We stayed at the Riu Sante Fe from Dec 20th to 27th 2007.
Oddly enough everything you read in the reviews is correct- it just depends what bothers you.

The hotel itself is beautiful. Check in was a breeze. On our plane was a group of real party guys who were assigned the room near us. We asked the front desk to move us and there was no issue at all. They were friendly and accomodating. They displayed superior customer service skills.

The rooms are new, clean and nice. At night the room can be quite cold and damp so grab the extra blanket provided. We stayed in the "2000" block which has great access to the second pool, stores, restaurants and bars. It was a short walk to the beach and the "big" pool (about 3 minutes). The person who wrote about the spraying of insecticide was correct. Around 11:30 pm we were walking towards our room and saw a giant cloud. They were spraying so we took a detour as to not walk through the cloud. Yikes.

The pools are stunning. There are lots of chairs, towels and shaded areas. The staff keep the area spotless and the bar staff keep the place hopping. The pools are not heated but we were able to swim. The entertainment staff are friendly and funny and we enjoyed their antics a great deal.

The buffet restaurant has a great selection and is the best offering. The a la carte restaurants are really smaller buffets except the steak restaurant that provides a la carte entree. However the steak restaurant is terrible. Our food was cold and the "sides' looked like they were cooked under a hot lamp and then left to go cold. The buffet restaurant "The Bahia" was great at Christmas and included shrimp, lobster, caviar and champagne.

The bars are nice and the staff goes out of their way to help. Rene makes the best drinks. However the bars are all outside and it gets quite cold at night so pack a sweater (more than a light cotton one is needed). I wore 3 layers. It would be great if they had a lobby bar so you could get inside. There is little entertainment. The shows are quite sad despite the best intentions of the activities team. They did have a nice band one night but they only played 1 set.

The spa is very nice. You have to make an appointment to use the jacuzzi and steam room because they are quite busy. I had a massage and manicure and they were excellent.

I would warn all travellers to beware of the "preferred partner" Scuba Cribe who are located in the hotel on the beach. They offer water taxis to lovers beach, sea doos, and para sailing. They are less than honest. We took a water taxi to lovers beach along with some people from the Palace. The driver never came back for us. We had to pay another boat to return. When we got back we asked for a refund on the return fare and had to argue to get it. The rep was too busy making out with her boyfriend to care about us. Despite this we decided to walk to the Palace Scuba Cribe to rent sea doos. Despite being given a time, we waited over an hour. We found out that once it is your turn the guys who give you the machines ask you to pay them additional monies to stay out longer. Many people were doing this so they were running over an hour behind. We then booked Para Sailing but they were very disorganized and were again running hours behind. The only good thing was that we were given a refund however they kept the transaction charge. Overall this part of the trip was a bad experience and I am going to write the Riu to complain. Afterall when you are a preferred partner then you should have the same standards of the hotel.

We booked a sunset cruise through Sunquest with Pez Gato. It was wonderful. The staff were attentive, the music was great , good drinks and we got to see 2 whales. It was a wonderful experience and I recommend it to anyone.

Los Cabos was very beautiful and the Riu Sante Fe is nice. I have stayed at numerous places in Mexico and the Carribean. If the Riu Sante Fe could improve the dinner menus and evening entertainment and dump Scuba Caribe it would rate with some of the other "5" star hotels I have stayed at. Perhaps this is only
growing pains. I would recommend the hotel as a restful place but not if you like lots of activity and fine dinning.

My wife and I, our daughter (16) and son (14) were at the Riu Santa Fe
December 20 - Dec 27.

I agree with the previous reviewer who said things were much better the first 4 days than the last 3. The resort mgmt. and staff simply were not ready to handle the volume of people booked in from the 24th on. Dinner on Christma Eve and Christmas day was handled very poorly.
Simply not enough food, staff, or even cutlery. Dinner throughout the week was average at best. That is the one area that really needs improvement. It's tough to screw up eggs, bacon, toast or pancakes, so our family was fine with breakfast all week. We had lunch at "La Mision" every day and usually found something good. The soft serve ice cream was great.

Check in was a breeze. They had envelopes prepared in advance with everythng you needed. Since we were an early morning arrival, there was no issue with having to wait for rooms.

We took our own luggage to our room and within minutes were having our first food and beer.

