We stayed at the Riu Palace in Cuba San Lucas December 2nd – 9th. I went with a couple of friends ranging in age from 29 to 31. The purpose of the trip was pure relaxation with a bit of partying thrown in for good measure. We travel two or three times a year so I’m confident in our ability to judge fairly and compare the stay with previous trips. I’m also going to try and address some of the things that others have noted. This is a very detailed review so I’m hoping that most answers can be found here.

Check-in
We arrived at the hotel at 12:00pm and it seemed like the entire plane came to the same hotel (three busloads). I’ve never experienced a quicker check-in which timed in at 1 minute including the welcome drink. We booked two rooms and noticed that they were pretty far apart. We went to the front desk and Carlos was able to get us two rooms a couple doors apart from each other within two minutes. Excellent service. The rooms were also ready immediately meaning that we did not have to wait (the advice I always give to others is to pack some swim trunks and sandals in your carry-on so you could hit the beach immediately in cases where rooms are not ready or if your bags are lost/delayed).

Rooms
We received rooms 3164 and 3167 on the third floor and on the East side of the hotel. Our views were not the greatest but we experienced excellent sunrises (see pictures). I’ve read many reviews complaining about a musty room smell which I’ve experienced at other hotels and was never really bothered by it. I experienced no musty smell nor was there any mould. There was a sewage type smell that swept through two or three times that week but it was contained to the open area and not in the rooms. Again, this has never bothered me as I am just happy to be on vacation and not at work.

The rooms had a very cold fridge that was stocked with Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, 7-Up, orange pop, water, and Coronas. There was also a bar that was stocked rum, vodka, and another couple of bottles that I don’t recall. The bar is restocked every other day. The television has about 50 channels with the majority of channels in Spanish. The room also had excellent air conditioning and fan, lots of hangers in the closet, free safe use, and iron. No coffee maker however. The bathroom was amazing with two sinks, hair dryer and a shower that literally took a second to achieve perfect temperature. The shower was also excellently designed in that it is impossible for the shower to leak water into the bathroom (a common problem in other hotel bathrooms.


Grounds
This is the largest resort I’ve stayed in with just under 700 rooms. You will be doing a lot of walking. The grounds are very green and well maintained for being in the desert. The East and West sides of the resort are identical but what I did notice was that the East side pool was the louder of the two. This also meant that our rooms were well situated on the East side as we were closer to where the action was and where the activities take place. Note that there is construction in front of the hotel. Did not bother us one bit.

The pools are huge and the temperature is very warm. There are a couple of smaller swim up bars but they are separate from the larger pools so if you are not into that you don’t have to worry. It does get pretty loud and I’m sure the water in there isn’t as clean as the other pools (again, not a problem if you’re not in it). There are lots of chairs surrounding the pool and there is plenty of shade should you need it.

There are also shops, Internet café ($4 for twenty minutes or 40 minutes if you have the Riu Class card), pool tables, and gym with modern equipment.


Bars/Restaurants
There are five staffed bars where you can basically get a drink whenever you want (10pm – 7am, 8pm – 12am, 10am – 7pm, 10am – 7pm, and 10am – 12am). In addition, a staff member would occasionally show up on the beach with many drinks. Not sure if this was a scheduled thing but I had not seen it before and thought it was amazing. Just a couple of times a day however.

Buffet Restaurant(s)
I’m going to lump the buffet restaurants into one description to save time. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, you could pretty much eat whenever you want. We ate very well here as the food was not repetitive at all. Of course you will have foods that are always available (hamburgers, chicken, pizza) but you’ll also have specialized dishes at every meal. The food was very fresh and we ate everything (fish, cheese, milk, and salad). I’ve read people complain about the birds (you’re eating outdoors, there will be birds) but it’s not like there are thousands of them. I also did see wasps on the cake but big deal, I didn’t want cake anyway. The ice cream gets big thumbs up from me. You are restricted to sandwiches and cold pizza if you get hungry after midnight but someone in the forum had the great idea of stocking up on nachos and cheese (or other food) and then keeping them in the room fridge if you get hungry at night.

Each room has access to two a la carte bookings but we were able to get all four as we were in two rooms.

Japanese (Misaki)
We ate amazing sushi and seafood here. So good that I found it better than many of the restaurants back home that we pay good money for. What also made it great were the staff and more specifically our server Sylvia. Rated first.

Steak House (Mar de Cortes)
Again, I found the food as good or better than many steakhouses back home (and no, I’m not talking about $100 steak dinners). We asked for our steaks medium and they were cooked great. Rated Second.

