‘GLOBAL EDITION’ MEXICO

YEAR VISITED: 2004-Puerto Vallarta, 2004 & 2015-Ensenda, 2017-Cancun, and 2023-Cabo San Lucas

———- CABO SAN LUCAS & SAN JOSE DEL CABO ———-

EXPERIENCES: We took a taxi to the Plaza Mijares (historical downtown square) in San Jose one afternoon.

There we walked around to various stores, art galleries, and historical sites. Highlights were The Church of San Jose Del Cabo, City Hall, and the enormous Flagpole.

I would suggest spending a least one leisurely afternoon exploring this beautiful downtown area.

HOTEL / RESORT: We visited Cabo over Thanksgiving break in 2023. There we stayed at the World Mark Coral Baja, which is located along a roughly 20-mile stretch between Cabo San Lucas and San Jose Del Cabo known as the Tourist Corridor. The highlight was checking into our room to find a hot tub on our balcony.

The resort was absolutely stunning and offered a beach side restaurant, Mama Mia’s, where we ate a majority of our meals over the course of our 1-week stay.

One night we were presented with a dinner show of fire twirlers and another evening a traditional Mexican dance. The setting and ambiance was first rate all the way around.

The resort also had a massive beach side pool. When were weren’t lounging by the pool we were relaxing in pool floaties and playing volleyball.

We also took advantage of the outdoor ping pong table and the swim up bar.

On the street side of the resort is a full basketball/tennis court. In the early evenings we played pickle ball, once it cooled down. While trash talk was flying, there is no debating Dad won every time!

Lastly, the resort is situated on a beautiful stretch of beach. The wide sandy beach and beautiful water greatly resembled a southern California style coastline.

Unfortunately the riptide was strong enough over the course of our visit that we were not able to go into the ocean. We did however go on multiple beach walks. This resort and location is the perfect place to simply get away and relax in the sunshine.

ADVENTURE(S) AND/OR NOTEABLE DESTINATIONS: We spent one day in downtown Cabo where we booked a sunset cruise which took us up close to the regions distinctive landmark; The Arch or El Arco.

We then headed for open water where we enjoyed an absolutely gorgeous sunset.

The 2-hour cruise provided music, sight seeing narration, and unlimited drinks. This was our family’s highlight of the week and would highly recommend to others.

RESTAURANTS: In Cabo, we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe as well as the iconic Cabo Wabo. The HRC was a 2-story building and resembled a similar set up to many other cafes we had visited. I don’t remember a unique or defining architectural aspect to the location.

Cabo Wabo, founded by Van Halen front man Sammy Hagar, was a large scale bar complete with a concert hall. We enjoyed some appetizers, drinks, and the atmosphere. In San Jose we ate on the 2nd floor of Agave’s restaurant. The outdoor seating provided a perfect viewpoint of the square.

However, the restaurant we enjoyed the most during our week in Cabo was Flora Farms.

As the name suggests this bistro is located on the farm where all their vegetables are grown. They commonly have live music, their gardens are beautiful, and we enjoyed watching Iguana’s swim in a pond.

Make sure you make a reservation as it is extremely popular and plan to spend some time exploring this beautiful property. If you only have one meal out, this is our recommendation.

STADIUMS AND/OR SPORTING EVENTS: We have not attend any sporting events in Cabo.

———- CANCUN ———-

EXPERIENCES: We spent 1-week in December in beautiful Cancun. As our neighbors were experiencing freezing temperatures at home, we were enjoying sun everyday and temperatures in the upper 70’s and low 80’s. It was so nice to be “those people”.

HOTEL / RESORT: We stayed at the NYX Hotel-Cancun, which was an all-inclusive resort.

The property was an absolute slice of heaven complete with oversize beachside pool, lounge chairs under bungalows, as well as multiple restaurant locations.

While everyday was relaxing, we made sure to get up early to see one sunrise and the sunsets were absolutely magical. Each day we simply made a reservation for what time and where we wanted to eat our meals; restaurant or table on the beach?

Meal after meal we were treated like royalty.

This was our first experience staying at all inclusive resort and we couldn’t have been more impressed.

ADVENTURE(S) AND/OR NOTEABLE DESTINATIONS: Our hotel was located on the Caribbean Sea on the far east side of the Mexican peninsula. While it provided amazing scenery, the current was too strong to do anything more than wade into the water. Therefore we booked a snorkeling excursion through our hotel that took us west towards the Gulf of Mexico side of the peninsula. The water was much calmer and we enjoyed an afternoon of snorkeling.

When we weren’t in the water chasing tropical fish, we enjoyed lounging in beachside hammocks.

I would suggest connecting with your hotel’s concierge to identify a snorkeling location nearest your hotel. Our other excursion was to Chichen Itza. While I am not 100% who we booked with, I believe it was through Amigo Tours. The excursion lasted all day, we were picked up at our hotel in a luxury tour bus, and then we made multiple stops to and from Chichen Itza. Stop #1 was a small village off the beaten path where we were treated to lunch and a show.

Following the meal I stumbled upon a baseball diamond around the block from where we had lunch.

Stop #2 was Chichen Itza, an ancient Mayan city that dates back to the year 600 AD. The Temple of Kukulcan is the main attraction and we enjoyed walking around the elaborate pyramid admiring the one of a kind archaeology.

We also explored the Wall of Skulls, the ancient ball court, as well as the Temple of the Warriors. This entire site is fascinating and a must visit when in the region.

