This was my first trip to Cabo and I was left amazed by it's beautiful views. I believe the Riu Palace has one of the best views of the famous landmark of Los Cabos. The premices of the hotel itself are very well maintened and very clean all around the pool areas. One thing I can definitely identify with other travelers that stayed here is that the staff is very courteous and polite, with the exception of a few servers that were in a hurry to get all the condements like salt and pepper and sugar off the table, when breakfast was close to closing time, even though my now fiance and I were still finishing up our meal.
**** Having traveled to a few destinations in Mexico, Cabo was no comparison because it stood out in many ways. However, for all the 4 and 5 star reviews on here I can not agree that my stay there was all that great. For the money paid and the expectations set for a resort built in 2007 with "5 stars" I expected a lot more comfort IN MY OWN ROOM. First off, the room we reserved was listed as having a KING BED, well sad to say a KING BED in Riu standards seems to be two full sized beds tied by their legs to not move and create a spacious "king" bed fascade. By combining two beds, a VERY uncomfortable 2-3inch gap was created during our sleep making it a real challenge to be able to cuddle and snuggle with your loved one. Well, that is the whole point of going on vacation with your significant other. I woke up with cramps and stiffness in my back every single morning. On that note, two night stands came to accompany the nightmare bed, and to no surprise at this point with only one outlet to charge your phone or camera or whatever else a traveler may need on their trip to stay in touch with family back home, or capture countless memories of the beauty of Los Cabos. There was only one outlet in the bathroom as well, which was also a bummer. Not to mention, someone had set the radio alarm clock to 2:30 AM with static like noise and we jumped to our feet in the middle of the night trying to turn it off. There were a couple of mornings around 9 o'clock that some man just knocked twice on our door and hurled inside screaming "HOLA!!!!" and staying in our doorway, waiting for me to say "Can you please come back later?" We were still sleeping for God's sake, some people getup early, but caught in my busy schedule back in the states, I like to catch up on sleep and RELAX on my vacations that I paid for and took time off of work to go to. On our second night, we were NOT able to get into OUR SAFE in the room WITH ALL OF OUR VALUABLES including our travel documents. I called reception to send someone to fix it, which they did- a man came and tried for 2 min to fix it and said he can't if maybe they can send someone tomorrow. Um...NO, I can not wait to find out if my valuables are safe and I need to make sure this safe was not tampered with. I politely requested a manager or someone else to come and try to resolve this issue. 3min later I get a call into our room from whoever was in charge that night asking "What's the problem?", so I had to repeat everything again and the man from the reception was VERY RUDE WITH ANNOYED TONE OF VOICE , saying they will send someone in the morning (it was 9:15pm). I said I can not wait until the morning to find out if my valuables are safe and I need this problem fixed NOW, because I read in previous reviews there were problems with the safes as well. I found it offensive to be talked to this way from the representative of the hotel and wait 20 min after that for them to show up with a different lock and key and fix the problem in less than 3 min!!!!
The food of the hotel was not all that great. Their food in the Mexican and Steak house restaurants kept repeating with was already available in the buffets every single day of our 7 day trip. That got kind of boring and unappealing towards the end of our trip.
The only reason why this hotel is getting my 3 star review instead of a 1 or 2 stars is because of their polite servers and GREAT ENTERTAINMENT TEAM, THEY TRULY SAVED A GOOD AMOUNT OF DECENT IMPRESSION FOR RIU PALACE. Without the efforts of the waiters, servers, bartenders, and entertainers the beauty of Riu and Cabo is TARNISHED!
The dancers of the shows were very skilled, and what left us speechless in particular was the EXCELLENT show and presentation of the Michael Jackson show! We felt as we were looking at the real Michael Jackson on the stage in front of us. The shows with the guests involved were very funny and enjoyable as well.
***VERY IMPORTANT***
DO NOT BOOK ANY ACTIVITIES AT THIS HOTEL!!!! They are such a BIG RIP OFF! Apperantly, since all inclusive trips are already paid for, the hotel tries to make money off of the booked activities. For a glassbottom boat trip to Lover's Beach with snorkeling we paid $120! Later on that night we went into the SAFE downtown of Cabo and were offered the same deal for two for 70!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Interested to compare more,we just kept asking about the pricing of the other activities without saying how much we were offered at the hotel and believe me, the difference was TRIPLE. Go and see a booking stand in town and BARGAIN for EVERYTHING because for the price of one activity you could be going on 3!I believe everyone likes to save money! :)
With that said, I am not really sure at this point if I would return to Riu Palace again. Will I return to Cabo? Sure. But the not swimming in the ocean was a real bummer!

We stayed for 5 nights in January 2012. Beautiful property, lots of activities and convenient to downtown Cabo. Restaurants were buffet style and felt like a cruise ship dining experience and the two times we had table service, the food was more disappointing. Lots of selections, though overall food quality was fair.

Rooms in the main building can be very noisy if you are near the nightly entertainment. I heard numerous guests complaining and several asked for rooms to be moved; we were one of those. Staff is very pleasant and attentive.

I have just returned from an 11 day trip to the Riu Palace. It was a first class trip all the way. Wonderful service, clean rooms and good food. The view is amazing overlooking the water from the hotel. Very clean beach with views of cruise ships and even a billionaire's 330 foot mega yacht parked in front of our hotel with a helicopter and all of the toys on board.

I have been visiting Mexico for over 30 years and this is my first trip to Cabo. I can say that Cabo is my favourite destination in Mexico.

I am 28 and my husband is 27. We stayed at Riu Palace Feb 3-10, 2012.

