Cabo San Lucas 9/26/05 - 10/1/05

My girlfriend and her family all were looking forward to this week long trip in Cabo San Lucas. We found this all inclusive vacation package online, it was $1100 per person. It is my first time to Cabo and I was totally excited about it. This hotel (Riu Palace) advertise that all the food and drinks are included. Also there are 5 different theme restaurants available if you want to try something different other than the main restaurant. Well, we made reservation for the Japanese Restaurant one night and it was horrible. We should've question about having sushi in Mexico in the first place and it turned out the food was from the main restaurant (buffet). We ended up eating at the main restaurant all week (more to that). My girlfriend and I got sick on the third day and stayed in our room for two whole days (stomach cramps persisted till the day we left). I thought our stomach was strong enough but apparently not strong enough. Stay away from the salad or anything that is not cooked since they washed it with the local water. We had to cancel my deep sea fishing trip due to hurricane Ivan moved in two days before we were supposed to fly home. I have decided to go home a day early since the weather was horrible.

When I packed up to leave, I discovered my camera from my luggage was gone and there was a room cleaning manifesto on top of it along with my empty camera case. It was then that I realized my camera was stolen by the maid since nobody else had access to my room besides us. I went to the front desk and talked to the customer relation manager. She told me that she would talk to all the maids and get back to me for possible compensation. I really only care for the wedding pictures that I had in the camera memory.

It was just yesterday (11/2/05) that I received an email from Riu Palace's headquarter in Spain. They told me that there isn't anything they can do and I should've locked all my belongings in the safe. BTW, they ran out of safe lock the first day so I had to go back and get it the following day (by then, I have already forgotten about my camera in my luggage).

Overall, the hotel is old (our room door would not close unless you slam it really really hard) and our phone didn't work throughout the week. During the day, loud top 40 music were played throughout the pool area. It was not a relaxing trip at all compare to my previous Cancun and Hawaii trip.

I would not recommend this place to anyone who is planning on going to Cabo. You'll have better luck sticking with American brands such as Hyatt or Hilton.

Ben