First visit was a Charm

* - the arrival and check in procedure was very efficient * - the area at check in was very clean and well decorated * - All employees we encountered were very friendly and professional * - garden and walkways were very clean * - the room was very clean and well organized * - Pool and bar areas very well maintained on the negative side * - the keys to our room were not programmed to open the door * - Then when we got into the room we discovered we did not have an Ocean view room t [... read more]hat we PAID extra for! I went back to the front desk to complain and the front desk was able to move us on the next day. ALSO the front desk advised me that they do not charge extra for Ocean View rooms. So way did we get charged EXTRA. 3 of 7 nights there were certain restaurants that were closed

Awesome Trip!

Over all this was a great trip and resort! I went in January so it was a little bit chilly during the nights and wished that I had more warmer clothes for the evenings. Rooms were clean and service was great. I didn't realize that the beach would be so rough and we wouldn't be able to swim in it, that was a bummer. The food was pretty good and the restaurants were decent, I preferred the buffets.

Fantastic family vacation

This was our third time to the Riu Santa Fe. We have always gone through an amazing travel agent, Lisa Shelly-Ansell from Trip Central, who was always available for information and problem solving. The Riu Santa Fe has absolutely gorgeous grounds and pools. They are kept very clean. We always had a chair by a pool and no problem or line ups at the beach towel hut. The food was great and since we didn't have to line up for the specialty dinners (we just showed up), our longest wait was 30 m [... read more]inutes. They gave us a disk that lite up when our table was ready, so there was no standing in line ( we enjoyed pre dinner drinks at the bar) The staff were AMAZING and went out of there way to make our trip enjoyable. The rooms were cleaned daily and we always had fresh water, pop and beer in the fridge. We did some excursions and I highly recommend the Cabo Flyboard. The place is located on Office Street behind the Mango Deck at Medano beach. This about a 20 minute walk down the beach as you head into Cabo San Luca. The owners are professional and ranked # 1 and # 2 in North America. They are very safety conscience, encouraging and fun. We also enjoyed Lovers Beach where my son and husband did some rock climbing while the rest of us wandered over to divorce beach where we saw the whales jumping from the shore. We enjoyed a day in town, visited Cabo Wabo , WTF Burgers ( amazing people and service) and did some shopping at the Luxury Plaza. The boys also enjoyed ATV's, deep sea diving,repelling and bungy jumping, my daughter and her partner enjoyed a Luxury Day Sailing, that stopped at different beaches, allowed time for snorkeling and swimming with the baby seals. We enjoyed a dinner cruise that took us around the Arc and had a great view of the sea lions. With our adult children leading busy lives and working, we found this a much needed vacation to catch up and have fun together. I highly recommend Lisa at trip central and the Riu Santa Fe.

2nd time there and I would still go back

I love this resort - the staff are amazing, the food it great and the scenery just perfect. Although you cannot swim on the beach, the infinity pools overlooking them are almost as good. You can walk into town along the beach, take a water taxi to see the sealions and lovers/divorce beach. Super safe, fun and great for all ages.

Incrediable resort

Absolutely the place to go. Food was excelent every evening different themes. Hotel super clean, the staff were very helpfull and friendly. Lots of lounge chairs for all the guests. Several pools, lots of bars at the pools. 24 sports bar offers food for evening snacking and beverages. We went for a massage at the spa that is on the premises. Excellent. Excellent. We give it a full 5 star rating. Best place we ever stayed at.

Overall Very happy!

