Vacaciones de Primavera 2023 en Cabo San Lucas, México (2023)

We recently returned from our first international trip with the kids – a Spring Break trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. After extensive planning and prepaid bookings, this trip almost didn’t happen, but we’re so glad it did because it ended up being one of our best family vacations. We have fun and make memories on every trip we take, but some vacations have certainly been harder and although we may have come away grateful for the experience, we were also a little disappointed in how the vacation felt. Certainly, the younger the kids have been on trips, the harder they’ve been. Kids don’t stop growing, though, and as they’ve gotten older, and as we’ve gotten better at managing travel with them, our vacations have gotten better. All this to say, this Spring Break landed on the positive side of our vacation metrics.

As I said above, this trip almost didn’t happen. Since our kids had never traveled outside of the country, they didn’t have passports. In January, we applied for their passports with plenty of time for them to arrive before our April departure, according to the currently posted passport processing times. But each week that passed in March without completed passports in our mailbox made me more nervous. Would we actually have to bail on this trip because the kids’ passports didn’t come in time?! The published passport processing times kept extending – it turns out that more people than ever were applying for passports. As someone who extensively and carefully plans everything, I was kicking myself so much for not applying for their passports earlier. I ended up contacting (many, many times) both of my state senators and my representative and spending a combined six hours on hold with the National Passport Information Center to push the passports through. I also shelled out extra money for expediated shipping. Finally, a mere three days before our departure, all four passports arrived. Whew.

After the kids’ passports arrived, we were ready to go! I’d been tempering my excitement for the trip in case it didn’t happen, but once I knew that we were for sure going, I got pumped and hyped everyone else up, too. ¡México, allá vamos!

One of the reasons that we chose Cabo for our Spring Break destination was because it is only a 2-hour direct flight away. We flew out of LAX, which can be crazy, but we gave ourselves enough time to ensure that our departure went smoothly. When we arrived in Cabo, we retrieved our crappy minivan rental, which took longer than we would have liked in our tired traveling state, but it worked out better than taxis and rideshares for our large family.

As soon as we arrived at our resort, the beautiful Hilton Los Cabos, and were handed welcome hibiscus margaritas, our travel wariness dissipated and we activated vacation mode for the next five days. We stayed in an Altamar premier suite with an oceanview balcony, which was essentially adjoining hotel rooms. Dan and I had our own bedroom, Irene had her own bedroom (a large bathroom), and the big three kids had their own bedroom. We had two full bathrooms and a long balcony with amazing views, in addition to all of the Altamar amenities. The space worked out perfect for us! Each morning, we were up early in the six o’clock hour to start our day with breakfast and swimming and each night, right after dinner, we were all snug in our beds and fast asleep no later than 8pm. I think one thing that made this vacation so great is that everyone got good rest!

Pool & Beach

Much of our time on this trip was spent pool and beach side. I tried so hard to soak up the feel of relaxing in the water (even when Irene was in my arms) and the gorgeous ocean views. The resort had multiple pools, hot tubs, and a kids water slide, in addition to safe beach access, and we took full advantage of these amenities. Time by the water is still a little stressful for us since Irene is not yet water safe, but oh, we’re so close to being able to sit in a lounge chair and read while all the kids swim. The big three kids quickly learned their way around the resort pools and we felt comfortable with them swimming around.

Even though the Pacific Ocean is practically in our backyard, the kids were still so excited to swim and play at the beach in Cabo. Irene and I accompanied the girls down to the beach one morning, but didn’t go back again since Irene refused to put her feet in the sand or water. Dan took the big three kids down to the ocean multiple times, though, and each time they had a blast playing in the waves, building sand castles, and searching for (or being scared by the) crabs in the rocks.

Church

The day after we arrived in Cabo was Palm Sunday. Although we do not normally go to church on vacation, I wanted to show the kids some of the history of Cabo San Lucas, and so attending mass at one of the oldest churches in Cabo (it was built in 1730!) was on our agenda. Parroquia de San Lucas Evangelista (Parish church of Saint Luke, the Evangelist) was very small and it was packed and so the kids were in and out of it during the service (along with other parishioners’ dogs!). The mass was mostly in Spanish, but it was easy to follow, which was neat to point out to Vivian. After the service ended, we bought ice cream from a street vendor and then sat in a gazebo in the Plaza Amelia Wilkes and ate it.

Dolphin Swim

One of the trip highlights for Dan and William was swimming with dolphins. Dan has loved dolphins since he was a kid and has wanted to swim with them since then, too. All his childhood dreams came true when he took William along to play and swim with dolphins at Cabo Dolphins (this is something that you definitely can’t do in the States anymore!). Although the girls would have loved this activity, too, we didn’t have a high enough adult/child ratio in our family to make this possible for everyone. So, Dan and William participated in this activity and the big girls and I went horseback riding on the beach. William rode on a dolphin and Dan swam underwater with a dolphin and they both kissed, danced with, hugged, and interacted with the dolphins. It was a really fun experience for them! Then at the end they were goaded into buying pictures of their experience (no personal cameras were allowed) that were at least double the cost of the actual experience. Still – dreams came true!

Beach Horseback Ride

Lillian absolutely loves horses and so all her childhood dreams came true when we went on a private horseback ride on the beach. Both girls were thrilled to control their own horses (unlike other trail rides they’ve been on, the horses on this ride did not simply follow each other butt-to-nose in a straight line).

Hike

Of course, of course, we had to go on a hike while in Mexico. I found a 1.7 mile hike up a hill that showed us spectacular views of both the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez. The kids did well on the hike (I believe that Lillian won the No Whining Award on the hike) and gave them an opportunity to see more of the geography around Cabo San Lucas.

Food

We ate so much good food on this trip. I think that every meal was amazing. Immediately after arriving at the resort, we ate at a Mexican fiesta from the Talavera restaurant onsite. At the fiesta, they had live entertainment and Lillian joined the singers and dancers, showing off her Latin dance moves. Every morning during our stay, we ate breakfast at Talavera, which offered the most amazing buffets of food choices. We also celebrated Taco Tuesday at this same restaurant where Dan and I got to taste unique taco filling combinations.

While at the resort, we also ate at Vela for dinner, Lena for lunch, Sotol for Happy Hour, Mio for lunch, and Dulce for ice cream. Offsite, we ate at Los Tres Gallos for dinner. This restaurant is located in the historic center of San Jose del Cabo and the kids loved the mariachi band and the random street cat roaming among the tables.

We also toured and ate at the well known Flora Farms the evening before Vivian’s 9th birthday.

More Fun & Relaxation

In addition to all the activities we did and food we ate that are detailed above, we also enjoyed complimentary evening cocktail hours; a family beach photo session; alternating afternoons at the spa for Dan and me; lizard stalking (the lizards were huge!); and crafts, games, and movies at the kids club for the big three kids.

We had a very full and fun week! I highly recommend Cabo, and especial the Hilton Los Cabos, for families. This was a wonderful trip that allowed the kids to get some introductory experience in international travel. Now…where should we go next?!