I struggle with giving this hotel a 4 star rating or a 3 star rating. In the end, I suppose 4 star wins out - the staff, grounds and food bumped it up.

I can't say enough about the staff at the Riu Palace. Honestly, the people of Cabo were all incredibly friendly and warm. The pool bar staff were so friendly and sweet - always remembering you and a few even liked to make small talk and get to know us. They make an effort to speak English at all times - and we made an effort to speak Spanish, which I think they appreciated. We also left 50 pesos a day (approx 4 dollars) for the maid and 50 pesos per meal for our server.

We ate at the main buffet (El Medano Restaurant) every day for both breakfast and dinner. The servers in this restaurant are soooo friendly, nice and warm. They made our experience really positive.

One day we tried to walk in to the Italian restaurant (which turns mexican for dinner) as we had heard that it was an open buffet as well, and we quickly got kicked out. Literally. They told us it was reservation only - which we didn't know. Note: the restaurant had maybe one or two occupied tables total. This left a bitter taste in our mouths and from that point on we stuck to the main buffet.

The Pools - Excellent. It is true, you need to put your towel on a chair early in order to get a good spot and especially to get any spot by the pool bars - but we never found it to be much of a problem. If there were no loungers - we left our towels and sandals in a pile near the pool. There are a lot of loungers on the beach too - many in the sun and you can always find a spot, but unfortunately, there is no bar down there, and although a server comes around to take orders, they do not come often enough - even if you tip.

The Beach - Great, but beware...your view is skewed by the large group of Mexican peddlers trying to sell Riu guests their goods. The Riu puts up a rope barrier that they cannot cross - but they still yell at you to buy a water taxi, blankets, necklaces, etc. etc. Just say 'No thank you' and they leave you alone. Note: Most (if not all) of these guys sell pot, cocaine or prostitutes. I am a woman, so they never asked me...but they offered my husband both weed and cocaine and we also spoke with guests who were offered prostitutes. On our last day I caught one peddler motioning to another guest to buy cocaine by touching his nostril - I waved my finger at him and told him he was bad (in a joking manner). The mexican man selling the drugs thought it was hilarious and ran away like a puppy with his tail between his legs. I felt that these guys were perfectly harmless and you just need to tell them no thanks...but some people might get really offended by this sort of thing. I took it in stride. We bought a water taxi from them to Lovers Beach and it was great! Included in the cost of the ride was a little tour around the Sea of Cortez, past the Arch and around to the pacific side. He dropped us off at Lovers Beach and came back in an hour to pick us up. I highly recommend doing this! You get some great pictures.

Room: Okay, here's where the review turns sour. Before we arrived I had sent an email to the hotel letting them know it was our honeymoon and requesting a room on the 3rd or 4th floor with a view of Land's End. A woman promptly emailed me back stating that it was in the system and we would have a great room upon our arrival. Well wen we arrived, we were with a large bus of new guests and they had all of our room keys pre-assigned waiting on a table. We told the woman our name and she gave us the keys to room 2136. Immediately, I knew this was not what I had requested, but I though it may still be okay. Wrong. Our room was on the second floor with a view of the garden/restaurant and if you look off to the side you can see a glimpse of the ocean through the trees - which are large and obstruct most of your view. We had paid for an ocean view junior suite. Okay fine...we are not huge complainers...so we sucked it up and said it was okay and did not request a move.

It did not take us long to discover that we had some friendly visitors in our room, however. Cockroaches. Now, I am terrified of bugs...and I always swore that if I ever saw a cockroach in my room I would demand to be moved. Well, I discovered that cockroaches are not always huge ....these were little guys...and I also discovered that they hid as soon as any light goes on. They were in the bathroom and that's how I found them - by turning the lights on and seeing them scurry back under the mirror to the dark. I killed at least 10. They were approx. the size of my thumbnail - so not huge...but still gross.

The other place they liked to hang out is the cabinet which houses the minibar. So sickening. We didn't keep food or anything in there - but you could see them scurry and crawl as soon as you turned the light on. Just thinking of it gives me the creeps. I was always scared to open up the mini bar just in case one landed on me. When we ordered room service, we made sure to put the plates out in the hallway to be picked up because I didn't want these disgusting creatures coming out of hiding to eat our leftovers.

Like I said - I don't like to demand things, so we stayed in the room. But honestly, this type of thing is not acceptable. Luckily, there were no little buggers anywhere near the bed...and every day after the maid had cleaned - it seemed like it took awhile for them to return...so I know they were trying to rid the room of the problem....Still....not acceptable for a Riu Palace resort.

Another huge minus about the room....No hot water in the shower/tub. I asked other guests who said they had hot water, but we had none. I literally had to take a sponge bath every morning...because the water was so cold. I overheard one other guest stating that he had no hot water...so we weren't the only ones.

My husband has stated that our next vacation will not be at a Riu....He wants a 6 or 7 star resort after our experience here. I would still book at a Riu Palace elsewhere, but if the same problems popped up - I would request a move to a better room. Is the Riu Palace Cabo a 5 star resort? No - definitely not....but the effort is there and I can appreciate that.

All in all, we had a really nice vacation.

Also note: there are stray cats that sit by the outdoor tables of the main buffet restaurant. If seeing stray/sick animals bothers you - don't sit outside. Thankfully, we were always indoors, but from our room balcony I could see the kitties begging for food. Poor little guys.

Is Cabo fun? Yes
Is Cabo safe? YES!
Would we return to Cabo? YES, of course!
Would we return to Riu Palace Cabo San Lucas? Probably not - we'd stay at a higher end resort next time around.