On a scale of one to ten, winter in Minnesota is usually a two and this winter I'd give it a -5. Winter in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico is at least a twelve. My husband, Lee, and I just went to Cabo for a week and I recommend it highly to anyone who is seeking a relaxing vacation with a perfect climate, lovely scenery, fun adventures, friendly natives and a variety of great places to eat. Cabo is located on the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula at the convergence of the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean so you are surrounded by mountains and the sea.
To get to Cabo San Lucas, you have to fly into San Jose Del Cabo. My advice regarding that is to email or call your hotel ahead of time to arrange for a van to pick you up at the airport to take you to Cabo. It's about a half hour drive.
The following is important to your enjoyment of your Mexican vacation. When you get there, get your luggage and go directly outside to find your van. Warning: many people will come up to you and tell you that they will direct you to your van. They won't. They will direct you to a wall of counters where you will be given a hard sell on going to a presentation to buy a timeshare in the area. It doesn't matter which timeshare they are trying to sell. They are all the same. They offer you some tours, maybe a whale watch boat, free brunch, a free swim with the dolphins, anything that might pique your interest to get you to join them for a sales pitch. Resist! Any sales pitch I've been crazy enough to attend or heard about wastes most of a day with one sales person after another trying to break you down. Instead, decide what you want to do and ask your hotel to arrange it for you at a discount. Your vacation time is too precious to waste.
Once we fought our way to our van and got to our hotel, it was beautiful. We stayed at the Playa Grande right by the marina. I really liked its close proximity to the city, shops and restaurants. The previous time we went to the area, we stayed in a resort that was between Cabo and San Jose and every time we wanted to go anywhere we had to take a cab or rent a car. Although our hotel was beautiful and had several fine restaurants, pools, bars and whirlpools (even miniature golf) to entertain us, our location gave us more flexibility and the ability to be more spontaneous.
Some of the things we did were:
Whale watching. It was a beautiful, clear, sunny morning. We went to the marina and boarded one of the many tour boats. Our English speaking naturalist guides fed us a delicious Mexican breakfast, educated us about Grey Whales and Humpback Whales and took us out to find them. On our excursion, we saw Grey Whales and three kinds of dolphins. Of course, our photos were just of whale tails and the coast of Cabo San Lucas but it was a fun morning.
Swimming with the dolphins, my husband's lifelong dream. We went to Cabo Adventures which has a dolphin educational center right near the marina. It was very clean, organized and well run. When you go in, you get instructions, a wet suit and a life jacket as well as a locker with a key to put your personal items in. Then you and your dolphin trainer spend the next 45 minutes with one of the dolphins. We swam with the dolphin, got thrill rides from her, danced with her, played catch with her and learned about the habits of dolphins and how to do our part ot protect them. The only downside is that they don't allow cameras but will offer you a hugely expensive photo package of this once in a lifetime adventure. Instead of the package, we bought two photos at $25 each. Ouch!
Driving to TODOS SANTOS. We rented a car for the day to drive to Todos Santos, which is on the Pacific coast about 45 miles north of Cabo San Lucas.
We found the best deal at Alamo and they were very accomodating including picking us up at the hotel and taking us to their office to get our car. At the end of the day, they dropped us off as well. Very important: get FULL INSURANCE on any car you rent.
Back to Todos Santos. We went there for three reasons:
1. We had heard that the drive was beautiful and the city was a delightful oasis of palms & fruit trees after going through the desert landscape to get there.
2. It is known as an artist's and potter's colony which has been expanding since the 1980's. We'd also heard about a kinky place just on the outskirts of town called Art and Beer. It is known for it's art and Bloody Marys.
3. Most importantly, the Hotel California is there ( as in the song made famous by the Eagles) and that song is one of my husband's favorites. It is a sight to see with it's weird colors and decorations and supposed ghosts. We ate in the courtyard there and the food was quite delicious.
GREAT FOOD We had so many great meals in Cabo that it's hard to focus on a few.
I recommend that, in the marina, you eat at Baja Cantina and Solomon's Landing. They both have great seafood and musical entertainment. We ate at El Coral, which is on Hidalgo, the street behind the marina, twice. The food is grilled fresh and we had huge, delicious servings of fish and steak. The drinks are huge and delicious and the staff is delightful. At the end of our second meal there, our waiter brought over a small pitcher, some limes and a salt shaker and treated me to my first tequila shot ever. That was some fine tequila- not my mama's tequila. I'd also recommend Edith's, The Trailer Park (started in one but isn't there anymore), Panchos, which claims the biggest selection of tequila in the world, Mama's for breakfast, Galeon Italian Ristorante and, just because it's a crazy, fun place, go to El Squid Roe at least for a drink.
SHOPPING. I am not a shopper and I can't imagine why anyone would leave the pool or beach to do so, but I know some people love to shop. If you do, Cabo San Lucas has two huge high end shopping areas which are right next to each other. The larger one is Puerto Paraiso Mall and the smaller, even more exclusive one is Luxury Avenue.
***Some things I took to Cabo San Lucas in my WisePack™:
1. Suntan lotion (30 or above)
2. Sunglasses and hats for both of us
3. A street map of Cabo with stores and restaurants marked
4. Two water bottles
5. Camera and extra batteries for it
6. Energy bars
7. Money (pesos are nice but not necessary there)
8. Spanish to English dictionary
9. A novel and a Sudoku book with pencil
10. Guidebook about Cabo that we checked out of the library
