We were hesitant about the Riu Sante Fe after reading some bad reviews, but then some good ones started coming in we relaxed and went with a new attitude. It was great! This was our first time to Cabo and we were not disappointed. We loved the different geography of the area with mountains, cactus, palm trees and impressive rock formations.
Arrived Saturday afternoon about 12:30. Customs was a breeze, avoided timeshare people and met up with Funjet’s rep Epic Tours for a 40 minute transfer to the Riu. The entrance road is a little shabby, but once you pass the security check in gate, the property is gorgeous. I loved the adobe style architecture of the Sante Fe even more than the formal Riu Palace next door. The Sante Fe lobby is beautiful and huge with about 20 living room style areas with couches for groups/families to gather. We were greeted with a welcome juice drink. Check in took only 10 minutes. It was not crowded at the time. There were several front desk staff checking in guests. The man checking us in gave us a map of the property and took at least 5 minutes explaining all the features of the property to us. We returned to the front desk several times during the week with questions and always were treated politely. As it was still off-season before the big holiday rush, I would guess the property seemed only 30-50% full all week.
We had a first floor, gardenview room, with a veranda that looked out on the pool. The room was new and beautiful with a king size bed. It was slightly hard, but we are used to memory foam at home. The bathroom is large with double sinks, bathtub with mounted/handheld shower, blow-dryer and large fluffy towels. There is a nice large closet with lots of hangers, iron and ironing board. Our safe worked fine with my only complaint about it is that it is small and awkwardly mounted on the bottom of the closet. The gardenview buildings are four stories with no elevator – only the oceanview building has elevators, in case this is an issue for you. The room has a mini-bar with bottles of tequila, rum, vodka, and whiskey; in addition the fridge has bottled Corona, coke, sprite, and large bottles of water. Be sure to use the bottled water for brushing your teeth/drinking while in the room as the faucet water is listed as non-potable. The drinking water/ice served on the property is purified.
The Riu Sante Fe property is very big and does involve a lot of walking, but so do many all-inclusives. I have only stayed at smaller ones and now know that would be my preference for next time. The setup is a little odd in the way they built the main property and gardenview rooms behind the Palace and then the oceanview building somewhat kiddy-corner. The property behind that is still vacant and our bellman told us they will build that next, but not sure if it will be part of Sante Fe or another property. Anyway, we liked being in the gardenview section near the lobby, main courtyard, entertainment, shops and all the restaurants except the steakhouse which is by the oceanview. But then our walk to the ocean was farther. It’s just personal preference. The property is beautifully landscaped with cactus, flowers and palm trees that will be even more spectacular when they mature.
Food: We were not expecting any gourmet food and we thoroughly enjoyed the choices all week. There is a great variety with some popular items being offered daily and new choices each day. Breakfast and Dinner are served in the large La Baja California Buffet which is lovely with excellent service by all the staff. It is very roomy with many different stations. Much of the cooking is being done right behind the station and food is constantly replenished and fresh.
Breakfast had made-to-order omelets, ready made omelets, poached, scrambled, fried, hard-boiled and sunny side up eggs. French toast, pancakes, hash brown patties, etc. Bacon, sausage, cold cuts. Cold cereal and hot oatmeal. A large selection of breads and pastries. Fresh fruit and yogurt. Fresh made fruit smoothie drinks. And at every meal: the Mexican beans, meat, and amazing guacamole, and salsa. They serve you coffee/tea or you can get it from the machine which has many choices, my favorite the cappuccino! This is just a sampling of the breakfast served 7am-10:30am. Continental breakfast is offered at La Mision from 10:30-12, but we never sampled that.
Lunch was served at LaMision and Torote from 12-3:30pm again with a nice variety of items. They have excellent choices of pizza daily. For those who need their burger and fries fix, that is also available. Various delicious Mexican dishes were always available, as well as different pork, chicken, beef and fish dishes and of course the fresh tortilla chips, guacamole and salsa. A large salad and fresh fruit bar and soup. Corona beer, white and red wine on tap. Sodas, juice and ice tea also. Dessert bar and soft serve ice cream machine. Snack is served in the same two restaurants from 3:30-5:30 with just a little less available than lunch time.
