Please read this review before deciding. I read many reviews and some were so negative. I do not have one complaint about the Riu Santa Fe! The staff was great, the food was great, the rooms were great and our vacation was one to remember! We traveled with two children age 10 and 12 and everything was perfect. There are always people who complain about everything and we heard some of those people on our vacation....get a life! It was somewhat time consuming to get reservations for the specialty restaraunts, but it is the only way to be fair to the many guests who want to eat there. If people want exclusive dining they should go into town! We would go back in a heart beat and will remember this vacation for years to come as well as the great time we had at the Rui Santa Fe!

We have just returned from a week at the Santa Fe. We are retired and went with our grandchildren. We live in France and they live in San Francisco. Obviously the crowd was North American, very polite, even the kids during spring break who weren't too awful. But, unlike the French resorts we've been to in the Carribean (including a Riu) the kids seem to stay with their families and don't get involved with each other. Our granddaughters did manage to make one friend, a young girl of Vietnamese origin who lives in Minnesota.

This and one other more serious mattter are the only criticisms we have of the hotel. We paid for an ocean view and our first room gave out on a unruly dune. We got another room with a nice view of the pools and the Los Cabos rocks FROM THE BALCONY but not from our beds, which is what I thought I had paid for. The director very kindly explained his incomprehensible algorithm for what is considered a full ocean view versus a partial ocean view. I didn't want to argue about something I couldn't understand but beware. Building 7 is the only one that has ocean views (from your bed) and I expect that there are not more than 50 or so such rooms available in building 7. I will be writing Expedia, who I booked with on the matter and hope for a partial refund. The hotel should have a map that might let you choose your room (offering several possibilities and prices), like what you can get on certain flights. Incidentally, building 7 is closest to the beach.

Otherwise everything was perfect. The icy wtar and the dangerous waves didn't stop us from swimming and we did go into town to the public beach which has no waves. We snorkeled for as long as our bodies could stand the cold. Above all, we caught the end of the whale watching seson with a company that uses speedboats to get near the animals. Don't try a catamaran, because the whale will be gone by the time you get there. We saw humpbacks and orcas and the day befor they had sighted a blue whale. There were also sea lions and sea turtles. Very, very exciting, but the magnificent whales have almost all by now headed for the Arctic Ocean.

We ate at the Baja California exclusively since we don't like being served by a waiting staff and because the Baja has an enormous choice of food from cardboard like pizzas to succulent duck and pork roasts. There is a different kind of raost every night.

As everyone else has already said, the staff is charming and always helpful. The pools are excellent and the spa has a free sauna, steam room and uncrowded hot and cold jacuzzis that can be used at any time of the day.

As for weather. It is the desert, cool at night and blazing at 2PM. With no humidity. We all loved it, but I think we prefer the international mix and tropical flora of the Carribean which for us feels more like home.

My children (ages 19, 16 and 11) and I stayed at the Riu Santa Fee March 17-21 during spring break. After reading all the reviews, i was unsure how our experience would be, but I kept an open mind remindng myself i wanted to enjoy our vacation. What a lovely resort! We did have a delay in our transfer from the airport to start off with, but once we arrived at the hotel, everyone was so friendly.

We were greeted at check in with drinks and check in went very smoothly. It was nice to have the all inclusive so the kids and I could eat and get drinks whenever we wanted without having to worry about carrying cash. One thing to note is the hotel does not have an ATM machine. The nearest one was at Wal-Mart.

We always found plenty of loungers available at the beach or the pools, no matter what time we showed up. The days were hot and we had forgotten sunscreen so had to go to the gift shop to get some. Very expensive....so remember sunscreen! You will definitely need it!

We stayed in building 3 which was very convenient to everything. The walk to the beach, the pools, the sports bar (where the internet is), and the restaurants was not too long. I figured the walk was enjoyable and good for me as food and drinks were plenty. We did not see any of the vomit or urine that others reported. There were a lot of sping breakers, but with teenage children of my own, I may be more tolerant of the noise. None of us were kept up at night by the noise.

We went in to town a couple of nights to eat. We chose to take a taxi for $10 each way. The bus stops outside the resort, and it is much cheaper and is on a schedule. Cabo Wabo and Hard Rock are over-rated and over-priced and the food was just "ok". The kids can say they have been there. The food at the resort was ok. Sometimes there were things that were cold, so we did try and eat cooked to order or items that had just been replenished. This was not a surprise to us as we read many reviews regarding this. The fresh fruit was wonderful.

Nights were cool and the light jackets and pants were definitely needed. My children enjoyed themselves, although there are not a lot of activities for the 12-14 year old age. Too old for the kids activities, but too young to just want to relax. The gift shop does not sell any beach or water toys. I went to Wal-Mart for plastic shovels and pails and they did not sell them. Kind of surprising for a beach area.

All in all, it was a wonderful time and if you set out with a positive mind, most negative things are overshadowed by the splendor and cleanliness of this resort.

We were at the Riu Santa Fe Mar 16-23. We had a great time. The hotel is beautiful with nice facilities. We had a garden view room. The room was nice and we always had hot water for showers. The bed were typical Mexico- a little on the firm side. One nice touch was the super cold mini fridge. The ice cold Coronas were nice. On the downside it was the noisiest room I have ever been in. Granted it was springbreak but it wasn't just the kids at night it also was the early risers at 7:00am that kept us from sleeping. Just be sure to bring earplugs. We had no trouble with theft but we never left valuables out of the safe when we were out of the room.
The hotel was always cleaning. The grounds and pools were always clean. Even though the hotel was at capacity it didn't feel like it. You could always find a chair by the pool. There wasn't chair saving like at some resorts, I suppose because of the towel cards.
We thought the buffet food was pretty good. It was typical for all inclusive resort. One area that the hotel could work on was the reservation system for the ala cartes. I got up one morning and got in line for a number to make a reservation at 6:45am and I got the number 30. Then I had to come back at 8:10 to actually make the reservation. You can only reserve one day at a time.

They do have the best guacamole I have ever had. Also the fruit was very good. Also I had a variety of fish that was very good.

I loved the daytime weather(sunny and warm) but the nights were almost unbearable. I had a jacket but I could have used a fleece jacket, It was 52 and windy. If I ever come back it would be in the fall when it is warmer at night.
We did the ATV tour. It was a blast. Also take the water taxi to lover beach.