Airport:
Easy and simple. Follow the leader to customs. Wait and watch for your luggage. Press the button and hope for a green light. Rush by the timeshare sales people to the Sunquest / AlbaTours employees to check in, find your bus and get your RIU bracelet. (Hint: Sit on the left side of the bus (behind the driver side) for better views of the shore, resorts, Sammy Hagars’ home, etc.)

Hotel:
It appears that this is a love-it-or-hate-it kind of place (judging from other reviews on Trip Advisor). We happen to love and trust RIU hotels and this place fits us to a T.
The RIU Palace is a beautiful resort. Although it is quite big (over 600 rooms), we find it very easy to navigate. The grounds are kept very well, and staff is constantly cleaning. We arrived pretty much right on time and made our way directly to the Lobby Bar, where we received our envelope containing room keys, towel cards, etc. Missing was the safe lock, and so be sure to get one from the front desk. (The safe is located inside the closet.) We did not like the view from the room originally given to us (3156) and finally settled for room 4115. Don’t be afraid to request another room if you are not happy with the first. They are happy to accommodate if they can. Our room had a king-size bed, sunken living area and a lovely view of the activity pool and Land’s End. We did not get the hot afternoon sun beating down on our room, which was nice. We find it cools down enough in the evening to turn off the A/C and open up the patio screen door so we can sleep with the sound of the waves crashing onto shore. Many people complain about the hard mattresses, but for us, they are great and we sleep very well. I hear they will supply foam mattress toppers if you prefer a softer bed. In our room was a note from the maid, asking what time we preferred our room to be made up. I thought this was great. The room was cleaned every day before noon. We usually leave a couple of dollars for her on a daily basis, if we remember.

Food & Restaurant:
The RIU has a main, buffet restaurant; open for breakfasts and dinners, plus “specialty restaurants – Mexican, Japanese, Gourmet and the Grill or Steakhouse.
Breakfasts are the favourite. We get up early and sit on the patio with a carafe of coffee. Mimosas are available (champagne & orange juice). It is buffet-style and they have EVERYTHING: croissants, sweet buns, toast, pancakes, eggs (any way you like) bacon, sausages, french toast, veggies, cereals, oatmeal, fresh fruits, yogurt, salads & cold meats.
Lunch is a choice – served at either the grillhouse directly below the stage / entertainment area between the 2 pools, or at the Mexican Restaurant, at the east side of the hotel, which served Italian food at lunchtime. The Mexican Restaurant really has the best location of all the dining rooms at the hotel. It looks right onto the beach and is away from the hubbub at the centre of the hotel. It is small and not usually as busy at lunchtime. They have a salad bar, various pastas and sauces, pizza, etc. The Grillhouse will have steak, hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, veggies, salads, etc. plus a few other specialties…and usually a huge seafood paella.
We found that we enjoyed dinner at the buffet restaurant best this year. There is always something we like. It is unusual, because last year, some of our best dinners were at the other restaurants: The Mexican and Japanese in particular, were fun and very good last year, but this time we were disappointed in both. I think most of these ala carte restaurants are hit and miss each night, depending on the wait staff and how busy they are. (Hint: We had reservations for 6:45pm at the Mexican Restaurant and when we arrived, we asked to sit on the patio. They said we could not – it was saved for the 2nd seating. Well, this was our first whole day and being from Canada, we wanted to sit outside. We said no, and started to leave. A little rushing around by the RIU staff and we were finally seated on the patio – as were 3 or 4 other couples who also preferred it. It is little things like that which can start your evening off poorly.) The meal was good, but we didn’t go back again.
The Japanese Restaurant was also a disappointment this year. They rushed us so much, and the food was cold. Too bad, but on another night, it may be great.
Anyways, in the end, we decided to stick with the buffet restaurant for the rest of the week.