Gourmet (Sir Lawrence)
You’ll notice a trend starting here. The food here was again very good and we stuck with seafood. Rated third

Mexican (San Jose)
We ate here last and to be honest, I think we were tired from eating Mexican food all week. However, that’s not to say that the food wasn’t good, as it was very good. We were just not “wowed” by it like the other restaurants. However, the staff here was great. Quick story: the first night we came we messed up and showed up here thinking it was the buffet restaurant. We should have guessed as there were only a few people and they were finishing their meals. The manager insisted we stay and we did and had dishes that weren’t on the menu. After eating we stayed and got drunk with the wait staff on tequila poppers. What a great time.


Activities/Staff/Entertainment
This is where I express my beef with some reviewers who complained that bar staff would ignore them unless they were tipped. Unless the hotel has completely turned over the staff in the last month I cannot understand how this was possible. I never tipped at the pool bars as I don’t carry cash in my bathing suit and always got good service (I tipped at the end of the week just before leaving). One night I did notice one very rude lady who was upset that the bartender did not take her order immediately. He was in the process of making someone else’s drink, what did you want him to do? I was pretty ticked and was going to say something to her but the bartender threw me a smirk and took her order ahead of someone else just to make her happy. I think she felt embarrased afterwards.

One other point about the bar staff. Several times as I sat at the bar talking to my friends the bartender would replace my nearly finished beer with a fresh cold one. Again, this is before I tipped. Four bartenders with sometimes fight over lighting someone cigarette. What a great bunch of people.

Activites around the pool were always going on. I think my buddy won the ping pong tournament 5 times. No shortage of entertainment here.

The nightly shows were fun and yes they’re cheesy. This is not Phantom of the Opera. Anyway, the seats were always full so I guess they were doing a good job.


People
I'd say 80% were from the U.S., 20% from Canada, and a few Europeans. A very good mix of couples and singles, and a few families as well. This is a very good hotel no matter whom you are traveling with. Everyone was friendly and we met lots of people, all very cool. There were a few conferences going on with one conference that looked like it had 140 people. They made the hotel restaurants very busy and they took over the beach one morning. Slightly annoying but not enough to put me off, not even close.


Beach
The beach was very nice and is where we spent most days (playing volleyball and relaxing). No shortage of chairs but no shade whatsoever. The sand is very rough so your feet will hurt if you’re walking about a lot. The water is very deceiving. I saw the red flag and the tiny waves and thought “what a bunch of wimps”. I went in two feet and almost drowned. The water was better a few days later but the undertow is crazy. Boogie boards and snorkeling equipment (although not useful here since there is little of interest in the water) is available. There are vendors on the beach but none of them were pushy. They would ask, we would say no, and they would walk on.


Weather
We traveled in the beginning of December. I have learned to ignore looking at weather reports once the trip is booked (before booking I research what the typical weather is like for that time of year). It was pure sun all week aside from some clouds one morning. It was semi-cool at night but I was good in pants and a short-sleeved shirt.


Excursions
Parasailing was $30 for ten minutes but I was not amazed by it in that it did not go to the arch or by the beach. Our driver went out to the ocean and back. Check with him before going out to find out what he’ll do as I noticed other parasailers have more exciting trips. We rented jet skis for $40 for 40 minutes but note that the ocean is pretty rough. We also did Baja racing in the desert in dune buggies which was super fun but also expensive ($250 - $300). We booked directly with the operator so we got a minor discount. Quick note about money, American money is accepted everywhere at a rate of $1 = 10 pesos.

Town
The main town of Cabo San Lucas is walkable from the beach but it is a tough walk. A cab ride into town is $10 so we would take advantage of this. There is plenty to see and do including the Marina and several nice restaurants and bars. Lots of shops with your typical souvenir-type stuff. Just remember to bargain.

Nightlife
The nightclub on the resort is okay and is busier than most other hotel clubs. The bar staff in here is great but I didn't find the music all that great. They would play a lot of YMCA / Celebrate and other classics which are okay but I like more recent stuff. Heck, I would have liked more salsa music to be honest.

The clubs in town that we partied were split between Cabo Wabo, Squid Roe, and Zoo a couple of nights. Cabo Wabo is a rock club with live bands. Great times here. Squid Roe plays everything and caters to locals as well. We loved this place. Zoo was slightly more posh. There is no cover charge at any of these establishments but the drinks are pricey (in comparison to drinking free at the resort). However, we had a blast at these clubs into the wee hours of the morning. There are also dozens of other great little bars that around town that were great and cheaper than the big clubs.


Conclusion
I would definitely recommend Riu Palace to anyone considering a trip to Cabo San Lucas. I just cannot understand the few negative reviews. In all my resort-type stays, I have never ate, drank, or been served better than I was here. I love the town so much I’m thinking of getting a place down here. I plan on returning very soon.

