Hotel Riu Palace Baja California

Rio Palace is fine if you've never really traveled before, or if you're the type who just wants to sit by the pool and eat and drink all day without thinking about planning anything. If that's you, you'll probably have a good time, because that's pretty much all it is. Safe, easy, nobody bothers you, and the food and drinks don't stop. If you've traveled a bit though and you've got other trips to compare it to, it's probably not going to do it for you. The food was mediocre at best and the rooms were about the same. And there's really not much in the way of stuff to do. They put on something maybe four nights a week and it's kinda just a cruise on land, endless food and drinks with a little club type thing here and there, and that's about it. If you want to do anything past that you're leaving the resort, going into the city, and paying for stuff you kinda already paid for in the all-inclusive price. It wasn't terrible or anything, and I could see it being perfect for the right person. It just didn't do much for me. If you want zero planning and a drink in your hand all day, book it. If you're looking for more than that, I'd probably look somewhere else.

The Riu Palace Baja California, which is adults-only, apparently has the best food quality of three Riu resorts on this same very large property and every aspect of this resort met or exceeded our expectations for a wonderful 7-night stay. Note Riu Baja California is just adjacent to the Riu Santa Fe, which is open to families but is also where the very loud (no children allowed) Riu themed parties are held four days each week, so, ironically, Riu Baja California is really the best and quietest place to relax. The Santa Fe Resort does, however, have several nice water slides, which are very conveniently located just behind the lobby of the Riu Palace Baja California. So, there really is no reason to wander off the Baja California resort except for scheduled excursions. The pool area is very nice and quite accessible to the buffet dining area (with indoor and outdoor seating) and the pools. There is a ping-pong table at the pool area and the staff was very accommodating to set up some pool chair umbrellas to protect us from the sun. During our visit, there always seemed to be enough pool chairs and umbrellas. and the swim-up and pool side bars were well-staffed. As you may have heard, the beach area directly in front of the resort is not safe for swimming (due to ocean currents) but a 15-minute walk down towards the main marina brings safer swimming options and access to the various boat launch companies that can take you out to the famous Cabo San Lucas Arch area and “Lover’s Beach”. Getting into and out of those boats is an adventure in itself (there is no pier), but it may well be one of the highlisghts of your visit to Cabo San Lucas. Baja California also has very enjoyable live theater shows, such as tributes to Abba and Michael Jackson, a burlesque show, a musical salute to Mexico (very impressive) and a new tribute show to all the forms of music that have come through or arisen in this part of the world, The restaurants were all quite good. There are no reservations, per se, but we found that getting there around 6:00 - 6:30 PM usually led to immediate seating, but showing up after 7:30 PM could lead to a wait time of 30 minutes or more, which is something to consider as the theater shows start at 9:00 PM. One nice secret: There is a 24-hour lounge area next to the reception with comfortable tables and chairs and real food (not just old nachos and cold hot dogs) prepared and refreshed on a regular basis, which was a wonderful late-night respite. I would say that our favorite themed-dining spot was the Mexican "Agave" restaurant. The quality of the seafood tacos, and traditional Mexican soups, and any fish or meat dishes was really outstanding. However, to our surprise, the main buffet restaurant was really quite good across all food types. There were many different eggs, cheese and fruit options for breakfast and, through the lunch and dinner hours, the assortments of meat (especially pork) and several types of seafood (especially shrimp) were excellently prepared. As mentioned earlier, there is an indoor (good a/c) and outdoor dining area for the buffet and, in the evenings, they do try to impose a dress code (no swim suits). This was our second visit to a Riu resort in three months (May 2026 at Riu Republica in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic), which was also a wonderful experience. The Riu resorts, in general, cater to a more lively crowd (lots of parties), but in this case with Riu Baja California, the adults-only Baja California had the perfect combination of beach and pool, dining, live theater, and "acess to fun parties but not happening right outside your hotel room", ambiance, which was just perfect for us. This adults-only option cost a bit more but it was worth every penny.