I read reviews about this hotel for the past two months in anticipation of a very well deserved vacation with my husband. We wanted to make sure that our money was being well spent, going to a location we had never been to before. Reader opinions really helped make the decision on staying at the Riu. With that being said, I would disregard ANY opinions you read about bad food, party atmosphere, etc. First of all, you are deciding on CABO SAN LUCAS ~ it's a party town, so don't expect to see people not enjoying themselves. If you want peace and quiet, then head down the road to the sister city of Cabo. I was anticipating a hassle getting thru the timeshare area at the airport. It's not that big of a deal. Once you scan your luggage thru the checkout area, it funnels you into the "timeshare hallway". Just keep walking and head for the exit doors. (Unless of course you want to go to a timeshare meeting!!) The bus ride to the Riu was about 30 minutes and uneventful. Upon arrival at check-in, we were offered beverages and welcomed warmly to the hotel. We easily obtained our keys and hotel info. We were put in building 7 because we requested an ocean view. For those that complained about the walk, give me a break! All the walkways are beautiful and very calming. The walk from bldg 7 to the main food areas and bars is maybe 5 minutes. The pool at building 7 is where we spent most of our time, and is a total blast! We met some wonderful people; as most are just there to socialize. The pool bars do close at 6pm, but that kinda makes you get out and ready for the evening! I will say, the dinner reservation system could use a revamp. It's corny how you have to reserve your table in the morning, but they never had anything available. That was ok, since we were experiencing the town restaurants anyhow. So, getting to town was an adventure! You can grab the city bus right out front of the hotel for 70 cents. It takes about 20 minutes to get to Cabo on the city bus because of the other stops it makes. We walked to town on two other days and not only was that excellent exercise walking on the beach, but it was extremely romantic. If you can put one foot in front of the other, just walk to town.....there are bars along the way that you can "rest" at. (it's probably a 3 mile walk one way). The only other option is to take a cab, which are readily available. Just ask the fee before getting in the cab or you will end up paying whatever the driver chooses to charge. I would HIGHLY recommend eating lunch or dinner at "The Roadhouse". It's right by Costco, was an $8 cab ride, and we walked back to the hotel, not realizing how close it was. The BBQ chicken and steak is AWESOME. Owner is an older guy from Manhattan Beach just making a living in Cabo.....After that, a fun time can be spent just across the street at the Cabo Raceway ~ high speed race cars. All in all, we had such a fabulous time, we definately didn't want to leave. A killer storm rolled in, and made it that much more adventuresome. Like any location, pay attention to your surroundings, and you will be just fine. I was born and raised in Los Angeles county and felt safer in Mexico.....Everyone keeps asking me, "so what did you do in Cabo?" ~ ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AND IT WAS FANTASTIC!!!!!! Enjoy!

We went to the Riu Santa Fe hotel for our honeymoon, Sept 8th thru the 14th. We booked through the hotel website, including airfare and transfers. When we got there, Cabo was in the middle of a tropical depression storm - very humid, rain, and very windy. How windy? Our first afternoon there after checking into our room, which had two double beds, then checking into our second room, king ocean view (peek a boo view) in Bldg. 7, we went to the steakhouse which has a lunch buffet and afternoon "snack" buffet and it began pouring and blowing, a drink cart on wheels actually flew into me!
It was bad weather like that for the next three days, which isn't the hotel's fault, but there the hotel has an outdoor layout that the inclimate weather made it hard to get around for us (Bldg 7 further away from everything but closer to the ocean front pool). The television was our entertainment, after the rain came the bugs! I sprayed myself with Off! every day/night and woke up every night to re-apply but was still eaten! It's been 5 days and the bites are still here (all over! About 50 bites total) My husband only got one or two bites, but they were coming from our room, we told the front desk and they had housekeeping put a can of raid in our room which we had to spray ourselves, but I kept getting bitten however.
The oceanfront pool was nice, with infinity edges, and we had no problem getting great spots every time, plenty of chairs. They do use towel cards so it is one per customer, if you perfer plush or larger pool towels I suggest bringing your own along. Swimup bar was fun, I wish people wouldn't oil themselves to a frenzy then get in the pool tho, the bar stools were so slick sometimes! Miami vices and blue oceans seemed to be the drink of choice, good margaritas.
