I had a bit of a problem with the Finisterra Hotel (the trip was the week of May 28 through June 4).

We arrived at the Finisterra late on Saturday, May 28th, around 10pm. When we arrived, we received a Palapa Beach Hotel room, Room 117, which is a few steps off of the Lobby. Before I even accepted the room, I told the front desk that a first floor room, especially a first floor room off of the lobby was not what I wanted. They told me that they were full and that they could not provide me with another room. Although I can't be sure, I just have to state that for a "full" hotel, they seemed pretty empty (I admit that I have nothing to ensure that the hotel was NOT full, but it just didn't seem as if it was). While the room was in the Palapa Beach section, this was by no means a quality room.

First, you were directly off of the lobby and could hear all of the outside activity early in the morning.

Second, the room was not well maintained. There was mold in the bathrooms and cobwebs in the corners on the ceiling. We also were walking the hallways of the hotel and saw a large cockroach on the 5th floor.

Third, the room was very small. It essentially had a bed, and a table with one chair. Everything was squeezed in together.

Fourth, the view from the room was more of a view of the parking garage and the Playa Grande Hotel, rather than of the pool and the ocean. You had to crane your neck to see anything.

So, needless to say, that after a long day of travel, I was extremely disappointed. When I told the front desk that I wanted to switch rooms the next morning, they were not too excited about assisting me. They did tell me to come back in the morning.

Waking up early on the morning of the 29th, I went to the front desk and spoke with the man there and re-explained my situation. After much debate with the other female attendant, they told me that I could have a room on the 5th floor. I said okay, and that I would come back when we were ready to accept. He said to be back in 1 hour. When I came back after that 1 hour, I was told that the room that I was going to get on the 5th floor was no longer an option because the people staying there had decided to stay an extra day. I did NOT believe this for a second. Even so, I told the man that he could give me one of the many rooms now available after the line of people at the front desk had finished checking out. After more hemming and hawing, he pulled out a list of "Cambios" (changes) and put my room change on there. What is shocking to me is that he had a long list of "Cambios"!! Many people were changing rooms and I have no idea why I wasn't put on the list immediately when I requested the change earlier that morning or even when I checked in the evening before.

So, bottom line, after all of the hassle we changed rooms. We moved to Room 510, which was the complete opposite of Room 117. The room was much, much larger. It had a couch, an end table, a table with 2 chairs, and a desk. The room was much cleaner (no cobwebs, but still a lot of mold in the bathtub area). And the view of the ocean and pool was fabulous.

Overall, I would like to express that it is important to be wary of the different levels of rooms offered at this hotel and especially the cost that they charge for the rooms off of the lobby (there looked to be about 3 lobby rooms). The two rooms we stayed in were night and day. The fact that they were charging the same price for those rooms was completely unacceptable. Anyone forced to stay in the lobby rooms for multiple days should get a credit to the cost of their trip.

In addition, although the new room was much, much better, the Hotel is an extremely loud place. This is the first 5 Apple (I booked the trip through Apple vacations) hotel I've ever stayed in (I've done only 6 apples previously when visiting Mexico, the Marriott Casa Magna, in Cancun, the Fiesta Americana, in Puerto Vallarta, and the Moon Palace, in the Riviera Maya) and I'm not sure the things I saw were necessarily a part of a 5 apple trip. For example, the hotel was extremely loud, and I'm not just talking about the screaming drunk people at the pool each day, after happy hour (which were very annoying), but the hotel walls were paper thin. You could hear everything. Chairs moving in the rooms, chairs and tables moving on the balconies (you could hear this while you were in your room), and the cleaning ladies knocking on doors at 7am in the morning, screaming "Hola" and walking in. You could hear people above you, below you, and next to you. It was strange and not super relaxing. Also, I have never, ever, slept on a bed as hard as the ones at the Finisterra. You could have slept on the concrete floor and have gotten as much comfort. I can't believe that beds are truly manufactured to be so hard!! Finally, the lighting in the bathrooms was so minimal. When you were showering, you were essentially showering in the dark. The hotel needs to fix these problems!

Despite all that, I LOVED Cabo San Lucas. The city is unique, the area is absolutely gorgeous, and the food is incredible. I would recommend the area to anyone, but I probably wouldn't recommend the Finisterra. My trip was great, but the hassle and disappointment I felt with my hotel put a damper on things, which is not something you want when you are spending a lot of money. In the future, I will also think twice about the value of an Apple rating. I'm not convinced they got it right on this one.

I was a little leary of this resort because I knew that it was an older hotel and was not sure about the distance into town. We got a great rate through Hotels so it made me wonder if it was too good to be true.
We wanted to stay in town because the cab rides into town can be pricey.
We arrived early to the hotel and our room was not yet ready. There were 2 different couples angry at the front desk and trying to switch rooms because they were unhappy for some reason, so I was expecting the worst! We were hustled for a timeshare from the getgo, but after taking our free margarita coupons and politely declining, we were never bothered again. While waiting for our room, we enjoyed the wonderfully priced happy hour at the Palapa pool bar...beers were $1.25 a piece at the 2X1 price and frozen drinks $2.50--
We checked into our room at 4pm-we had upgraded to the newer portion of the hotel for the ocean view room. We were on the 6th floor and did have a wonderful view of the ocean and pool. Our sink was clogged when we go there but it was promply fixed as soon as we reported it.
The hotel was clean, the service was good and it was in a great location. I think I will stay at this resort everytime I go back to Cabo. We were able to walk into town whenever we wanted--for meals, to go to the store, to go out at night...etc. The marina is directly across the street and there is a walkway around the marina with shops/restauraunts/water taxis. I would not recommend any of the marina restaraunts as they are all a bit touristy. Use the marina walkway to get into town and find the restaraunts and shops in town where there is less traffic. This resort was wonderful--I was pleasantly surprised--I think the couples that were complaining about their rooms when we checked in may have been in the old portion of the hotel that overlooked the marina. I never did see those rooms.
If you are looking for a good location, clean resort, nice beach and pool...this is it for you.
If I did have any complaints, it was from my husband b/c the basketball playoffs were on while we were there and there were not enough english channels on the tv for him to watch the game, but since we were so close to town it was not a problem to walk in and we did not have to spend a lot of money on cabs....we only took 1 cab ride the entire time we were there and it was $6 from the center of downtown to our hotel.

We stayed here one night and booked through expedia . The room was small and difficult to find especially with suitcases. Our bathroom shower sprayed water all over and it leaked into the powder room . We were also missing Bath towels and a coffee maker which they brought as soon as we brought it to there attention. We loved the pool area and the Whale watcher bar and the personnel at the hotel were very nice. In 2004 we stayed in one of the timeshare rooms [our parents have a timeshare there] and those rooms were wonderful.

I can't imagine why people haven't mentioned the wind. This is a windy windy place and I don't believe it is a fluck (sp?).

Neat location to walk to town and harbor. The hill is NOT a BIG deal. The pools are pretty but NO one, and I mean NO one was on the beach because it was so darn windy. I even built a fort with the lounge chairs to hide from the wind.

The rooms were good. I like having the sink separate from the tub and toilet. Ice available on every floor. The gym was really small. Not worth going to. Take a run along the marina instead.

This place had the best exchange rate. Their concierges were very helpful too. Beware of the "timeshare" folks though.

Not a bad place but I would not stay here again, mostly due to the wind.