Cabo, Mexico 2017

Hello again everyone,
  Happy New Year 2019 to you all! I hope you all had a fantastic New Year's and wishing you all a very happy & prosperous year ahead!

I was planning on writing about Northern England but, one of my close friends requested me to write about our Cabo travel experiences as they are planning to take a trip to Cabo.

Visa Requirement:
If you have Greencard or US passport, you do not need Visa to Mexico. For those with Indian passport, H1b or B1/B2 visas, kindly check for required paperwork on embassy website. You will have to carry your H1 documents for re-entry.

Our first trip to Mexico was to Cabo. It was very memorable but short. I enjoyed the idea that its just 4+hrs of air travel from Seattle & hey, we have a direct flight! There are 2 different areas - San Jose Del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas. We decided to stay in between the 2 cities at Hacienda Encantada Resort and Spa. We booked the hotel room and also a Taxi to pick us up from the airport to the hotel. My husband, a fan of Mercedes, booked for a Mercedes Benz car to pick us up from the airport to give us a surprise. Immigration was very smooth and welcoming. As soon as we finished immigration, we were mobbed by many travel agents and taxi drivers inside the airport right after baggage claim. Since it was our first trip, we had our taxi info in our hand, ready to go out and we asked someone for directions. The person instead of giving us directions took us to a travel counter and tried to sell us travel packages. So beware of scammers and few agents lying to you as soon as you get out of baggage area. They are just doing their job so be respectful but don't fall for their tricks. If you have a booking, go directly to the baggage claim, get your baggages & exit the airport completely to find your taxi or booking contact. They usually hold a placard with your name.

Our taxi ride to the hotel was very beautiful. You could easily say you are in Mexico with all the beautiful palm trees, rocky mountains & lovely blue water. The resort is huge & very self sufficient with many restaurants, kids play area, pools & grocery store on site. The resort welcomes you with a beautiful water fountain and live music. We had decided to spend most of the time in the resort because it has a beautiful view and access to the beach. What I really enjoyed was having breakfast in the restaurants watching the blue water & clear sky. Our visit to Cabo was in February and we assumed it would be a bit warmer. The weather was windy and a bit chilly on the first night. But, for the rest of our trip, we enjoyed the 70s weather. We also enjoyed soaking our feet in the pools and having drinks at the pool bars.

Camera gears that I carried for this trip:

Nikon D750 + 2 batteries
Nikkor 14-24mm
Nikkor 24-70mm
Nikkor 55-300mm
WonderPana filter for 14-24mm
Travel tripod

WonderPana filter

View from the resort

There are many resorts in Cabo but, we felt this one fit us the best as we kept family friendly, commute and food as our main criteria.

The beach at the resort

As much as I love warm climate and beaches, I cannot stand lizards! The first day we checked into the hotel room, it was indeed clean and neat, but, 2 small lizards on the wall welcomed us! I almost had a mini heart attack and we called the hotel staff to help us out. I was sure I couldn't sleep that night with those lizards starting at me... The hotel staff immediately came with a big grin and took away the lizards! Big relief. Alas, I did not take the pictures of those 2 long lost friends *ha ha*!

View from the hotel room during sunrise

Day 2: We woke up early in the morning and had a nice breakfast at one of the restaurant at the resorts. The resort is so massive that you either have to walk for 20 mins to the restaurants or request for a ride. My son loved the ride within the resort because they took us around in golf cart. Ah! the joy on the child's face was priceless! We had a nice long walk after breakfast within the resort. We soaked ourselves in the pool for few hours, enjoyed the drinks at the pool bar. The lunch was fantastic at the beach restaurant which was within the resort . Over all it was a slow, relaxing day at the resort which was exactly what we had on our agenda. Since the sky cleared up a bit, we decided to walk to the beach at the rare end of the resort and I got a chance to take few sunset pictures. Cabo is a paradise for water lovers. If you like water sports/activities, this place should be in your bucket list. 

Day 3: We rented a car from the resort and drove to Cabo San Jose.  San Jose is a very colorful old city and is famous for shopping, cathedrals & restaurants . We walked for 2 hrs enjoying the colorful shops, had our lunch & watched some street performers. I did not take my camera with me that day as I just wanted to enjoy the local attractions without a bulky camera bag. I just captured few personal memories on my Iphone. 

We later drove around to Marina - San Lucas. In my honest opinion, I felt San Lucas is a very vibrant place that mostly had young travelers. The majority of the crowd we saw were people in their teens to 30s partying and enjoying sunshine rather than families with young kids. We wanted to take a boat ride to Arch of Cabo or do some snorkeling. However, we choose to go back to the resort and relax at the pool. We had a lovely dinner again at the resort & I took few more photos at the beach. 

Day 4: We had a lovely breakfast at the resort and headed back to the airport. With a nice tan and a happy heart, we big goodbye to Cabo. 

Highlights (places to see or things to do):

Cabo San Jose Downtown

Cabo San Lucas Downtown

Arch of Cabo (take a boat ride to Bay of Cabo) 

Snorkeling (if you are interested)

Must try authentic Mexican food

Few tips: 

Beware of scammers at the airport and downtown. 

Prebook all your trips. 

If you are traveling in winter, check the weather and carry a jacket. 

Thank you for reading! :) I will be back again soon with more travel tips!