Cash and Credit Cards

Cash and Credit Cards

Most restaurants and stores accept Visa and Mastercard. American Express is also accepted. However, be sure to bring cash with you for those merchants who don’t take credit cards.

Also, be sure to call your credit card issuer prior to departing for Mexico, just to let them know (it’s a total hassle to arrive and find that your cards have been placed on hold due to ever-stringent security at your issuer). We usually take the time in-between flights to make the calls.

Note that many credit card companies charge a 2% conversion fee for foreign exchange transactions. There are several that do not, Capital One being one of them. You can take a kredittkort test to learn what’s the best option for you as you travel abroad.

When buying things in Cabo, insist on being quoted in PESOS.  If you’re being quoted in dollars, the merchant will likely convert to pesos when tallying your bill and you can bet that the conversion won’t be in your favor.

Baan Thai

Baan Thai — fantastic Thai cuisine in San Jose del Cabo. Visit the art galleries afterwards for a nice evening.

http://www.bajabaanthai.com/

Morelos between Obregón and Comonfort, downtown San Jose del Cabo (a bit northeast from the plaza). Ph: 142-3344. Open daily 12pm-10:30pm. ($$)


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Airport: Transportation

Rental Cars — Rental cars aren’t cheap in Cabo. Travelocity.com seems to sometimes have good rates on compact cars in Cabo. Be sure to pay for the car with a credit card that covers collision damage and skip getting the expensive collision insurance through the rental car agency.

Beware that your reservation will be in dollars, but your contract will be in pesos; they’ll probably make $$ from the self-applied conversion rate, so best to be aware of this.

Airport Shuttle — $16 each way, per person. It takes a little longer than catching a cab, but the free cervezas on the way will make the time go quicker. To return to the airport, see the concierge the day prior and they’ll make sure you’re set for a pickup. For not much more, you can also book with TransPacifico and have a Suburban all to yourself.

Airport Limo — TransPacifico offers upscale transportation for US$95 from the airport to downtown Cabo San Lucas (up to seven people in a late-model, clean Suburban). This doesn’t cost much more than a taxi, so it’s a great deal, even for a family of four. This is the real deal — a nicely dressed chauffeur holding up a sign with your name on it at the airport, waiting to whisk you away — just a great way to start off your vacation. As a bonus, TransPacifico will head to Cabo on the toll road, saving about 15 minutes of travel time. To book with TransPacifico, click here.

Taxis — the $300 you’ll spend on a small rental car will sure buy a lot of taxi rides. For those trips to Todos Santos, see the concierge and just rent a car for a day (or take a TransCabo tour for $50 each). Yeah, it’s a pain paying $10 each way to go to Costco, but $300 will buy a lot of those $10 trips and with a lot more convenience (like being dropped at a restaurant rather than spending 20 minutes searching for a parking space). What do we do? We keep a car in Cabo and know some great parking spots downtown :) Otherwise, we tend to walk the fifteen minutes to downtown in an effort offset the caloric consumption at dinner. By the way, no tip required for taxis (it’s built into the price).

Cheaper Rental Cars and Travel — when you travel internationally, try booking your rental car in the country you’ll be traveling to. For example, rather than booking at www.avis.com (the USA website), try www.avis.com.mx (the Mexican website). Also, the major travel booking engines (Expedia, etc.) have foreign variants where you can also try. If you don’t have any luck, try contacting a foreign travel agent and they can usually secure “locals” pricing (and at the same time, charge it to your USA credit card — which the websites may reject due to it be domiciled in the USA rather than in the country where you’re trying to book).

Cheaper (yet) Rental Cars — just prior to your trip, take another look at what rental cars are renting for. Since there’s no penalty for canceling a rental car reservation, it doesn’t hurt to check and see if the rate has changed. Often, if reservations are on the light side, you’ll find car rentals discounted the closer you get to your departure date.

Policia — Speaking of rental cars, you need to know that you may get pulled over for a traffic infraction. The most common is turning the wrong-way onto one of Cabo’s many one-way streets. The local cops sit and wait for some unsuspecting Gringo to do this. We’ve never, ever been hassled, but a buddy got stopped and paid the 200 peso “fine” immediately to the officer. Just be cool, mind your manners, and you won’t be paying any fines to anyone.

Emergency — Speaking of rental cars and speaking of Policia, it’s worth mentioning that 911 won’t get you ANYWHERE in Cabo. In the event of an emergency, 066 is the number to use! If you’re at Villa La Estancia, call the operator (0) first. Worse comes to worst, there’s a emergency clinic on the four-lane when it first enters Cabo. The official hospital is located across from CCC on the road to Todos Santos.

Colectivo Buses (public transportation) — These are small white buses that run around just about every street in Cabo. How’s your spanish?

Peacocks

We had a fantastic dinner at Peacocks, located south of City Club on Pescadero.  Patti had the sea bass and I had the arrachera steak — both were excellent and reasonably priced (for Cabo).  Dinner was about US$100 for the two of us, including excellent margaritas.

