My wife and I stayed for eight nights and found this hotel to be immacutely clean, professionally run and beautiful. Ignacio Savin (front desk manager} is one of the most outstanding hotel employees we have ever encountered in our travels. He is professional, knowledgable, friendly and obviously does his job because of his love for the concept that guests of the hotel should get their moneys worth without hassles.

We have stayed at this hotel two consecutive years and our experience with the hotel has been consistent. The villas are spectacular, great values and the entire staff is wonderful.

My wife and I arrived on a Friday and left on a Tuesday. We will come back to this place and recommend it to others. Actually we found out about the place from another couple. The resort grounds were spotless and the room was very nice. We stayed in a room with 2 queen beds and a balcony that looked out onto the pool and Sea of Cortez. The room was perfect for the length of our stay and we spent a considerable amount of time on the balcony playing cards and backgammon. Great view from the balcony. The pool at the resort was fantastic. Big with plenty of chairs and a great swim up bar. The beach area was also very nice with plenty of chairs. The restaurants were pricey ($12 to $18 for a cheeseburger) but good. We ate at the steakhouse for dinner and I had a great steak (Prime Rib-Eye $45 to $50) and my wife had a fantastic piece of fish ($30). She also had a salad ($10) that was presented in a unique manner and tasted great and I had a sashimi tuna appetizer ($15). The other great thing about this resort is the fact that it is a short cab ride to town or water taxi to a number of bars / restaurants (The Office, Edith's, Mi Casa and the Marina) between the resort and downtown. Beers are $4.50 and margs are between $9 and $14 at most places throughout Cabo. Regarding the margs, they are not afraid to toss in a healthy amount of alcohol so the price is not that bad. Were they get you is with wine. For us we could only drink so many beers and margs. Get ready to pay $60 to $80 for a bottle of red that costs $10 to $20 in your local store at home. If you want to go by the glass then you are going to pay between $6 and $15. We have been to Mexico previously and generally prefer Hawaii, but we will come back to this resort. It is probably cheaper to get to (airfare) and stay in Mexico (hotel), but the cost to eat and drink is the same as Hawaii.

We booked our trip through a website that brokers between the owner of the Villa and the renter. We paid over $8,000 for a two bdrm Villa for 7 days and didn't think it warranted the price once we saw it. The worst part of the hotel was the overwhelming smell of the sewage plant across the way. The sewage was the worst in the early morning and late evening. On top of that the rooms have this funny wrought iron gate as the main door that opens into the tiny foyer - then the master and living area is to one side and the two doubles are to the other side. This means the room feels very exposed from the hallway with just the open gate - THERE IS NO DOOR TO CLOSE. It also means the adults are on one side and the kids are on the other side of the foyer with just this crazy gate - we had our kids lock their door at night - it was the equivalent of having them across the hall rather than in the same suite. The staff was very nice around the pool but the front office people were not helpful at all. We will not return to La Estancia even when we go back to Cabo.

The VLE was a very lovely facility but on our first day (January 1, 2008) my husband, while walking on the beach, was hit by a jet ski coming in from the ocean way too fast. (driven by an employee). To make a long story short, he was hospitalized and five days later flown back for surgery. Needless to say the vacation was over and we moved into being on a trip. And not an easy trip to figure out. I write this to warn all of you who are considering a trip to Mexico that the most idyllic spot in the world, a beach, can be dangerous. My husband was surprised that the hotel didn't reach out more to be of assistance. We finally asked for help with information we felt we needed to problem solve the issues that were being presented to us as a result of the accident. I think my husband was hoping they may have checked in to see if we were managing alright since it happened on the beach in front of the hotel, there security were there to take a report and we were patrons. I don't want to sound like sour grapes, but I do want to convey that if you travel to Mexico be sure to have yourself covered with sufficient insurance because you will not have financial compensation there. We were pretty insistant that the jet ski company pay for the hospital expenses, and they did, but we will not recoup the costs of our lost vacation, nor will there be any consideration if it turns out that he has a long term disability, and that is something we won't know for months. I felt like I had to constantly be on my guard because of all the mixed messages.

I did want to let those considering going know about some of our discoveries. We walked everywhere and the town was only 15 minutes from the hotel so we rarely used a cab. We found some very reasonable and good restaurants that the locals seemed to be frequenting. Our regular breakfast haunt was the Lobster Garden, across from the mall on the main drag. We also liked the 'Crazy Lobster', because the seafood was good and very reasonable.

We did go to the Office for breakfast but it was about twice the cost of the Lobster Garden and not any better.

All in all, Cabos is a lovely resort area. I have always liked Mexico. I love the food, smells, weather, language/culture. However, I am no longer feeling as carefree. To have this happen in Mexico was quite frightening and it is clear that you are on your own if you run into trouble. I write this to warn you to make sure you explore what protections you have in place if you have an accident or illness or are a victim of crime. If you do go to La Estancia I think you'll like the facility but go knowing this is not a regular hotel and you cannot expect to have the same amenities because it is a complex of privately owned condominums that are rented out and therefore loosely run as a hotel.