The third vacation to San Jose saw us bringing along the kiddies for a family Thanksgiving vacation. Given there were 5 in our party we decided on the Solaris for the quiet of San Jose and the affordability of this all-inclusive resort. Here's my take on the facility:

Service: Top notch. Came in late Friday night. Since we booked two rooms we requested adjoining rooms. None were available our first night but they were able to accommodate us the second day. Extremely impressed with waiter Ramiro. Extremely professional and knows the meaning of service as does the rest of the staff.

Grounds: Well kept and very pleasing.

Rooms: We had a "Deluxe" ocean view room. I found the rooms to be dated and need of renovation. House keeping did a great job keeping things tidy. I found a nice tip to the house cleaner really kept things sparkling. Her towel "lion" on my 4 year old's roll-a-way really made his day after a hard day of Kids Club and the pool. Bed was hard but I've slept on worse. The ocean view was slight but on the other hand the balcony was spacious. Nice for morning coffee.

Pool: Nice size but as we've found from past trips to Los Cabos...cold. A dip in the ocean was warmer than the pool. But the pool is well maintained. The late morning/afternoon entertainment was enjoyable.

Food: I'm split 50/50 on the food. As mentioned before we arrived late Friday night and just was able to get a bite in the theater before they closed. Granted we arrived late to the food but it we had trouble getting the kids to eat because the food did not look appetizing to them. My kids aren't usually picky eater but then it was later in the PM and we had traveled most of the day. The lunch time snack bar was more to the kids liking. They enjoyed the strawberry "smoothies" more so than the soda fountain drinks. The afternoon ice cream was a hit. We reserved a night for the "Steakhouse Dinner", which was nice. The steaks are much thinner than one expects but in my experience it is on par with what is found in Mexico. Tasty just the same. The red wine was good as well. We ate out a few nights in San Jose at some restaurants we enjoy so we didn't get a chance to try the Mexican or Italian restaurants on the property.

Kids Club: Excellent! My 4 year old would jump out of bed and be ready to go meet his new friends every morning. Staff was very nice and professional. The pools and the slide were a hit with the little one.

Cocktails: Disappointment. Yea they're unlimited but quality in the mixing was bad. Even if you use cheap booze if its mixed right no big deal. I think it was just a matter of the bartenders being slammed throughout the day and having to get the drinks out pronto. I opted to head to Mega Mercardo and bought some large plastic cups and mixers. By utilizing the canned beer from the room's fridge I packed those in ice and took down to the pool. I'd mix my own beers with Clamato. If I was in need of a cocktail I'd get some rum over ice and use the soda fountain at the snack bar. The cola had fizz as opposed to the 2 litre bottles of soda the bartenders used.

Overall: We stayed at the Royal Solaris for the all-inclusiveness and price. Don't get me wrong I knew based on price point what I was getting. No grand illusions. And for what we paid it was worth the money. There were some items I'd change but when aren't there when you go on vacation. If I'd had paid a couple grand more with a certain expectations based on the extra money I'd have been disappointed. Again, overall a nice place. and decent value.

This is our third time to the Cabo region. The first time we stayed at the Riu Santa Fe, the second time at the Presidente (now The Holiday Inn) and now the Royal Solaris. Of the three I would rate the Riu Santa Fe the best property we have stayed at. However if your travelling with your kids, I would recommend the Royal Solaris, lots of family activites, one large pool for everyone although a kiddy type of pool is attached overlooking the swimup bar where the kids can watch over their parents.

A quiet adult pool and hot tub is around at one end of the hotel property looking over the beach. Placing towels on chairs in the very early mornings can be an issue but I feel if the hotel allows this then what do you expect.

Our room was on the top floor right in the center of the hotel nicely overlooking the pool and ocean. I found the bed was okay, my wife found the longer we were there the harder it got so hard/soft, take it whatever way you want. The room was very clean, everything worked, except being a little outdated it was fine.