Food was very disappointing, and the "reservation" restaurants and the service we got at those (Italian "Carusso" and steakhouse) made us not wake up at 7:30 to get any other reservations. They were still mostly buffets with an entree choice (3-4 choices to order from) and very sub par. At the italian restaurant we were ignored by our waiter constantly, and had to ask 3 times for a bread basket. Every other table got one. Finally got it with our entrees, it was practically thrown on our table and the bread was so soggy on the bottom like it had been soaked. Getting such bad service when we were trying to celebrate our honeymoon was dissappointing. Wine at the restaurants is basically boxed wine, we couldn't drink it, stick to the wine at the bars as it actually comes from a bottle and is decent wine.
Service at the buffets was great though! So nice, very quick and helpful. Our favorite server was Rosemberg, he was really a pleasure and seeing his smiling face helped make lunch and dinners at the buffet more pleasurable!
We went to La Fonda restaurant one night and had great service and finally some good authentic mexican food (not your typical US mexican restaurant fare, but even picky eaters can find something they like). A little pricey but worth it for a romantic night out.
ATMs are not available at the hotel, cabs to ATM at WalMart was $8 each way, or a ten-fifteen minute walk! Cabs kept charging us different amounts, getting mad at us for the tips we had given them. I noticed this changed when on the weekend, the hotel had a cab desk set up with a price list. Very different prices from what we were charged during the week, confirming we were taken advantage of. We also had trouble getting charged different prices for the glass bottom boat tour, had to haggle to get the price we had been quoted and which we knew everyone else was getting,
Plan to tip pretty much everyone you come in contact with - some will deserve it some really wont but it is expected! (More cab drivers, shuttle drivers, boat drivers than hotel altho those who tipped at the bars got much faster service!)

My husband and I stayed 2 weeks at the Riu Santa Fe for our honeymoon Aug 30- Sep 13th. Although this review is generally a POSITIVE one, I will make sure to outline the good and bad aspects of the resort for those that may be pickier travelers than we are.

Warning: looooong review ahead!
Booking: My mother is a travel agent and booked our trip through Sunquest. Unlike American travel providers, sunquest only offers “Ocean View” or “Standard”. For some reason Sunquest has decided not to break down Ocean View into OV and partial OV. If you are anywhere in the front building (building 7) with any view of the water, Sunquest classifies it as OV. Just be weary of that, because paying twice as much for a partial OV than a standard room in the back near the pools just isn’t worth it.
Room at arrival: Being our honeymoon, I was eagerly anticipating that first entrance into our room. I was EXPECTING to open up the door to see a beautiful king size bed with rose petals, a towel animal swan, a fruit basket and our surprise honeymoon gift, which I assume was a bottle of champagne, and a beautiful view of the Sea of Cortez. What we experienced was a an open front door, 2 twin beds pushed together (made up individually with a big crack in the middle), no “honeymoon surprise” of any sort, and perhaps, just perhaps, if you pulled some cirque de soliel tricks out of your belt, you might have been able to lean over the balcony, peer past the palm tree and see about an inch of water in the distance. My husband was thoroughly thrilled just to be there (hasn’t traveled as much as I have), but I immediately started to tear up. Not trying to sound spoiled, but I just had different expectations for my honeymoon. After 4 attempts at calling the front and speaking to someone in charge, Tony apologized and said he had upgraded us to a suite. Sweet!
Room after upgrade: This entrance was a bit different than the first. I walked in and immediately started jumping up and down and screaming. I was so excited to have my honeymoon dreams realized! The most amazing view of the ocean anyone could ever ask for, a real king sized bed, living room area, an open concept bathroom with Jacuzzi, and a bidet for my easily amused husband! Screw the fruit basket, I’ll take the room. In the 2 weeks we were there we never once were acknowledged for our honeymoon or had anything delivered to our room, but I wasn’t about to complain because we had a major upgrade and it really made our trip amazing. I was a little sad to have no towel animals either week though! I knew other people on our floor that got them and we never did, despite tipping $5 everyday. It’s amazing how something so small could have made such an impact on me, but I really was looking forward to that after seeing other reviewers’ pictures. I was more hoping for my husband to get to see them because he never has, and once again is easily amused. We even filled out a form in front of the buffet the third night, and you got to choose which animal you wanted and they were supposed to leave it in your room the next day. Never happened! Another honeymooning couple was sweet enough to leave their towel swan at our front door upon their departure back home. Maid service was ok. They didn’t replace our extremely dirty robes the first week and a half and my husband had to go hunt them down to give us fresh ones. They also didn’t replenish things like the body lotion, which was much needed after frying to crisp and peeling. But they were very friendly and did a thorough job cleaning!
