We stayed at the Sheraton Hacienda del Mar resort in the Vacation Club from Monday, July 31st to Monday, August 7th. We were a group of 8 - four adults, an 8 year old, two 4 year olds, and a 3 year old child. Weather was sunny and in the 90's from Monday to Sunday, we got clounds and rain on our last day. Our entire group absolutely loved this resort and would return again and again! We traded through RCI for our stay at the Hacienda del Mar, they follow the 1 in 4 rule which allows you to trade in only once every four years.

CHECK-IN - Check in time is 4pm, you will not get your keys any earlier so plan accordingly. When we arrived around 2:30pm we checked our bags, got our room assignment and then were escorted out to the patio for drinks, fresh fruit, and our "welcome package" - this is when they try to sign you up for the timeshare presentation - told them we were not interested and we were not hounded. We went into downtown Cabo for lunch, then stopped at Costco to pick up supplies. We arrived back at the resort around 5pm to avoid the 4pm rush for check-in. Our room was ready, we grabbed our keys and were driven to our room on golf carts with our luggage.

OUR ROOM - Thanks to my mother-in-law we were able to trade in to a 3 bedroom/4 bath Penthouse, room 833 in Villa Azucena. Looking at the property map we didn't think we would have a view, luckily we ended up with spectacular ocean views! The penthouses are 2 stories on the tops of the villas, the bottom floor has a master bedroom with king bed, chair & chaise, table with 2 chairs, Armoire with TV, 2 nightstands, and a huge closet. The master bath has a large tiled jaccuzi tub, seperate shower, vanity and sink, plus seperate toilet. There is a full kitchen with full size fridge with freezer, microwave, stove top, toaster oven, toaster, blender, coffee pot, pots, pans, dishes, glasses, flatware - everything you'd need to cook and eat. Lots of cupboard space for storing water, snacks, etc. The dining are seats six at a large table plus 3 more on barstools at a tiled bar. The living room consisted of a nice sized sofa bed, 2 chairs and an armoire with TV. Upstairs you'll find 2 more bedrooms each with 2 queen beds, armoire with TV, nightstands and a chair. Each bedroom also has its own bathroom with vanity & sink, tub/shower combo, and seperate toilet. A large balcony stretches across both bedrooms upstairs and across the living room and master bedroom downstairs, there are 2 small tables and 4 chairs on each balcony. The 4th bathroom is at the bottom of the stairs in the entry, it has a shower, sink and toilet. All of the floors are tiled but we never noticed much noise. Our room was spotless when we arrived, furniture was in good condition too. Housekeeping was fantastic, our room was clean each day before we arrived back from the pool. We had plenty of space for our group of 8, we could have easily fit 4 more people in the room.

RESORT GROUNDS - The resort grounds are so beautiful! The property is made up of the large main resort hotel and several 4 story villas in shades of red, yellow, orange, and browns. The architecture is gorgeous. Fountains and mosaic tile accents are everywhere. You'll find a small group of shops and an ATM in the courtyard of the main hotel. The ATM only dispenses pesos, you can get change for large bills in the lobby. There is a small convenience store call Los Portales for food basics, drinks, ice cream, etc. Get ready to pay $3 for 1 can of soda or bottle of water!There is also a chapel on site and a fiesta palapa for outdoor weddings, and a convention center. There are stairs here and there, as the villas are built so as those it the back sit higher up on small hills to get the ocean views. We always walked, but I could see how it may be very tiring for someone who's much older or doesn't get around easily. Golf carts are available to help transport you if need be.

