Booked a trip to San Jose del Cabo or Cabo San Lucas? Are you on Spring Break? No? A bit older than that? Can you still throw back a shot or two or at least sip on a tropical drink and reminisce the good old college years? Are you wanting to leave your snow shovel at home and get your toes in the sand? Yup, us too. That's why we decided to book an all-exclusive Christmas Holiday at the Royal Solaris Los Cabos in San Jose del Cabo.
Some tourists reviewed this resort, saying that it was older and not as nice...I don't know where they were used to staying, but I certainly wasn't turning up my nose at this place. Yes, they put up Christmas lights for us!
My biggest concern about traveling to Cabo in December? I like to travel, have expensive hobbies, and needed to support an ongoing one-click habit. So, I needed to make sure that I didn't break the bank while we were down in Mexico living it up. However, I still wanted to make sure we had a good time down there. So this was our Don't-Break-The-Bank Itinerary
Top 10 Don't-Break-The-Bank Cabo Itinerary
#1 Go Whale Watching This was definitely an unplanned event on the Pepper itinerary. Now, whales love to make a splash in Cabo mid-November to mid-March along the Baja coastline. There are countless sailboats excursions and boating outings that promise will wine and/or dine you so you can see the big animals. These tours can be $ or $$$ depending so we hadn't decided exactly if or what we wanted to do about this. However, a couple of whales made our decision for us. They were splashing about right outside our resort that we got to watch them splash around while I sipped on a Sunrise Daiquiri.
#2 Sample Every Daiquiri Flavor From The Swim-up Bar I'm a beer girl. I dabble in wine. Do I love daiquiris? Hell yes! Do I indulge in these fruity drinks often? Hell no! They tend to make my credit card hot so I usually opt for a Michelob Ultra®. So when Dustin had the brilliant idea to try every ______ on the Swim-up Bar menu, I remembered why I fell in love with him. ;)
#3 Take A Romantic Walk the beach At Sunset Run From Sand Spiders Before Nightfall And then I fell out of love with him.... a little bit. Ha! So Dustin and I have this tradition of taking a romantic walk on the beach and collect seashells. Cabo was no different. So we set off at sunset by the time we'd turned around, it was getting pretty dark. Dustin noticed that these 8-legged creatures were hunting us, nipping at our heels. I am petrified of spiders so when Dustin giggled at me and I threatened to throw my shoe at him, then he only giggled harder, saying that I wouldn't have anything to defend myself against the spiders with.
#4 Fore! Go Golf Golfing in paradise is a big deal. There are quite a few private courses and a handful of public courses to choose from. However, most are ridiculously expensive. After calling/messaging/emailing several companies, I found Palmilla Beach Golf Course. It wasn't too expensive considering they would hook you up with clubs, give you a pass to the driving range and make sure you had a few balls to spare. Besides, this was my Christmas gift to Dustin so I figured it was alright to splurge a little. Hole #4 had EPIC views of the ocean and #8 had a nice Baja scene. It was pretty unforgettable... and just in case I did forget something, I am pretty sure I snapped 3,425,701pictures. He had the time of his life and I was almost too distracted by the natural beauty to concentrate on that little ball. #mulligan #sorrynotsorry #golf
#5 Morning Run Lap Swim In The Adult Pool At Sunrise Since those pesky spiders scared me from the beach (okay, okay I just didn't feel like running), and it was considered dangerous to swim in the ocean (strong tides/currents/undertows) I actually did a lot of lap swimming in the adult pool. What was nice about the Royal Solaris was that they had different pools for different activities. They had one just for adults, a couple for kids, a swim-up bar and a big one for everyone. All looked out to the ocean. It was a pretty great way to get in a workout before putting up your feet *guilt-free* the rest of the day to relax in paradise.
#6 Stargaze From The Balcony I don't know how we got hooked up with a FREE upgrade to a balcony suite, but we did. I am going to say it was because I contacted them a few times to make sure I was booking things correctly and was uber politely and thankful to the staff since they would be making our holiday magical. Regardless, we had gotten the best room in the resort. There was an outdoor jacuzzi and a tanning balcony right off the suite. What I was surprised to discover was that there was so little light pollution that you see the stars. Sipping on a Strawberry Daquiri while Dustin enjoyed a Tequila Sunrise, we counted the stars and talked about our hopes and dreams...
#7 Go Cliff Jumping My biggest dream while we were down in Cabo? Go cliff jumping off of Pelican Rock. Where is Pelican Rock? Oh, along the way to the infamous Arch. So if it's your first time going to Cabo, you have to see the Arch. It's a MUST DO. And since you're there, you might as well get your adrenaline fix and jump off of a cliff. It was by far my favorite thing I did in Cabo.
#8 Listen To My Favorite Murder (Or whatever podcast you like) & Sun Bathe On The Beach Hello, my fellow Murderinos! If you're into this crime-comedy, I definitely recommend downloading a few episodes beforehand so that you can get the chills while soaking up the sun on the gorgeous beaches.
#9 Take A Beach Photo-op For Christmas, Dustin and I packed our Santa hats (and some nice clothes, too) and headed to the beach before breakfast. We set up our gimble tripod and re-enacted a few pictures I found on Pinterest so that we could capture the moment in time. I pin a lot of different travel/photo/DIY/food ideas on Pinterest (love this app - follow me if you want @peppsarah. As soon as we were done snapping 237,852 of our favorite poses (Dustin was less than impressed by the end of this and a little hangry) we grabbed a bite to eat at the resort.
#10 Sample Exotic Cuisine Speaking of eating... since we booked at the Royal Solaris, they had several restaurants on site. Some were your typical buffet style, pizza order up, sushi ready-to-go, or burger bar... yeah, I gained a little weight on this trip... But there were three restaurants that you could make reservations and eat Italian, Mexican, and International Cuisine. We tried a lot of different foods that we probably wouldn't have if we were shelling out the cash piecemeal.
Mild to Hot!
