Fabulous Cabo vacation recap: Part one

Some things in life go by too quickly, like weddings, holidays, good desserts and of course, vacations.

Just like that, Dave and I have returned from our fabulous five-day, four-night Cabo adventure.

We arrived home last night, unpacked, ordered our groceries via Instacart, picked up some sushi for dinner and settled back into life. This morning, we were both up before 6 a.m. to get back to our respective jobs and return to normalcy. And I’m left wishing we had stayed at least one more day in paradise.

I don’t really know where to begin when describing our perfect, yet short, getaway to Mexico, so I’ll just hit the high points of the first-half of the trip for today.

Our first trip to Cabo

It all started with a Virgin America direct flight. And there’s no better airline to fly than Virgin, complete with its roomy seats, personal TVs, a funny pre-flight safety video and so many more luxuries than the average airline.

Less than three hours after taking off from San Francisco, we landed in the 90-plus degree Cabo weather. I was so thrilled to walk out of the airport and feel the heat and humidity, a nice change from the cold and windy fog of the City.

We had already arranged a shuttle from the airport to our hotel and had a very easy transition once we grabbed our bags.

The ride to our hotel was actually quite entertaining because we shared a van with a few other parties. Therefore, we got to see all the nearby hotels as people were dropped off little-by-little. It assured us that our hotel was definitely perfect for us, because it was the last stop on the route, set off in a very secluded location, on the beach and away from the hustle and bustle of downtown and the tourist corridor. Just what we had envisioned …

A few minutes before 6 p.m., we crawled out of the van, were greeted by name and welcomed with warm towels and flutes of champagne.

After getting a few Cabo hotel recommendations from our friends, (which were either out of our price range or not quite what we were looking for), Dave and I selected to stay at Pueblo Bonito Pacifica Resort & Spa based off its stellar online reviews.

It only really takes four words to describe the amenities at this spot: (1) Adults (2) Only (3) All (4) Inclusive. Yes, that’s a fabulous combination.

The beautiful Pueblo Bonito Pacifica Resort & Spa

Apparently, Pueblo Bonito Pacifica used to be known as a holistic retreat, and many of those spa-like elements still exist, though “holistic” was dropped from the official name. There was a constant stream of spa-smelling candles, lots of white space and open grounds, as well as spa-like music in the background. It was incredibly relaxing from the moment we stepped on the property.

Our room was lovely and had everything we needed, although we didn’t spend much time in there.

Shortly after we arrived on the first night, we walked around the resort with a cocktail in hand. Then, we got cleaned up for a 9 p.m. reservation for dinner at Siempre, the resort’s finest restaurant.

We weren’t sure what to expect from the resort’s restaurants, knowing that we have some of the best food available around our home turf of San Francisco. However, Siempre was more than impressive. It was large, fabulous and fancy. In fact, we ended up choosing to have dinner there every single night, as well as breakfast three times. It was that good.

On the first night, after a surprisingly delicious meal and with full bellies, we hit the hay and both got a great night of sleep, which is one of the best ways possible to truly kick off a vacation.

A little bit of sweat to start the day

On Monday morning, we woke up to sunny skies and immediately put on some casuals to take in one of the resort’s complimentary fitness classes. (This was my only trip request: I wanted to try one outdoor class, and Dave kindly agreed.)

We took Pilates in the open air near the pool, and it was a funny experience. Our instructor, Alberto, was incredibly friendly and entertaining. His English wasn’t exactly stellar, but he took us through a one-hour session of gentle Pilates, in which he said “Everybody, muy bien!” more than 500 times and after every move. I don’t really think I got much of a workout, but I loved every minute of it. And to make it even better, Dave and I were the only two people that attended the class, so we basically got a private lesson, right on some colorful Mexican blankets, with some pre-class refreshments in front of the ocean. Not too shabby, eh?

After Pilates and a beach stroll, we had a delicious breakfast at Siempre, (which offered a buffet during the day), and enjoyed views of the beach and resort grounds.

Then, we changed into our bathing suits and spent the rest of the day by the pool. Pueblo Bonito Pacifica has two pools, surrounded by lush lounge chairs, tables and umbrellas. We set up camp each day in front of the largest pool, so we could have easy access to the swim-up bar.

Throughout the day, waiters and waitresses would come check on us, bringing us new drinks, bottled water and tasty food, making it really easy to never leave.

Over and over again, we were reminded why we chose this place. No kids screaming. No bills to be paid upon service. Nothing but freedom and relaxation, complete with a breathtaking view of the Mexican coastline.

And it was there on the pool-side lounge chairs, that every single day we had fish tacos for lunch. These were the best fish tacos either of us has ever had, and I will think about them until the end of time. True story.

And every single day, we ordered fruity frozen beverages like mojitos, pina coladas and more to complement the food. We followed it up by floating around the pool, hopping in the hot tub when needed and soaking in the beauty of having absolutely no agenda.

We also spent a few minutes in the hammock, tried some of the resort’s leisure entertainment, like bocce ball and horseshoes (I was easily bored by all of this, so the activities didn’t last long) and took a couple of short naps in the sun.

I also enjoyed some light reading of a book I picked up at the San Francisco airport.

The only other activity for the first day was dinner, which was even better on the second night than the first. Hey, what can I say … we lead fairly busy lives, so we chose a vacation that had minimal obligations, and it was just what the doctor ordered.

The next couple of days of our trip continued with a lot of relaxing and lounging. However, we also included some exciting and active off-resort adventures, which I will detail in part two of my recap later this weekend.

But for now, I’ve got to dust of my sneakers and head on out to teach BODYPUMP. With basically a week off from the gym, this one is going to hurt.

Hope you have a great Friday evening, friends.

Questions of the day

Do you like beach vacations? Would you rather have a vacation with nothing to do or one with a busy and full agenda of activities?