Los Cabos International (SJD) Airport

SJD airport is clean and nice. Immigration was a breeze, we landed on a Tuesday at 1:30 P.M. so there weren’t any lines. As you exit immigration with your luggage, they do a final form check and make you press a button. If it pops up as green, you can exit the airport, if it turns red security will search all of your luggage before exiting the airport. We both got green and carried on to begin our vacation.

Leaving Cabo, returning home there were restaurants open early in the morning at 7:00 AM (we had a 9 A.M. flight returning home) and there’s a Starbucks! There's 1 duty free shop which sells alcohol and less than a handful of other stores to get last minute souvenirs. My advice would be to shop souvenirs before heading to the airport so you'll have more options and the ability to negotiate prices.

The Accommodations

Ocean View from the Junior Suite at Villa Del Palmar

I have a timeshare with the Villa group so we stayed at Villa Del Palmar. There are three Villa group resorts connected to each other, the other two are Villa de Estancia (Luxury 5-star) and Villa de Arco (newer).

The rooms resemble apartments with studio, 1-bedroom, and up to choose from. The rooms have a full kitchen with utencils provided. The resort offs All-inclusive an option which we definitely chose during our stay and weren't disappointed. If a resort offers all-inclusive, I’m always going to choose that option. There was no well alcohol served, I was in heaven, all branded and premium alcohol which made for some fun interesting days.

There are many options for all-inclusive resorts in Cabo which are more updated and premium. Villa Del Palmar is the oldest of the 3 resorts, they recently went through renovations and it’s still not the fanciest, but it was clean and the service was phenomenal. There's also a market on the resort which has plenty of food, alcohol, souvenirs, and toiletries to purchase.

Villa Del Palmar is a 30-45 minute ride from the airport and a 5 minute, $9.00, cab ride to downtown Cabo. If you take a short walk behind the resort along the beach you'll run into other restaurants and fun bars to enjoy. This resort is very convenient and I love convenient accommodations! Honestly, even if I didn’t have a timeshare I would consider staying here again or next door at Villa Del Arco.

The Food

The majority of the time we ate on the resort, mostly pool side eats with drinks. For dinner, the resort's restaurants (except the sports bar) required a reservation 1-day in advance and we weren’t that organized to do all of that (we go with the flow) so most of our dinners were quick bites in the sports bar or by the pool. My favorite meal I ordered numerous times by the pool was the Napolitana Brick Oven Pizza. The Napolitana had anchovies which I substituted for Italian sausage, mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, and peppers. I love a brick oven pizza, it was made to order and delicious.

On my birthday, we did make a reservation to have dinner on the resort at Bella California. Bella California is Villa del Palmar’s Italian restaurant which offered a large amount of food options on their menu. To begin, we both ordered Cabernet, the waiter left the bottle for us to self-serve and enjoy till the end. For the table, we were served bread, olive oil, and balsamic. For appetizers, I ordered calamari which had fried vegetables in the mix and lamb chops. For my main dish, I had the lasagna which was good and very filling. At the end, the servers brought out a delicious slice of Tiramisu for my birthday serenade. It was really cute.

Lasagna, Cabernet, and Lamb Dinner from Bella California at Villa Del Palmar

When we were out in the city at night, we ate at two taco stands and the food was amazing! The first taco stand had the best chicken tacos I've ever had in my life. Unfortunately, with all my google search, I was unable to find the name of the restaurant, real Jordan Hall of Fame tears! What I do know is it's a brown stand with seating on the outside, next to Club O on the strip. If you're exiting Club O its to the right of the club. Please get the chicken tacos, you’ll probably want to take some back to the room because they are that damn good! OMG, the chicken itself is seasoned so good, you won’t even need any other toppings let alone the tortilla.

Per a recommendation from a new Cabo friend, we also ate at Tony's Tacos which is on the same block as the chicken taco stand mentioned above. The shrimp tacos were so delicious! Very well seasoned, and filling which can be a hit or miss with shrimp tacos. I also had the fish tacos, which were a miss.

