San Jose del Cabo Desire is as beautiful as the newly posted photos on the Cabo Desire website! If you haven’t seen them, take a close look – they represent the resort nicely (except most of us will never look like the models!!! No problem, though! All of us are sexy, no matter what!!!!) The grounds are clean and well maintained. The fire pits were not in use, but little was taken away from a cozy atmosphere. The pool area is kept clean and a new shower to wash off beach sand was near completion when we left. Not a lot of lounge seating and what they have in adjustable lounges are all in the direct sun. They also have double loungers, which were not well used. The beds around the pool were very comfortable and all had some shade during the day. Towel service is over the top compared to Cancun!!! Once occupancy increases that may change, but they had plenty to go around. The water in the pool was a bit chilly until the day the sun finally came out to stay. The pool is heated but heard rumors that they need to get larger propane tanks to keep up with the demand of heating the pool and the hot tub. The hot tub area overlooks the ocean -- which keeps it closed until sunset. The locals have complained about the nudity and the hotel is working on suitable sight barriers. It will be interesting to see what they end up doing to block the view from neighboring resorts and the beach. We also noticed that the photos show the hot tub water is bubbling. Didn’t have the pleasure of tickling bubbles all week!
Our week was overall a lot chillier than we expected, with cool evenings that prevented people from hanging out for very long at the 24 hour bar. The arctic air experienced in the USA also dipped way down the California Baja peninsula. If I were to go again during the winter months I would pack lightweight wraps to go over the sexy clothing!
The eating area for lunch is under cover and shady, yet very open, with a large food station. We think they offer a few more lunch choices than Cancun Desire and discovered that they will prepare you frijitas (steak or chicken) – we just asked to have a couple flour tortillas along with our chicken and the chef sliced up the meat. Topped off with veggies, queso, and guacamole and a new yummy lunch choice. They really seem to want to please their guests! The breakfasts were awesome, with great omelets, eggs cooked to order, pancakes from the grill. Lots of fruit and pan dulce bread choices, along with the yogurt, cereals, and Mexican dishes.
The restaurants!!!!!!! Each was yummmmmmmmy with their own wonderful atmosphere and menu. They seem to have great chefs preparing very tasty items in all restaurants and very attentive wait staffs. No reservations required and it was fun to dress up! I would say that the elegance is kicked up a noticeable amount at Suki, while Picaire is both inside and outside dining that shares the same space as the alternate buffet evenings and breakfast. The Italian restaurant is set up in the lunch area, with several buffet choices along with the menu choices.
Rough spots that need to be addressed are:
PDA policy -- they seemed to be enforced more strictly and folks who are accustomed to Cancun were told to tone it down. Toward the end of our stay it seemed like maybe they are already lightening up a little in the disco and body shots happened at the hot tub with no one getting “tickets”. Can’t wait to see how this topic evolves over the next few months!
They also need to figure out how to keep the hot tub at a temperature that is comfortable. Only one night was it really hot and it was down right frigid a couple of nights. We ended up taking over the sauna in the spa with 12 or so couples and had a great time!
Disco music was great! They just need to figure out a way to keep the thermostat set so you aren’t either roasting or freezing. Not sure if the playroom was used much – looked empty when we peeked in, but it was too cold to give it a try. Compared to the Cancun playroom, it seemed “under utilized”. Somehow the sparks that get people going in the disco wasn’t carried over to the playroom. (refer to PDA policy above!)
Our trip covered 8 days so we witnessed a change over of the crowd. The first half of the trip many folks were reserving lounge chairs very early in the morning (before 7 AM) but the second half of the trip this behavior was not apparent. The beds that are under cover seemed to be the last to go. The shade issue will need to be addressed when the hot season arrives, but overall, this new resort seems to know what it needs to do to keep the customer happy. Please give your waiters / waitresses a chance to teach you a little bit of Spanish! They seemed very happy to help and we had fun learning from them!
Many thanks to the great, hardworking staff! We can’t wait to see how Cabo Desire evolves and blossoms! We will return and plan to return to Cancun Desire, as well!
Nov. 27 – Dec 5, 2006