My husband and spent the week of May 28th till June 4th , 2004 at Misiones. Before we left, I searched for information about Misiones and ran across all the bad reviews at Trip Advisor. The information and data provided by reviewers regarding nearly everything was so scattered and varied that I really had no idea what to expect. So, as a service to others, I determined that good or bad, I would write an honest, unbiased review that contains accurate data concerning prices and conditions at Misiones when we returned. That said, here’s the honest to goodness, down to earth, cross my heart scoop on the place. It’s a long one, but it’s comprehensive! ;-)

Misiones has some issues and problems that prevent a completely stellar rating. There are, however, many absolutely wonderful things about the place that can overshadow the problems, depending upon your personal priorities.

Here’s a rundown on the FACTS concerning shuttles, cabs, hot water, drinking water, TV reception, and general maintenance conditions:

You can take a shuttle from the airport to the resort for $14 per person. No need for a taxi, unless you have 4 or more people, in which case it may be just as well to take a cab. I THINK they run about $60, but I’m not sure about that.

There IS a free shuttle. The battle between the cabbies and the resort is done, and the shuttle is back and available. It runs every hour at 9a, 10, 11, then 1, then 4,5, & 6p. The return times from downtown are 20 minutes after the departures.

A taxi to town is usually $15, one way. Some drivers will take you for $12.50. You can also sign up for cab share at the desk. If others want to go to town at the same time, you just split the cost.

The resort will set up a shuttle to take you back to the airport for $20 per person. Let them know a day in advance, during business hours, so they can make arrangements.

The water at the resort is not filtered. Cabo’s water is supposed to be very clean, but the water system pipes are not so clean, they warn. Several people staying at the resort drank the water and had no problems. I personally think we could have drank it also, but we didn’t want to push our luck. We purchased large bottles of water from the little store on site, boiled water in our teakettle each evening for coffee the next morning and also to make ice cubes, rather that wasting bottled water. No big deal at all. I brushed my teeth with their water. We drank frozen drinks and drinks with ice at the restaurant and the pool bars with no problems. Don’t know if it’s the same water or not, but most guests were having frozen drinks and ice at the bars, and to my knowledge, no one got sick..

Try to trust me on this one: You DO have hot water, but depending upon the time of day, it may require some patience. We often had to let the water run for 3 or so minutes before it got hot, at about 800am, but it ALWAYS got hot. Later in the day and in the evenings, it got hot pretty quickly. If you get up really early in the morning (I’m talking in the 5am range) for fishing, golfing, or for your trip back to the airport, get up 10 minutes earlier to turn your water on hot. The final morning at 530am, I waited about 12 minutes for hot water, but I DID get hot water. This may be a little annoying, but once you figure it out, it’s not a big deal. Seems an awful waste of water, but I just can’t take at tepid shower at 530am. Call me spoiled.

We had absolutely zero problems with our unit. Everything worked great, including the air conditioning, which we didn’t use anyway, other than one afternoon. It worked fine, though. The appliances were nearly new and in great shape and the furnishings and fabrics were clean and bright. Our Jacuzzi tub on the terrace was fantastic and if you want hot water, ouch! I suspect there must be heating coils of some sort for these tubs.
Simply heaven, I tell you. We questioned some of the other guests about their units, since we had no problems, and there were a couple of people who did experience some problems. One man told me he was moved twice: once because the AC didn’t work and another time because his door wouldn’t lock. He didn’t seem particularly upset about it, though. A couple of people mentioned the hot water issue. I’ve already addressed that. No one mentioned sewage or bugs.

Forget about television. With the beautiful view you don’t have any business looking at the tube anyway. The reception is bad and you get 4 or 5 channels, a couple in English, like a USA type channel and CNN international, so you CAN keep up with the news, if you really must. The picture had a constant rolling line through it in our unit, but we only turned it on occasionally to hear CNN. No real need to watch it. If you’re a TV hound, you’re in the wrong place.

For me, the only truly annoying issue is with CHANGE. No one ever has any change! If you exchange money at the resort, they only have 100’s, 200’s and 500’s. The bars and the restaurants very rarely have any change, so it makes it difficult to tip sometimes. We had to go to the little store everyday, or be sure to save up small bills from our trips downtown in order to get change to tip the maids, waiters, the shuttle driver, etc.

