that is why booking your transportation from the airport to Riu Palace online with Cape Transfesr is your best bet, just as Riu Palace they have an excellent online reputation and the rates for a private suburban for you and your party is less than 100 bucks, they even offer inexpensive shuttle if you don't mind sharing.

Our car service was 30 minutes late to the airport for pick.

Done with RIU, when we set up the reservations we were told we would get round trip transportation from the airport.

Upon providing my reservation information, I was guaranteed a pickup from the airport.

Pro:  hard working staff, housekeeping top notch, nice ocean front room updated, clean, safe
Con: no transfer at time of my arrival at airport as previously arranged and given voucher.

However, when we got on the bus to leave for the airport my daughter realized that she left her new Air Pod Pros in the bedding.

but the beginning of Spring Break so college kids were coming in by bus loads from airport.

The Cabo airport is very chaotic and disorganized.

The location is about 40 minutes from the airport

Outstanding experience from booking online, pick up at the airport to check out.

Used Viator to book our ground transportation from the airport.

Astar provided shuttle service to and from the airport.

but our child doesn't and have to find her own way to the airport?!

Transportation to and from airport was easy.

but me being me I was there 30 minutes before and sure enough they showed up 25 minutes before our pickup time and we were able to get a head start to the airport.

A close ride to the airport and downtown shopping is within walking distance.

Transportation back to the airport, which supposedly came with our room, was a mess and very disorganized.

We assumed the representative that scheduled our departure would allot for enough time at the airport.

Getting out of airport was more stress than checking in here.

The pools are beautiful and plenty of space, except the swim up bars I thought those would be in bigger pools.

food was great (at the buffets and snack bars - food at steakhouse was also good

Next, I tried the coffee bar and the pastries.

Pool bar had good drinks and great bartenders,

The pools close at 8pm and the swim up bar closed at 7:30pm.

Angel by the Infinity pool bar is awesome.

Drinks at the pool and in the bars were what was expected.

but could usually find something decent at buffet(ie Salad bar).

The Santa Fe is also where the sports bar, most of the shops and the money exchange are (bring your passport for the money exchange).

We loved staying at the All Inclusive Riu Palace Cabo San Lucas and the close proximity to the shopping and all the hot tourist bars and attractions.

We loved the tables in the pools where you could hang out, stay cool, and get drinks from the swim up bar.

They dominate pools, specialty dining (tables combined, all served together etc) and bar service.

It is only about a 30min walk to the marina from the hotel as well, where there are a vast amount of fun bars and restaurants to enjoy.

but it was easy enough to walk to one of the bars to refill our bottles).

Alfredo in the pool bar was too much fun, Astrid who served us at the shows was so sweet.

Cappuccino bar staff is another positive and gets  thumbs up.

Don’t get me wrong, the swim up bar and serving guys were lots of fun!!

but staff is so awesome we did not care spa was super but the beach massage for 40 usd was great too I tipped here - usually don’t at all inclusives- but staff so good they totally deserved it

The resort was beautiful and it's location along the beach was amazing.

Rui Palace was beautiful and right on the beach.

Good note: staff are really nice and attentive, I guess they can do just so much - the pools are really nice and a clean nice beach that is hard to get in as the currents were strong.

We were introduced to a wonderful local named Alfredo White Gloves on the beach where we bought 2 silver chains that are still in perfect shape, a beautiful silver ring and he was so great to deal with.

We asked for a partial sea view and ended up with a perfect view of the sea and Lover’s Beach.

The food, room, grounds, beach, ocean view and pools were perfect!

My husband got a GREAT massage on the beach 30 minutes for $20.

We are currently here at the hotel and I felt a need to write this review while all was fresh in my mind
First beach vacation since March 2020 and I relied on reviews and others recommendations to pick this property 
As an avid traveller with a blog following here I go 
Good

Beach front is great, lots of activities, the views of the city from the resort is spectacular

but it is beautiful to stare at while sitting in the beach infinity pool with a drink in your hand.

The views are amazing , the beach not swimable red flags everywhere ….

Enough beach chairs

Loved the coffee bar and crepe station at buffet 

Cons:
Food was not very good,

The pools were great, the views amazing, and the beach was great!

Pools were very clean..the beaches were immaculate.

However, the resort has no control over the weather and unlike 2017, we never lost electricity for a full day and night and none of the restaurants had to close due to flooding.

but red flag warnings during our stay due to strong currents.