Bars:
Well, as soon as you walk into the lobby bar, upon your arrival, you will be stunned by the beautiful view and the fabulous room. Be sure to return for “before dinner cocktails” and watch the sun set. In the evening, it does get cool, so be sure to take a light jacket, sweater or wrap. There is a pool bar at each pool, as well as swim-up bars at both pools. The staff are very nice. (Hint: take along thermal cups for drinks by the pool. They will serve you drinks in small hard plastic cups, but we got 2 great cups from the Superstore in Canada (Loblaws) and they worked so well. They keep your drink cold, and you get a bigger drink!)
There are 2 more bars by the entertainment area & stage. As well, in your room, is a “bar” and refrigerator which is replenished almost daily. So, you should always have a cold corona waiting for you in your hotel room.
One night, we wanted to veg in our hotel room, and Polo (a waiter in the lobby bar), gave us a bottle of red wine to take with us, as well as 2 glasses. We sat on our balcony, sipping wine, with a candle I had brought (ambience) and it was lovely.

Cabo:
We have not taken any tours, although we hear the ATV rides are great. We usually go into town a couple of times, and this trip we decided to do some things we didn’t the first time around. One was have a margarita at Margaritaville, which is right at the marina on the corner. You can’t miss it. They have HUGE drinks and an excellent location. We also went to Cabo Wabo (a bar/restaurant owned by Sammy Hagar). Last year we went at night and the band was great, the place was packed. This year, we went for lunch and if you can believe it – had the best hamburger we ever have had! Other bars to note: El Squid Roe and The Giggling Marlin. The Nowhere Bar is right on the marina, and is good as well.
Shopping is everywhere, you will see for yourself. As well, there is a very large air-conditioned mall: The Puerto Paraiso Mall and if you need to get out of the sun, this is the place to go. It rivals anything we have here in Canada looks-wise, but the variety of stores is lacking. Still, it is nice to go and walk around.

Puerta Vieja:
This is a restaurant, east of the RIU, that we highly recommend. If you want a great dinner off the resort, romantic and special, try the Puerta Vieja. It is an $8.00 cab ride and we made reservations before we left on our trip. (Their web site: (-)puertavieja(-)
They had a table for us, all alone on the patio, where we watched the sun set. The prices are reasonable. (eg: a huge lobster tail dinner for $20.00 USD). If you want to impress, this is a great way to do it.
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I recently returned from Cabo San Lucas. We stayed at the riu palace from 4-23 through 4-29. My husband and I were on our honeymoon and LOVED the riu. It was the most beautiful hotel I have ever seen (with the exception of the Atlantis in the bahamas) The staff was friendly, everyone was helpful, and the food was good... here is my breakdown

Resort: VERY CLEAN, beautiful grounds, gorgeous pools, overall extremely beautiful resort, very elegant: open air lobbys, marble foyers. the resort itself is huge with almost 700 hundred rooms. Though the resort was full when we were there, it never seemed crowded. the views were breaktaking from the hotel. this def is a 5 star resort.

Rooms: our room was great, since we were on our honeymoon they gave us a junior suite on the top floor with a magnicient view of lands end/sea of cortez. When we arrived we couldnt get over how great the view was, we just sat on the porch for a good 20 minutes taking it all in. I like how all the rooms had balconies, that was a nice touch. our room was big, we had a king size bed, with a seperate sitting area, with a couch and a tv. alot of the room was marble. very classy. big shower, his and hers sinks. we had no problems with the tiolets. beds were hard. after the first day we got used to it. you can ask for a pillow top mattress if you need to. o and if you went to mexico to watch tv, you will be dissapointed. some channels are in english but are 98% reruns and mostly old movies. we didnt watch much tv. our room was at the activities pool, but it never woke us up in the morning (as long as we slept with the balcony door closed). some people complained about noise from the lobby, but no problem from our room. one night they brought by champagne glasses and a fruit basket since we were honeymooning, we thought that was a nice touch.

