Hotel Riu Palace Cabo San Lucas

Great stay! Key/towel cards: made of plastic or gold?

We just got home from a week at the RIU Palace and had a great time. The resort is clean and the wait staff is extremely friendly and on top of making sure you always have a beverage in your hand when out by the pool. Bring cash for tips for your servers, they deserve it! Especially the best poolside server, Marteen. He was wonderful. ☺️ Rooms were comfy and freezing cold which was a nice break from the smoldering, humid August temps! The 2 queen beds are butted up to eachother like one giant bed…not sure if it’s like this in all the rooms or just the 2 rooms we had..? Weird, but not a big deal for us as it was a family trip. Just something to keep in mind. Overall the food is pretty good, although the steak house was sadly a disappointment. Maybe just an off night? Our favorite was the Mexican restaurant…it was delicious!! The buffets were also surprisingly good with many options. Be prepared, they don’t take reservations so we did have to get a buzzer and wait 30-45 mins for a table at times (at the restaurants, not buffets), but there are several different bars to go sit at for a drink and gorgeous views, while you wait. We loved the rooftop bar near the reception desk where the views were gorgeous and our favorite server, Diana, greeted us nightly with her smile and great service. She is the sweetest!! Staying at the Palace, we had access to both the Santa Fe and Baja as well. We did visit both but the Palace is definitely the prettiest, cleanest and nicest and after a short visit to both, we did not feel the need to return and we just spent our time enjoying the Palace. A few of the nights had live entertainment which was wonderful. Unfortunately, our stay ended on a bit of a sour note when we didn’t return our room keys or towel cards to the desk at check out, as we left them all neatly stacked in the room (something we in the USA have become accustomed to). I think probably we were supposed to be told at check in about this rule, but our check in host was “in training” and it must have slipped his mind. Anyways, the checkout staff was incredibly and unnecessarily rude and they would not assist us with getting back into our rooms to retrieve them and we were charged a fee for not returning them (yes, the little plastic cards 🥴). I’m not so much upset about the charge as I am about the way we were treated by the 2 people at the checkout desk. Fortunately they were the only rude people we encountered during our entire week in Mexico (on and off the resort). Put a bit of a bad taste in my mouth at the end of a wonderful week, unfortunately. You’d think the checkout staff could be friendly so you’d want to return? So…just don’t forget your key and towel cards and avoid this negative interaction at checkout which made us late to the airport. Overall we were happy with our stay at the RIU Palace, but hope they will consider customer service training for their checkout staff!

Great 5 night family holiday

Great family holiday for a party of 6 including 4 adults and two kids. We booked direct and therefore got the free return shuttle included from the airport which was efficient. Hotel is huge, with multiple swimming pools, bars and restaurants. Staff were friendly and provided a great service. A couple of dollars tip goes a long way. We were blown away by the food. It was exceptional from breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner. There was so much choice and the quality was top notch, some of the best tacos I’ve ever had! If anyone complains about the food on here then I wouldn’t pay any attention to their review! Kids loved the pools and also the water park in the sister hotel. Animation team were great and also the kids club. Everything was kept clean and you saw staff always cleaning around the resort. Our room was cleaned daily and fridge and minibar well stocked. The beach was fantastic and we saw turtles swimming in the sea and then later on in the night come to shore to lay their eggs. The next day the military were on the beach protecting volunteers who were digging out the eggs to take them somewhere safe to be released. Overall this is a great place to come, weather was amazing, people and guests friendly and the resort was amazing

Things you should know

My wife and.I are.Riu class members and are familiar with other Riu properties. This was our first time.to.Cabo. At check in , we were told our.room was "down the hall". No offer of a bell person to help with the luggage or show.us the location of our room. Note this is a sprawling property with lots.of.twists and.turns, if not familiar , it takes.awile to.figure it.out. The.room was.fine..The A C was fine. The bed comfortable, but.the.pillows not.to my liking. We ate in the buffet , and although we.found something to eat each time- nothing.stands out. As mentioned this is a large resort,and although there are elevators, you should be prepared.to.do.a.lot.of.walking, as it is laid.out on multiple.levels. The views are spectacular, but the beach rules need some work. The red flag ( no swimming) was.up.the entire.time, for dangerous.undertow. And yet they allowed people.to.go.in the water. Two days into our vacation, turtles.came.ashore to.lay eggs. This prompted.the entire.beach.in front.of.the resort to be off limits. I have no problem with protecting.the turtles. My complaint is this.was.only enforced at.the Palace, even when there.were.no turtles.present. Immediately next door is.the Riu Santa Fe which did not enforce.the same rules qs long as no turtles.were.prsent. Walk out.on the beach at the Palace the overly officious security guard would whistle at.you. When questioned he feigned not speaking english, but admitted speaking.enough to try and explain that you couldn't walk on the beach because of the turtle.eggs.that had not been recovered by the Workers. Having watched the process I know this was BS as only those nests.that had been observed and marked had been recovered. I understand the resort is not responsible for.the surf conditions, but if no swimming means no swimming.... And the turtles arrive on their time, but.dont.tell me.I cant.walk on.your beach , when the Mexican army is patrolling beach and not stopping anyone. ,

Beautiful views from this resort!

We had a good experience. The resort views are amazing. The grounds are beautiful. This is my homestead opinion. We had six different rooms. The resort did an awesome job of keeping us all in close proximity. The rooms are a tad older, but clean and nice and roomy. The air was cold, which is a big plus because it is hot in July in Cabo. The majority of the resort is open air. A couple of cons were the restaurants. We do not like to go up and get dressed for dinner early. If you wait until 7:00 or 7:30 pm, the waiting lists are full. We only ate at two restaurants the entire seven nights because we could not get tables. The buffet is decent. Plenty of options. We had two excellent servers at the pool. Gustavo and Martin. They made us feel extra special and took great care of us. The beer at the swim up bars is not cold. Drinks are not strong, but overall it was nice. The place to grab a quick bite by the pool is really good. There is only one towel station, which is annoying. I hate a towel card. I also prefer a wristband that opens your room rather than keeping up with a key card. The staff overall was very helpful. The Michael Jackson show was super fun. It is just very hot in July and the theater is outside.

Pools, and bars everywhere

Traveled to cabo for a birthday trip, great location atmosphere was great there was nothing wrong here

Restaurant nightmare.

Overall the hotel is really nice. We had a big problem with speciality restaurants never being available. You can go shortly after opening and find they are fully booked for the night. Each night was the same deal and each place the same way. We got lucky at the Kristal restaurant a couple of nights but it was very late after waiting around for hours. For this reason alone I probably wouldn’t go back. Apart from that everyone was very friendly and took pride in their work. Rooms are dated AC is noisy beds and pillows not comfortable at all.