Food: As other reviewers have said, the food was to be expected. I wasn’t blown away, I wasn’t overly disappointed. My husband enjoyed it more than me, as I’m a picky vegetarian and obviously my choices were limited. The reservation system wasn’t as difficult as I expected…you can pretty much go at anytime and see what’s available. In all honesty though, the 3 we went to were pretty disappointing (steakhouse, Italian, Mexican). The food was pretty consistent with the buffet, except the buffet had way more choices and the service was faster. It is nice to sit down to a meal, but really, at this resort, the buffet was a better choice. I did, however, find the abundance of flies quite distracting. I know the 2 outdoor buffets are OUTDOORS essentially, but it still took my appetite away. The Baja is definitely the best buffet. For all those vegetarians out there, here are some good choices: the pasta and tomato sauce; the pizza (hit or miss), custom vegetarian sushi roles (made by a chef at the buffet’s sushi bar twice weekly) the cheese quesadillas filled with quac, salsa, lettuce etc. After 2 weeks though, nothing was really satisfying except for the crepes with chocolate sauce I had at the buffet the very last night. AMAZING! They also have the BEST hard vanilla ice cream at the Baja as well. It tasted like coldstones “cake batter”. My husband LOVED the fried chicken cutlets with gravy, all of the meat dishes, the quesadillas with piquante sauce, the fries and pretty much every unhealthy Americanized dish they had. The Mexican food was pretty bland for the most part. Also, please, for the sake of mankind, do not eat the disgusting burgers and sandwiches in the cooler in the sports bar. You’d be safer going to the beach and eating sand. The multiple espresso machines were a very welcome aspect. I probably had 5 cappuccinos a day and my husband gained a newfound appreciation for coffee!
Pools & Grounds: Beautiful. I didn’t find the size of the resort to be a problem, but I can see how the walking could seriously impair the enjoyment of someone with leg issues. Our room was pretty much one of the furthest rooms from the lobby, and I would say the walk was about 5 minutes. They clean the pools every night, thank god! They get absolutely disgusting! Around the edges there’s gucky buildup, certainly from tanning lotions, dead skin, spilled daiquiri’s etc. There were a few times I wouldn’t go in because of the floating “soup”. But they do try their hardest to keep up with the human grossness. The grounds are very well taken care of, and everything is finished beautifully. We had a few stormy days which resulted in some massive puddles (and leaks in our room) but nothing we couldn’t handle! The pool bars were great. I loved the infinity pool aspect and the little booths in the water. The drinks were great; service was quick, with or without tipping. We tipped about 50% of the time we got drinks, but that was mostly because we ran out of small bills occasionally.
Beach: The beach is really pretty and we really only noticed a steeper incline in the second week after the storm. The first week it was very easy to walk up and down the beach. We swam in the ocean once when the waves didn’t seem as scary as usual, and I got tossed about in the undertow, lost my sunglasses and had my bikini ripped off me. Ya, the beach vendors got an eyeful. If you want to swim in the water, walk in toward DT cabo for about 10 minutes and you’ll find much calmer water, as well as an abundance of water sports which you can bargain and get a better deal than at the resort.
Riu Palace: When we chose this resort, I sort of assumed that since there were 2 Rius right beside each other, and they almost look like one resort from the aerial views, that they would somehow be connected. Not so. They are completely separate and you need to enter from either the beach or the front entrance. We went twice and ate at the buffet, which we quite enjoyed. It’s very similar, perhaps with a few more choices and a bit better presentation. The service there was also impeccable, so if you go make sure you leave a nice tip. We heard others had problems dining at the Palace, but we just walked right in and no one told us we couldn’t! I also quite enjoyed the grounds and architecture of the Palace. I would have to say I liked it a wee bit more than the RSF, however my husband preferred the layback, no nonsense vibe of our resort.
I’m sure there is more to write but I think I touched on the important areas. Overall, we had a great honeymoon and enjoyed our stay. Ten days would have been the perfect amount of time though! After two weeks repetition starts to set it in!

We stayed at the santa fe from aug30-september 13. Seen what a tripical storn is like. The staff are very good ( no complaints) food was good if you didn't like what they had to offer then you are whining. Plenty of fruit and veggies, if you had any food allergies you could still have a very good dinner. Had the opportuniy to met the head chef he and his staff work very hard. Housecleaning staff are good just have to realize that the Hotel was only 40% occupied. Had a chance to eat and vist the palace ( Riu ) ( wedding to attend)I think the Santa Fe was just as nice,
I think the Sant Fe was very well priced. Went on many excursions and all were done very professionally. Hope this is helpful to some one. Alberta