The Excursions

Booze Cruise

On my birthday, we did the Sunset Fajita Dinner Booze Cruise. This cruise sailed along the El Arco Rock Formations, a popular natural wonder in Cabo, we captured plenty of pictures and took in its beauty. The cruise was only 2 hours, from 6-8 P.M., they served a Fajita dinner which was actually pretty decent. It was open bar for well drinks and they did have premium / branded alcohol for cheap prices. There was dancing, contests, a Conga line, happy birthday serenade, and plenty of shots. We met and partied with a family of older adults and they were so turnt! It was a blast, I definitely enjoyed myself and wish it lasted an hour longer.

ATV

I enjoyed driving more than riding but I hated the waivers we had to sign since the company basically said you better purchase insurance with us because if you get hurt we ain't paying for no medical bills and you’ll owe us $8k for the ATV. Since it was our first time driving an ATV, I let my homegirl drive first, riding in the back was, interesting (a nightmare). Then it was my turn to drive and I crashed the ATV into a bush, whatever. Other than that episode, the service again was great, with beautiful views, plus our tour guide was really sweet and from Chicago! You know what, if I had to choose to do ATV again, I’d pass.

Parasailing

Simple, cute, easy and beautiful; we took plenty of pictures and got plenty of pics taken of us. Thankfully our second attempt was successful with parasailing, the company cancelled the 1st time we tried to go due to high winds..

The Beach

Cabo’s ocean current is very strong along the shoreline, the waves were ginormous near our resort. Once we walked further down the beach towards downtown the waves weren’t as high. Carefully, I was able to enjoy the water which if you look close enough contains a gold glitter, it was beautiful. When we were parasailing, looking down, you can see gold glitter in the blue water, never inquired what caused the shimmer, just took in the beauty.

My suggestion is don’t take your phone into the water or plant yourself close to the shoreline when enjoying the beach. Don’t leave your beach belongings too close to the water unless you want the new owner to be the ocean.

The People

Ah-May-Zing! Simply amazing, everyone we encountered was genuinely sweet. The staff at Villa Del Palmar were so good, and great examples of exceptional customer service. We met and made so many friends at the pool, chile our resort's pool was crackin!

Cabo is so diverse, everyone we encountered was so happy, delightful, and engaging in great conversations. My homegirl and I felt like celebrities, we were showered with compliments from people of all different backgrounds, and realized how black women are more admired in countries outside of the United States. Now that's a whole other conversation for a whole other blog post. We walked away feeling empowered leaving with amazing new friends and connections.

The Nightlife

Crackin’

I only planned to do 1 night of partying, we did 3. It was so easy, no entry fees, and they let you take your club drink to-go. The clubs are all along the strip in downtown Cabo, making it really easy to club hop. Some of my favorites spots were Club Crush, Club O, and Mandalay.

Club Crush will be your go to for all-night hip-hop and R&B music, its not as big as the other clubs but its certainly a good ass time. David, the entertainment manager at Villa Del Palmar, advised us to find his DJ friend. We find the DJ friend at Crush, who was so sweet and excited to meet us. He then gives us unlimited drink wrist bands and shots, good times with good people.

Club O plays Hip-hop, Soca, R&B, etc on Friday nights; Saturday nights you’ll get your local hispanic tunes. They had a mini pool in the back of the club with floats for club goers enjoyment (I didn't partake). There were also a bear and cookie monster character running around dancing with folks and taking pics to add to the amusement of the night.

Mandalay is another popular spot on the strip, its huge with themed nights, and was a really good time. We went on Thursday and Friday and weren't disappointed. The music is mixed, but current, and you’ll still get some hip-hop tunes mixed in all throughout the night.

In the end

I'm so glad I shared this amazing experience with someone because honey we have stories for life! My homegirl and I loved Cabo so much we extended our stay an additional day! Thank you Southwest Airlines for the $10.74 flight change fee! Cabo I will definitely be returning!

-By Lady Adelaide

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My 31st Birthday in CABO SAN LUCAS MEXICO!