Those are the pivotal points I wanted to cover. Here’s some more information about the resort regarding the rooms, pools, restaurant, bars, beaches, etc.--my personal experience and opinions, if you can stand more. ;-)

The view is absolutely spectacular. Misiones has a better setting and a better view of Cabo San Lucas than any other resort. Oceanside, the view is of El Arco, the famous arch of Cabo, the beautiful blue waters, the desert, and, at night, the twinkling lights of downtown Cabo. People flock to the supposedly 5 star restaurant next door, Da Giorgio’s, just to sit on the patio and take in the view that is yours every moment you spend at Misiones.

The apartments are large and beautiful. They are nicely decorated, have updated appliances, and have wonderful big terraces. My husband and I had a two bedroom unit in building 7, which I have read is one of the newer and better buildings, so I can only review my particular unit. There are wonderful, big Jacuzzi spas on the deck and a table and chairs. If you can swing a two bedroom, I highly recommend it. They are ‘lock-off’ units, so you get half a balcony with each side. In our case, one side had a table, the other side had the Jacuzzi. Inside, however, the Jacuzzi side had a complete, but smaller kitchenette, a small living area that shared a room with a king-sized bed, and a big bathroom. The other side had a huge kitchen with full sized refrigerator, a big dining table and chairs, a nice big living room, a separate bedroom, and a smaller bathroom. We slept and bathed on one side and ‘lived’ on the other, taking advantage of both sides of the terrace, of course!

The maid service was terrific, and our maid, Teresa was a gem. She made every day look and feel like the first, by adding all the little special touches, like arranging the towels as a swan in the bathroom, making other designs out of our other towels, putting little tissue fans and folds in the toilet paper and tissue boxes. You expect that the first day, but not every subsequent day. She even did the dishes if I hadn’t gotten to them yet, something I feel is totally unnecessary. My husband and I always tip the service people and we believe in tipping every day, so as to make sure that each person gets a little something, in case the people change during the week. We left 2 dollars a day for our maid. Who knows? Maybe that got us better service. Certainly can’t hurt.

The staff are all friendly and helpful. We found everyone at Misiones to be just great, from the front desk to the bartenders and waiters. The concierge, who works for a timeshare place, was very helpful and courteous even though we DID NOT take in a timeshare presentation. Everyone has their favorites, of course, and ours were Ebaristo, AKA ‘Barry’, the waiter at the on site restaurant, Luis, one of the bartenders, Chano, another bartender, and José, at the front desk. Chano doesn’t speak English, but I’m a Spanish student working on communicating, and found him to be the most charming man when I got to know him. Luis, on the other hand, speaks excellent English, and Barry does pretty well too. In general, all the staff communicated in English very well, an important skill.

The little store on site has what you really need, plus a little more. They have snacks, chips, some canned goods and condiments, coffee, pastries, sunglasses, soft drinks, fruit juices, some booze, and plenty of bottled water, all fairly reasonably priced for the convenience. An almost 2 liter bottle of water cost $1.80. They had single bottles of beer at the beginning of the week, but ran out towards the end of our stay. Everyone wanting real food and large quantities of beer or drinks are going to need to go to a supermarket, just like every other place you stay. It’s just a little market, not Safeway. It was great though, because they had what we NEEDED.

They have 2 beaches, one very nice, and one used as a toilet for everyone’s dogs. They have 2 very nice pools, both with swim up palapa bars. The pool that faces the ocean is very quiet and is not heated, so tends to be refreshingly chilly or rather cold, depending upon the breeze and your personal taste. You can order food and drinks at any time of the day. We liked this pool the best, because we had it almost to ourselves and still got wonderful food and beverage service from the staff. The other pool is heated, more noisy, has a bigger bar with more variety, and features those wonderful soft tacos that you’ve been reading about from 1p-3p. Marinated hunks of beef, slow cooked in a covered pot on a grill. You are served a soft tortilla with the meat, or the meat and some cheese if you order the ‘mixto’. Dress it up with side pots of very fresh guacamole and pico de gallo. All for a $1.30 each. YUM.

The on site restaurant is pretty good, but can be expensive. They have a really wonderful breakfast menu and everything is VERY good, even the $5 hash browns. Breakfast cost the two of us about $20 a day, but we were on vacation and didn’t care. We had dinner there a couple of times and the food was good, but nothing really special. Stick with the seafood.

We loved this place and would definitely visit there again. I’m happy to answer any questions that anyone may have. Just take out the ‘trash’ in my e-mail address: