and your luggage doesn't best thing to do is speak with the airline itself not your rep. it is the airlines responisiblity to have your luggage arrive when you do. I don't wanna scare anyone but it can happen. This is the first step you should do
1. if you do not have your luggage please speak with the airline rep...ie skyservice rep.
2. oh yes can not forget this but the airport is so small there when you arrive get someone you are travelling with to wait in line while the other person gets your luggage. trust me it's soooo SMALL & crampy.
3. Your destination Rep will not be able to do anything They will try their best to help but they are not the ones to blame it is the airline itself not the tour operator. Your tour operator has nothing to do with loss of luggage it is the airline. I can't stress that enough.
*** When eatting at the buffet in the outdoors keep in mind you are outdoors and that little bugy friends may dive into your food. so it's not the chefs fault or your servers fault if yu see a bug it's the great outdoors fault.
*** also it may seem like common sense but you are not home and things will be different so if you do get sick just to give you the heads up seeing the doctor will cost you $80 USD in the Day and $100USD at night. My boyfriend got sick and we had to pay $200USD for doc's visit and my boyfriend had to get a needle in the "---". Also, medication will cost up to $77 USD that must be paid in cash.
***last note to say This hotel is a Business and we all know businesses are aimed to make $$$$$ so don't be surpirsed at any of the cost of anything in the pool stores or the store near the front desk. These stores may not have enough USD to give you back as change so they will give you pesos. make sure you count your monies when they give back your change.
***Be nice to your room cleaners and be real nice to the guys making and serving your drinks. And always smile.
Please consult your travel medical centres before going down & this goes for all travelling.
***always be nice to your destination reps they are there to help you as best as they can. If you are travelling down with Sunquest Joelle and Valdimir are the reps down in Los cabos......be nice to them they are great amazing guys be sure to consult them of any trips/calls/ they will not sugar coat anything they will be nice and upfront with any of your concerns. Treat those guys like your best buds.