Was there January 8-15. So, very clean very nice resort. The lobby lacks a bar but the sports bar is right around the corner so i guess that made up for it. The snacks at the sports bar are bad. Really needs a kitchen to make fries/pizzas etc. So we didn't really take advantage of the 24/7 snacks. They make a mean cup of coffee in there though. The theater is right beside that. The shows progressively got 'worse' as the week went on but overall we were happy. Fun Michael Jackson show! The bars s [... read more]urrounding the theatre are busy but good. The staff here work hard and for the most part go out of their way to make you feel welcome. I did notice a few employees who slacked, didn't seem into the activities, got in trouble for not being as interactive as they needed to be, only seemed like they wanted to dance with pretty young girls. So kudos to the people who said hello and smiled at EVERYONE. There were a few entertainment staffers who danced with little girls ..older women and seemed to genuinely have fun. The show MC was hilarious and energetic. The dancing after the shows were fun. Not dancey enough for me but they need to appeal to everyone.. The disco is smaller but nice inside. I didn't dig the music too much but I didn't hate it. I'm pretty sure they play the same thing every night which sucks. I was looking forward to more dancing music not just electronic beats. The main buffet was always good. We didn't have many complaints about the food. We always found something to eat EVERYWHERE. We tried all the restaurants. No limits. No reservations! Yay! Mexican was meh..not the greatest but not awful by any means. Steakhouse, not GREAT...but also not bad. Asian was yummy. Loved the appetizer buffet. Italian was the best. Very good. The portions at the restaurants are quite small so fill up on the appetizer buffets. Smaller pool was very chill (until about Friday saturday) ..we called it the boring pool and it served it's purpose when we just wanted to relax. A bar with a swim up. All good. The guy who usually ran activities here didn't do a good job at talking to everyone..saying hello..including everyone and a lot of the time seemed unhappy..unfriendly. but he was always by himself so maybe that was why. The infinity pools were beautiful. You can't beat that view. The rocks in the background. Wow. Disappointing that you can'tswim in the ocean and that the beach is littered with people selling. I had hoped they would keep them off the property like in other resorts but no dice. They didn't push hard and backed off when you said no. I noticed the bartenders weren't great at making you new fun drinks when you say "I don't know what I want..make me something fun pleasee" I've been places where I've been super happy with everything they've made. I tried a lot of them here and was meh. Didn't dig their Pinas or daiquiri too much but it was good I just got sick o f them. The dirty monkeys and mudslides were delicious. I drank quite a few Caesars and Ron punch's too. Yum. The activities at the 'party' pool were sometimes fun. I did zumba and aerobics. They were always energetic. One day they had a beer drinking contest..that was fun to watch! Also a pool foam floaty party. Fun too. I got some mosquito bites that were pretty nasty. They come out around 4ish so bring bug spray. My biggest complaint would be the weather! I didn't know it'd be like 20° in the evening! And windy! I was freezing all the time out of the pool and so cold in the evening. Bring sweaters and pants and forget the cute outfits!!! Also unfortunately near the weekend tons of people came and we're annoying. I have no problem with partiers but they were obnoxious and trouble causing. A few fights happened. So it deterred us from staying out at night. And from staying at the infinity pool the last couple days. The hotel was very well maintained and the fun is there if you want to have it. The rooms were nice. Roomy balcony. Nice bathroom. Not enough pillows! But I had good sleeps!! We signed up for a water taxi and had a really good experience. The drive there was a bit nauseating lol but the boat guy was awesome. Saw sea lions very close! We also signed up for whale watching on a bigger boat 99 dollars us with nexus. SO FUN. The crew was amazing and we saw several whales. GRey and humpback. Met great people. I believe the boat was called 'sunrider'... Bring tips for the boatman and crews if you do any of these. The hotel staff work very hard. I like to tip those I appreciate. I saw multiple people there every single day ...day and night. And they were still lovely.

Great time!

Hotel was incredibly clean and the staff were friendly and went beyond to make our stay amazing! The pools were beautiful, drinks were cold and the sun was hot! Couldn't have asked for anything better. Always a good variety of food. Reservations were not required for the specialty restaurants so there were always line-ups so that was a bit of a hassle. I can't say enough about the great staff...so hardworking, kind, and always smiling.

A great stay!

The grounds and rooms were exceptionally clean. It would be nice if we could make reservations for the a la carte dinners; they removed the reservations and you had to wait in line at 5:30 to get a seat.

Best Vacation Ever!!

