We just got back from a 5 night / 6 day stay at Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos. Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos is an all-inclusive resort in San Jose del Cabo in Mexico. This was our first time at an all-inclusive resort so we had no idea what to expect. But I am happy to report that it did not disappoint. In fact, we can not wait to go back!

My husband and I hadn’t been to Cabo in over 12 years. One, because we are not big fans of flying. I hadn’t been on a plane since my trip to Boulder back in 2013 when I was working with Crocs! My husband, even longer than that! And two, if I’m being completely honest, is because we’ve been kind of (ok, a LOT) afraid to travel outside of the US (or anywhere, really). This trip was also going to be our son’s first time on a plane.

By the way, I feel like I should warn you now that this post is going to be extremely long. Lately I’ve been really inspired to share things that might actually provide more value than where you can buy something I’m wearing. The feedback from my recent thyroid surgery post and CO2 laser treatment post have been so refreshing. The comments/DM’s/emails I have received have reminded me of why I started blogging in the first place. I’ve always talked to you guys like you are personal friends of mine. So while I am not going to pretend I am any kind of travel expert, I am super excited to share our vacation with you.

The only reason I even knew about Hyatt Ziva was because of the gorgeous photos my blogging friend Balancing Lisa had posted on Instagram during her recent trip to Cabo. After we booked our trip, I started scouring the internet for even more reviews and I came across Purpose & Passion‘s post. I knew we had made the right choice!

We decided to splurge and booked the one bedroom ocean front master suite. The only problem with doing this is…we will never want anything less now! We live for our morning coffee and NOTHING is better than enjoying said coffee on a balcony overlooking the ocean! Our room also included access to the club level lounge (which we went to daily), premium alcohol, high speed internet and more.

I have never stayed in a hotel with a more comfortable bed & pillows. I know this is different for everyone but both my husband and I raved about the comfort level. We never did try the pull-out couch bed but friends who were traveling with us said their pull out was not so comfortable. They might have mentioned a bed of nails being a better option but the kids didn’t seem to mind it!

Speaking of traveling with friends…we had requested adjacent/adjoining rooms. But apparently there is only one ocean front master suite on each floor. So our only option was to have one of us downgrade. Which we did not want to do. But this is an option for other rooms/suites. So instead they gave our friends the room directly below us. It ended up being a bit of a walk from our rooms to the lobby/restaurant areas but worth it to have our view. On the other hand, we could just hop on an elevator and walk right out to the pool/beach which was also nice.

We spent all of our time at the main family pool with just a few trips to the kids pool/splash pad area. Surprisingly, we never even ended up using the kids club. Both of our families only have one child and they are almost nine years old so they thought it was a little “baby-ish”. The only time we really could have used the kids club was to go to the French restaurant (which is adults only). But kids club is only open until 5pm so it wouldn’t have worked anyway. We considered doing a date night swap so each of us could go to the French restaurant. Instead we opted to do private dining on the beach. That way the kids just played in an empty cabana behind us and everyone was happy. We will try the French restaurant next time.

Back to the pool. Since we really only used the family pool, it is the only one I can review. Even though the chairs fill up quick…it was never so crowded that it was annoying or that you couldn’t get service. Although it is supposedly frowned upon, EVERYONE wakes up early and goes down to save chairs. I went down each morning before 8am and half of the chairs were already saved. I wish there was some kind of system in place so that you knew when people were done with their chairs. Some chairs would have towels on the for hours with no one on them.

I also HIGHLY recommend visiting guest services and booking cabanas for the duration of your stay at check-in. We got lucky and were able to get cabana’s on all days but the in-pool palapa cabanas are the best. They were pretty affordable in my opinion (average was like $75/day).

Both my husband and I enjoyed 80 minute massages at the spa. I also added the anti-aging kale facial to my experience. The ambiance and facilities were beautiful. I do wish I would have spent a little more time enjoying the indoor pool, etc. but when you’ve got an infinity pool with a swim up bar on the sand calling your name…it’s kind of hard to resist.

We ate at several of the resorts restaurants (which I’ll break down below). But the absolute highlight of the trip for us was when we opted for private dining on the beach! This is not included in the all-inclusive but the experience was priceless. You can choose from three different menus and you have a private table right on the sand with your own waiter. Not only was our dinner to die for good but our server Claybert was AMAZING. Be sure to check in with guest services if this is something you would like to arrange.

