The entire food staff was replaced last year when a Ritz-trained operations manager took over the management of La Estancia and Villa Del Arco. He hired Gabriel, a young chef trained in Argentina, who established a strong reputation in Chicago and Teluride before bringing his family here. We have avoided the ocean side restaurant in recent years. It now ranks as one of our favorites in all of Cabo, right up there with Hacienda. Food service, preparation and flavor were simply outstanding. Two items stand out -- the three mole sauce dinner with superb and distinct flavors on beef tenderloin medallions and shrimp -- and the red snapper entree. The restaurant reminded us of finer dining experiences in Europe. Rather than the monstrous portions served in so many Cabo dining establishments, the portions were reasonable and the sauces and other dishes designed to create a melody of tastes. We paid $250 for a much less enjoyable experience at Ruth's Chris on Christmas night at the Puerto Paraiso Mall; the meal we enjoyed tonight was $49 after our Gold Card discount. That gets a five star value rating from me. If only we could spend that money in town and come away with a similar taste sensation.

It's clear hotel management is working to improve all aspects of service. We do own a time share for Christmas week here. We have been coming for ten years and the reports of bad experiences suggest to me either hard to please people or we've just been very lucky. Wait staff here is terrific, friendly and service oriented.

We purchased our time share here and can't wait to return each year; the food was the only thing that made this a generally four star experience for us. Today, it's a five star experience.

Wow! Just returned from our vacation and have to say, it was by far, the best experience ever! We work a lot of hours and really want to make sure each vacation we take gives us the best bang for the buck. We absolutely hit the jackpot with VillaDelArcoCabo.com and DestinationCabo.com. I did a lot of research and price comparisons and Destination Vacations beat them all. AND they have a ton of information on the resorts, Cabo, activities, and advice on everything from where to eat to where and when to pickup groceries for our group. They are in Cabo several times a year, and more importantly knew who to work with to make our vacation the best. They even worked with the resort on some special requests we had talked about. One of our group had a flight delay, but Destination Vacations helped us contact the transportation company, kept in contact with us until they were on the way to the resort so we could greet our missing friend with a chilled local tequila! Every time we ate out, it was on the recommendation from Destination Vacations and we all thanked them with a toast at each meal ;-). We had an exceptional vacation and can't wait to do it again! This time we have several more friends who are going, after hearing all of us rave about the incredible room prices and overall great experience!

There were lots of negative reviews on this property, which we booked via Costco travel on the advice of a family friend who stayed here in spring. Someone said they were accosted, someone else said they were ripped off, there were lots of negative comments on timeshare sales tactics, etc. I took these seriously and had my guard up when we got there.

But not once were we bothered with timeshare people (we have dealt with them in Whistler, same game--free stuff if you sit here and let us try and get you to prepay for the next 20 vacations, etc.). The staff was not only helpful but very pleasant. Given the wide range of guests we mt at Villa Del Arco, language & cultural differences, etc. it's to be expected there are some issues as there always are with hotels no matter the country or how much you spend.

Our room was very nice and relaxing, plenty of room with kitchen & washer/dryer combo. They pool area was well taken care of and the food was very good. We did not go all inclusive because we wanted to spend time and meals in the town, and we are glad we did that. Doing the math it was cheaper to get a few meals per day from Costco and/or nibble at the taco bar as wanted, and hit the town for the fun restaurants. I will say I am very sick of Mexican food but it's still my favorite, had some great food at Del Arco in the Pearl restaurant and the Bucanero has a great daytime menu. The location is perfect for us--close enough to town we can walk the beach to Mango Bar, etc. but far enough away to be quiet and with fewer party animals (you know who you are, I love you but now I have little kids). Lots of families with kids and this made it fun for ours as well.

Do make sure you understand the checkout procedures, with people from all over the world coming and going they do have some procedures that are slightly different viz a viz checkout, paying your room tab, etc. but they were flexible in our checkout time (we have two little kids who needed a nap before a long day of travelling home).

Loved this place, we'll be back next year.

During our recent honeymoon stay at the Villa Del Arco, valuable diamond earrings were stolen from our room. Without a doubt, this resort is beautiful, if your want to risk losing your valuables though.

Oh sure...the so-called Chief of Security visited the room to investigate. However, we required a translator to assist, at this Hotel which caters to 95% English Speaking Americans.

As part of the investigation, it was determined from a review of the electronic lock that there were 3 separate incidents where different members of housekeeping entered our room, during our absence. Initially, we were assured that there would be "lie detector tests" administered on all 3 of the personnel. Later, we were informed that that would not be the case. Inside job maybe?

After nearly 30 days of exchanging communications that involved (1) The Director of Sales (2) The Regional Director of Operations and finally (3) The Rooms Division Manager, they informed us that they couldn't prove that their hotel employees were involved and that we needed to file a claim with our personal insurance carrier.

The worst part is that we are timeshare owners with the Villa Group and had expectations of a more reasonable outcome with some form of restitution.

Overall, be sure to place everything (except your suntan lotion) under lock and key. Be assured that the tiny safes provided in each room are incapable of securing all of your personal valuables otherwise. Don't waste your hard-earned money investing with this Company. You can do better by purchasing a vacation package through Expedia, Orbitz, etc.. Their new gimmick is to try to charge you 15K or more, to convert all current owners from a 30 year term ownership to a point program. No wonder the Resort owners are debt-free.

BEWARE.