Dinner: In the main buffet from 6:30pm-10:30pm, indoor and outside seating. We ate there many nights and enjoyed the large variety. They have a carving station that usually offers 2 different meats each night such as roasted chicken, duck, turkey, ham, roast beef, roast pork, and beef Wellington. The large salad buffet, soups, beans, rice, Mexican selections and then many other meat, carne asada, and side dishes. We enjoyed much delicious fish all week, with our favorite being the fresh tuna served many ways. One night they offered a delicious garlic jumbo shrimp dish, and once cold peel and eat shrimp. They also have prepared or made to order pasta station. A variety of dessert choices with delicious flan. They also usually have a fresh dessert being prepared at a station. And for dinner they have an ice cream cooler with scoop it yourself ice cream and sherbet – loved the lime after a large meal. This is just a sampling and we never left hungry!
You can also dine in the specialty restaurants with reservations made daily from about 11am-4pm at a table set up near the Asian restaurant. They offered two seatings for dinner, about 6:30/7pm or 8:30/9pm. During our stay they alternated which restaurants were open each night, but this may have been because it was not full capacity.
Zashila, Asian, indoor seating - Delicious all buffet style, with salad, sushi, soup, noodles dishes, egg rolls, various dishes including sweet and sour and Peking Duck and Ribs. Ask for the fried ice cream dessert – yum.
Carusso, Italian, indoor seating – All buffet. Not great. We ate a little and then went to the main buffet to eat.
Torote, Steak House, open air seating- Enjoyed a “sizzler type” steak, rib eye and top sirloin. Here, they have a buffet for salad, appetizers and desserts; but you order your main dish. The menu also offered a fish kabob and other items I can’t remember. They bring you your main course cooked to order with a half baked potato and vegetable. It was good, not great, but we didn’t go to Mexico for steak.
LaMision, Mexican, open air seating – Never got there for dinner as we missed the reservations.
Drinks – We found the drinks very good, with our favorites Corona w/lime, Mojitos, margaritas and chocolate martinis. Bartenders were excellent.
Pools: The water was not freezing now, so the heaters must be working because it gets very chilly at night at this time of year. The gardenview area pool is massive and beautiful, with a swim up bar, whirpool tub within the pool. This is considered the activities pool where the staff offer “fun” during the day, including water volleyball and bingo etc. Small crowds this week, so not much happening here. The pool has cool cement loungers for when it is really hot. There is a sea of comfy lounge chairs everywhere with palapas all over. The oceanview pools seemed more popular. The smaller one with the swim up bar and 2 whirlpool tubs was the most crowded. The water was quite pleasant here, even warmer than the bigger pools. There is also another small pool on the other side without a bar and the large infinity pool in the middle with a huge fountain spray. Again, a sea of lounge chairs with white umbrellas here. As others have mentioned: it isn’t convenient to climb up tiled stairs through the restaurant to the back in a wet bathing suit to use a bathroom. The beach area is beautiful with that amazing view of Land’s End. There are many Riu lounge chairs, but no umbrellas, on the beach. This is not a swimming beach, and the red flag was up daily. There is a Riu lifeguard that will assist you with chairs, activities, water taxis, etc. Beach volleyball also available. Some vendors, but not pesty if you said no. Personally, I wish horses were not allowed on the beach because of the manure. It looks fun to ride them, but it should be done elsewhere, not in front of hotels.
Entertainment: We only saw part of 3 of the nightly shows as they start rather late for us at 9:30pm and we were usually wiped out from our daytime activities. Two of these were hokey audience participation shows. One was a just ok Latin dance show. The entertainment could definitely use some work. The staff works hard but they need more experience. The large show venue LaMonumental is open-air, so again, it was a bit chilly at night. Three free standing bars are also in this same area and popular at dinner time. The indoor Sports Bar and indoor Disco are also in this same large square with all the restaurants and shops.
Spa/Gym: I did not use it, but I did take a tour of the facilities. It is located near the gardenview pool. The gym looked well equipped. The spa was very pretty and clean, with an area for massages, hair & nails, sauna, steambath and 2 whirlpool tubs which were actually warm. The girl said you need to make a reservation to use the free whirlpool tubs. I’m not a big spa person but the prices seemed high to me, but probably not for a resort.
Conclusion: We loved our Cabo vacation. The Riu Sante Fe was a beautiful place to stay with good food and friendly, hard-working staff. Relax and go enjoy your vacation.

