I would agree with most of the reviews regarding this venue, both positive and negative. The views are incredible and overall the facilities are very decent, spacious (we got the larger size suite) and being this close to Medano beach and Land's End is defintely a big plus. IMHO it is far better than the sister property at Villa Palmar and worth the extra money. Yes the beds are hard and short, but this didn't bother me/us too much. I scraped my foot pretty good on the ridulously rough pool surfaces that are common to both properties and have been complained about at length. Bear in mind that we are older with 2 small children and not party types for this review. We did have a lot of fun on our trip and have some great pictures, video and memories. The weather was superb even for what is usually their hottest month. The days were only "scorchy" hot for the peak hours of 12-4 and not bad at all by the pool, the nights were balmy and reminded me of Hawaii.

I have two points that I would like to emphasize: one regarding La Estancia and one on Cabo overall.

1) Be VERY CAREFUL around the pool area at La Estancia with your personal belongings (and at resorts in general, even at "nice" places). If you even get up to get a drink something can be taken from your lounge area around the pool. So my advice is: TAKE NOTHING TO THE POOL AREA OR BEACH that you can't afford to lose (and no more than $20 cash equivalent). Leave anything of value in your room safe such as glasses, watches, wallets, cash etc. In fact I would recommend buying a cheap pair of sunglasses for your trip rather than take a good pair to Mexico that could get lost or stolen. I lost a pair of older prescription glasses (non sunglasses) on one day and a nice, but not expensive watch on another day, just being left briefly by my lounge chair. I thought my wife was staying by the pool when I left the watch (inside a baseball cap), but she had to get something for one of the kids and that was enough time to lose my cap and watch. There is no such thing as a lost and found here. The staff apparently regards anything by the pool out of your sight as open for taking. You will get no help finding anything from the staff. The only people that I felt really that had anything to offer us was the housekeeping staff, they were great (and we tipped them daily). The office/service people generally have no clue and are only interested in you if you want to buy on site property.

This whole area reminds me of the Hawaiian real estate bubble of the late 80's that popped so hard that prices fell about 60-70% before stabilizing. I think you'd be nuts to consider buying vacation property outside the US (and especially in Mexico) unless you are independently wealthy and travel a lot, especially at these much higher than US prices and in view of the world wide real estate bubble in progress.

The Resort grocery store can be utilized to buy food for using in your kitchenette, but again these prices make 7-11 look like Costco (there is a Costco now in CSL). Expect to pay $7 for a frozen can of Bacardi mix, $5 for a very small jar of Skippy and so on; with some items not so ridiculous, but you will spend at least $30-40 for a small plastic bag of groceries, say 6-7 items, don't waste your money on bottled water at the resort (it's perfectly fine for bathing and drinking). But it is still probably cheaper buying food at the store vs. eating in town or at the high priced restaurants on site. Don't bring your laptop (it might get stolen), you can get online for $9 per hour at the Deli store (they have about a dozen broadband laptops for guest use, so there's usually one available). If you spend more than one hr per day online while in Cabo you have some serious issues with your priorities...go to the beach instead :-)

Also, you can not get any soap for your dishwasher anywhere around here, so I would pack a small container of dry dishwasher granules to bring with you.

The beach is beautiful but the sand is very coarse and rough, you can't even make sand castles here. I unfortunately spent $20 on sand toys (the type you can get at Walmart for $3) which our two kids could barely even use due to the rough sand.

2) I was shocked on this trip to Mexico, not having visited here since the 80's and having gotten some good deals back then. My second main point is THERE IS NOTHING CHEAP in Cabo, and I suspect in most Mexican resorts. Expect to pay US prices or higher on most things. Any meal eaten out for more than 2 people will likely run at least $100 with only one drink each. Expect $10-12 for salads and hamburgers and at least $20-30 for most entres similar to anything you would get at Chevy's or El Torito in the states. Most mixed drinks are at least $6-7. Although admitedly the seafood is better than what you would get at home unless you live near the ocean and can get it as fresh as it is here.

We had a nice meal at Cabo Wabo but it was ridiculously overpriced. We liked the food at Pancho's the best and ate there twice. Also the Hard Rock in Cabo has pretty good food, but is about 20% higher than their US prices. We had a medicore meal at Mango's (2 for one good strong drinks, so if you're drunk you don't remember the meal), and we avoided the Office next door which seemed geared to the younger more rowdy, drinking crowd.

We had a great time on the Sunset Buccaneer Queen cruise and felt it was a worth while event to cap off our trip. The daytime snorkel cruise might be nice too. You can check out their website: h-----------

Most shopping was for trinkets and these again were a lot more than I figured. You can get straw hats around $10-12 and T shirts are not too bad. Anything nice like pottery or silver will set you back a good chunk so shop around and compare prices, and you'd likely pay less for good English china or US made items (esp bought on line). You may get better deals in San Jose del Cabo than in CSL. Don't forget to buy a big jug of vanilla extract here which is still a good bargain compared to the US.

All in all, we would go back to Cabo, but I would utilize the kitchenette more and go off site to buy cheaper food to make ourselves. Maybe I would look harder for other luxury Condominium rentals in this area. I would prefer to stay in this area in Cabo (rather than closer to San Jose, where some of the larger hotel chains have sites), but may or may not stay again at La Estancia. Pueblo Bonito (next door) which has kitchenettes also, may be the better deal than La Estancia.
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