Since our friends invited us to Cabo in May 2013, we have now been back 2 additional times. We really enjoy the year-round warm weather and relatively short flight from Orange County. Our two previous stays were at the Diamond Resorts Cabo Azul (affiliate link), but once Hyatt (affiliate link) took over and rebranded the all-inclusive Barcelo, we knew we had to try it.
In This Post
Trip Details
- Flight and 4 day all-inclusive weekend in Cabo for $86 a person
- Where to stay in Cabo – Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos
- So many food options at Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos
- Excursions while in Cabo San Lucas
- Should you get travel insurance while in Mexico?
- Attending timeshare presentations to get free stuff
Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos
The resort is about 30 minutes by taxi from the SJD airport. Taxis cost about $40 each direction. We signed up for a timeshare presentation to get free rides back and forth, plus a glass bottom boat tour to see El Arco (Cabo’s famous arch) and 90 minutes of snorkeling.
You can also take a shared shuttle which lowered the cost to about $26 each way, similar to the blue ride share shuttles you see at domestic airports.
We booked our room for 4 days and 3 nights using 20,000 Hyatt points per night that we transferred from our Chase Ultimate Rewards account. You can’t book theses rooms online using points, but it is easy to call and have the Hyatt concierge make the reservation for you
If you don’t have Hyatt or Chase Ultimate Reward points, you can pay $226 per night for 1 person, or as low as $169 for 1 person a night if a promotional rate is available.
For two people, the rate is as low as $320 a night using a promo rate. Our room, which was upgraded to an Ocean View, could be booked as low as $368 a night on the promo rate.
Checking into the Hyatt
When we arrived at the entrance, we were impressed with how large and open the lobby is.
Anna helped herself to some horchata to cool down because there was a high of 97 and low of 80, with a TON of humidity, during our trip.
Luckily, the pools were just a few steps away and beckoned us to jump in and relax!
Our Room – Ocean View Junior Suite
We booked a Junior Suite with a garden view, but we were upgraded courtesy of my email to management telling them about how we were there to celebrate Anna’s graduation from her MBA program.
Here’s a quick 15-second video of our upgraded Ocean View Junior Suite.
Our room had a large bathroom just off the entrance that included a separate shower with rainfall and handheld shower heads and a jetted tub with a window that viewed into the bedroom.
The bedroom was large and included a flag screen TV, a sitting area, and a dining area.
Our balcony was awesome and provided us with views of the pools and the beach and ocean. The sunrise on the last day was by far the most brilliant!
We had the door open a bit too long and our paver floors became very slick due to condensation, so be very careful!
Ocean by resort is NOT safe to swim in
The beach and the crashing waves were lovely to look at, but San Jose del Cabo is known for strong undertows and rip tides, so it is NOT the place to go swimming. I waded in to about knee deep, but even then I could feel the ocean’s powerful forces.
Pools
Although ocean swimming is strongly discouraged, the many pools at Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos (affiliate link) cater to your every need. There is the main pool in the middle of the resort, a smaller pool nearby that has a swim-up bar, and a long skinny pool that is attached to some of the ground floor rooms.
Beyond that, on the West side of the resort, there is an adults pool that has its own bar, plenty of seating around the pool, and some seats that are actually inside the water.
I have fond memories of this pool, because this is where the reception for Kiki and Gabe was held for their wedding, and I was one of several people who jumped into the pool with the wedding party fully clothed! Such fun!!!
Food and drink options
The beauty of all-inclusive resorts is that you can eat a little bit of everything and you can try out each restaurant without feeling guilty about leaving food on your plate or how much a meal may cost.
There are several restaurants to choose from (more on these in a future post):
- Lotus for Japanese
- Bon Vivant for French
- Hacienda for BBQ & steak
- Cortijo for Spanish
- Capri for Italian
Plus, there are a couple buffets to choose from that serve everything from traditional US good to more international flavors.
When sitting poolside, there is the Coco Loco, which served fish or pork tacos, chicken taquitos, hot dogs, quesadillas, and hamburgers.
In your room, there was also an extensive menu of room service options that varied based upon the time of day.
Drinks can be had anywhere throughout the resort, whether you prefer beer, wine, mixed drinks, or shots. They’ll even make non-alcoholic versions for the kids or if you’re pregnant, like Anna, so everyone can enjoy themselves.
Unlimited food and drinks were available throughout the resort 24/7. Great for my taste buds, but bad for my waistline!
The Gym
Because our schedule was packed and we focused on relaxing (Anna was just finishing her MBA, and I’m getting ready for budget season at work), I only made it to the gym once.
The gym offered many machines from bikes and treadmills to ellipticals and striders. There were a bunch of free weights and benches and weight machines also available. And not wimpy 5 lb dumb bells, they had some that went up to 100 lbs each!
The gym overlooked the pools and ocean from the 4th floor, so it didn’t take much motivation to look your best and sweat it out.
Outside the gym, there were separate basketball and tennis courts, but can’t imagine anyone playing in this weather, even late at night.
There was also an activity calendar that included yoga, beach volleyball, Spanish lessons, billiards, cooking lessons, and so many more options.
Would I change anything
The resort had a great feel and fun amenities. We had an absolute blast. However, wifi was very spotty in room. This would normally be fine since you’re supposed to relax on vacation…however, in today’s world, you need to be able to connect and check-in so you don’t come back to an avalanche of work waiting for you. It wasn’t too big of a deal, but still something that the resort should improve upon.
Beyond that, the requirement to wear pants and closed toe shoes at dinner baffled me. First off, it wasn’t uniformly enforced…..plus, IT IS CABO AND IT IS FREAKIN’ HOT AND STICKY!
I didn’t even think to bring pants due to the weather and my inclination to relax by the water our entire trip. Luckily, the resort let me borrow some pants, otherwise I would have needed to run across the street to the Mega store to buy some.
Also, aside from my tennis shoes to work out, I didn’t bring shoes other than my flip flops. So, they prefer stinky gym shoes over nice Flojo sandals? Didn’t make sense.
Conclusion
Aside from two minor complaints that were easily addressed, we really had a great time at the Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos (affiliate link). Big thanks to Anna’s Mom for watching Timmy so we could relax just the two of us. Next time we visit, however, we’ll totally bring Timmy because the resort is kid friendly, and he would have a blast swimming in all the pools.
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Thanks for the write up. I saw this Hyatt and it looked pretty cool. I really enjoy Hyatt Zilara in Cancun and it just might be the best AI resort I’ve been to. Can you get Grey Goose and other higher end spirits at Ziva?
It’s annoying about the dress code of pants especially when many of the restaurants are outside in Mexico. At Dreams there were two ones and the humidity was pretty high which made it harder to enjoy dinner.
Glad you had a great time.