food: the food was good, much better then any other all inclusive i've stayed at. we liked the buffet at breakfast, lots of choices, they had a different theme at the buffet each night. we tryed all the resturants except the steak house, because we heard it had bad reviews. by far the gourment was the best!!! the japenese and the mexican were also excellent. though you will be very full when you leave, each sit down resturant is at least 3 or 4 courses!!! for lunch we ate alot of cheeseburgers, grilled chicken and hot dogs, the bbq food, it was really good. the pizza was good. the salad, veggies and fruit were usually very fresh. chocolate fountain at the buffet at dinner. we had no problems getting reservations for the resturants. you do have to stop by the outside of el mendeno resturant to make the reservations, it only took a second there was barely ever a line.

pools and ocean: pools were amazing, yes they were alittle cold. lots of seating around the pools, pool bars were fun. they have eternity pools, they were very nice! they did have waiters by the pool and a liquor cart that went around. a new activity every hour at the activity pool, you could definilty keep busy at the resort. The ocean: the ocean was rough and strong. we swam in it. i dont think you were supposed to. i would recommend for strong swimmers only. we were told if you walked down the beach about 300 feet past the riu that the swimming there was calmer. lots of great beaches in the area to go to.

staff: were friendly engough and some very friendly and nice. some were indifferent. i lthought the staff was good. some did not speak alot of english. very helpful at the front desk, one night we needed a pair of scissors and they searched all over the hotel to get us a pair.

drinks: drinks are in abundance, there is a mini bar and liquor dispenser in the room, and bars are usually open from 10am to 7am. drinks were good, we drank moslty fruity drinks, beer, wine and champagne. champagne was really good:-)

shows: the shows were cute, probably for an older crowd though, except for the occurance of some skimpy costumes, the younger guys liked them

some general notes:

you cant drink the tap water or brush your teeth with it. once in awhile i caught myself brushing my teeth with it. nothing bad happened. had no problems, with water, ice, fruits or veggies and I ate alot of native fruits and vegtables. Water is purfied in the soda fountains, along with the ice.

Lock your valuables in your save!! we did this and had no problems. i wouldnt leave any of my valuables sititng out. taxis from the hotel were 10 dollars each way. bring change we usually gave them 12 bucks a ride. this was relatively cheap, other people along the golden corridor said the had to pay 20-40 dollars one way and ended up just renting a car. this is a nice perk to the riu its relatively close to the town

excursions: you must try the giggling marlin, we loved that place, i got hung upsidedown and did shots of tequilla and friday night they had some fun/risky games that everyone young (16+) and old were involved in. El squid roe was also a blast. and of course cabo wabo. we also visited the zoo, if you are looking for alitle more upscale loungey area and not so much of a beachy feel. we ate the giggling marlin too it was very good. visited the straw market (all the trinkets in the town seemed overpriced, (but whatever your on vacation.)
I would definilty recommend the glass bottom boat ride to the arch and then get dropped off at lovers beach, this was by far our favorite day trip and was absolutely wondeful. we got a tour from our water taxi driver around the arch, to lands end, to see the sea lions, pelican rock, the pacific ocean. then he dropped us off at lovers beach for 2 hours and came back and got us. we also went snorkling in chileno bay on the oceanus for 35 or 45 bucks and it was open bar ( we didnt drink) and you got snacks.

overall we loved cabo and the riu and would go back in a heartbeat. it was the best vacation we ever had!!

My husband and I were there from April 19 to the 25th we will not go back to the Riu. We had booked our room six months before time. When we walked in our room it had not been cleaned. We had to wait 30 minutes for the maid, it still was dirty. There was sand on the floor, bar was not stocked, it was a smoking room ( which we had requested not to have). And of course no more rooms were available. The food s-----!! The only thing that was good was the italian place. I will not go all-inclusive ever again. The second day of our trip I started having severe stomach pains among other things. We spent alot of money on the Taxi service. Everytime you head to cabo it is $10. When you come back $10. Try to find someone to split the cab with. The only fun we had was at the Cabo Wabo, thank you Sammy. We also went to the Squid Row this was also alot of fun. They do not speak good english so learn some spanish before you go. We enjoyed the atv trip it was worth the money. The airport s---- in Mexico so get there early for your flight home. What really p---- me off was when we got to the Delta desk I found out I was not even sitting with my husband on the way home. So, for five hours i sit with two fat women who would not shut up. And yes we did pick our seats on every flight. Hope this has helped.

