We just got home from the Riu Santa Fe.
It was great. Some things you might be wondering about......
How's the food? It's really good, with the exception of the desserts. They're not very sweet and anything chocolate is a huge disappointment. Fill up on chocolate cake before you go. Stick with the icecream, flan or deep fried bananas. However, by day four or five you will get a little tired of buffets. The reservation only restaurants are ok.
The Steak House is probably the best. It has the best ambiance anyway. Overlooking the ocean. But remember, you have to make a reservation about 7 or 8 am the day you want to go.
There will be a table near the gift shops where you can sign up.
The drinks? Good. However, you might want to specify if you want alcohol in them. They are extremely weak!
Can you drink the water? Not sure. The gentlemen that gave us our orientation when we first arrived said that we could drink it.
So we did. We didn't get sick. However, the next day our Apple representative told us not to drink it.
Can you swim in the ocean in front of the hotel?
Not when we went. The waves were gigantic! Extremely dangerous. The water is also very cold right now.
You may have to walk a ways to find safer waters.
What about transportation? We had eleven in our group and got a van outside the lobby for $20 one way into town.
You can take the walk on the beach towards the marina, but you will get tired. So grab a water taxi for about $3 per person. It's fun. Entertainment? Lots of contests and entertainment by the pool all day long. Similar to a cruise. At night they have shows. And they usually start off with shows that the kids can participate in. Don't forget a jacket. Something that will work well with your dinner attire. The Sunset Pirate Ship is fun, but make sure you bring a warm jacket and take some Bonine...it's rough water. Foodwise, they only served chips, salsa, and some olive and hotdog hordeurves. Not enough for dinner by any means.
Don't forget your sunblock and aloe. You'll pay $17.50 for a bottle at the gift shop. And lather up good. The sun is intense.
Good for families? Yes. They have a nice pool for kids. Near the lobby area. No slides though. And they have rings you can use for the kids. You may want to bring water wings. The pool/bar near the ocean is the party pool.
Beware of..... The hallways outside your room are also all tile. This means that when the partiers start coming in around 3am, it sounds like they are in your room. It's very loud.
And if you are booking through Apple.....when you get to the airport and through the luggage screening, go immediately outside and look for a guy in the "sexy" hawaiian shirt.
There are guys lerking in the airport from other companies that will try and tell you that they are with Apple. Before you know it, they are trying to get you to sign up for some timeshare presentation. One even told us to go outside and look for our guy in a green shirt. Just remember your guy will be waiting outside in a hawaiian shirt and he won't try to scam you!!!!!

The facility and grounds were spotless and done very tastefully, using plenty of marble and granite. The staff was,in general, extremely accommodating, although our maid service came late inb the afternoon. Rooms are immaculate with full-service bar and the Mexican version of cable TV(yes, there are American channels), but not many rooms have decent views. The hotel and grounds are spread out over a lot of land, so be prepared to walk. My wife discovered that we could turn our wristbands around so that we could eat at the adjoining Riu, which is upper scale and has a better food selection. Plenty of bars! Water in the pool is not heated. We noticed that the town of Cabo was inundated with graffiti, we didn't expect that. Also, we took a tour to La Paz(sponsored by Apple), we don't recommend it. The tour driver took us to all of his relatives shops and restaurants to spend money, and it took 12 hours out of our lives that we'll never get back. All in all, the hotel is nice and we had a pleasant experience.

I agree with the last review, if you can't have fun and enjoy yourself here you've got a problem.
The Santa Fe is beautiful, and well maintained. The staff is beyond friendly and the service is great.
The food is fine, not out-of-this-world, but you can always find something good.
The booze is always flowing, and you can get just about anything.
Great location, easy to get to town.
This is our 4th RIU resort we've stayed at and I rank it right up there. You'll have a great time.

We were in Cabo 5 years ago and wanted to take our grown sons with us this time. Since the Riu, Santa Fe was so reasonable we picked this hotel and not the Palace. Stayed at the Riu Palace in Puerto Vallarta and had a great time.

We did have a problem. They did not have our ocean front room available and we were not alone. They were very apologetic and they did give us a free vacation which they also did for the other inconvenienced travelers. They did not have to do that so needless to say we were very happy.

The room we did get was close to the ocean front pools which was great. The hotel is really fine. The decor and people and the overall service is great. The food was fine also. I am not a real gourmet when it comes to food so everything from the breakfast to the dinners was great. You will never go hungry at the Riu.

The last few days of our vacation the Spring Breakers came in. Even though they were having a lot of fun and I do mean fun, the Santa Fe is the place for that, none of the kids were disrespectful in any way to the older folk (like us) or the staff. I don't know if I would have liked to have spent the entire week with them, but a few days was fine.

Definitely go into town, it is fun and do the ATV excursion that goes to Migrino beach, you will not be disappointed. We were on it with our sons and a group of ladies from Dreams and we all had a blast. We went through TransCabo.com, the price was the best and they pick you up at the door and drop you off.

I know that this hotel just needs a little time to get out all of the kinks. All and all we had a great time and would definitely return to the Riu Santa Fe in the future.