When checking it make sure you ask for a safe lock and key. It costs $1.00 per day. They may not offer it to you so save yourself a trip back to the Lobby and possibly a lineup to get the lock and key.

The breakfasts were always pretty good, the lunches were okay and the suppers were hit and miss. Never saw any of the shows so can't comment on this.

Away from the resort there is a nice Italian Pizzeria restaurant at the Square in San Jose Del Cabo. Check out the old Tropicana Hotel and maybe a Burger at the Retro Burger. And as always stop in at Shooter's Bar which is very Canadianized as evidenced by the many Sports logos from Canadian teams including the most important one from the KELOWNA ROCKETS.

We took the Camel Ride which was kind of hokey but fun and informative at the same time with an excellent lunch, probably the best all week. If you book this tour I recommend taking the bus into Cabo San Lucas from in front of the Mega store and make a day of it touring around the Marina etc. and then taking the tour which leaves from there. We took the tour from our hotel, the bus was late so we ended up waiting around for about 50 minutes for the next ride out to the where the Camel ride was. It's only 15 minutes on the camels but that is probably enough. Some people complained about the cost but glad I went.

All in all it was what I expected and comparable to staying at the Holiday Inn. Pretty laid back in the evening with the only real entertainment being the lobby bar which had live bands, good to very bad Karaoke and the occasional drunk on a friend search making an [--] of himself.

I have been going to this resort since 2002. It is the most relaxing, and enjoyable resorts. I want to thank Alex Anaya who was our representative for making our stay this time the best ever. We did have a few incidents but he managed to help us as much as he could. I always bring friends with me and we tried to reserve rooms close together because of physical problems with one of my friends. Unfortunately we were told that we could not get rooms close to each other. I had to take a room on another floor but Alex managed to get my buddy Gary and his wife near an elevator because of double knee replacement surgery.


I asked to be upgraded to an ocean front but was told that was impossible. I was willing to pay for the upgrade, even though I was not given any reconigition for bringing 2 other couples. Alex tried the best he could to at least get us reservations at the specialty restaurants every night.

The only negetive besides the unavailability of Ocean Front room for me is the 4 handed massage my wife experienced. She is a massage therapist herself and always would get the 4 handed massage when she is at the Royal Solaris. This time the 2 women that massaged her were inexperienced and hurt her next causing her to purchase a nexk brace to wear for several days of the vacation. I don't know if they had certifications but the manager of the massage area told me that the girls in the afternoon are not as good as the morning girls. BIG MISTAKE

Other than these little screwups, our vacation was great. I hope that in the future the resort will give some form of gratuity for bringing other people and also that the employees providing services are qualified to preform their duties

Our first experience was not the best. My friend booked and payed for an ocean front room, but when we checked in they gave us a room facing the pool and the opposite wing of the hotel. When we went to the front desk to get the room changed, they told us that they were 100% booked/sold out and that the room we had was what we had paid for. Not true at all, my friend specifically requested the ocean front room when she booked the trip, and paid the upgrade charge at that time. Long story short, after much arguing about the definition of ocean view, they moved us to a true ocean view/ocean front room at an extra charge (total BS...we are seeking reimbursement through our travel agent). Other than that experience and all the people at the beach (disguised as vendors/sales people) trying to sell us drugs, we had a great time. The SERVICE was much better than the food. Although we paid for an all inclusive, we spent a lot of money eating out. Beer choices = NONE...all they serve is Tecate, like it or not! All the staff was more than willing to help...especially Ignacio "Nacho" Alvarez. Very pleasant young man. He went out of his way to help us, including asking for permission to play some tennis with me (staff is not allowed to use the facilities). With a little persuasion from me, his supervisors allowed him to play...hopefully they did not deduct the time from his pay. The ladies at the spa were great (awesome massage!) and the guys at Costco Tour Desk too...thank you for booking our diving and zip lining tours, they were great.