We spent a glorious week in Los Cabos over Thanksgiving break! Los Cabos is located at the southern tip of Mexico, and includes San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas. Los Cabos is incredibly beautiful with nice beaches, mountains and cliffs. We have been wanting to go to Los Cabos for quite some time, including two trips that were previously booked but never worked out until now.
Where We Stayed – Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos
This is our first time at Hyatt Ziva, part of the Hyatt hotel chain. Hyatt Ziva is a family resort with locations throughout the Caribbean and they are all inclusive. The sister chain, Hyatt Zoetry, is an adult-only all inclusive chain. I’ve heard great things about these Hyatt properties and have always wanted to try them so I was glad to finally have the opportunity to do so.
Checking In
As soon as our driver pulled up, our van was surrounded by staff members. They assisted with our luggage, provided us with cold towels, and directed us to check-in. The kids were offered all natural popsicles and adults were offered glasses of sparkling wine. As we walked into the main lobby, the ginormous swimming pool, the beach, and the ocean were all clearly in view. It was so exciting! Check-in starts at 3pm and we were there about 12 noon. We weren’t able to get in our room yet, but we were allowed to use all of the amenities at the resort right away. (For the airport transfer, we booked with Transportation For Less, which was an amazing, seamless, economical and luxury experience. I will use them again if I’m ever in the area again.)
Our Room – Ziva Suite
One of the things I really liked about this resort was that the floorplan made sense. The Ziva Suite, which is the basic suite for the hotel, are located close to the kids club and kids pool, while the more adult friendly suites are closer to the beach and infinity pool. The Ziva Suites are large, with two full bathrooms, one with walk-in shower, and one with a large bathtub. I wish the walk-in shower was in the bedroom but it’s not. The children stayed in the living room of the suite, where the couch folded out to be a full size bed. Our bedroom had an obstructed view of the ocean, as well as a view of the kids pool and kids waterpark. The kids slept very well.
Dining
There were quite a few dining options at the resort. During our stay, the Caribbean restaurant, Cortez, was closed for renovations, but all of the other restaurants were open, and they were open everyday. Since we were there during Thanksgiving, the resort was pretty full. I hear the restaurants are open alternating days when they are less full. We tried all of the onsite restaurants available and we liked them all.
La Plaza – the Buffet
We all enjoyed the buffet here.
Lots of food with the option of cooked to order.
This was my first plate when I arrived. The salmon and scallops were cooked to order and the tuna poke was delicious. The guacamole was great too.
La Plaza is the international buffet and it’s open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is a good variety of options here, including a kids buffet area where the food bar height is lower. There are some fresh to order stations, a big variety of desserts, and wonderful fresh fruits. The drink service here was a little lacking but overall, this was a good option always.
El Molino – Mexican
Shrimp Aguachile came with cucumber, red onion, cilantro and serrano. It was so good.
Red Pork Pozole, with lettuce, radish, avocado and oregano. Yummy.
This tasted like a red fish cooked in veracruzana sauce. Veracruzana sauce is a tomato based sauce. It was delicious.
Alice chose the Beef Burrito. The burrito was huge and lots of fillings with a thin wrapper. Good.
I think all of us got churros. In fact, we tried to get churros almost every night. They have a churro stand near the pool at night and the kids would beg for it every night. That’s how good it was.
El Molino is the Mexican restaurant. During slower times, El Molino serves a Mexican buffet at night. It’s located right next to La Plaza, so it also serves as overflow for La Plaza at breakfast time. El Molino is the least crowded restaurant on site, so if the wait time is long at everything else, El Molino is a good option.
Zaffiro – Italian
When we were there, Zaffiro was open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday. This was great because Zaffiro is located right on the beach. The menu didn’t change from day to day but the food was very good so I think it’s fine if you end up going there multiple times during your stay. Zaffiro serves Italian food for dinner, and Caribbean food for breakfast and lunch. Zaffiro is the only sit-down option for breakfast and lunch. The other options for breakfast and lunch include the buffet, the snack/pool bar, the Healthy Bar, and the pool side food carts.
The Tuna Tostada was delicious was tuna chunks marinated in garlic oil, onion, coriander and soy sauce. The serving was a little small which I actually preferred anyway.
I love a good ceviche. The Ceviche Rosarito came with shrimp, octopus and fish, and we had no complaints.
Teddy and I both love soups. The seafood soup was delicious.
There’s only 3 desserts offered for lunch and we tried all 3. All were very good, but my favorite one was definitely the corn pie. The chocolate brownie was too sweet for my liking.
Dozo – Chinese, Hibachi and Sushi
Dozo is almost 3 restaurants in one. The menu serves Chinese and Japanese cuisine, but there’s also Hibachi tables and Sushi bar. The Hibachi tables require advanced reservation, which during our week was somewhat difficult to get. The Hibachi is the only restaurant on site that required and allowed reservations.
The grouper filet was delicious. The grouper was marinated in garlic, ginger, and soy. It came with sauteed broccoli and creamy mustard and turmeric sauce. The mixed teppanyaki was easy to share with everyone.
The raw fish options were limiting but what they did have tasted fresh. Salmon and tuna was available everyday, which satisfied most of my sushi cravings.
The menu called this dish “Beef Gong”. What the heck is Beef Gong? Who knows. I think they meant Beef Gohan. It’s a stir-fried beef dish with garlic, ginger, mushrooms, teriyaki sauce with basil & mint, and gohan rice. It was delicious as well.
When sitting at the sushi bar, you can watch the sushi chefs work, which was awesome. The sushi menu is really small. The only sushi roll on the menu that had raw fish in it was the Spicy Tuna Roll, but it was different and much yummier than any spicy tuna roll I’ve ever had.
Bon Vivant – Adult Only French Restaurant
Bon Vivant is an adult only restaurant. We came to Bon Vivant when our kids participated in the Teepee Night, an activity that is available once a week during times when they have a good amount of kids on site. More on that later. Bon Vivant had a very enticing menu with items like the French Onion Soup, Escargot, and Duck Confit.
I had high hopes for the escargot because I LOVE escargot. Unfortunately, this was one of the worst escargots I’ve ever had. It didn’t come in an escargot plate, and there wasn’t nearly enough butter or garlic to make it taste right.
The Duck Breast Confit was pretty tender and the taste was pretty good. The sweet potatoes were fine and so were the vegetables. The issue with this dish was the BBQ sauce, that just didn’t taste like it belonged there. But the person sitting next to us raved and raved about the BBQ sauce, so to each their own I guess.
The salmon filet was cooked in a beurre blanc sauce and tasted amazing. Definitely even better than what they serve you in the buffet, which was good too.
Coffeehouse
In the lobby, there’s a coffeehouse that’s open 24 hours, which is AWESOME. The coffeehouse has a good variety of hot and cold options, as well as fresh fruit smoothies and ice cream. There’s also pastries that were very good. Unfortunately, this is the only good coffee option on site so in the morning, the line can be quite long.
Healthy Bar
One of our favorite places on the resort was the Healthy Bar, which served healthy smoothies in the morning and Poke Bowls & Ceviches in the afternoon. They did run out of certain ingredients multiple times during our stay but we could always find something we wanted here. Everything was made to order and the lady behind the counter works so hard.
Hacienda Baja Grill
Hacienda Baja Grill is the steakhouse restaurant. It’s always the busiest restaurant on the property so keep that in mind when you plan. If you show up when they first open, you can hopefully get a seat fairly quickly or be told how long the wait roughly is and when you come back, they will have a seat for you.
I was impressed with the Roasted Bone Marrow. I love a good bone marrow dish, which I seem to only be able to find in fancier steakhouses, and even then, the results are a mixed bag. This bone marrow was nicely dressed up. It was a little too salty but most bone marrows are oversalted. The marrow was soft and juicy and not too fatty.
The Hacienda Salad was delicious. Loved the fresh greens and jicama and the dressing was delicious.
We had the steak here and it was quite tender. The only disappointment in the meal was the key lime pie. It tasted like some kind of crossover between pie and Jell-O.
The Pools
One of the resort’s biggest assets is the pools. There is the main pool, which is HUGE. I mean, HUGE. Beyond the main pool is the infinity pool, which is smaller but still very big. Near the kids club, there’s a small kids pool that’s pretty shallow. On one of the sides close to the beach, there’s a small and quiet adult only pool which we never bothered to check out, but from what I hear, that’s the only pool that was heated. The infinity pool was built with a heater but they did not heat it during our stay. There are also swim-up rooms but their pools were very cold as well. We got into the pool a few times – it wasn’t completely unbearable but it was definitely colder than we liked it. The kids waterpark is heated.
The chairs around the pool get taken up pretty early in the day – especially if you want one that’s in the shade. The cabanas are not free and have to be reserved in advance. We are not pool people so we are not bothered by the pool chair “game”. There were a few hot tubs in the pool.
While the Americans were busy celebrating Thanksgiving, the local Mexicans were actually celebrating a major holiday of their own –the Revolution Day. The pool area was decorated for this special day, where Mexicans were celebrating the start of Mexican Revolution.
There are lunch popup options by the pool everyday. It’s usually some type of grill or slow cooked meats. There’s also a taco truck here. I’ve had tacos a few days here and it was VERY good. At night time, there was temporary table and chairs set up by the pool every night with buffet spreads.
The waterpark was pretty small here but it was enough for the kids to have a good time. The water was warm at the waterpark.
The Beach
The beach here is beautiful but the ocean is not swimmable. Everyday, there are vendors on the beach trying to sell you stuff, but since the ocean isn’t swimmable, there are less people on the beach, which means less vendors too. You can buy some souvenirs or get your hair braided or ride the horses on the beach. We didn’t do any of that. The beach is also one of the places you can set up for a wedding ceremony, or book a romantic dinner. We enjoyed walks on the beach here.
There are a lot of ways to be active on the beach. They had beach volleyball and spikeball.
There’s a boardwalk along the beach, and next to it were fire pits with comfy seats.
Kids Club
I believe the quality of the kids club is a big part of a family friendly resort. We had a little love-hate relationship with Hyatt Ziva’s kids club, but I recognize that most of it was due to the amount of kids that was on the resort. We were there during Thanksgiving, and there was unprecedented amount of kids on the property. The kids club had a capacity of 25 kids. There was over 500 kids on site. So the kids counselors were overworked and things were disorganized. There were times when my kids and I were told conflicting information and multiple times we were told they could do an activity, only to be told later that they couldn’t due to capacity. I understand that capacity isn’t something they can control but setting up the right expectation would have been helpful. I did speak to the manager on site and they tried to remedy the situation and created a reservation system for the popular activities coming up, and signed my children up for it, but even that was disorganized because someone lost their reservation and my kids were sent away again. Thankfully I was able to walk them back and found the manager who did the reservation. (It also seemed that almost no one else on the resort was even aware of this reservation system.) Overall the counselors were good with children and my children enjoyed their time at the kids camp. There was a good variety of activities and I hope next time when they have such a large amount of children, they will roll out with the reservation system ahead of time.
Excursions off the Property
La Comer
La Comer is a Mexican supermarket chain that is kind of like a Super Walmart. The resort was only a 10 minute walk from La Comer, so if you want to do some shopping, this was very easy to do. The walk to La Comer felt very safe. We bought some snacks here. I was very impressed by the meat and seafood offerings here. You could find fresh wagyu, king crabs, etc.
Lands End and Clear Boat
In the main lobby area of the hotel, there’s an excursion desk that can help you with booking excursions. The staff there were very helpful and knowledgeable and I never felt any pressure to buy anything. We did do some comparison shopping online and it seemed their prices were as good as any. Being in Cabo, I knew I wanted to see the arch. The staff was able to tell me all of the options to see the arch, and the one that attracted me the most was called Lands End and Clear Boat. I’m so glad I booked through them because the resort arranged everything for us, told us exactly what time to wait for our driver and everything.
After getting picked up at the resort, we were taken to Envatours Cabo Boat Agency. Envatours is a travel agency that specializes in clear boat tours around Mexico. At the boat agency, we were checked-in and given wrist bands. Then we had some time to do a little shopping. If you want to use the restrooms here, make sure you have some Mexican pesos.
Next, they took photos of each family before boarding the boat.
Check out the beautiful clear boats. Everyone had to take their shoes off and put on life jackets.
The scenery is beautiful here and pictures just can’t do it justice.
Next, the tour guide showed us some cool poses which Alice was excited to try!
At one point, a seal came to visit our boat.
Can’t believe Alice caught the seal on camera!
