Lodging recommendations for Cabo San Lucas/San José del Cabo?

April 11, 2013 12:32 PM

The four of us (2 parents, a 12, and a 7 year old) will be there at the end of June for a week. We’re looking for a place that is clean, not crazy expensive, right on the beach (or certainly not more than a few hundred yards). It’d be nice if it has an oven and a fridge, but if not we’d definitely need it to have an on-site restaurant. We’d like a beach that is “gentle” enough that the young’uns need not worry about being swept out to sea, and prefer to stay away from the big box hotels, but are really open to any good suggestion. Gracias mil por sus sugerencias.
posted by subajestad to Travel & Transportation around San José Del Cabo, Mexico (2 answers total)

My experience staying in Cabo is along the wild, never possible to swim in the ocean west coast so I don't have any local, in town hotel experience.

However we would go into town and use the beaches in San Lucas and I found that the waves and the temperature were not really appropriate for my kids. The waves were big, and the water was cold. On top of that, the sand was practically on fire. None of this really made our vacation horrible because we used the pools, but perhaps including hotels with pools is also appropriate.
posted by lstanley at 1:02 PM on April 11, 2013

It isn't on the beach, but Hotel Mar De Cortez in Cabo San Lucas is nice. However I think San Jose Del Cabo is the more family friendly of the two towns. Then again, the crowds are mellow and tourist draws are very kid friendly in La Paz, on the Sea of Cortez, which is whale calving grounds for a reason. Sea of Cortez near Los Barriles (less than an hour's drive from the international airport), might be a good place for youngins. If dad wants to surf but the kids want to swim, memail me for a secret spot!

When I found myself pondering why the boxy feeling and flavor of hotels and restaurants near the beaches in Cabo, I turned to Joseph Wood Krutch's prophetic The Forgotten Peninsula: A Naturalist in Baja California (1961).
posted by rub scupper cult at 9:42 PM on April 11, 2013