THE POOLS/BEACH - There are 4 pools at the resort. It seems like there are more because they are so expansive and smaller pools spill into larger pools, connecting under bridges too. The pools stretch all the way across the front of the resort just steps from the ocean and up the side near the golf course. The pool temepratures vary from cool, to to warm for us! One pool is about 4 ft deep with a volleyball net and basketball hoop, 2 others have small children's pools and shallow areas for children to play. There are plenty of cushioned chairs around each pool, there are signs stating that towels will be removed if left unattended - they were not. We were down at the pool early several times and all of the prime seats were covered with towels - these people usually arrived at the pool around 1pm. If you arrived by 10am you could still get a great spot by 12pm most chairs were taken. There are lots of umbrellas at the pool providing shade for those who need it. Towels at the pool are very large and thick you don't need to bring your own. I've heard talk of having to use towel cards with a deposit of $25 each - we didn't have the cards, just wrote our name and room number on the list at the towel shack each day. Our favorite pool was the one closest to Pitahayas, it was right in front of a towel shack, located right where they do most of the activities, and had nice music playing all day. Food and drink is available at all pools, the menus vary. The beach is beautiful but unswimmable, the surf was huge while we were there. The sand is clean with shells and coral for collecting. There are palapas with chairs for lying on the beach. There is also a beach bar for food and drink service. The water is the most gorgeous blue, just watch out for those waves!

GYM/SPA - The fitness center and spa are currently under renovation so everything has been moved into small meeting rooms. My husband worked out every morning - they had tredmills, ellipticals, bikes, weights, etc. Some mornings people would have to sit and wait to use the equipment because the gym was full. We were never charged for fitness center use. We did not try any spa treatements, I wanted the full spa experience, since it was under renovation we decided to wait until next time. I didn't want a treatment in a meeting room.

ACTIVITIES - When you arrive you'll be given a weeks schedule of the daily activities. Activites are free of charge and available daily from 9am to 4pm. There are stretching classes, water aerobics, bartending & cooking classes, spanish & salsa dancing lessons, trivia, beach volleyball, blackjack, billiards, table games, ping-pong tournaments, karaoke, and bingo and a few others. Prizes for bingo and some of the other games are free drinks at the pool bars, we won several!

KIDS CLUB/BABYSITTING - There is a kids club available called Sheratoons. It is for children aged 5-11 years old. The club is available daily from 9:30am to 4pm. The cost for full day is $16, 1/2 day is $12, $1 hour is $6. There is a daily activity schedule for the kids club with activities like movie time, sea shell hunt, coloring, spainsh lessons, etc. You'll pay extra for lunch and activities like -pinata making, mask making, picture frames, etc. Private babysitting is also available in your room, the rate is $15 per hour for one child, $20 per hour for 2 children, there is no hourly minimum.

RESTAURANTS/FOOD - There are 4 restaurants and 5 bars at the resort. Pitahayas is Pacific Rim fine dining under a large palapa with ocean views. D'Cortez is a steak & seafood restaurant we could not get reservations on some nights due to weddings taking place. They did allow seating outside during one of the weddings but only 6 tables were available. We attempted to set up the Romantic Dinner on the Beach but the plans were cancelled due to high surf. Tomatoes - was a great family friendly choice with pizza, sandwich, chicken fingers, and great chocolate cake! We ordered lunch from the pool bars each day, prices at our favorite pool were $11 usd for any item on the menu, drinks were $8= unless it was happy hour - they are 2 for 1, there is also a daily drink special which is 2 for 1 all day. The food at the pool was all very good - hamburgers, tacos, sandwiches, quesidillas, nachos, etc. They do not have kids menus by the pools. Girasoles is the best place for breakfast -$12.99 per adult, half price for kids, it's all you can eat but it's not a buffet - you order anything and everything you want off of their menu. They'll bring our fresh squeezd OJ, fresh baked pastries, toast & fruit to start, then you order your main entrees off of the menu. The service here was excellent and so was the food. Room Serivce was excellent, arrived quickly, food very good and only a few dollars more than the menus at the pool. A word of warning - some of the restaurants at the resort will charge you more if you pay in USD as opposed to pesos, example - one bill we got at the pool was for 201 pesos, or we had to pay $28.80 USD - I don't know why they do this but they do! We all decided that next time we come to this resort we'll eat on site more, the food was better than most places downtown and about the same price or less.