We were in the first building (rooms 1210,1211) so wound up being close to the restaurants, lobby, and most importantly, the pool and pool bar we chose to spend the week at. Yes, that pool was not very warm, but once you had a few drinks and got in, you were comfortable.
We had no interest in being with the hordes at the pools by the beach.
Alan and Renee provided great service at the pool bar all week. Rarely
did we have to wait for drinks since few people were at that pool. Alan - what's your Canadian name? One note about our rooms - the view
of a filed and highway sucked (not that we care) and noise levels are bad. We could hear traffic, music and even the sneeze of someone in a room nearby.

Service at the bar closest to the disco was good too. The shows were poor, but that is to be expected. We never used the sports bar or disco.

Maid service was average, We had no problems with theft, but did hear of it first hand. Use your safe for ANYTHING valuable. The desperately
poor have always stolen from the rich and always will. Many of the staff are very poor and see us as very rich.

What made our trip fun was the people we met. Just in case any of them read this, I better say hi to the following: The "Serbian Six", Sam, Susan & Ebony (aka: Destiny) & Natalie, Beth & Alex & Matt (aka:
Chocolate Thunder), Laura & Tara, Brian (my son's geek hero), and yes even Ken (aka: Donald Frump).

Stay in touch (well....except one of you) and my family and I hope to see you next Christmas, wherever we wind up.

For the price we paid at Christmas, the Santa Fe was a clean, beautiful resort where we had a great time, because we chose to.

We went to the Riu over Thanksgiving week. The hotel was experiencing many "grand opening" problems but nothing that caused us alot of concern. They forgot to clean our room and stock the minibar twice and were a little slow addressing requests but all-in-all it is a great hotel. They just have some issues to address.

The staff is very pleasant and the hotel is beautiful. The restaurant staff is still in training, several times I went and got what I needed instead of trying to get the staff to get it for me. I did get tired of eating buffet style. Three meals a day for seven days is a bit much of buffet style eating for my family and me. The food was warm but not always hot. I think these are things that will eventually work themselves out.

Lots of pool and beach seating. It is a large hotel, but we did not find the walk to and from the pool/beach/main dining areas to be too much. It's nice to get a bit of exercise after eating!

Be very careful touring and sightseeing in Cabo. As you know, Mexico has a reputation for police corruption. Unfortunately, we got a taste of it first hand.

Our stay at the Riu Santa Fe was between December 20th through the 27th. After reading all the negative reviews we were quite worried about this vacation, which afterall was quite excellent.

FOOD:
The food wasnt bad, it was actually quite good. I adivse everyone to stay away from the Italian restaurant as all the food is cold, hard and gross. The steakhouse was pretty good, but some meals were undercooked. I recommend the steak. The best a la carte restaurant had to be the asian which i found excellent! In my past trips to other riu hotels the buffets were quite gross but at the Riu Santa Fe it was pretty good. Most nights they had some different stuff but pretty much every night was the same but was good! Lunch and breakfast are pretty repetitive but still ok.

ROOMS:
The rooms are pretty nice, but, it all depends on who's in your building. A few nights at around 3am we were woken up by screaming, loud people who had just returned from drinking all night! After we told the front desk the rest of the nights were quiet which we were quite happy with. In reviews that i have read, people were complaining on the long walks from building 7. In reality, each walk from every building to the lobby is around 5 minutes. But if you are located closer to the lobby, it will just be a longer walk to the beach and if you are located closer to the beach it is a longer walk to the lobby. So it doesnt really matter where you are staying, and actually the walks were quite nice considering how much we ate! The rooms themselves were quite nice and the same as all other Riu's just different linens.

POOLS/BEACH:
Out of all the pools were tried out were ended up staying at the one closest to the restaurant. This pool is the only one heated yet and closest to the bathroom. When i read that the bathrooms were located so far from the pools i was quite worried. The walk to the bathroom from 3 out of the 4 pools near the beach is nothing. It's just a short one minute walk from you loungers.
Out of all the days that we were there, everyday a red flag was up. Most days the oceans isnt as rough as i thought it would be but it is quite dangerous for young children. If your alright with getting a sand bath (and might i add sand everywhere!) then the ocean is just fine. Medona beach is your best bet though.

Overall, i found this to be a great vacation and is one of the best I have been on. Great hotel!