I did not do a good job of taking pics of our meals, but I took several videos. I am going to make a highlight reel (of our whole trip) on my Instagram account until I can figure out how to make a decent video on Youtube! Some of our favorites are below:

DOZO (Japanese/Asian): This restaurant has a sushi bar, a regular menu and teppenyaki tables. Our friend’s read that the teppanyaki tables require reservations so we made ours as soon as we checked in. And thank goodness because we arrived on a Wednesday and couldn’t get reservations until Sunday evening! Our family had never been to a teppanyaki restaurant (think Bennihana’s where the chef cooks right in front of you), so we were extremely impressed! He put on quite the show for us and the food was delicious! I had edamame, egg drop soup, steak fried rice and fried ice cream for dessert. I HIGHLY recommend doing this!

ZAFFIRO (Italian): Zaffiro is a beach-front Italian restaurant that is open for lunch or dinner. We didn’t realize this restaurant was open for lunch so only came here for dinner once. My husband is not a fan of Italian food but I wanted to eat at a beachfront location so he caved. I had a caesar salad, lasagna and a chocolate dome for dessert. I thought my food was great but I would rather have had lunch here and done the French restaurant for dinner instead.

LA HACIENDA BEACH GRILL: We ate dinner here our first night at the resort. Unfortunately it was pitch black out (we ate late) so we did not get to enjoy our meal with a sunset ocean view. But the food was great! I had a caesar salad and steak for dinner. This beachfront restaurant is also open for lunch (with a buffet style).

EL MOLINO BUFFET (Mexican): We all enjoyed this buffet style dinner. My only complaint is that the churros (my favorite Mexican dessert) were rock hard. I had high hopes being that we were in Mexico!

LA PLAZA BUFFET (Int’l Buffet): We only had breakfast here one of the mornings. We had access to the 24 Hour Deli (I think this is for club level guests only) where we could enjoy a lot of the same food with less people in a private dining area. But my husband really liked his made-to-order omelette.

COCO LOCO POOL SNACK BAR: There are two separate kitchens inside this small spot next to the main pool. You grab a slip of paper, write your order and hand it to the cook. I ordered chips, salsa & guacamole several times a day. There is also a small kids menu. The poolside waiters get your drinks/food from this location. But our favorite place to get lunch was from the taco buffet set up poolside each day. The same buffet would turn into a fruit buffet later in the day. Get there quick because the mango’s on a stick go quick!

COFFEE HOUSE: We made our coffee in our room most days but I did stop in the coffee shop for cookies, baked goods and desserts randomly throughout the day!

We popped our heads into the 24 hour Cactus Deli (but with access to the club deli, we never needed to go here), The Piano Bar (we had kids so couldn’t really hang out), and the Spirit of 66 Sports Bar (the guys would love this spot for catching any sports while playing a game of pool) but we spent most of our evenings enjoying martini’s & cucumber margarita’s at El Mirador before dinner each night.

Oh, and I can’t forget tequila tasting at El Agave! This was SO much fun. You can upgrade your tequila options for a fee but we went with the free selections. You need to make reservations for this as well but I’m guessing if there is an open table, they’d let you grab it!

Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos also offers in-room dining but we never used it! And whenever we went to the 24 hour club deli, we would just grab extra waters/beers to bring up to our room. Our mini bar was also stocked daily with premium alcohol.

A few other things to note: YES, Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos is family friendly. There is a kids club for kids 4 and up (only open from 9am-5pm) and a teen club for 13 and up. The teen club has a pool table, ping pong, a couple video games and foosball. There is live entertainment at the theater each night… we caught the 70’s/80’s disco show and a Disney-esque mash-up performance. Both were kid friendly. On Saturday evenings, the resort allows some local vendors to set up shop on property so you can shop.

And one big thing to note, although it did not matter to us: You can not swim at the beaches in front of the hotel. We are NOT beach people…funny since I am born & raised in Southern CA and have grown up living no further than 15 minutes from the ocean my whole life. I LOVE looking at it. I do NOT love going in it! LOL. There were black flags posted each day. The black flag means DO NOT SWIM and it is the highest level warning. There were also warnings of jellyfish. Shockingly, that didn’t stop some families from dipping their toes in the water. No thank you!

So, would we go back? The answer is a resounding YES! We are already looking at dates to book again for next year. If you have ANY questions at all, please don’t hesitate to ask! And lastly, no…this is not a sponsored post. I just wanted to share our vacation with you. If you want to see more posts like this…let me know!