After the boat ride was done, we were given some time to kill. There were many restaurants with ocean view, there was free tequila tasting at one of the shops, and there was a Señor Frogs. You could also buy a photo package from the boat company so you could have all the photos they took of you. We were pretty hungry by this point, so we decided to dine at one of the restaurants, Alexander’s (it also doubled as a way to use a restroom). The food was kind of expensive, which was to be expected, but it was very good and VERY fast, and the service was great.
Next, we did the tequila tasting at Hacienda Tequila, which was free and we didn’t feel any pressure to buy. They also had a free small tequila museum. Perhaps we should have looked into this first because inside the small museum was a free RESTROOM!
Next, we were taken to a beach break, at the Medano Beach.
The kids had a good time at Medano Beach, but honestly, this beach was WAY too crowded and the nonstop vendors bothering us was pretty annoying. It made me appreciate our resort’s beach so much more, even though we couldn’t swim at the resort. The ocean was way too cold to be swimming this time of year anyway. After the beach stop, we were taken back to our resort. It was a great excursion and the price was very fair at $60 a person.
Activities at the Resort
The resort has stuff going on most of the day. During the day, there’s always some pool activities and in the evening, there’s usually some show and live music. There are also paid activities, like the Teepee Night on the beach for kids, and the Romantic Dinner on the beach for adults or families. The Teepee Night is for children 12 and under only. It’s $59 per child, and that includes dinner and a magic show.
For the best viewing angle for the show, choose a teepee that’s in the middle.
The teepees were very cute and quite spacious inside. My two girls were given one Teepee. Both of them loved the whole experience.
Romantic Dinner on the Beach
Another paid activity at resort was the Romantic Dinner on the Beach. There were 3 menus available and the price was different depending on which menu you choose. All of the menus came with 4 courses and an intermezzo. Each course could be changed from each menu but the main course determined the price of the meal. We chose the lobster menu which was $235 a couple. There are two different setups to choose from, one was a teepee set up, the other was a heart shaped candles setup. The reservation manager recommended the candles because it doesn’t block any views, but told us we could get our pictures taken at the teepee so we would have photos of both. Genius.
First Course – Organic Salad w/ Portabello
Second course – mushroom soup
Intermezzo – Mango Sorbet
Third Course – Lobster & Filet Mignon Surf & Turf
Fourth Course – Desserts
The food at this romantic dinner was AMAZING. But the service was VERY slow. It was so much slower than the restaurants. I would do this again if it wasn’t so slow.
The resort had a pretty nice gym, that overlooked the ocean. Next to the gym was a tennis center and basketball court, but that was all closed for renovation. I wonder if they are putting in a new pickleball court.
Nightly Shows
The nightly shows were mostly dance and acrobatics based. We didn’t go to the show every night – we only attended the Latin Fusion show and the Circus show. The shows were enjoyable. The performers were talented, but there was a real problem of children trying to run up the stage and the staff were not able to control them. It seemed no matter how many times the staff tried to tell the audience to keep the children off the stage, there was always a good number of parents that chose to not police their children.
When the Circus show was over, the cast members said they could take pictures with the audience. Ava ran up to the stage and wanted to jump on the shoulder of one of the performers who had been twirling a female performer all night long. Not sure where she got the idea from but she was very excited about it.
Spending Thanksgiving in another country made me a little worried that we were not going to be able to have turkey. I guess I was silly to worry about that. On Thanksgiving night, there was a HUGE spread of Thanksgiving offerings. The turkey was ABSOLUTELY juicy and delicious.
Spirit of 1968
Spirit of 1968 is a sports bar, one of many bars on the property. Spirit of 1968 is open all day but no bar service until dinner time. The bar is very spacious, with awesome seats for a big projector screen showing sports games. There are also many TVs surrounding the room. There are 3 pool tables here that are free to play. I was impressed by this sports bar. I wish they served food though.
Conclusion
We were overall very happy with this resort. We were most satisfied with the food and the variety of the food. The service was good overall. The drinks were good but there was no straws available even for frozen drinks. Our biggest letdown at this property was actually the clientele. It definitely felt like you are surrounded by people who did not discipline their children as much. The children at Beaches and all of the cruise ships we’ve been on were much more well behaved.