Hotel Riu Palace Cabo San Lucas

Let's start with the positives ... the RIU is so lucky to have the staff they do! Blanca, Tony Oscar Jose Luis, front desk staff and our housekeeper Flor Gisela Auila were amazing - friendly, attentive, and so funny. The adult and children's splash parks were so much fun for everyone. Resort itself is kept very clean but some areas are a bit 'tired' and could use some TLC. There was a major fishing derby based out of the marina and the fireworks the last night were a bonus. Some of the cons: The resort is noisy, and our room faced the RIU party place so room placement is key! Birds/pigeons EVERYWHERE and no control of them (falconers etc). There was an annual five day City festival going on with music until 3:00 am every day that sounded like it was in our resort it was so loud! The resort allowed day passes for cruise ships for cruising passengers to use the resort. The group was drunk, disorderly, throwing up in the bushes, yelling, disruptive of paying guests, men in women's washrooms and falling down causing hotel staff to have to attend to them, drunks taken out in wheelchairs and belligerent with hotel staff, they were trying to enter the buffet areas with no shoes and soaking wet! It was terrible for hours. No pool side entertainment on our side at all, and while the other side had food carts in the afternoon, our side had nothing. No bottled water left in the rooms several days and the water in the rooms is not potable - calling the front desk/housekeeping (only option) meant waiting extended periods for delivery. Lots of ceiling fans on the resort, but hardly any of them were ever on and it was HOT!! Things to note .... no ala carte reservations (FCFS) and all dinner service starts at 6:00 pm including the buffet which is a bit late especially if you have little ones. If you are vegetarian/vegan there is not a lot of options for protein - lots of veg options, although if you are staying 7-10 days, some other options would be most welcome. A resort that size with one buffet should have more than one toaster (and part way through it quit working properly and was never fixed/replaced). No rooms with bathtubs so if you have little ones you might want to take a small blowup pool-type toy to bath the kiddos. All in all the 10 days were amazing, weather was great (one storm which was cool), the food was a bit repetitive but delicious and we absolutely enjoyed it!

Great stay weather was amazing. Food and reservations for 13 of us was a breeze. Beautiful property and amazing customer service.