Last month, Paul and I headed to Cabo San Lucas for a week of relaxation and sunshine. We left the Friday after Thanksgiving, which I have to say, is such a lovely time to travel. Denver International Airport was a ghost town Friday morning, and if you know anything about DIA, you’ll know that is very rare. It was also great having Saturday and Sunday to prep for the work week ahead once we returned. In today’s post, I am doing an informal and unorganized travel recap from our time in Cabo and stay at Secrets Puerto Los Cabos. I did take vlog footage throughout the week, so if that is more your speed, check those out here, here, and here.
Resort: Secrets Puerto Los Cabos
Secrets was a recommendation from a friend of ours so we didn’t do too much research when deciding where to stay. My mom is a travel agent (Lisa with Lisa’s Dream Destinations) and scored us a great deal for the week, including a few extra perks (free champagne breakfast, luxury transfer to and from the airport, and more). I highly recommend reaching out to Lisa if you are interested in a free travel agency service and white glove service. Anyway, back to the resort. Overall, we gave our stay a 7/10. The grounds were beautiful, the room was clean, and the service was pretty good. We didn’t have too many complaints, but our stay wasn’t over the top where we would return to this specific resort. There were a few things that weren’t anything to write home about including the food, lounge chair availability at the pool, and a few issues with the room. If you are considering Secrets, expect a lot of “up-selling” throughout your stay. When you arrive for check-in, they will sit you down and share huge discounts on excursions but in order to receive the “amazing” deals, you have to book a meeting and listen to a timeshare talk. This happened to us a few times while at the resort, and it got pretty annoying.
Preferred Club
We ended up paying a little extra for Preferred Club, which came with a more ideal room location, a private lounge, preferred-only pool, and separate check-in. Personally, I do think it is worth the extra cost. We only used the preferred pool, which was quieter and the cabanas were free to reserve (at the main pool, the cabanas come with a fee). At both the main and preferred pools, the lounge chairs are claimed at the crack of dawn, so take that into consideration if you are looking to have a pool day. Paul always took one for the team and would go to the pool around 7am to claim a cabana, where we would spend the rest of the day. One of my biggest pet peeves at resorts is when there are an inadequate number of lounge chairs and it becomes a war zone to claim a spot. It was pretty frustrating when people would claim chairs at 6:30am and not show up until 10:30am.
Food
As mentioned previously, we didn’t love the food, but we found enough of what we did like. We ate at the breakfast buffet on day one, which was pretty bleak. The buffet is the only breakfast option unless you opt for Preferred Club. We ate breakfast the second morning at the preferred-only restaurant, but the rest of the week we skipped it since we aren’t big eaters in the morning anyways. Each afternoon, there is fresh food prepared at the main pool, which was our favorite. We had tacos, paella, pizza, and nachos throughout the week. The dinner restaurants were OK and there are a lot of options including Italian, Mexican, American, and Asian cuisine. Our favorite was the sushi/hibachi restaurant and we ended up going there the last three nights.
Room
Our room was very spacious and met our expectations. There were a few issues including a closet door that didn’t shut, inconsistent water pressure and temperature, and a shower door that squeaked so loudly when opening and closing. We sat on our balcony each evening after dinner and there is even a soaking tub on the deck. I didn’t end up using it because the next door neighbor’s tub was literally 5 feet away and there isn’t a privacy wall (see picture below). It would be pretty awkward if I was sitting in the tub with the neighbors a few feet away staring. Each day housekeeping came by in the afternoon and evening for a turndown service, which was lovely. Our building was right behind the main area where the nightly entertainment takes place, but the shows were done by 9pm at the latest. We did have a neighbor somewhere in our building that came home from partying one night, and started blasting music at 3am. Aside from the bass was pumping through the walls that early morning, the noise levels were manageable.
Excursions
The only two times we left the hotel was to play golf at Puerto Los Cabos golf club and a boat excursion. I will say it ended up feeling like groundhog day throughout the trip because we did a lot of the same things (wake up, pool, eat, sleep, repeat), but it was great to sit back and relax even though that is very difficult for me to do. One of the main reasons we decided on Secrets is because of the golf course that is located partially on the property. There are comfort stations throughout the course with fresh tacos, nachos, sliders, snacks, and booze. The green fees are pricey, but we had a great time. We also booked a private boat through the excursion desk at the resort, and although I was worried I’d get sea sick, I felt fine and we had a great few hours viewing the arch, whale watching, snorkeling, paddle boarding, and doing a little fishing. When you book excursions, the resort will also try and get you to do the timeshare talk, so beware.
Our travel agent Lisa (also my mom) organized our Cabo trip and ensured our trip was 10/10. If you’re thinking about booking a vacation, reach out to Lisa with Lisa’s Dream Destinations. Working with a Professional Travel Agent can save you both time and money and in turn, reduce stress that comes along with travel planning. Contact Lisa today and let her know you were referred by Miss Olivia. Says: Destinationsbylisa@gmail.com.
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xoxo Olivia
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