Absolutely loved our stay at the Riu Santa Fe. Blew our expectations out of the water. We had a room with a great view of the interior pool, and the main grounds of the resort. We were on the top floor so we could also see a beautiful view of the city in the horizon and had a beautiful view of the sunrise in the morning. Rooms were very clean, tiled floors/shower and a double sink with granite counter tops. The drinks in the mini fridge were restocked every couple days, but we were shocked to [... read more] find another mini bar with 4 full bottles of hard liquor that you could help yourself to. The units in the resort were thoroughly cleaned daily, the grounds were clean and maintained daily as well. The main walkways were always washed throughout the day and the maids kept hallways and stairways swept, mopped, and dusted before we were even up for the day! The food was good, always a wide selection to chose from! From a salad bar, to fruit and dessert or chicken, fish, mashed potatoes and gravy, pasta, soup...etc. We did find that you had to be at the a la carte's very early to get into the restaurants. *(Steakhouse is definitely worth your while)* The beach was clean and nice. However, the sand was not very soft and not fun to walk on for a long period of time. The ocean was fun to be in but you had to go in with caution as the waves and undertow was strong. We did walk left up the beach that took us to these big rocks. beautiful view. and we also walked right which took us to a marina. If you kept walking there were many shops, a mall, restaurants, tequila tasting, etc. Made for a fun day, but sore muscles the next!! The view from the beach was amazing!! I loved looking out , whether you were sitting having drinks in the infinity pools or you were on the beach you could look out and see the beautiful view of lovers arch. Pools were cleaned and maintained. Pool location for everyone...Family pool towards the middle of the resort where it was more quiet . Or if you wanted to enjoy drinks there were a few pools with a swim up bar. There was a pool for daily entertainment...Depends how you felt that day, you could chose where you wanted to hang! The bars are clean, drinks are great and a great selection to chose from, and the service of the bartenders were fun and inviting. Night shows were fun to watch, they also had a "pre show" that got the kids involved too! (and it was fun to watch the kids having a good time as well) We had the best vacation at the Riu Santa Fe, and we highly recommend it to anyone. But more so, individuals or couples that are ready to drink and party as we found the majority of the age group was between 18 and 30. We had the best time, made the best friends and created the best memories. Thanks for the recommendation . We cant wait to return!!!

Great Resort

Fantastic resort, overall. Extremely clean and well maintained, amazing food (only issue is that it was extremely hard to get into a specialty restaurant for dinner because they didn't take reservations and only one of four were open per evening. In any case, buffet was always on point as a backup dine in spot. Beach was nice (sand hard on feet and waves were high) and water was cold but tolerable because sun was so hot during the day. It was cold (sweaters and track pants) by night. Gym was oka [... read more]y but not the best - missing dumbbells, and machines weren't all functional but good enough to get a reasonable workout in. Staff was really great (some extra helpful and personable even) and for those cautious about theft, just be smart about your belongings and keep an eye on things.

Nice Pools/Terrible Food

The good- very clean, nice pools, beautiful views The bad- food was far, far below standard, that was if you were lucky enough to find a restaurant open. Rarely was there ever more than 1 restaurant open per night. Bars in the main open area where empty because they never were open until later in the night. The sports bar food is simply not suitable for any person to consume. A large resort normally is not a problem however when most bars/restaurants are closed it was very annoying. The vodka i [... read more]s like rubbing alcohol so don't expect top shelf. Staff were not organized when it came to check out. If your leaving flight is later in the day Riu does not offer a room to hold your luggage. You put it in the main open lobby area and staff won't watch it. As a result we carried laptops/passport/valuables with us for 5 hours. Sunwing was delayed several hours leaving as they had a mechanical problem and had to get another plane. The plane was so old that the armrest had built in ashtrays and forget the movie option as that didn't work either. Don't expect to eat anything on a 5+ hour flight unless you have a credit card (no cash excepted). On the way back we were delayed again on the tarmac for over an hour at 2 a.m.

Love this resort

The Rui Santa Fe in Cabo has been our choice for six years in a row now and will be next year too. The new improved wifi works almost everywhere except in the rooms now. The specialty restaurants are on a first come first served system now. No standing in line to book them this time. The buffet has an amazing display of food and very friendly servers. The night shows are always entertaining. I really think this area is the safest in all of Mexico. ♦️♦️♦️♦️♦️

Incredible time

I have stayed at this hotel several times and it does not disappoint. What a fantastic resort and what fantastic food. Thanks so much. The rooms were spectacular and the views were incredible. The staff worked very hard and were very friendly for the entire stay.

Beautiful Resort, Great location to everything!

Resort was beautiful and a great location. The Service in the restaurants was not great, very disorganized, and rushed you out the door. The resort was very clean, but if you had a problem like we did our toilet did not work, it took them two days to fix it. This again was due to disorganization, in communication in this resort. I heard the Riu Palace was much better, so I will try this resort next time which is right next door. The pools were amazing. There was a water taxi, to a beach yo [... read more]u could go to, but we did not know this until the end of our stay. Yes communication in this resort could have been better!