My flight was delayed due to weather so I was unable to make my reservation for the evening of Jan 18.

but I don’t see us ever returning due to the dangerous food situation and lack of service from the management team.

Waves are too strong and there’s been reported serious injuries due  to the waves.

They gave them the wrong room, and due to a booking error which showed only the Two adults and not the 1 child, they were charged $1800+ at the front desk at check-in (or told to get lost to another resort if not).

The beach is very well maintained and there is a lifeguard on duty to politely remind people not to swim in the ocean on rough days due to a strong current.

but I’m being literal
- The service provided by the “faces” of customer service was awful
- Due to ATC delays, our flight that was originally scheduled to arrive at 10am local time did not arrive until after 7pm local time.

I am sad to say that due to this very disappointing and consistently bitter experience, I do not believe I will be utilizing nor recommending the RIU chain in the future.

Can’t swim in the ocean due to under tow..but I believe you can go to a marina to swim…I don’t know about that yet

Secondly, our arrival was delayed by a day due to weather and cancelled flights.

but most likely due to water and humidity.

Facing the ocean the pool on the left is noisier due to pool activities and a DJ.

Least favorite was the Italian due to selection and flavor.

The only downfall was that they didn’t have any room service due to covid at the time.

The beach is difficult to walk on due to steepness and the fact that the sand doesn’t pack.

First of all, due to “COViD” the hotel is operating at 50% capacity, or so they say.

We went to dinner about 7 all specialty restaurants were closed so we went to buffet and got met by I'm assuming a manager and official looking people telling us they were closing at 715 due to hurricane coming in 2 hours.

even though we had a transfer, we had to change the day due to flight cancellation and we’re told too bad not their problem.

Also they are still advertising for all these pool parties and disco’s which are not taking place due to Covid.

When we arrived at the hotel their wi-fi was not working and told us they would charge us $500 plus tax for changing our fourth person's name.

If you wanted transportation you had to pay.

Overall for what you pay and the high rating of this resort the food and beverages were not available.

Location- good
Food and drinks-good
Room (specifically towels)- sketchy towels including stained towels; hard to find face cloth

Front desk- We stayed for 14 nights and paid for the stay on day 1.

The hotel was going to take the money we paid for a junior suite and then put us in a less expensive room.

My transportation fee should of been refunded since it was all together with Jetski rentals.

They used cheap alcohol and either watered down or in small amounts.

After staying ther two days,  we just paid to just move to the Riu Cabo San Lucas and lose money on the other vacation and this one was much better.

The front desk did not mention anything about testing, we had to ask and then we were asked to pay for our tests, and then the day of the test we were shuffled in like cattle.

The price which we paid for all-inclusive was much less than we would have paid at comparable hotel resorts in the Cabo area.

Food/alcohol (2.5 out of 5)
The food was average and the wine they served at each of the restaurants are really cheap wine and not good :(.

There are no swimmable beaches - waves are rough with rip tides.

Overall I would not rate this resort higher than what I have.

I found the excursions to go anywhere or do anything very expensive.

Sometime it is accounted for in the booking price -- sometimes it is not!

When at the hotel you can get them to order something from the pharmacy it only costs $5.

So make sure you bring enough - buying them on-site is expensive ($5 each).

We arrived Sunday and they gaves us a coupon for the covid test we lost them and now eventhought they keep a copy they will not give us one and we'll have to pay for it.

I asked the front desk and it just never came Would stay here again and drink more tequila Room service was a little off at times didn’t bring what we ordered probably language barrier

Asked for late checkout when i booked  and when got there  was told had to be out of room at 12 asked to see the manager 

I requested to see the Manager and they told me it will be $84 USD extra night to make that change .

I refused to accept this on principle alone and asked the agency to follow-up.

Check out time is 11 and when we asked to delay our check out to 2:00 so we can recover from our food poisoning, we were passed along from one person to the next until finally someone from guest relations authorized us to stay without apology.

however they only stocked the fridge when you asked for it.

as we were getting ready to go to reception to request a new room, we got an email advising that construction needed to be done in our room and we would get a room upgrade.

- [ ] Check in: you get what is available at time of check in vs what is requested when booking is done.