Feel free to email me with questions as I’m always glad to help fellow travellers (rickrob@hotmail.com).

Rick

My husband and I and our neighbors stayed at the Riu Palace for seven days following the Thanksgiving holiday and it was wonderful! We have stayed at a few different resorts throughout Mexico and the Riu hands down is the best facility we have stayed at on all fronts. The facility is gorgeous and clean, the service was great, the food at the buffets and the restaurants was delicious, and the drinks were always endless (they didn’t even have a problem filling up Bubba Kegs). Only recommendation we have, upon arrival book your dinner reservations for your stay at the restaurants immediately or you may not get your desired restaurant or time. Looking forward to going back soon and visiting other Riu locations.

My husband and I stayed at the Riu from Dec 4 - 11, 2006. Before I start raving about what a fabulous time we had, I'll get the few negative things that I have to say out of the way.

On the first day, the maids gave us beautiful towel art and pretty flowers all over the place, it was great. After that though, I'm not sure what happened but we didn't really see them much. One time I had to call the front desk because our room hadn't been cleaned in a couple of days. Oh well, it's not like I change my sheets every day at home anyways. Our mini bar leaked on the first day, a little puddle, and when I told the front desk they had someone there right away and he fixed it.

Also, the tennis courts weren't really well maintained, so if that's the only reason you're going, you'll be a little dissapointed.

The sand was a little rougher than I expected but the beach was still beautiful. We didn't swim in the ocean because we were told the undertow can be dangerous but we saw other people swimming and they were fine.

There was the sewage smell every once and awhile that some people mentioned but it came and went... I didn't have time to notice, everything else was so great.

Ok, now that the tiny annoyances are out of the way, on to the good things. The grounds were beautiful and immaculate. During the week that we stayed there I probably saw nearly every inch of the place scrubbed down. The food was great, we ate and drank everything without getting sick. Check in took us all of one minute and they put us in a jr suite instead of the hotel room we booked... bonus. We really abused room service and they were always fast and there with a smile. I'd suggest doing the breakfast buffet instead of room service because it's just a continental type thing when you do room service and the breakfast buffet is fabulous. We really liked eating lunch at San Jose on the patio, the view was breathtaking and the food was great. Sir Lawrence, the gourmet restaraunt was a really cool atmosphere... dress up, it's pretty fancy.

The shows were always different and entertaining. The dancers work very hard at what they do and the entertaiment staff are a riot. The beach was beautiful. The beach vendors really got tiresome after awhile but I figured out that if you go to the beach in the morning, there are fewer vendors and then I'd spend the afternoon by the gorgeous pool when the vendors became too much. I never had a problem finding a lounger the whole week.

The only excursion we did was go on a sunset cruise. We booked it through SunQuest. We did the dinner cruise on the two level boat for $40 per person. It was beautiful but next time I think I'd go on the catamarn one (cheaper) because the food at the resort was so much better (and free).

The staff at the Riu were wonderful. Very hard workers, there were always people bringing you drinks and looking for a way to make your stay better. I know the price is supposed to include tips but I found out that they don't get paid that well, I'd suggest tipping since they do such a great job.

All in all, I'd go back to the Riu again and again. I'm really not sure what the bad reviews are all about. Nothing is perfect, but this really came close. It was the most romantic time me and my husband have had in a long time. Just go, you'll love it!!!

P.S. If you have kids, be careful about allowing them to watch TV late a night, there's quite a bit of porn on during late hours.

Since I won this trip, we had no idea of what to expect, so when hubby and I stepped into our room all we could say was "wow!". We had a room with kingsized bed, marble floors, jacuzzi tub and a huge bathroom, a sitting room and an amazing balcony that was over looking the beach. Our room was at the far right hand side so it was very private.
I can honestly say I have no complaints at all about this place. The food was always good and plenty of it. One of my favourite things to eat was nacho chips, guacomole and salsa for lunch, sitting by the pool. The specialty restaurants were all good, especially the Japanese one. The service is amazing. I can't figure out why people complain about not getting good service at the pool, because those waitresses ran their legs off to accomodate people, and they were always smiling. What great workers they are! There was always someone cleaning, so the place was very clean. We say the workers picking flowers and took pictures of it and were we ever surprised when we went back to our room to find them putting the petals on our bed.
I recommend the glass bottom boat to Land's End. We mostly relaxed at the pool and on the beach but there is plenty of things to do there. Walking the beach was fun, but do bring some sandals as the sand is rough on the feet.
I would highly recommend this place for a holiday. I didn't meet up with anyone there that had any complaints.