Excellent Resort

The stay at this resort was excellent enjoying 2 full weeks of super hot weather and fabulous fun. We stayed in building 3 which was nice and quiet at night. The room was nice, clean and the view from the balcony was beautiful. We had friends that stayed in building 7 which was close to the main pool where all the activities take place and they saw a lot of action late into the night - nice to be so close to the main pool and if you like a lot of action then that would be the building for you. T [... read more]he grounds and public areas surrounding the resort were beautifully kept. There was always a huge variety of food at the buffet and a lot of it was very tasty, the theme restaurants were also very good, had some delicious meals at the Mexican, Italian and Steakhouse restaurants. The serving staff at all of the restaurants including the buffet were super friendly, always welcoming with smiles on their faces. We spent a most of the time at the main pool and participated in water polo and tequila volleyball daily and participated in some of the planned daily activities. The entertainment staff were phenominal! So friendly, always remembered your name and made a 6-7 hour day in the pool exciting and full of fun. Have to give a shout out to our 2 favorites David and Yaelle and also Lucy and Anna!!! The drinks were always good, service fairly quickly when busy, found a handful of the liquor servers to be outgoing, friendly and happy but some of the staff serving were not overly friendly and they didn't seem very happy doing their job...All in all we had a great time and certainly would recommend this resort to anyone who wants a top notch resort for more than an affordable price!! Thanks to all that made our trip definitely one to remember!!

2nd visit as good as the first

This Riu is very clean and well cared for which I believe sets it apart from other resorts, my last trip was in '09 and it looks like it hasnt aged a day. The food was ok but was disappointed that they didn't have themed dinners at the buffet or a employee manned pasta station. Staff were warm, welcoming, and helpful. The bar and fridge was adequately stocked our entire trip. Entertainment is typical of this type of resort. The WiFi was the most reliable I've had a resort. There are at least 5 d [... read more]ifferent pools 3 of which have swim up bars. Swimming out front of the resort is not recommended.

Beautiful resort

This resort was amazing! Pools were awesome service was amazing! The food at the restaurants were beyond delicious! Only down fall was that we were on the fourth floor and there was no elevators.. We got our exercise thought! I would most defiantly stay here again.

Wonderful Resort

The Rui Santa Fe is a really great hotel. The rooms are very nice and the whole hotel is beyond clean. Everything is cleaned it seems every day. The gardens are very nice with all the cactus and drought tolerant plants and kept up to a very high standard. We really were impressed with the buffet restaurant. I usually struggle to find things to eat at resorts as I like plain food (not spicy) but at the Santa Fe they had both. Very good choices, like turkey, chicken breast, salmon, the l [... read more]ist goes on. The pools are very nice too, it is unfortunate you can't swim in the ocean there because of rip currents but the pools were a nice temp. and there were lots of chairs and palapas. All the staff were exceptionaly friendly and helpful.

Great resort!

First of all a thank you goes out to Sunwing for our great flights, no delays and This includes the staff that met and organized us at the airport and our arrival at the hotel. This was our 2nd time at the Riu Santa Fe and we were booked into building 4 which isn't a bad thing if you are wanting exercise going to and from your room as there are no elevators, which we did not, and the next morning we asked for a transfer to building 7 and were accommodated within the hour. Yes there was construc [... read more]tion on the Riu Palace but that just kept us further entertained at watching those guys working in that crazy/awesome heat! The staff at the Riu are always awesome! Those people hustle from morning to night per a lunch time visit that we had with a lovely young lady named Brenda. She works as pool side entertainment during the day and was off to rehearse for the show that night. Food at the Riu is consistent, meaning there is always lots but nothing is ever too hot! Except the French fries!! But again when you figure how many people they put through the buffets in a day they do a pretty good job. Would I recommend this hotel to friends, yes, but as far as a family hotel with little kids, the Riu Fun land was small and quite a ways from the main pools, but if you are dropping your kids off there to be babysat then you might not want them near your pool! The beach.. Well groomed but No swimming in fact I understand that even wading could be dangerous due to the undertow. Price was definitely right for our October 17-24 trip the weather awesome, the grounds very well maintained and the drinks.. Well you can have as many or as few as you want!! Thank you Riu Santa Fe!

Great time in Los Cabos!

My boyfriend and I did a little bit of research going on our trip, and the Riu Santa Fe did not disappoint us ! The Riu is about a ten minute drive from downtown (14 USD cab ride). The resorts beach is not the greatest (the sand isn't fine), most of Cabo's beaches are NOT swimmable due to the water conditions. We did find a few beaches where we could take a dip In. The pools at the riu definitely make up for the beaches water conditions, there's an Infiniti pool with a breathtaking view 😍 Br [... read more]eakfast, lunch and dinner buffet was better than expected. We did one a la carte (Italian) it was nice, they also have a BBQ by the Infiniti pool around noon as well as a taco station before dinner. We did go into town a lot to explore and eat and would highly reccomend to do so. Entertainment was great, always something going on, it was an overall great first time in Cabo !