In 2023 I stayed at my first all inclusive resort! My friends and I went to Cabo, Mexico for a girls trip and we stayed at the Pueblo Bonito Los Cabos resort. I was skeptical at staying at an all inclusive resort because I was weary of the food and nervous about the authenticity of the travel experience I would have. Today I wanted to write about my experience as well as share the cost for our girls trip and how I got the time off!
I am going to be rating everything out of 10.
0= so bad I would never stay again
5= average. Would stay again
10= way above my expectations
The Resort 7/10 Overall
I was pleasantly surprised with my all inclusive experience! Pueblo Bonito has 4 different properties in Cabo and we stayed at the Los Cabos resort. It was definitely the cheapest of the 4 resorts, but it was nice because we were able to visit 2 of the other properties and utilitize all their amenities and restaurants for free! The only resort we did not have access to was their high-end resort, Pueblo Bonito Pacifica.
Rooms: 5/10
The rooms were nothing special. Four of us girls stayed in a one bedroom that had 2 full beds. There was a very open living room and our balcony looked out on the pool and ocean. The bathroom was small, but if 4 girls can manage sharing a one sink bathroom, anyone can! We honestly did not spend much time in the room any of the days because we were soaking up all of the sunshine!
Food: 6/10
I loved the two restaurants at our resort. I am no foodie, but I did like the food at our resort the best compared to the other 2 resorts (Rose and Sunset). Breakfast at Los Palomas every morning was delicious! We tried to sit with the same waiter everyday and it was so fun to get to know him. Each morning I would have a green juice, acai bowl, and Nutella toast. Occasionally I would switch it up and have an omelet, but everything on the menu was good. Stay away from the pastry basket though, because the birds love to nibble on the treats while the waiters/waitresses aren’t looking. The restaurant then switches its menu in the evening for dinner and everything we had was delicious. Keep in mind I am not a huge foodie, so I can tell if food is bad, but I probably couldn’t taste the difference between a 5 star meal and your average family restaurant. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with the food and never went hungry.
I have to show the good and the bad, so this was one of my not so fav dinners!
Drinks: 8/10
Being an all inclusive, all our drinks were included with the price of our stay. I am not a big drinker and honestly don’t like the taste of alcohol, so the drinks were great because most of them were not strong at all. I love fruity drinks so I definitely got my Pina colada fix.
Pool: 6/10
The pool could’ve used a little TLC. Some of the tiles were falling off but besides that, it was very clean and spacious.
Beach: 7/10
Most importantly in my book, the beach! I absolutely love swimming in the ocean. It is important to note that depending on where a hotel is located in Cabo determines if the beach is swimmable or not. Our hotel had a swimmable beach which was wonderful. The water was never rough and I thought it was warm (but my friends will all say I think any ocean water is warm:) The beach was clean and not too crowded. There were locals walking along the beach all day selling items, but the hotel had an area blocked off where all the beach chairs were that the locals couldn’t go in and they were very respectful of that area.
Safety: 8/10
Our resort was in downtown Cabo. We did not leave the resort much, but one day I did venture out of the resort with my friends because I wanted to eat at a local restaurant as opposed to eating just all-inclusive food. We never were out in the dark. I felt safe being out during the day. The locals occasionally would ask us if we wanted to buy things, but once we said no and walked away we were not followed or bothered. There really was never a moment that I felt unsafe!
Staff: 10/10
The staff at the Los Cabos resort were amazing!! Everyone we met was so sweet and accommodating.
Cost:
Our goal for this girls trip was to keep the total price to around $2,000 per person. We were right under that goal. We stayed 8 nights and 9 days. The whole time we were there we were like “wow I can’t believe we are here for so long!”
Flights: $618 on Delta
Resort: $1100
Tips: $150
Shuttle to airport: $70
Snorkel Excursion: $70
Total: $2008 per person
Time off:
All four of us girls are nurses who work on different units, so it was pretty amazing we all managed to get the same week of PTO! Personally, I used 3 days of PTO for this trip. We went from April 4-12. The hospital I work at does our work week from a Wednesday-Tuesday so we left at the end of a work week on Tuesday, took the whole week off from the 4-11, and all worked our scheduled 3 shifts the week of the 12-18.
I hope you enjoyed learning about this all inclusive resort! Let me know if you want to see more all inclusive resorts in the future!
