My sister and I spent the last two weeks at the Riu Santa Fe in Los Cabos. Generally speaking the resort is well run ,very clean and the food good. The check in was fast and efficient. This resort is large with lots of walking required depending on where your room is located.That is not necessarily a bad thing depending on your abilities. Would not reccommend it for those who have any mobility issues.

The pools are cold and you are not able to swim in the ocean. The beach is difficult to walk on but the view is spectacular.

Arranging tours from the hotel is very reliable and efficient. The location to Cabo San Lucas is good and there are numerous water and land taxis that will get you to town quickly.

The dining room staff are very good and the restaurants were all excellent. If you are not there early to book you can go on a waiting list and each time we did that we were able to get in.

On the negative side it is definitely a party resort which is fine during the day. We had a good time and met some great people. However I don't think we had one night of uninterrupted sleep. The noise usually started about 3 or 4 am .The rooms are not at all sound proof and we heard yelling,fighting and pounding on doors pretty much every night. We got moved from building 6 after an unfortunate couple of nights but the move didn't really lend itself to quieter nights so I doubt there is a quiet building at the resort.

The pool bars seem to be understaffed for the volume of patrons but kudos to Luis from the tequila bar who is a genius and works his butt off with good humour. The sportsbar is usually quieter but most people don't want to be inside although it is a good place to use the interent for a price.

Two of us went to Riu Santa Fe from 2/5 thru 2/11/12. Had an awesome time. This resort is top notch. Best food ever at an all-inclusive resort. Everything is FREE…even the mini-bar in your room which is stocked with bottled water, beer, pop and liquor.

Things we learned:

When you arrive at the airport, go all the way OUTSIDE to pick up your transfer. This is VERY important. Make sure you know which company you are looking for and how they will be dressed and don’t stop until you get outside. There is an area between customs and outside where YOU WILL BE STOPPED and they act as if they take care of transfers. They don’t. They are timeshare employees. Keep walking! They will prey on you if they can.

The taxi from the resort to town is $3 per person *IF* you have 4 people in the taxi. The taxi is $12 one way whether you have 1, 2, 3 or 4 people.

Don’t be afraid to take public transportation to/from town. It is $1 per person and picks up/drops off at the gate to the resort. It’s not an air-conditioned motor coach, but it does the job! I don’t know what the hours are but it’s worth it to find out. Again, the front desk won’t give you any information about this…you have to find out for yourself.

There is a Walmart within walking distance of the hotel. Lots of vacationers went there to get BIG MUGS to hold their drinks since the bar serves drinks in very small cups and the lines are long. Just bring a big mug from home and save yourself the trouble.

Bring lots of $1’s for tips. Tip your wait staff and bar staff for the best service. They really work hard.

We ate at Poncho’s Restaurant in town twice. Loved it! [We went to town at night and felt very safe.]

Don’t be afraid to purchase from the local vendors on the beach in front of the resort. They are very friendly and willing to deal. They can be a little pesky, but they are fine people just earning a living.

Don’t take a water taxi that the hotel hasn’t approved. The ocean current is very strong and we know of people who got hurt getting on/off the water taxis. It’s dangerous.

That being said, the current is strong and swimming in the ocean isn’t advised. Stick to the pools to cool off! They are refreshing, but NOT heated.

We found out the hard way, you have to put towels on your chairs by 6:30 am to “reserve” the chairs you want. The hotel says you can’t reserve them, but everybody does it and no one from the hotel does anything about it. The favorites are the chairs by the railing that overlooks the ocean—those go first.

We ate at the Italian restaurant on the resort. As many reviewers said, you have to get in line at 7am to make a reservation and they book two days in advance. When we went to the Italian restaurant, it was not even half full! The food was great as was the wait staff. We can’t figure out why they seem to discourage eating at the restaurants—that’s how it felt.

The entertainment staff are so much fun.

The bartenders were friendly but there weren’t enough of them—slow service at the bar!

The housekeeping staff are friendly and hardworking.

The front desk staff are NOT friendly at all. You have to figure things out for yourself.

We were in building 7. It was fine but truthfully how much time do you spend in your room? You can see the ocean all day. Didn’t think it was worth the extra money for an oceanview room.

The pools by the bars are VERY lively, if that's what you're after! The pool that is not near the ocean is warmer (maybe heated) and less people--tends to be an older quieter crowd. The infinity pool in the courtyard of building 7 that overlooks the ocean is lively but not too crazy. It depends on what kind of time you are looking to have.

The beds are hard--not comfy at all--but who cares?

The resort is kept in PRISTEEN condition!

We made two of the evening shows and they were fun to watch. The staff has a good time presenting them.

I would go again.

Just returned from one week at the Riu. There were 6 of us travelling together (ages 28-30) from toronto, Ontario. It was about a 45 minute bus ride from the airport, and check in at the hotel was quick and easy. they already had our rooms ready for us (we didn't upgrade to an ocean view room) and ended up in building 6 - each on a different floor, but that was ok for us. Building 6 is very close to the main buffet, bars, entertainment area and lobby. It was further (about 5 minute walk) to the main pool by building 7. We only used the main pool and didn't go to the quiet pool which was closer to us. Had to be up by at least 7am to reserve our pool chairs. This was a bit of a pain due to the longer walk.