Stop #3 of our tour was in the main square of the town Valladolid. There we walked around the square, took pictures of the ancient church, and enjoyed the unique stone chairs in the park.

The last stop of our tour, stop #4, was at one of the nearby Cenotes.

The girls took advantage of the opportunity to cool off and walked down the staircase and ultimately jumped into the water.

While they enjoyed themselves, Dad held their purses, backpacks, and took pictures. It was an awesome experience and one of the best excursions we have ever taken of any of our adventures. While lounging on the beach in front of our hotel we noticed people parasailing. As a family we quickly discussed, and on a whim, Bailey and I decided to go for it.

We paid our money, were given a crash course of instructions, and then escorted to the speed boat for the experience of a lifetime. I don’t typically enjoy heights but this was an absolute thrill. The views of the coast was amazing.

RESTAURANTS: Because our resort was all inclusive (we enjoyed some amazing meals) we only ventured into town for dinner once. We taxied into downtown and enjoyed a meal at the Hard Rock Cafe.

It is located right on the beach, had a pool in the back of the restaurant, and you could easily envision a spring break party. Following our meal we explored a couple of blocks of downtown before ultimately taxing back to the resort.

STADIUMS AND/OR SPORTING EVENTS: We have not attended any sporting events in Cancun.

———- ENSENDA ———-

EXPERIENCES: In 2004 and once again in 2015 Jill’s parents took the entire extended Reslock family on a cruise. We left from Long Beach California and made a stop in Ensenda, Mexico.

We spent one day in port and we were given a handful of excursion options. In 2004 we decided to go golfing. We played Bajamar The Ocean Front Golf Resort, a beautiful course with many of the holes located on the Pacific Ocean. Their website states they are “one of Baja California’s most beautiful golf courses” and I would certainly agree.

In 2015 we simply explored downtown. Main street was lined with a combination of street vendors, shops, and restaurants. Both visits to Ensenda were enjoyable.

———- PUERTO VALLARTA ———-

EXPERIENCES: In 2004 we purchased a friends timeshare and proceeded to make our first ever trip to the country of Mexico. We traveled with our good friends, Becky and Sean. Looking back, we really had no idea what to expect. So much so we didn’t even fully realize that our resort wasn’t even located in Puerto Vallarta. Upon arrival we discovered we were staying roughly 25 minutes north in the resort town of Nuevo Vallarta. However, we did venture into downtown Puerto Vallarta. We explored Olas Atlas street and ate lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe.

Our favorite sites were seeing the beautiful and historic Lady of Guadalupe Church and the interesting statues that lined the walk way along the shoreline.

One afternoon while exploring downtown a company approached our party and offered to take all of us parasailing. While Becky, Sean, and I politely answered, “thanks, but no thanks” Jill decided to take them up on their offer.

HOTEL/RESORT: This was our first experience with a ‘long travel day.’ The flight from Seattle to Puerto Vallarta is right around five hours. The drive from the airport to the resort felt like it took forever. This combined with the fact we were feeling overwhelmed with crowds and the amount of people traveling, we were anxious to get checked into the hotel and begin relaxing. Unfortunately upon our arrival at Paradise Village Beach Resort, our room was not ready and we were asked to wait in the lobby. We really didn’t wait very long and it really wasn’t a big deal but the Hotel Manager felt bad. As a result she offered to let us stay one night in their Presidential Suite. Inside I was thinking, “Sweet, score, this is awesome.” About that time I heard my wife say something to the effect of, “thanks but we are staying here a week. You expect us to unpack, then pack again, all while staying in the same resort?” Therefore after conferring with another individual, the Manager checked us into the Presidential Suite… for the whole week!

Far and away this is the nicest hotel room I have ever experienced. There were four bedrooms and three baths. Five sliding glass doors leading to a wrap around deck complete with hot tub. The view was breathtaking as it overlooked the ocean as well as the marina. Inside we had a full kitchen, living room, and dining room. We were staying in a hotel room that was fit for royalty!

The resort had multiple restaurants and we typically ate our meals on the property.

While the room was amazing, my favorite part of the resort was the pool. First, it was absolutely massive. Second, it had a water slide in the shape of an alligator and third, there was a makeshift ropes course above the water.

It would be really difficult to beat a week long stay at Paradise Village!

ADVENTURE(S) AND/OR NOTABLE DESTINATIONS: Also located in Paradise Village is the El Tigre Club de Golf course. Therefore, Sean and I decided to go golfing. To this day I am torn on whether we should have ventured out or not. On one hand the course was beautiful and it was an honor to play at such a first class facility. On the other hand we were so incredibly bad, scores in the neighborhood of 120-bad, that I am not sure we should have been allowed onto the course. Either way we had a blast and this is a great course.

Also that week we booked a snorkeling excursion through the resorts concierge. Other than the fact we were stung by millions of microscopic jellyfish I don’t remember very much about the experience. However, Jill and I both love snorkeling and will typically jump any chance we get to go.

Another excursion we experienced was a 45-min boat ride to Yalapa and Majahuitas. This location offers a private beach, snorkeling, a waterfall hike, and lunch on the beach.

It was one of our favorite days of the trip and if in the area is not to be missed.

Last but not least we zip lined through the jungle. While I am unsure if this still remains true, in 2004 the Canopy tour we did was billed as “Mexico’s largest Canopy Tour.” We zip lined from tree to tree and even cleared a canyon.

At the conclusion of the tour we had lunch, where I had the best guacamole I have ever tasted. Sean enjoyed a drink out of a pineapple and then we took turns racing down the water slide into the river.