However, when I asked the Front Desk manager (VANYA) about the ordeal, why they were promised an 11 AM room change

Anyway I had requested a king size bed, and I did get that!

but again, they are strict about handing out 1 bottle per person and you must walk to the shack with everyone requesting a water.

On our last night, I made sure to make dinner reservations offsite because I did not want yet another meal, especially on my birthday, to be ruined by the hotel staff
- We received contradictory information from staff depending on who we asked.

Music from night performances were loud and sometimes lasted past 11pm (bring ear plugs)

Not enough room towels (got more from maid cart)

Golf bag got lost from airline, arrived at 9pm, when asked at front desk, they checked and said they didn’t have it and no golf bags were delivered.

When I asked at the front desk the worker so utterly RUDE.

If you asked they would give you smirnoff or absolute.

I asked them to leave us some of the larger ones and they wouldn't.

Haven’t heard back from anyone about a refund or anything as I requested.

We had some trepidations staying at the RIU Palace since there were more than a few negative reviews about the staff being surly, requests being ignored, all-inclusive food being bland to terrible, watered-down drinks, and the safety of one's personal property.

When we asked to switch rooms,  they said some cold air is coming so basically it is just up to us to decide if we wanna downgrade further into another room.

Food selections and restaurants were terrific.

Good food and drinks staff is outstanding!

Jazmin was our server for all of our breakfast and lunches.

The food and cocktails were top notch, delicious, fresh, and gourmet.

My children witness two girls having alcohol poising.

Food was good, nothing special, typical resort food.

I’ll start with the food review and go from there.

And the restaurants on property offered great variety for nightly dinners.

The food at Rui was good, lots of variety,  Entertainment was very good every night.

When sitting outside, it is hard to enjoy your meal fighting off flies every 2 seconds .

The food was only ok at the upper buffet,

but did not enjoy the Kristal restaurant as the rice was very undercooked) - staff amazing and there were lots of things to see and do!

My assessment, clean rooms at the Riu, decent food,

The food was great - we enjoyed the steakhouse and the Italian a la cartes.

The upstairs bar was so nice and the pool food was amazing.

Staff was great, variety of food is great, the parties that they have are off the chain!

The food was good, and the drinks were plentiful.

If you like snorkelling, lovers beach, Chileno beach and Santa Maria beach are all worth a visit.

You have to walk down the beach to the public beach or go to Chilenos or Santa Maria Beach for safe swimming.

Hotel Riu Palace Cabo San Lucas

request

price

restaurant

beach

We got stuck at the airport for 1.5+ hours waiting to be picked up.

We were already running late because the airport shuttle took over 2 hours to get to the hotel and this salesman made us even more late to the welcome reception.

Close to an hour drive from the airport, be prepared with a driver, otherwise you will be overwhelmed at the airport.

From a sloppy check in to a late transfer to the airport, HRC just couldn’t make the grade.

I arrived on a Saturday and my sun followed in Wednesday   OnTour our private transportation was visible outside the airport and provide a stress free ride to the resort.

The drive from the airport was fine until we turned off the main road, the road  became a little sketchy.

Driving to the resort seemed long from the airport

Transcabo transportation provided our transfers to and from the airport and we highly recommend them.

More cost effective resorts are closer to the airport.

He arranged everything from in-room special requests, birthday room decorations setup, personal transportation to excursions and to airport( at a fee), also restaurant reservations at Rock Spa, Zen restaurant also poolside reserved lounges.

I contacted the hotel at the airport when I realized I left it there and they were able to locate it and secured it.

Pros:
Airport to Hotel Transportation 
Pools 
Elvis Show 

Cons:
Food & Drinks
Service
Timeshare Presentation for discounted tours don’t do it they scam you

They arranged transportation for airport, golf and excursions, coordinated dinner, spa and other onsite activities.

This hotel is about 40 minutes from the airport.

This is a must visit resort as the level of service was well worth the travel time from airport to resort.

Overall is a great place to visit if you're ok with the stuff I mentioned here, by the way the hotel is about 1 hour from the airport and transportation is not cheap.

Transportation to and from the airport was a breeze.

The shuttles to and from the airport , and the pre-rerun COVID test (all provided by the concert promoter) we’re well organized.

He was very attentive and made our trip completely stress free from the time we arrived to the time we shuttled back to the airport.

The spa was fantastic and our beachfront dinner was perfect.

