We stayed at the Del Parmar in PV and it was good so we didn't read the bad reviews until after we were committed. We first got Rm 3508 with a noisy air conditioner but we were too tired to move. Finally it became unbearable. We couldn't sleep the whole night. At 0700 I asked for a different room and they wanted to put us in a room facing the construction site. I agreed to have them look at the AC at 1000 but no one showed up. We called and finally at 1200 the front desk told us to get the key to 3408. 3408 has a more quiet AC but the sink won't drain. It was not pleasant spending the whole morning fixing their problem.

And yes the pool was crowded and dirty. Food was extremely expensive at the resort. $50/person for an unmemorable meal.

As far as Cabos is concerned, the place has a taxi cartel so unless you take a bus, taxi and walking are the only alternatives. My brother and his family stayed in San Jose Cabos. every time we visited each other was $50 rt. As for the activities, if you don't belong to a timeshare, you pay the full price which is $45 as opposed to $27 for ATV. There are not much negotiation because the vendors would alert each other.

The real Mexicans are really nice though. They are friendly, helpful and have a great sense of humor.

We stayed the week of 6/28-7/5 at VDP. It was the first of a 2 week stay in Cabo as we stayed at it's sister resort The Villa Del Arco the following week. This would be our second 2 week stay in Cabo in 3 years. I'm a Universal Vacation Club member and did an internal trade. I was travelling with my wife and our 9yr old son.
Our flight was on time and we were greeted by our transfer service provided by Translobo. It was a pvt transfer and he allowed us to stop at the Mega store to pick up some things for our stay. The driver Arturo Sanchez was wonderful and provided plenty of information on the area as we drove. We arrived at the resort around 5:30 and check in was quick. We went over the resort with the hotel rep and declined the timeshare presentation and was not bothered by her to attend again and no calls to the room either.
We stayed in room 1213 a 1 bedroom suite. It was a pool view across from the whale slide on the second floor. We had the honor bar removed from our room and had no issue with charges when we checked out. The resort charges $3.60 a day service tip that is optional and can be taken off at checkout. I chose to pay it. The room was clean and seamed to have been renovated recently and was in great shape and had plenty of room. The only complaint with the room was the lighting could be better. Yes we could hear the water run from the toilet s above us flushing but it was not an issue as others state. Hall noise was no worse than other resorts I've stayed at and we were next to a stair well and not far from the maids station. I was only awoken once from hall noise. Noise from the pool was not a problem like some complain about and we were real close. The theme nights were usually over or winding down when we would arrive home from dinner about 9:30. This noise you could hear, but I liked the music. The bed actually was very comfortable which surprised me. I had no back pain the whole week. There is a pullout sofa bed in the living room. The kitchen had enough storage, settings for 4 and items to cook with if you wished. There is no oven and the stove top has only 2 burners. Microwave worked well. It also had a full fridge, coffe maker, and toaster.
The pools were smaller than what I thought they would be. There are 2 main pools connected by the whale slide and where all the activities take place. Our son enjoyed the pool slide as did a few adults. The pools were clean and not dirty like some have written about. Yes as the day goes on there occasionally was some sunscreen film which is expected with so many people using it. It was always clean the next morning. We preferred lounging around the small pool that overlooked the beach and was connected to the kiddie pool. It was quieter there.
This leads to my only big issue of the week. There is a mixed bag of people that stay here and was stunned with the lack of respect people had for each other. I saw a big towel game dispute where both were at fault. A teanager was disrespecting a woman all day and a scuffle ensued when another guest stepped in. We even had one of our loungers taken and slid away as we were talking in the pool. There is a bit of a spring break party atmosphere, but that is fine as long as there is a little respect. The staff did not seem sure how to handle this.
The beach had a strong surf and wasn't good to swim in. There is a big drop off only a few feet from shore and a strong undertow. A storm came in on Thu and there was occasional short showers during the day and Large crashing waves for 3 days. The beach took a beating from Del Arco down past the Riu. The sand on the beach is course,gets hot and hard to walk in. Wear water shoes to walk on it. It takes about 10 to 20 minutes to walk to the beach clubs.
We ate at the breakfast buffet several days and it was good but over priced. The water we had was good and wouldn't charge us for our son and non buffet juices. For those that complain about the watery scrambled eggs just have the omelet chef make you fresh ones. We tried the pizza which was very good for a resort. Dinner one night at the resort was mediocre and the serve was poor. Service ranged from good to poor depending on who was on station. We had our own beverages and didn't purchase any, but happy hour was 4:00-5:30.
We did a pvt tour of Todos Santos with our transfer service. It was a great time since he was so wonderful. Get a cinnamon bun at Todos Santos Cafe. 1 will feed 2-3 people and they are so good. Margarita at Tequila Sunrise is a must. We finished the day at Cerritos Beach Club. The beach is great and you can swim there. The food at the club was mediocre. Our driver asked if we needed to stop for shopping on our way back and he made reservations for us at Sunset Di Mona Lisa and dropped us off there for dinner. I like my meal but my wife didn't,but the view is one of the best in Cabo.
We had a great week. We did actually meet some nice people during our stay. When checking out we were going to make 2 trips to the lobby with our bags. When I went back to get 3 bags of supplies the maid must have thought we left them for her and 2 were gone. I had to get the front desk to track her down and get them back. Checkout can be slow since they have to have someone check the room out when you leave especially if you left the honor bar in. Charges were right on. The bellhops helped bring our bags over to Villa Del Arco and drove us over in a car. I do recommend the resort if you like an active place. I rate the resort 4.5 taking into account it's a 3 or 4 star older place. The guest I would rate no more than a 3. If I return though I would stay at Del Arco since it is a major step up.

Just returned from a week stayed at the Ville Del Palmar. check in was quick, the room is nice, food was a little pricey. The room did not have good insulation, you can heard the noise from the lobby and the music from next door at 1 to 2 o'clock in the morning. The pool was very dirty, the water too cloudy. They also push very hard for you to attend a time share presentation.

For the water sport activity, I paid for two wave runners of which was $29.00 each. After I paid $60.00 for two wave runner, they told me that it has to be 18 to drive the wave runner. I reply my daughter is 17 & my son 13, then they told me that we can do it early in the morning @ 9 o'clock, since my daughter is only 17 & my son 13 can ride in the back of the wave runner. When I asked for the $30.00 back, they told me that they can not return the $30.00 that I paid extra, so they charge me $60.00 for one wave runner (very disappointed). Althought, the parasailing was funs.
Over all the staff was very helpful.

Off the bat, check-in took forever. These people pretending to want to give us "welcome packets" who were really trying to get us to go to a presentation on time shares kept harrassing us. They woke me up around 8am to remind us to get our "welcome packets." So of course when we refused, it was always awkward walking by them. The restaurant at the hotel gave us expensive dinner menus when lunch was still offered. The same food for more money. She admitted that lunch was still available when we asked. I ordered this ice tea which was horrible, and was charged $6 for it. I think it cost more than my friend's beer! There were other people seen arguing about their bills. This other time we dined at another restaurant in the hotel, the glasses were dirty. When I asked for replacement glasses, they were still dirty. The staff at the stores always made us feel like we didn't pay enough, like they were trying to make us second guess the price in pesos. Really poor service there as well. This lady refused to give me change in American dollars when I saw her counting a huge wad of American bills. Lastly, our neighbors on our floor were extremely obnoxious and loud throughout the middle of the night, yelling and slamming doors. The hotel managment did a horrible job of regulating that. It was probably the worst, most unrestful vacation I've ever had. I had to recuperate by sleeping for hours when I got home.