We had a group of about 30 go down for a wedding, ranging in age from 6 to 70. Dates of arrival: Nov 8/9, leaving Nov 15/16. The bulk of the group got there Thursday (including the Bride and Groom) - and oops, we don't have a room for you, Bride and Groom. The front desk staff were not helpful at all. The rest of us got there Friday.

The good: I will say, the waitstaff and the entertainment staff were great. There were always maids and groundspeople cleaning everywhere as well.

The bad: The front desk staff seem to be kind of power-hungry (and inept). On my last night there, I'm in my room packing (with the Do Not Disturb sign on my door). There's a knock, and then a couple walks in with their luggage. There was a mix-up with my reservation, the hotel seemed to think I had checked out that day. So the front desk calls me - do I get a "sorry, there seems to be some confusion, could you come down..."? Nope. Instead, the guy on the phone was accusatory "You were supposed to check out today, if you don't come down and check out, we will charge you for another night". When I went down to reception and showed them my confirmation sheets of when I was checking out, all I got was "I have to photocopy these". No sorry, no nothing. I was not impressed. Thankfully I was fully dressed when the couple walked in - can you imagine????

Six of our group of 30+ got sick, two greatly so (we called the doctor for one of them, and she is still trying to recover, almost a week later). The others are still experiencing bathroom issues as well.

Overall: would I come back to this resort? No. Would I recommend it to my friends? No. If only one or two issues had come up during the week, I could excuse that. But there were too many issues with our group (and we're not drinkers - but maybe that was the problem, we were sober so we noticed all the problems?).

Back in 2009 I wrote a review after staying at this hotel and said that it was the best all-inclusive based on my 10 years of traveling in Mexico! Well, we went back in November of this year and it is still on the top of my list. This time we statyed in a Jacuzzi Suite #7326 and it is was the best room at the hotel, guaranteed! The service at the restaurants and bars were excellent. They had a good selection of food but most of their dishes are mexican food, but we are in Mexico. :) When you go, see Armando at the pool side bar and Martin will take care of you at the buffet. The drinks are made very quickly and they pour the min amt of alcohol but all you have to do is ask for an extra shot and you GET IT! Don't forget, they stock your room with hard liquor, beer, soda and water, so you can make your own drinks and when you are low, just give em' a call and they will restock. When you go into town, take the water taxi for $12. which includes a 20 ride to Los Arcos and ask them to drop you off at the Marina, which is right in the heart of downtown. For the NFL Games, go to Cabo Catina! When we travel next, it will be at a RIU and when we go back to Cabo, you will find us at the Santa Fe.

My boyfriend and I went down to Cabo Nov. 5-11 for the first time after a lot of hesitation. Neither of us had much interest in visiting Mexico due to the overall safety concerns the country poses. but we are thrilled at this experience at the Riu Santa Fe. We booked through Alaska Airlines Vacations and got a wicked deal. As our first choice for this holiday was going to be Hawaii (would have been over $2500 just for flight and hotel only) the value this resort offers was fantastic. We booked airport transfers with the package so that alleviated the stress of trying to get to the hotel. With all the pushy timeshare sellers as soon as you walk out,it's a bit much. The drive from the airport is approx. 30 min. you go past all the malls, run down down buildings, timeshares, costcos and walmarts. It's a weird mix of Mexico and America in Cabo, I guess kind of like Cancun. When we arrived at the hotel, the porters take your bags into the lobby while you go check in. Check in went smooth and quickly although they didn't have a room assigned to us when we got there,they found us one right away. We were placed in building 6. which we both felt after walking around for the week was a great location. Close to the lobby bars and entertainment, and buffet. short 2min walk to the pools by the beach.

our room was on the 2nd floor so had to lug the suitcase up, no elevator, but no big deal for us. the porter in the lobby did ask if we wanted our bags brought to our rooms and we did decline so that we could have them right away.

The Room:
clean, modern, king size bed (not too hard, but not plush by any means)
Pillows are a bit flat and lumpy though (I'd go to walmart next time and buy one, lol)
washroom was in good condition, clean deep tub/shower combo (though very narrow, if you were a larger person you def. could not have a bath)
bar fridge and liq. dispenser - fantastic. restocked daily with litre bottles of water, soda and beer - brush your teeth with the bottled water, the tap water is not drinkable.
My only complaint about the room would be temperature control. It's either really cold if you have the AC on or really warm if you turn it off. There is a ceiling fan above the bed, but again its on fast or off, no other settings, so you get really cold quickly when laying in bed.
TV has about 3-4 english tv shows with spanish subtitles so if you dont feel like being out partying one or two nights you can chill in your room and veg out.

The Resort:

beautiful, clean, well layed out - there is always someone cleaning or gardening.
Location is amazing, view of the arches
Water is beautiful, (I thought it would be dirty brown like the Mazatlan) - though you cant swim in front of the resort. water is crazy rough
The pools- by the lobby is a huge pool with swim up bar. It seemed like the more mellow pool to be at if you wanted to get away or if you had the kids with you.
The pools near the beach were great, always had something going on, there are 3 infinity pools with swim up bars at 2 of them.
The only thing that was really annoying is the sound echoing down the hall when people come in late from the bar, as everything is stone it's sooooo loud, also people slamming their doors- can wake u up.
Dont mind the GIANT moths and small bats everywhere, they're harmless.
The Drinks:
the drinks at the lobby bar were always great in the evening.
the drinks at the pool bars were good, but like anywhere different bartenders make the same drink differently
They had a lot of brand name liq. which was great, but they also ran out of it quick.
The wine in the restaurants is disgusting, I wouldn't recommend (buy a bottle in town and bring it with you)
The beer in the restaurants tastes off as well.
The beer at the pool bars isn't too bad, but it's all draft at the resort, except for what you get in your room.
The mix/juice.- beware if you don't like artificial sweeteners, everything tastes like it - which to us is gross. they don't tell you it isn't regular stuff either so if you had an allergy to it you could be in trouble.

