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Published: April 6th 2011
After having stayed in two all inclusive places and a time share this past week along with ducking into town on occasion, we feel like we can provide a glimpse of Cabo, so, here’s the down and dirty on Cabo San Lucas according to the Binkley’s.
When you last heard from our traveling heroes, they were describing some of the activities and antics that we shared with our good friends Art and Deb. Cabo is not exactly our cup of tea, but we would not want to miss an opportunity to hang out with Art and Deb. This past Saturday they reluctantly boarded a flight back to the States. In the meantime, we moved up the beach to an all-inclusive resort.
Cabo seems to cater to Americans and Canadians. Want to experience the real Mexican culture? Then catch a ride out of this town and head north, as this is a tourist town.
We were fortunate as we hooked with Andrea, who is a fellow travel blogger. She paid us a visit and we had a very nice chat. She shared that this town has changed tremendously over the years and is not the sleepy fishing village of
the past. If you’re one to stay in hostels and travel on a budget, Cabo is not really your place. It can be rather expensive depending on what you do and see and eat. Andrea was able to tell us about places around Cabo that are more laid back and present more of a traditional setting. Andrea and her family have been coming down here since she was a young girl and her knowledge of the area painted us a better picture of the true Cabo. Hopefully—she will publish a few blogs and share her knowledge of the area.
Cabo offers colorful deserts, endless beaches, unexplained rock formations (only because we are geologically challenged), whales, and brilliant clear skies. It is a great place to vacation as you can find plenty of activities to keep you busy every minute of the day or hang out, relax and do a lot of nothing.
Most of the local workers are bi-lingual. This is a great town for families traveling with children. We understand it is popular with the spring break crowds. Cabo however was not nearly as crowded as we thought it might be this time of year.
Perhaps the lingering effects of the recession are causing this. No worries for us though, as this provides more opportunities at a more relaxed pace.
When we leave America we like to leave America. We don’t really want to run into hundreds of tourists from Canada and America. We genuinely like the folks from Minnesota and Alberta, but would prefer to see them where they live, not in resortville. We’ve had a wonderful, restful week but we prefer the back roads of South America, Asia or those tiny European towns where few people speak any English.
Restaurants a plenty-----truly fabulous cuisine to suit almost any taste. They chefs here are quite impressive and are masters at their craft. In Cabo you can find any kind of food that you are looking for and our experience was that all of it was top notch. Here’s a review of our personal favorites…….
Gordo’s LeLe—is a very small, five table restaurant that you might think twice about entering if you passed it on the street. We actually heard about this on Facebook, and can safely say the information generation has paid off handsomely. If you go to Cabo and
don’t have this experience you are missing out. Four people can have a feast for under $30 and you will eat off plastic plates with plastic bags covering them but the food will make your taste buds dance. The walls are covered with Beatles paraphernalia and the owner will serenade you with Beatles tunes while you eat. He has a fantastic voice and it makes you wonder why he has not gone professional. If you go there and order a beer, your choices are: Pacifico, Pacifico and of course, Pacifico.
Hacienda el Coyota— This restaurant offers fine Mexican cuisine. This is by no means your average run of the mill Mexican cantina. The owner is from Chile and has worked in Santa Barbara, California and San Diego. He admits he is catering to the American and Canadian clientele. This upscale restaurant will not disappoint no matter what you order. We went twice and the food was amazing. We had the best corn soup we have ever had in our lives! This food is worth a visit to Cabo.
Italiano Galeono- when we first decided to go to an Italian restaurant in Mexico we were thinking to
ourselves—what are we doing? I mean seriously…. now we were just in Italy in September. Well—surprises comes in all world locations. The meal was fantastic. Once of the best Caesar salads we’ve ever had and spaghetti puttenesca to die for. The veal was tender and they have a special homemade bread that made your taste buds dance.
The Solmar— is in the hotel next door to where we stayed. They have a very nice restaurant with indoor and outdoor dining. In this restaurant we had the second best corn soup we’ve ever had and the grilled snapper was flavorful. We were fortunate to go on Wednesday night to catch the entertainment. Monica plays guitar and sings. What a lovely voice. What a wonderful evening. This was much closer to the traditional Mexican dining experience.