Our Room overlooked the riu palace next door, liquor dispensors were all but empty (gave the maid a 10 dollar tip the first day and asked for a bottle of bacardi white rum and never received it but we always had plently of beer - Dos Equis. Room was cleained everyday, plently of towels, shower had great water pressure and always hot water! We only got three little thin pillows to sleep on- (I love lots pillows so this wasn't good) i guess we could have asked to more but didn't bother. Oh and our alarm clock always had the wrong time even if I re-set it. so annoying so i called down the front desk and within 3 minutes someone was there to bring a new one!

Beach Sand was pretty rough and hard on the feet but if you walk down closer to the water it get softer. We took a water taxi to lover's beach and went swimming there - highly recommend doing this it was beautiful. Only about $3-4 per person each way. Also on the beach are the vendors you can buy things from them. They do hassle you a lot if you are walking by. Also my husband and the other guys on our trip were asked if they watned drugs from people on the beach! We thought this was crazy as we don't do drugs!

Pool at building 7 was amazing! Water was cold but very refreshing when laying out in the sun. water was warmer in the swim up bar by the beach buffet.
Drinks were ok- very sweet and hard to drink for an entire week. the Guys drank barcardi rum and coke and said it didn't taste like our rum back home.

Food - was alright. breakfast buffet was good lots to choose from. lunch buffert by main pool had hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, lots of chips and salsa, guac, and hot nacho cheese. we ate at the mecixan, italian, and steak house restaurants. the mexican was the best ! Italian the worst - could hardly get anything down at this meal (don't order the pesto linguine- many people said they hated it) Oh and the white wine is Terrible!!!! I can drink pretty much anything and couldn't drink this. The Soft Serve Ice cream and the main pool buffet was Amazing ! However is was broken down more times than it was working! I only went twice to the dinner buffet and it was ok- lots to choose from but nothing really did it for me!

The staff at the resort are wonderful. the enterainment staff are fun, there's always something to do. I thought the shows were good. Michael Jackson (monday night) was amazing, kareoke show and comedy show were funny and entertaining. the staff at the main desk in the lobby don't seem as friendly (have heard this also from other reviews) oh and yes you need to be there by at least 730am to reserve you al a cartes. if today was monday you can book for monday night and Wednesday, so on and so on.

We didn't do any excursions. We did take a water taxi to town and walked around, went to Cabo Wabo. The food and drinks were great! we also walked from the hotel down the beach to Mango Deck Bar. This place was fun and crazy ! A bucket of 5 Cornona was about 10 dollars.

Overall I would say this was a 4 star hotel. It's missing a lot of the extras that a 5 star has. My husband and I stayed at the ROYAL PLAYA DEL CARMEN 2 years ago and that place was a solid 5 star hotel. hightly reccommend that hotel! i'm still up in the air if I would return to the riu santa fe. The price was great!, food - bla (we all had upset stomachs for a couple days during the week) We loved the cabo area and the views from the pool are to die for ! Weather during feb was pretty good - i knew it would be cool at night and hate that i have to wear pants and a sweater. during the day it was hot! cloudy some days though. one day it did rain pretty much the whole day then clearned up at 4pm. we talked to one guy in town and apparently this is very rare to see rain. hope this review if helpful !

We booked the trip knowing it would be rowdy, but had no idea how bad. We are in our late 40's and early 50's. Love to have a good time and party at the pool most of the day. Problem is that the younger guests also loved the pool and the late night bar/disco activities. We were pretty much kept awake by loud party goers all night long. You can hear every step in the halls and with all the screaming and banging it was hard to get a good nights sleep. We stayed in building 7 because from the reviews it was near the fun pools and ocean. I think that was our mistake since we were going to bed around 10 to midnight every night. Would just get into a good sleep and loud party gang would come to their rooms between 1-4 in the morning making sure everyone knew they were in the house.

Food was just okay, but you can always find something at the buffet to get you through.
We found the weather very cold. Never able to wear a sun dress at night without a jacket. It was cold until around 9 a.m. and if the clouds were out we could not get in the cold pools until around 11. Don't let this stop you from going. We talked to a number of people that go to Cabo all of the time due to the low humidity. We are just used to really warm weather all day and night. That's what WE like.

The area is beautiful to look at from the resort. I found the beach hurt my feet to walk on due to the pebbles of rock in the sand.

We went to town one day and had a really good time. Cabo Wabo is a must!
I really like the area but would do it differently if I ever go back. I would do a condo or something non-exclusive closer to town to be able to enjoy the cool bars and food. I would also go at a different time of the year due to the cold weather in Feb.

If you are already booked-no worries. You will have a great time. Just know upfront what you are getting into and if you are not a late night person do not book building 7.

Have fun and be sure to take a warm jacket.