I just returned from a 6 day/5 night stay at the Pueblo Bonito Pacifica Resort and Spa. My wife and I, both age 37, from Los Angeles, stayed at the Pacifica from Nov 15-20th. We booked our vacation through Costco Travel, whose package included flights, ground transfer, and hotel rooms.

Check in was easy... with a brief explanation of the restaurants' schedules, a brief stop by the "timeshare" desk for our AI bracelets, where we politely declined an invitation for a timeshare tour (no pressure), a bell boy presented us with cool towels and bottled water, and we were on our way to our room.

The room was good, had a view of the ocean and the pool/grounds, but didn't have the king bed that we requested (kinda important for an anniversary trip). I called the front desk to see if a king room was available, but was told that there wasn't... Jose, our bell hop, suggested going to the front desk the next morning to inquire about a king room, knowing that a number of guests would be checking out... which I did, and we were accommodated that afternoon. The new room was in a quieter end of the resort and had a better view than before.

Here are the main points that I took away from our stay at the Pacifica:

1. Service was friendly and helpful, always. From the front desk staff, concierge, bar tenders, cleaning crew, activities coordinator at the pool, the wait staff, and shop clerks, all were smiles, helpful, and courteous. Everyone looked like they really enjoyed working there.

2. We spent a lot of time at the pool, simply relaxing, getting a tan, and enjoying cocktails and lunch... Service was good, drinks tasty, and the lunch food - fish tacos, beef tacos, shrimp tacos, and chips & salsa were good... we looked forward to lunch. I suggest "reserving" a couple chairs by the pool by placing a flip flop, book, or hat on them before 9am... everyone else does. And if you get to the pool after 10am, then good luck finding a place to sit. That being said, it seemed that there was almost enough chairs for all the guests.

3. The nightly dinner buffet was not so good. As mentioned in previous reviews, it was the same ingredients every night, but somehow dressed up for the various "themes": Mexican night, Asian Night, Latin Night, American Night.... which translates to Salad, Rice, Beans, Chicken & Beef fajitas (or stir fry, or BBQ)... the buffets were poorly attended, quiet and just not that good. Mexican night was the only time we tried it (our first night there, we figured it would be easy)... there weren't any tortilla chips, guacamole, or tortillas...strange.

4. Siempre, the "nice, sit-down restaurant" was good-great. Breakfasts from the menu were great, and fresh, with great coffee and juices. We ate the breakfast buffet once - not so good, I recommend avoiding any and all buffets here. Dinner at Siempre was great. The food and service was "high-end", with interesting, Mexican takes on items like Filet Mignon, Mashed Potatoes, Salmon Ravioli, Tuna Tartar, and Creamed Corn. Service at Siempre was great.

5. The Pool: As mentioned in other reviews, the pools have missing tiles. To get a better idea of what this means, the pools are finished in small, bathroom floor style 1" blue tiles. While the pools and the hotel are just under 10 years old, the pool is in bad shape. Tiles are missing everywhere. It isn't dangerous and it won't hurt your feet, but it just looks BAD... embarrassingly bad. I have to imagine how upsetting the hotel owners must have been when this started to happen, and I imagine it would be a real drag to close and drain this enormous pool in order to fix the tiles or completely redo the pool with a more permanent solution like gunite.

6. The Bars - all the bar tenders were helpful to make and poor just about anything you wanted, from shots to mixed drinks and beers. If you ever asked for something not included in the AI, they would let you know. I never felt "duped" into ordering something I would have to pay extra for - very nice. A bar was open somewhere from about 10am - 12midnight...

7. The Spa - We got a couples massage. The spa facilities are very nice - includes a hot tub, cold plunge bath, relaxation/quiet room, steam room, and nicely appointed locker rooms. While smaller, it would be comparable to Burke Williams. The massages were very good, I would recommend them.

8. The sushi restaurant was good, with quality comparable to our usual sushi places here in LA.

Overall, If I were to compare this resort to others that I have been to (not in Cabo), I'd give it a B+ or A-. For the money, considering service, and facilities/accommodations, it doesn't compare to hotels in Las Vegas, where state of the art accommodations, multiple restaurant choices, pools, and entertainment, etc., can be had for just over $100/night... But compared to what we saw in Cabo, walking around town... its easily one of the better, and secluded hotels.

The resort is relaxing, with the sounds of water fountains, new age music, and the smell of lavender almost everywhere. Even the shuttle van that takes you to the other Pueblo Bonito resorts smells of lavender. Its adults only, which was great, and i would guess the average age of guests would be between 35-55.

A group of us were at the resort for a long weekend. Atleast 12 of us became extremely ill upon returning home from the trip. We were eventually diagnosed with a rare parasite, most likely obtained from either the pool or ice in the drinks. Despite multiple calls/emails, the resort refused to accept any responsibility. Horribly disappointing to me since it put other guests at risk.

Spent a relaxing five days at this property November, it was off season so the hotel was not that busy. The hotel is very low key and did not seem to cater to the crazy party crowd, another plus no one under 18 allowed,so you didn't have kids running around and playing Marco Polo! When you arrive you go through a mix of gates, as the hotel is part of a compound with another hotel and private residences. The compound is on its own private beach, great for walking not safe for swimming, they have strong under tow in the area. The hotel is all inclusive, the food is fare, the service however was very friendly and they would go out of the way to make sure you were happy. We booked a few side trips, snorkeling and fishing and everything was taken care of including our choice of beer on the fishing boat. This property is about 10 minutes from the marina, shopping district and its only a$15 cab ride. This property is perfect for people who want to relax and just enjoy the peace and quite of a true Mexican resort.

After reading the great reviews we decided to splurge a little and take the all-inclusive package at this resort for our Cabo trip. The location and the grounds were very nice. The room smelled musty, especially with air conditioning turned on, so we kept it off. Food was decent, but nothing special; though the Siempre restaurant's dinner was above average.

But what really ruined the experience was the service. The service was not what one would expect from this highly rated "luxury" all inclusive resort. We had a problem at virtually every meal, whether it was something being forgotten, or very slow service. Around the pool, the staff would avert their eyes or seem take alternate paths to avoid having to take our order. We managed to order a grand total of maybe 3 drinks from the pool during our 7 day stay. It was almost comical what poor service we received. But in relation to what we paid for this trip, not comical at all.

The pool area was overcrowded. Finding an unreserved lounge chair was difficult to impossible from around noon onward. At one point we gave up and went for the beach chairs, but they were all in the blazing sun with zero umbrellas. We were told that they could not put any umbrellas up on the beach for us.

All in all, I regret paying up for this supposedly premium resort only to get sub par service. I am hard pressed to understand why it was so highly rated.

Go for a more middle-of-the-road hotel/resort if you stay in Cabo. You will likely get better service at a better price.