The chefs of Cabo absolutely know what they are doing and are dialed in to make your taste buds come alive. Somebody call the Food Network!
It’s warm outside, are ya thirsty? Of course you are!
Every few feet you are going to find a bar or tavern in downtown Cabo. Some of the more famous places to quench your thirst are
Senor Frogs, Cabo Wabo, the Hard Rock Café, the No Worries Bar and Grill and one of our favorites was the Giggling Marlin.
These places are aimed at a younger more rambunctious crowd than us. This type of action passed us by……..well let’s just say that it has passed us by. When we were in the Giggling Marlin where we watched a young 30 something harnessed into a pulley hanging him upside down by the ankles. They took pictures of him, helped him sit up while his feet remained in the harness and assisted him with sitting up so he could down three rather large shots of tequila and lowered him back down. Some consider this fun, fun, fun. They finally let him down after a few more photos and from the green color on his face and the inability for him to walk back to his seat we’d say he might have wondered why he paid $10 for the privilege to be sick the rest of the night. All the blond beauties with him kept trying to get him to eat nachos. Ah, the things young men do for love. We had little doubt he was going to
Latin Show
at the Royal Solarissee what he had to drink again later in the evening. Of course he may not remember the evening. Tequila shots for everyone!!
There is an endless stream of high-rise condos, hotels and it is a time-share mecca. First we will critique accommodations—in this two-week period we stayed in three different locations. If you are interested in hostels please read our previous blog.
We were joining our friends for a week at the Grand Solmar, which is their time-share condo. As we mentioned in our last blog it is a brand new property. What we did not tell you is that construction was on going while we were there. The grand opening will not occur until May and there was a little too much jack hammering for our taste but fortunately you could spend the day touring the town or at the pool and avoid the noise. Taking an afternoon nap was out of the question but that should resolve as soon as they have the grand opening in May. It is an upscale property being marketed as a luxury property. They currently have one restaurant and snack bar but will have an additional restaurant very soon. Both
the restaurant and the snack bar are top notch. Absolutely no complaints about the food offered. It was fine dining.
The Grand Solmar has three fantastic pools and two Jacuzzis. It is located down on the end of the island behind the rock formations. You will find always find a nice breeze and we highly recommend getting a massage while you are here. We get massages frequently and can tell you that Estelle and Minerva will give you one of the best massages that you have ever had. (so will Eddie in Pittsburgh and Dee in Falmouth)
We arrived the night before our friends did and stayed for three nights after they left ---for whatever reason the time share would not agree to rent us a room for those extra four nights. No worries as that gave us time to see other venues.
Our first night in town we stayed at the Royal Solaris in San Jose del Cabo. We would recommend this property if you are traveling as a family. It is all-inclusive and offers lots of entertainment. The night we were there we attended the Latin Show. You can view the photos. The breakfast
buffet was fantastic. It will leave you wanting for nothing and this property offers three nice restaurant options and a family buffet each day.
Our last three nights we checked into the Riu Palace. This is a mammoth property with amazing pools and gorgeous grounds. This place is mega-big with about 50O rooms. The place is quite impressive. We had to spend some of the time (more than we really wanted to) doing homework as we are chasing our BSN degrees. (heavy on the BS). This is a very impressive place and truly can satisfy just about anyone’s desires for a vacation. We have stayed in some all inclusive in past years, but they were more like “mom and pop” places compared to these two and more to our liking.
Cabo San Lucas is touristy and the most expensive place in Mexico that we have been to in our travels. For a price you can have pony rides on the beach, swimming with the dolphins, parasailing, and jet skis much to our chagrin. If you want to do it you can buy it in Cabo. Endless entertainment to keep children of all ages occupied. The one remaining question
is: if this place is in the middle of a desert and it only really rains in November, where do they get all the water? Must be a desalinization plant somewhere……….
Adios until next time!
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Beata and Tomek
us At Home Abroad
what a lovely view;-)