Recently returned from a stay at the Riu Cabo (April 30-May 4). Four couples in our group. This being my 6th trip to Mexico, my first to Cabo. I've stayed at three other All-Inclusives, a condo, and a large EP resort. I travel quite frequently and would definitely give the RIU an above average rating. The reason I selected the RIU is that we had stayed at the RIU Palace in Riviera Maya and had a wonderful time. Now for the breakdown on specific areas:

Food: I was quite worried by all the reviews of the bad food as my husband is a major foodie and thought he would be quite disappointed in the quality as the RIU in Riviera Maya had excellent AI food. Actually the food is not too bad. However, I wouldn't recommend the steakhouse. One person in our group ended up with a raw steak and I mean raw. It took almost 45 minutes to get our main entree and not that we weren't all sitting, chatting and having a good time, we wanted to get our meal and move on to other things. The buffet has tons of choices and breakfast is quite good. However it does seem when they run out of things they are not replinished. The syrup container was empty most of the the time. My husband and friends caught fish and the kitchen staff cooked the fish and prepared sashimi for us from the tuna. I would give the food about a 4 out of 5 rating.

Resort: HUGE!!! Thank goodness we all had rooms together or we may have not seen each other for 4 days! The grounds are beautiful and very well kept. A small complaint I know but they could work a little bit on the beach to resort ramp area. It tended to be a big sand sinkhole when we were there. The shower to rinse off from the beach is right there but as soon as you rinse your feet off you have to step in this big soggy sandhole to get to the concrete or jump over it! Resort very impressive. Definitely a 5 out of 5.

Pools: Beautiful pools, very nice layouts, but too cold. It did feel refreshing one afternoon after we'd be down to the beach, etc. but in general it's one of those pools that takes about 10 mintues to get use to but you don't want to stay in forever either. About 5-7 more degrees warmer and it would be perfect. The separate swimup bar pool area is really a neat idea. We loved that! I'd give it a 4.5 out of 5.

Rooms: Very nice. Plenty big enough. Love the wood decor. Bathrooms are a huge bonus with two sinks. However had constant problems with toilet, maintenance did fix though immediately. Room refrig made lots of noise. Halls are very noisy, especially in the morning when they bring the room service carts around at 7 am. UGH!!! Bring ear plugs --- it saved me! I'd say 3.5 out of 5 just because of the noise.

Staff: Some staff were amazingly friendly and fun, others just seemed to being doing a job. But you get that anywhere. We did have a problem with the concierge and booking a fishing trip. The guys in our group complained to the management and but they didn't seem to concerned about it. I'd say a 3 out of 5.

Entertainment: Guys played poker one day; we always went to the evening shows which for an AI weren't bad. I've seen way worse. The disco opens way too late. 11 pm -- I realize they don't want to compete with the live entertainment but maybe one or two nights it could open earlier. We sang Karoake one night. I'd say 4 out of 5.

Side trips: The deep sea fishing is awesome if that's something you like to do. A MUST is Lover's Beach. Absolutely beautiful, a bit tricky getting in and out of the boat though! Watch for undertow if you go in the ocean. We are good ocean swimmers and it is a STRONG undertow.

A few other notes. Bring insulated mugs from home. We had ours and I'd say about 10 people a day asked where we got them from. Bring a light jacket as it does get amazingly chilly when the sun goes down. The town is fun to walk around and shop in. Go to CABO WABO. The Taco Loco place is great for lunch or snack -- right in front of Cabo Wabo.

Had a blast and can't wait to go back. I would recommend this resort but may not go back just because we always like to stay at different places. By far more pros than cons to the RIU Cabo.