I stayed at Hacienda Del Mar Vacation Club, 6/23-6/30. I was extremely pleased and delighted! My 1 bedroom timeshare was completely comfortable and spacious. You get free 30 min. internet at the Sheration Hotel, free coffee in the morning at Tomatoes, fun, free resort activities with David - he's a cutie! (i did the water aerobics, lotteria and cooklng class). On Tuesday evening, the owners party was open to all with free drinks, door prizes and appetizers! The Vacation club also offers a $10 round trip shuttle to town. The pools were refreshing and the ocean views magnificent. Life is good!

First of all RCI is confused between the Sheraton (Starwood) Hacienda del Mar Resort & Spa and the Hacienda del Mar Vacation Club. And to tell you the truth I can see why. We booked this week vacation back in September or October of 2007 and all the time not sure where we were staying exactly. We were finally convinced, after numerous phone calls, that we were staying at the Sheraton Hacienda del Mar Resort & Spa. When we arrived we were told at that front desk that we were, in fact, staying at the Vacation Club. Starwood is another story. Half the time they are part of Starwood and the other half not. Very confusing.

Now that I got that out of the way I can start on the review. When we booked this resort back in 2007 we booked an oceanfront unit. We not only didn't get oceanfront, we didn't get oceanview or oceanglimpse. The day after we arrived they shut one of the pools down. I mean emptied the pool and roped off the entire pool area for maintenance. So now, not only was the resort crowded, but we all were basically cramped into one area. The pool was closed the rest of our stay. I must say the pool personnel were very helpful and would bend over backwards to make sure you were comfortable. Our biggest complaint at this resort were the restaurants. I have alot of patience but I was getting really frustrated with the staff at the restaurants. I'm not talking about just one restaurant, I mean the three that we went to. Each of the three were extremely slow to serve you. On several occasions we saw people seat themselves at a table only to get up and leave after waiting so long for service. They would literally turn a 30-minute meal into about an hour to an hour-and-a-half. And believe me the food wasn't worth the wait.

Tip: Don't make any calls from the room telephone to the United States. Very costly. My wife had to make an emergency call and was on the phone for 11 minutes. Cost: $75. But I'm sure that goes for any other hotel.

On the plus side: the architecture of this resort is beautiful, the one-bedroom, 2-bath unit was nice and spacious with a full kitchen. Two TV's had good reception and plenty of channels. The bed was very comfortable. Always had hot water. Plenty of closets and drawers. We had a couple of problems and the maintenance people were there immediately. Right outside our room was the ice machine and across from the elevator but it wasn't noisy.

If I had to rate this resort from 1 (being the worst) to 5 (being the best) I would rate it a 3.5 to a 4. I was told this resort had a 5.5 star rating. I only thought it went to 5 stars. Either way I wouldn't give it 5 stars.

First off I will tell you that I am mid-twenties on my honeymoon and was not let down. The whole experience was amazing.

We landed fine in Cabo and had booked pre-arranged travel to the resort through Trans-Cabo based on reviews of TA. I had read that you have to walk through 2 doors of time-share people to get to the legit Trans-Cabo stand, and I was accosted by many people. We were led to a desk after the second door still in the airport that tried to trick us. They are very crafty. We caught on quickly and left the area and saw the Legit trans-cabo. You MUST exit the airport!! They are waiting outside, not after 2 doors, but 3 after security.

Anyways, our shuttle was off and full of people, but we are all happy to be on vacation, and asked the driver to stop for beers. We all grabbed a few and were on our way. We were some of the last ones to be dropped off, and it still only took 20-30 min with a stop for beer. Not Bad!!!

Once we saw the resort, we were so excited. We checked in easily enough, and were given and information packet on the resort and the discounts we could have if we attended the timeshare breakfast. We were curious, but were told we could sign up for it later if we decided to. They were confused as to how 2 mid-20's had a timeshare, but we quickly told them it was a gift from our parents for our honeymoon. They were fine with that and we had no pressure.

There are wonderful pools that have a variety of flavor and views. A pool was down for maintence while we were there that led to it being a bit more crowded around the main infinity pool. We were still able to get chairs, drinks, and had a great time! The pool concierge was wonderful coming around and giving cool towels, and cleaning my sunglasses. What a nice touch!! The beach area was clean and had plenty of chairs and huts for shade. There was a bar down in that area as well that had a daily happy hour. The happy hours rotated all day from pools, to beach, to Girasols (the rooftop restaurant) and The Tequila Bar. It was 2-4-1 at the happy hours, and with drinks being $9 it worked out well.

We had a great room with one bedroom, a bath, and a small kitchenette with a refridgerator. It was perfect for us. We did get a few snacks from the on site store with a large jug of water and a bottle of booze for us to make our own drinks. It was not that expensive, as we did not want to spend $50 on a cab ride and then whatever we would buy at walmart. We knew that it would be a little more expensive, but we are on our honeymoon, and we shared a few meals. It really was not that bad for the price considering the quality of the resort (awesome!!), location, and what you got. The worst meal we had was a so-so room service breakfast on our first day, otherwise it was all wonderful.

We had dinner at De Cortez one night and we made a reservation. We had a great table outside and the best meal I have had in a long time! It was less expensive that a nice seafood restaurant in Des Moines, and tasted way better! My husband and I each had a great meal, with a bottle of wine, and dessert for $140 + tip. Not too bad considering our meal, wine, and the fact we were on the beach!!!! We were so happy that we dined there again on our last night and it was just as good. We skipped the bottle of wine and dessert that night and ate for under $100 with drinks.

A few things to be aware of:
The bottle water at restaurants is $10. We were just suprised since you could buy the same bottle of water at the resort store for only $4. We only did it twice. We ate lunch at Girasols one day for happy hour and got taco's and water. The waitress asked if we wanted guacamole, and I did. We also asked for 2 margarita's and with the happy hour confusion, recieved 4. No big deal on the margarita's since we asked for a to-go glass to take it with and that worked, but we were charged $9 for the guacamole, and the $9 for a bottle of water. A lesson learned, and the taco's were very good. Oh, well.

I can't think of anything else off the top of my head, but it was a great resort to honeymoon at. We had wonderful food, drinks, sleep time, relaxing by the pool or beach. We only went into Cabo twice in the week we were there. We had no interest in the spring break feel of the beach in town, and the night clubs weren't really getting going while we were there, but I am sure that they are a blast. We will save that for when we are there again with friends.

Any questions, just send me a message.

Just returned from a 6 night stay at the Hacienda del Mar. Our unit (37) was quite a distance from the ocean. And it was an uphill hike to return to our room.

Our unit's refridgerator did not work the first two days of our visit. The dishwasher did not pump out the water, so there was stagnant and foul smelling odors when we arrived. And there was no hot water during the afternoons when we would try and get cleaned up for dinner.

Main pool area was nice but crowded. Great view of ocean. One section was under maintenance so that may have forced people into the other areas. Dolphin pool area was much quieter; pool guys were most helpful. But no ocean view there.

Restaurants were good, but pricey. We, like many others, made a WalMart run (a $55 cab ride) and stocked up on breakfast foods and sandwich makings. That helps some. But had some difficulty finding American brand food items--the ones that we did find were very expensive. Oscar Mayer ham--$6.00 for small container.

We were told we wouldn't need a car and that a shuttle was available to go into town. There is a shuttle, but it is $10 round trip (plus tip). With a family of 5 adults, it was the same price to take a private cab. And the shuttle stops service at about 9:30 PM, so if anyone loves the nightlife, the shuttle isn't a good option.

Probably will not return to HDM. There has to be better hotels in a more convenient location for the amount of money we paid.