The Food:
The buffet was great. always a huge choice in food options. Most of what I ate was delicious, only a few items were not to my liking, but nothing to fuss over.
The dessert bar is huge, though some items that looked beautiful and delicious turned out to be kinda gross and bland.

The a la carte restaurants:
This whole procedure kind of annoyed me, and not because of anything bad at this resort, it's just the concept of having to go early to put your name down for a reservation. when we first got here it was hard to get an early seating for any of them. who wants dinner at 9pm? I dont know if i'll be around at that time. Being on holidays means not having expectations to be somewhere or plan in my books.

The service at the restaurants was fantastic,
Asian restaurant:
tons of sushi
tons of fried food
a mix of all asian cuisines
The miso soup was good
If you dont eat ocean products like me, you can leave this experience feeling gross from the all the fried options.

Steakhouse:
delicious steak
great service, near the ocean
the fried food appetizer wasnt my thing, but my boyfriend ate it.
the soup was a tomato on one half the bowl and potato on the otherhalf- very good.
Cesar salad was good

Italian:
We missed our reservation for this one unfortunately as i had a very long hangover that day. but I was told you got the same sort of pasta like the one you could get any day in the buffet.

the all day snacks option is kinda gross in the sportsbar (nachos and cheese-like 711 nachos, hamburgers and hotdogs that are in a fridge and you microwave, and pastries that look like they've been there all week and had a fly buzzing around in the display case, eww)

The People:

AMAZING! so warm, friendly and helpful.
everyone was always smiling, and genuinely seemed to be happy to be there and always said hello when you walked past.
Bartender work their butts off
The housekeepers do lots of towel art on your bed - so cool.
The entertainers work so hard to engage and entertain the guests. always something to participate in or watch.

The Entertainment:
WOW!!! so good. first day we got there and there was a Michael Jackson thriller tribute. unreal! I dont really even like michael Jackson and it was beyond fantastic.
Next day was Grease, then Broadway, then a bunch of other shows,
Disco seemed dead every night, the place to be on the resort at night was the lobby bars.
went to the disco one night after we got back from being in town.

Internet:
only can use it in the lobby and you have to use your free 90 minutes all at once, you cant be on for 10 min and come back later and try to get on again, it will lock you out till the following day.

Onsite Bank Machines:
sneaky, have certain commands written in spanish and english, but when it comes to asking you to accept service charges it only writes it in spanish. wtf. so you dont really know what you're agreeing to. We figured it out with some help.


Tips:

Bring lots of sunblock with you, we had 2 bottles and ran out. they are $20 US for a bottle onsite
Bring LOTS of small bills, $1,$5 USD
Tip the housekeeper daily- you'll get great service and it could safe you a theft
Tip the bartender upfront and you will get great service
tip the wait staff in the restaurants, they work hard.
Lock you suitcase when you're not in your room. - we didn't have any issues in our room, but we also didn't create opportunities for theft either. a couple we met had their laptop stolen, but they did leave it out on their nightstand.
If you take the water taxi over to lovers beach, it's really crazy trying to get in and out of the boat, be prepared for bruising.- on the other side people will assist you and then ask you for money and make you feel like a douche if you dont give them a tip
Going into town for a night out is approx. 140 pesos each way

We had a great time here, met some amazing people, relaxed, partied, chilled. Great overall value. Fun resort. a mix of older, younger, weddings, friends, couples, families - suitable for all without offending any one demographic.

On our trip the majority of people at the resort were Canadian - British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec, much to the dismay of some of the Americans we overheard complaining about it, lol. There were a minority of Americans, Germans, English and Brazilians. We met some fantastic couples from Chicago, Michigan and Montreal. Going as a couple was fun, and quality time together, but we both said it would be a great place to come back with our friends in tow.

I would def. recommend this resort we didn't really leave it for the week, and don't really feel like we missed out. We had a great time. Will be back again.

We have just spend 5 nights at the RIU for the first time and it is a huge and wonderful resort. Checkin was very slow so they could use more staff and I did ask the Supervisor on duty as to why it was so slow. She said they usually plan ahead for a group and check them in as a group elsewhere but this was usual checkin, Well the people in front os us were a group of 18!. They did not have my sons reservation so I had to pay and follow up later.
Rooms are very nice and clean and maids do an awesome job creating animals out of towels.
Buffet Restaurant is very busy and is always running out of food. \they seem to have trouble keeping up. Food was okay and could better.
Shows were awesome especially Micheal Jackson...it was amazing and the entertainment staff do an awesome job.
The buffet closes at 10pm and the only place you can get food is at the sportsbar. Let me tell you the 24hrs all inclusive is incorrect. The sportsbar has premade packaged burgers and hot dogs and salads in a fridge. You have to take it our and warm it uo in the microwave. One night I got to the sportsbar and there was no food at 130am. There was only nachos. Food runs out everynight and there are no cooks to make more food until 7am when the Buffet opens.
The beach is very nice but the ocean has great undertow and is very dangerous. The hotel does not mention this on their website but from hearing stories people have been wahed away.
Riu is very huge and the main buliding is #7 which is quite a walk from the main building. This is where you see the picture of the pool overlooking the ocean., This is also where all the entertainment happens all day.The night entertainment happens at the main building so you have a bit of a walk.if you stay in #7
Resort is very beauitful and very well kept with friendly staff.