TRANSPORTATION - There is a car rental desk on site in the lobby. The resort also offers a daily shuttle into downtown Cabo for $10 pp round trip , pick it up at the lobby. The shuttle runs every 1 1/2 hours beginning at 9am and ending at 9pm. You are dropped off and picked up at the Puerto Paraiso mall. If you want to take a taxi just go to the lobby and they'll call one for you. Taxi's arrived in just a minute or two. The cost for our group of 8 - 4 adults, 4 children was $30 each way in to downtown, $20-$30 coming back to the resort. The taxis vary, some have AC some don't , some have seatbelts for everyone, some maybe for 2 seats, some just belts no buckles - totally useless! We felt ripped off every time we took a taxi, but it's the price you pay if you don't want to drive in Mexico. The road system seemed to confusing to me, maybe after a few visits, but for a first timer forget it!

LAUNDRY - There is now a do-it-yourself laundry facility on site. The cost is $10 usd per load to wash and $2 usd to dry. You purchase your coins from the Los Portales Store. The laundry room is open from 8am to 10pm daily.

TV/INTERNET/NEWSPAPER - You can purchase pay-per-view moives in the room, there are no DVD players or VCRS. We brought a portable and hooked it up easily. You'll get HBO, CNN, ESPN, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and The American Network in english. We did not use the internet service but it there is a broadband connection available in the room - for a fee. There are also many wireless areas throughout the resort and around the pools. For $5 usd the resort will order you a copy of any newspaper you want, just order by 7pm the previous night.

CONCIERGE - These guys were great! I made several reservations before arriving in Cabo. Once at the resort I had the concierge call to confirm the reservations I had made and to make the rest of our dinner reservations. I highly recommend doing this when you arrive - every single reservation that I made before our vacation was non-existant, the concierge had to make new reservations for us. I know this because I was sitting there as he called each business and restaurant , each one he called said they had no record of the reservation even though I had printed confirmations! Next time I will wait until we arrive and have the concierge make all of our reservations to avoid the hassel. Francisco & Pablo also had great recommendations for fishing, horseback riding and anything else you might want to do.

OFFSITE - We did the Buccaneer Queen (pirates) Sunset Cruise - not a raunchy booze cruise, perfect for families and people of all ages. They had open bar, chips & guacamole, pretzels & veggis. They play music, do a cheezy little pirate show. We enjoyed being out on the water at sunset. We also went horseback riding on the beach with Cuadra - great guy, beautiful horses. You ride just to the left of the Riu. The ride is 1 1/2 hours for $45, our toddlers rode with us for free. Lots of fun! The Fiesta at The Office - Cabo's answer to the luau only 100 times better! I'd go back every year. You order off the regular menu, no extra cost for the show. There were Mayan fire dancers, machete dancers, a pinata for the kids, we did a conga line, danced on the stage too! Had a blast - highly recommend this - make reservations it's booked solid and only available on Sundays & Thursdays. La Golondrina - Loved the shrimp dynamite, found the lobster mushy (as it was at every restaurant - I stopped ordering lobster) great service, too many flies, my husband got sick from his mahi-mahi. Solomon's Landing - 2 got very sick, constantly bothered by vendors, would not return, would not recommend. Pancho's - Best mexican food we tried, highly recommend, great service too, would go here again and again. Senior Sweets, fabulous ice cream and pastries, went back a second time it was so good! Puerta Vieja - Beautiful views, amazing service, excellent food. Highly recommended!

The Hacienda del Mar is a beautiful resort, we would return evey year if we could. I can highly recommend a stay at his resort you will not be disappointed! It's paradise! In comparison, we stayed at the Four Seasons Resort Wailea in Maui last summer - I liked the Hacienda del Mar and Cabo much more! We got the same and at times better service at the Hacienda- Iced towels at the pool, a woman walking around spritzing you with cool water spray, a gentelman walking around with a cart cleaning everyones sunglasses, gorgeous grounds, top notch restaurants, several beautiful pools, fantastic concierge, spacious accomodations, lots of complimentary activities too. Save your money and come to Cabo!