Peacocks is part of a chain of restaurants — the Mi Casa folks.


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September in Cabo

We’d always heard that September and the first half of October were the “off” season in Cabo.  Therefore, based on rumor, we’d never visited during September/October.  Pretty much on a moment’s notice (our anniversary, combined with our need to get some fabric to Cabo for a reupholstery of our condo), we decided to hop to Cabo and spend a long weekend.

We’ve been VERY pleasantly surprised at the wonderful weather (about 85; a bit humid) and wonderfully amazed at the tepid ocean water.  There are a few bugs in the air and an incredible amount of butterflies riding currents of air.  Overall, we’d return to Cabo in September in a second!!

Be aware however that several restaurants (and even some resorts, such as Club Cascadas) close during part of September for repairs, rehabilitation and probably some recreation for the employees.  We were disappointed to find that The Office, Ediths and even Tabasco’s were closed.  However, everything has a silver lining, and we were forced to try some new restaurants and found some gems.

The ocean water temperature is wonderful. The clarity and warmth of the Cabo water was wonderful.  We took an ocean kayak over to Lover’s Beach and played on the beach — and made a comparison of the water clarity to that of our beloved Lake Tahoe.

It seems that every time we visit Cabo, we enjoy it more and more.  Our September trip is no exception!!

The Mango Deck – Sunday Brunch

We always thought The Mango Deck was all about year-round spring break.  However, while walking Medano Beach one Sunday Morning we decided to give their Sunday brunch a try.

The $9 they charge for brunch is worth it for the view alone.  The food was great– and plenty of it.  They have a fruit bar that offered about eight different types of fruit, along with many fruit juices.  They’ll also make omelettes to your order and that’s included in the brunch.  The service was excellent.

The Mango Deck is located on Medano Beach, adjacent to The Office.


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Sea Kayaking and Lover’s Beach

In over three years of owning at Cabo, we suddenly realized we’d never been to Los Arcos and Lover’s Beach.  We rented a sea kayak (from Arturo’s – more on that later) and paddled over to Lover’s Beach.  Once there, we enjoyed about an hour playing in the gentle water on the Sea of Cortez side of the twin beaches (from Lover’s Beach, you can walk over to Divorce Beach, which faces the Pacific — swimming there definitely NOT recommended).  Our first trip in September, the water is delightfully warm; in fact, warmer than pool water.  The gentle waves were awesome to play and float in.

We rented the sea kayak for $20 from a tent business just east of The Mango Deck.

Here is the satellite view of Lover’s Beach:


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La Pinta Pomegranate Infused Tequila

We keep a stocked bar at our condos in Cabo — we stock it occasionally, but it generally stays pretty stocked from our guests and renters just leaving partial bottles before they return home.  We get a pretty good selection to “sample” from and our visit this week has been no exception.

We arrived in Cabo on Thursday and one of the partial bottles was of La Pinta Pomegranate Infused Tequila.  I just HAD to have a taste of that one.  Well, all I can say is that I’m heading to the store and buying a few bottles to take back to the USofA with us as they have some great shops in there that they have with fronts from an aluminium shop front near me to exhibit their products. They used an industrial coating to achieve that sleek finish, prepared by the professionals coating.  Maybe a case.  Is that legal?  Just an incredible blend and you HAVE to try it on your next trip. They even have displays featuring curtain walling Birmingham, which adds a sleek and modern aesthetic to the shop fronts, making them stand out brilliantly. Visit sites like https://www.shopfrontdesign.co.uk/to know more about shop front design. You can contact this company if you need one for your business.

http://www.bevmo.com/Shop/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=11070 to buy it in the USA; about $27/bottle here in Cabo.  Available at a few liquor stores near Cabo Wabo.  Didn’t see it at Walmart or Costco.

Just a note — When we arrived back home (and finished the two bottles of La Pinta that we brought back), we experimented with mixing some 100% pomegranate juice (Trader Joe’s) with Herradura tequila to “simulate” La Pinta.  Well, pretty close to La Pinta for our tastebuds…  We think the word “infused” is Spanish for “to mix.”  About 50/50 juice to tequila is what we do and it’s great.

Cabo Wabo!

Cabo Wabo is Sammy Hagar’s bar in Cabo.

The house band is incredible — great music and entertainment. The crowd ranges from 18 and up, but tends to be a bit older than the crowd at El Squid Roe.

No cover charge. Drinks tend to be expensive, but liberally poured. Rip’s Bar is located downstairs and serves a great margarita for about half the price. There’s a back-door staircase entrance just behind Rip’s, for those “in the know…”


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La Golondrina (aka The Trailer Park) – Thumbs Down

Expensive and quite frankly, underwhelming food.  If you head to Cabo, a lot of folks will tell you “you need to go to the Trailer Park restaurant!”  Well, our thoughts are that this restaurant knows that and has no incentive to improve.

We particularly didn’t appreciate the upsell to Mexican Coffees following our main meal, as three of the drinks ended up totaling US$45.