We did leave the resort a few times where we rode camels and ATVs on the beach, and cruised around the Pacific and Sea of Cortez on a private catamaran where we saw the famous arch and swam ashore.

I understand it's a beach resort with a lot of open spaces

Beautiful beach and as we already knew there is no swimming.

You couldn't swim at the beach, the slide was down because of repairs.

although it's not entirely beach walk friendly.

The entire resort is clean, beautiful, the beach is pristine, the staff is friendly, professional and courteous.

The location of resort is remote and you can't swim in the ocean beaches it is very rough.

Kind of defeated the purpose of being on the beach

No discount to our stay despite us not being able to eat at some restaurants, use room service, pools, or the beach.

There is no swimmable beach, so they really made up the difference with the pools.

This trip they upgraded us to room 1332 which is a Presidential with a huge balcony looking directly over the sand and ocean.

In addition, I worked with Andy for our birthday celebration by the beach, and I can’t thank her enough for helping us pull it off!

but oftentimes take them outside to the beach or pool.

They even escorted us on the beach to ensure we didn’t go beyond where it was safe.

It is too far away from Cabo San Lucas/excursions and you cannot enter the ocean from the beach because of the strong waves.

We had a 45 guest wedding here on the beach.

-Chewy (Fitness Center) push us to our limits in the spin class and was a nice personal trainer.

Other staff the made our stay great: Jerry the pool manager, Jose at the juice bar by the red pool, Nelson, Chucy and Danny at the fitness center.

Location was very far from the center of town.

The staff at fitness center, Chuy and Danny helpful in adding the lines.

But we went to Santa Maria Beach, Chilenos Beach and the City Center Beach and we really liked!

Other positives below:
•	The arcade and the children's center were fun.

They had the conference center opened with several larger than life big screen TVs going along with all the other entertainment before and during the game.

Also multiple bars, well distributed,  the restaurants are most on the same area, so if you are on the west/east wing you’ll have to walk to the center.

In the city very different weather pattern.

We will go to enjoy Los Cabo again as it is a wonderful city.

He also helped us plan a trip to the city.

In room dining was also nice, except depending on what you order, it might not be good when it becomes cold and there is no microwave to heat it up.

One ridiculous lie is the cold air takes a while to flow to your room.

Our shower had no warm/hot water so we had cold showers daily.

You alternate a lot of hot and cold water types.

The food to very long to come out, and multiple times food came out warm or even cold.

We continued to hear it was too windy, too cold etc etc.

Drinks were served to us while standing and a cold towel

It just so happens that the week we were there it was so windy and cold.

Once we got to our rooms, one was really hot and the other was really cold.

Poor coordination and inconsistent experience - On several occasions upon being seated for breakfast when we returned from the buffet we discovered that our table had been given away to another party and we had to wait to be seated again while our breakfast was getting cold.

Beach is NOT swimmable, no trees, no umbrellas, high waves, rough current, too cold - even in July.

but at night you’ll only get cold to luke warm water.

Unfortunately, this side of the Pacific is too windy and cold, and we also found the food to be lacking in flavour and the drinks all tasted like watered down tequila (likely because cheaper brands are being put into authentic branded bottles).

We enjoyed the Eden Pool a little more since when we arrived it was windy and cold so that Pool somehow was the only one not affected by the wind.

The pools are waaaaay to cold to be in as well.

Upon arrival no one even ask us for drinks, we have to ask for water because it was so hot inside with no AC on atall.

One lady had slipped on water from the broken AC unit and fell (the hotel would not provide her medical attention and suggested she was liable for her own accident) while the other lady wanted to transfer hotels over the AC issues (which was something that we were offered until they transferred a lot of the wedding parties to the neighboring resort first).

Hotel is not worth for $100 day .room wad really dirty I complaining on phone and 3.30 pm they telling me all housekeeper is gone .bathroom was full of water in toilet area and vanity area .you can see all dirty foot print on tile .bedsheet have spot and all on website is miss leading.

Our room curtains were dirty, light fixture was leaking, ceiling over toilet was leaking and almost caved in, shower water was close to turning off due to water pressure, and ants were in the room.

Drinks are watered down despite us tipping at a lot of places so I found it more beneficial to just order champagne, wine or double shots with a mixer so they don't have the opportunity to water it down.

The staff only had room temperature water bottles.

Service is understaffed everywhere and it takes forever to even get water, let alone food or drink.

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