Spring Break in Los Cabos, Mexico

Los Cabos is located on the southern tip of Baja California Sur, Mexico, and consists of two main travel destinations: Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo. The two towns are about 40 minutes apart by car or taxi and offer different experiences in each location.

When I used to think about Cabo, I’d imagine sun, beach, relaxation, and one of the top party locations for Spring Break. In fact, all of the above is true, but I found many families with young children visiting alongside the college kids.

The area is pretty secluded, apart from mainland Mexico, a tourist mecca filled with luxury resorts and golf courses in the middle of the desert. I decided to spend a few days in Cabo as I had the opportunity to visit one of those luxury resorts, and I had a great time there.

Cabo San Lucas or San Jose del Cabo?

San Lucas and San Jose have two distinct feelings. You could plan your stay in either area depending on your mood, preferences, or travel goals.

Cabo San Lucas is a larger, more developed town. This area offers a swimmable beach (Medano Beach) with water activities like swimming, jet skis, boat tours for whale watching or dinner cruises, and more. The famous rock formation Arch (El Arco) and Lover’s Beach is a place to visit and take memorable pictures. There’s a large shopping mall and many restaurants, boutiques, and souvenir shops all over town. And most important of all, San Lucas is where the party is at. It can get a little rowdy on Medano Beach and some resorts during Spring Break (yes, college kids are drinking and a little wild), but it’s not so bad.

San Jose del Cabo, on the other hand, is more tranquil and sort of resembles a Mexican town with its main square, cobblestone and narrow streets, and smaller shops and restaurants. I found the resorts in this location were more luxurious than San Lucas, with larger and more pools and jacuzzis on property. My guess is the opulence is necessary because San Jose does not have a swimmable beach. The undertow is too strong year-round and carries a strong current that is dangerous for swimmers.

I stayed in San Jose del Cabo and liked exploring the small town. I especially liked that I was there during the Festival of San Jose, a celebration of the city’s patron saint. I also spent a couple days traveling to San Lucas to enjoy the water activities.

How Did I Fly?

Utilizing miles is a great way to spend less cash on a flight to Cabo. I redeemed 65,000 Hawaiian and American miles and paid $120 in airline fees to piece together a multi-city itinerary from Honolulu (HNL) to Cabo San Lucas (SJD) with one layover in the mainland. However, American Airlines offers a 50,000 mile option, so that could be a consideration if the itinerary fits your travel goal.

Where Did I Stay?

I received a promotion from Diamond Resorts International and chose to experience Cabo Azul Resort in San Jose del Cabo. The hotel is amazing. It has many pools and jacuzzis and an awesome view of the ocean, although it’s a non-swimmable beach due to the current. The rooms are spacious and has all the amenities available. The location is great with many restaurants and a small grocery store just outside the resort, and the town center is a 15 minute walk.

Although I was not required to attend a timeshare presentation as part of my promotion, I decided to do so anyway to see what they had to offer. I won’t go into details except to say I didn’t purchase the ownership offer for various reasons, but I did appreciate the free vouchers and free airport shuttle for attending.

The Food

The food in the resort, Javier’s in particular, is good but a little expensive. Outside the hotel there is a row of restaurants and the city center offers many restaurants as well. A five minute walk towards the center is Habanero’s, which is a great place to eat.

San Lucas offers many local flavors and even international ones. The locals suggested I eat at Maro’s and I loved the food there. The steak, lobster and shrimp plate was so delicious and only $18USD.

Transportation

I didn’t rent a car, so taxi was my go-to mode of transport. There are city buses available, which look like our yellow school buses, but I didn’t use them. Below is the approximate costs in USD (they usually didn’t want pesos):

• Airport shuttle: $15 (free by attending resort timeshare presentation)

• Airport taxi: $80-90 (possibly free by attending resort timeshare presentation)

• Taxi from San Jose to San Lucas: $40 each way

• Taxi from resort to city center: $10

Researches show that several men suffer cheap levitra from this problem. Because WordPress is an open source blogging viagra ordination http://deeprootsmag.org/2013/11/13/claire-in-autumn/ tool, meaning that it’s free and available to everyone, it’s a prime target for hackers and ne’er-do-wells. It increases the levels of an enzyme coded as PDE5 found in the penis which restricts the relaxation of the blood deeprootsmag.org best viagra in india vessels and the penile muscles .It also increases the libido and enables one to enjoy hard and strong erection for long period.Kamagra is well known today for curing the incapability problem of both the genders. For making an order for this kind of prescription cialis cost sickness.

Tips

Here are some tips from my experience and speaking to other people visiting.

• The area is pretty safe. It really doesn’t feel like you’re in Mexico since it’s mostly tourism and resorts.

• Many people speak English. Some areas in the city center may have only Spanish speakers, but on the most part, all the tourist areas speak English. Lucky I speak Spanish so I didn’t have major issues.

• If you attend a timeshare presentation, you will receive free vouchers for food, activities, transportation, hotel stays, or other offers like cash.

• You could attend as many presentations as you want (and I guess keep getting free vouchers), as long as you don’t purchase any timeshares during your trip.

• If you want to keep people from bothering you about attending timeshare presentations (and there are many of them), just say you already bought one or you’re flying out that evening.

• Expect to spend at least 2 hours for a presentation. Many of them will say it’s only an hour to 1.5 hours, but it could last longer. If you don’t intend to purchase at all, just be honest and tell them you’re not interested so the presentation is quicker. If you ask questions, you could be there for another couple hours.

The Final Word…

Cabo is a great place to relax and enjoy the ocean activities. I intend to visit again in the future. If I decide on more tranquility, I prefer San Jose with the larger and more luxurious resorts. If I decide to be more active and spend time in the ocean, I would definitely stay in San Lucas. Either way, Cabo is a lot of fun to visit and I’ll definitely return.