Today I will be recapping my husband and I’s recent vacation to Cabo San Lucas. You may have read my post here where I mention that he surprised me with a trip to Cabo for our anniversary. It was my first time visiting Mexico and I absolutely loved it.
The Resort:
We stayed at an all inclusive resort, Secrets, in San Jose de Cabo which was about 40 minutes from downtown Cabo San Lucas. It is an adult only resort so this option may not work for everyone. I can not recommend this resort enough. The staff, the food, and the accommodations were all top notch. There are a couple of different options room wise. We stayed in a room with an ocean view but there are also rooms with a swim up pools. The rooms are beautifully decorated with either king size beds or two double beds. They also offer a number of different types of pillows to choose from if you require a special one to sleep at night. The bathrooms are very spacious with a huge shower and a jacuzzi for two. Each room has a safe that you can store your valuables in when you are out of the room. Most places charge hefty fees for anything you take out of the mini bar but this resort offers a complimentary minibar filled with beer, juice, sodas and water that is replenished everyday.
The maid service comes around to every room twice a day. Typically once to clean the room and the second time for the turn-down service. The staff does an incredible job at cleaning up the rooms and replenishing the towels, bath products, and minibar. You can call the concierge to schedule what time you would like your turn down service if you prefer a certain time. My husband and I tend to turn in earlier than a lot of the others so we were usually already in the bed when they would come around for turn down service. There is a do not disturb switch inside the room that lights up outside advising staff if they can come in or not. There is also a room service box that the staff can deliver your order to and you can receive it without having to open your door. The resort also offers free Wi-Fi throughout the resort and it worked very well the entire time we were there. The staff puts on several activities and events throughout the day and at night, which include water volleyball, beach volleyball, aerobics, ping pong, and lots of other games. You can find the schedule for events on a specific channel on your TV or on the daily newsletter they post in the lobby so that you can plan accordingly.
There is a decent sized gym also available at the resort. My husband and I like to indulge a little more while we are on vacation than we typically do at home so we like to hit the gym in the morning to get a workout in before we start our day. The staff keeps the gym stocked with water bottles and towels so you don’t have to bring your own. There is also a spa at the resort but my husband and I didn’t get a chance to check it out during our stay. The resort also has a golf course for those that are interested. There are two infinity pools as well as the pool with the swim up bar. One of the pools is where most of the activities takes place throughout the day so the other infinity pool is available for those that would like more peace and quiet. Another thing that was nice is that for the most part there were plenty of lounge chairs for all the guests. I know its always frustrating when you try to lay out at the pool only to find that all of the chairs are already taken.
Food:
There are a total of six different restaurants and a coffee shop at the hotel and they offer room service 24/7. During our stay we ordered room service several times and tried all of the restaurant except for one. Room service offers a breakfast menu, a lunch/dinner menu, and an after midnight menu. They have tons of options on each menu that is perfect for even those picky eaters. It does take any where from 30-45 minutes to get your food after ordering so do take that into account when calling. We only stopped into the coffee shop once to grab my husband a coffee but they do offer pastries as well and they are open 24 hours a day.
One important thing to know about the restaurants at this resort is that they each have a separate dress code. We had no idea until our arrival that most of the dinner restaurants require pants for men. They won’t turn you away if you are in shorts but you will have to eat outside. Being outside in Mexico can get a little hot even at dinner time and the flies tend to swarm the minute your food is delivered. There is a gift shop at the resort where you can purchase pants if needed, which we ended up doing.
My favorite restaurant at the resort was probably Himitsu, which is an Asian restaurant. They serve sushi as well as have hibachi tables. They recommend calling ahead to make reservations if you are planning to sit at the hibachi tables because those tend to fill up fast. We just opted for the sushi as they had some incredible rolls as well as appetizers and salads. Since it was all inclusive who was I to turn down dessert, it was vacation after all. We probably ate at Himitsu at least three times during our trip.
There was also a Mexican restaurant called El Patio which had great food as well. Oceana was a third restaurant that was probably my second favorite. It is a seafood restaurant that has the most incredible view. You practically sit out on one of the infinity pools and have a view of the ocean and the mountains in the distance while the sun sinks below the horizon. The food was also incredible here. There is also an Italian restaurant called Portofino which is the only one we did not eat at. It has the strictest dress code of all the restaurants.
For breakfast and lunch we would typically eat at the Market Café. It is a buffet style restaurant filled with international cuisine. There were so many options available. For breakfast, they had a omelet bar in which the chef would prepare you an omelet just the way you wanted, which was my husbands favorite part. They also had a huge array of freshly baked breads and pastries available as well as tons of desserts. Literally anything you could think of, you could find at the buffet.
There are two restaurants located out by the pools, Barefoot Grill and Seaside Grill. You could eat over at the barefoot grill cabana or you could order and have it brought to you by the pool. They offered items like pizza and nachos. Seaside grill however offered lots more options and was a sit down restaurant that has outside seating only. We ate there on our first day and really enjoyed it.
There are multiple bars located through out the resort including the swim-up bar located in one of the pools. There is tons of staff that serve the pool areas so there is really no need to even leave your chair or the pool. They will bring you beverages as well as food items from the Barefoot Grill. They are also incredibly quick to help out with anything you may need while pool side as well.
Excursions:
There are tons of excursion options to do in Cabo San Lucas. The resort is nice enough that I didn’t even really feel the need to leave but we did embark on two excursions during our trip so I will be discussing those. The concierge desk is very helpful in going over all the excursion options and booking them for you to take any hassle out of it. My husband wanted to go fishing while we were there so we did book a full day fishing trip. We unfortunately did not catch anything but the views were incredible.
The second excursion we went on was the Sunset Cruise with a fajita dinner. You had the option to upgrade the trip for a captains dinner but we opted for the fajita dinner. The excursion included a trip to downtown Cabo San Lucas for shopping and Tequila tasting before heading over to the marina to board the boat. I honestly could have done without the shopping and tequila tasting personally. The area we stopped in to shop did not really have many options. Once boarding the boat, we headed up to the top deck where there was a live band playing. The boat sets sail and takes you around the rock formations, including the Arch, and Lover’s Beach. All the while the sun is slowly sinking behind the mountains. The views were really breathtaking. After the sun goes down, everyone heads down stairs for dinner and more entertainment. The dinner was delicious but the dining area was fairly crowded. Overall, I was really pleased with the excursion and definitely recommend it.
One excursion that is supposed to be the most popular is the whale watching cruises. Unfortunately we were down there a little to early as whale season starts in December. That is definitely something that I would like to do if I ever get the opportunity to go back.
It was really hard to leave the resort on our last day. From the incredibly beautiful views, to the delicious food, to the amazing staff and service I can not recommend the Secrets Resort enough. Now I’ve got to figure out a way to convince my husband we either need to go back Cabo San Lucas or check out one of the many other Secrets Resorts.