What a wonderful four days! Since the property is brand new, there were few guests and it was like having a large staff just to yourself. The employees are still learning, but they are more than accommodating. The facilities are beautiful, the view amazing (except when the darn cruise ships pull into port), I would suggest this property to anyone that wants to just sit back and chill at a horizon pool!
PS: The food was the best I've had at a Mexican All-Inclusive.

We stayed at the Riu Sante Fe 12/6 thru 12/12. Overall we thought most things were above average for us.

CHECK-IN: Our check-in was pretty smooth. Oliver waited on us. We traveled with another couple. We all paid for ocean front rooms. At first he did not give us these rooms but after we showed him our internet confirmation he was able to find ocean front rooms. We got a king size bed but our friends had 2 double beds but that was okay with them. We had to wait a couple of hours for our room. We went and ate lunch and looked around at the resort. Then we called the front desk and asked them if our rooms were ready and asked them to deliver our keys and luggage to us. They did so promptly. Everyone at the front desk was really nice and helpful.

RESORT & POOLS: We thought the resort was beautiful and very clean. There were always employees working on the grounds. Resort is spread out but we didn't mind walking. We had the mentality of "getting some exercise after eating a meal." I like walking anyway.
The pools were very nice. They had infinity pools that had such beautiful views of the ocean. We used one of the pools that had a pool bar and it was quite warm. The other 2 pools up by the beach were cool. But it was hot so it was refreshing. There were plenty of lounges. We actually stayed on the beach most of the day which had plenty of lounges also.

ROOM: We had an ocean front room in bldg. 7. Great view of Land's End and cruise ships. We could also see the sunrise which was beautiful. Room was modern and very clean. Our room attendant came in the morning everyday to clean. One night the toilet got clogged(TMI) and they came promptly to fix it.

FOOD & DRINKS: We are not picky people but this is the only complaint we have. Breakfast buffets were good. Lunch buffets were good. Always a variety so you can find something to eat. We ate alot of guacomole, salsa, and chips. the guacomole is great. Dinner buffets were not that great. We ate at the steak house- not good. If you go there get the ribs. They were better than the steaks by far. Went to the Italian buffet- not good. Obviously I thought the mexican food was the best and the breakfast. We thought the drinks were good. You could get about anything you wanted. They had absolute vodka, just ask for it. We wish there would had been coffee in our room or somewhere close to our room. Our last night, we asked the front desk where was a good place to get some good seafood. They recommended Solomans at the marina. Very Good Choice. We also shopped one day when it rained and ate at Gigglin Marlin and watched the Colts game there. It was good.

We were going to get massages at the resort but decided not to. Go out to the beach directly in front of RIU and find Joe. He can get about anything you want(massages, tours, snorkeling, etc,) for a really good price. He is really a nice guy! We got really good prices on massages, water taxi, and snorkeling. Look him up.

Well, I guess I am done now. We had a great time and probably would go again! Hope you have a good time also!

We booked our trip through Mexicana airlines prior to the opening of the resort so really didn't know what to expect. This was our first "all inclusive" and when the reviews started coming in we almost were hesitate to even go. But are we glad we did.
Airport transfer by Terramar went smooth and then we arrived to the Riu Santa Fe. A nice welcome and a beautiful lobby. Check-in was quick and based on other reviews, we decided to take our own luggage (we just had carry on) through the resort and to the furthest Bldg 7 with a partial ocean view room. A little bit of a walk to get to ocean front bldg of the resort, but for us that was O.K. Might not be the best location for people who have physical challenges and need to be more center to the resort happenings.

ROOM: Absolutely gorgeous. Furnished and decorated in rich wood tones. Granite is used for countertops in bar and bath area. The shower/bathtub combo caters to everyone. Our room had beautiful view of ocean and hills. You know the maid(s) really appreciate the $2 U.S ttp we left daily in our room. They make it even more special to let you know just how much.

DINING: The breakfast buffet is served at the main "Baja" restaurant. Choices abound, and the popular cooked to order omelets, For specialty restaurants that are open any given night, reservations must be made at around 11 am daily. But don't worry if your schedule doesn't allow you to get a spot. The main "Baja" dining area also serves dinner nightly and has so many choices to satisfy the pallet. I am a vegetarian and I was completey happy with all that it had to offer. The staff works hard to put on a great spread. Lunch buffets are served in two other areas of the resort with many choices as well. No one should go hungry at this resort. Although we were not effected, the only recommendation based on comments with people we meant was to somehow eliminate the 1-1/2 hour gaps between the meals. We felt this could be a possibility because the meals are already staggered between the different restaurants. Just a thought. One other recommendation. Perhaps adding bathroom facilities closer to the swim up bars where many congregate, if you know what we mean.

EMPLOYEES: Throughout the resort, no matter what their job was, they are friendly, helpful and work extremely hard. Although it is indicated that all gratuities are included when staying at this resort , employee wages are different and $1 - $2 dollars here and there really makes a difference. We took $50 ones and spread them out over our 6 day stay. Just something to consider.

We walked up the beach to the Cabo San Lucas marina. (a good walk, not short, but manageable for those who like to walk). We went on the Pez Gato snorkeling tour. A great crew and a fun time. Even saw whales who breached for us. All of us were in awe. Highly recommend this tour.

We do not live in a perfect world, but our stay at this Riu is one that will always hold wonderful memories for us. They made our first time in Cabo a truly special one. Just go and relax and enjoy all that it has to offer.