Villa Del Palmar Beach Resort & Spa Cabo San Lucas — Hotel in El Tezal

We have friends who own a timeshare here and invited us out for a few days. We decided to extend our trip for an extra couple of days and booked a room with an all inclusive package for after our friends left—we did this prior to arriving.

Pros -The views from the terraces are lovely. Our friends had booked a penthouse through their timeshare and the views from the penthouse were beautiful.

-staff are very polite and cordial. Some of them are helpful— most of the check in people were

-all inclusive drinks are a deal but probably not the food

The units all have kitchens with basic cooking equipment including food storage containers which is great because I had to cook most of my meals since the restaurants are unable to accommodate allergies.

they seem to do their best to keep the resort and its rooms clean— especially if you’re up in the penthouse

Cons the rooms are freezing and we had to turn off the air conditioning in both the penthouse and our room during the second part of our stay—this might be a pro for some folks but my husband who runs hot and is never cold was freezing and unable to sleep the first night there.

-The room we received after our friends left reeked of mildew and mold as did the sheets. This observation has been mentioned by other reviewers. This room was located in what is probably the oldest part of the property which is the same building as the lobby and sports bar. The penthouse which was in a different building didn’t have any bad smells.

-The staff are nice but not always helpful. For example, I called the front desk and requested extra dishwasher soap when we were in the penthouse but we never received it.

Another example: we were given the wrong information and almost missed the timeshare presentation we were required to attend as part of the deal we purchased for the second part of our stay.

—they can’t accommodate allergies—we spoke to managers at two of the restaurants on site about dietary restrictions. One manager gave me her email but then never responded to my message. Another manager at a different restaurant was more helpful one of the nights but then on the second night failed to disclose that their flank steak (which comes pre-marinated) may have ingredients that I could not eat for health/allergy reasons. I ate some of it and only realized after I had taken several bites that there might be things in it I can’t have. In fact, when asked what ingredients were in the marinade, they couldn’t tell us. Eventually, they said sodium and herbs which is vague especially since there are herbs I shouldn’t eat. I got sick that night. They apologized but it’s clear they don’t know what’s in their food or how to properly accommodate folks even after speaking with their management and chefs. It was honestly a bit bizarre how they didn’t know what was in the food they made.

The food is ok— if it’s all inclusive and you don’t have allergies, it’s a deal depending on how much you paid and how much you eat. If you’re paying per meal and/or have allergies, I think it’s overpriced.

We took an Uber to Walmart to get groceries for me and brought back frozen wings and pizza for our friends who said they were better than what they’d ordered earlier that day at the resort. My husband liked some of the food he had but a lot of it wasn’t great and the pasta he had at the Italian restaurant was downright terrible but he wanted to make the most of the all inclusive package.

-it’s very noisy—there are shows and games and activities all day that are blasted on loud speakers. It’s what I imagine a cruise would be like so some folks might like it but if you just want some quiet time— look for a different resort. After our friends left, I spent a lot of time with headphones on to drown out the noise of the games and terrible music which could be heard from all the pools and hot tubs

there are no lifeguards on duty at the beach and the waves and undercurrents can be rough. Our friends did not allow either of their children to go into the water for...

I stayed here on a 7 day all-inclusive week long family vacation. Through the review, I'll be giving everything I experienced both good and bad. BOTTOM LINE: You can get much better service at a few other all inclusive resorts if that is what you're looking for. Resort is understaffed heavily and too crowded.

Rooms: The rooms are what they are. They do have an interesting smell to them that smells like they maybe need to be aired out or something. There is a full-sized refrigerator that made it great for storing milk and everything else we needed for our baby. We had a 2-bed room. The beds are full-sized beds which isn't ideal for me and my girlfriend being that I'm 6'6" and she's 5'10". Nonetheless, we made it work. We aren't there to be in the room very often anyway.

Amenities: There are 2 separate pools along with a kiddie pool area along with a few smaller spa's scattered around. We spent most of our time near the pool that had the slide since that was where all the activities went on anyway. If you plan to come to this pool, be prepared to get there by like 8:00 AM if you need to reserve more than 2 chairs. If you leave things on chairs, they will move it after 45 minutes, so keep one person around those chairs if you plan to be doing other things until you get down there. We did end up renting the cabanas for 2 of our 7 days just because we didn't want to have to worry about reserving chairs. Cabanas were $125 each day and came with some chocolate covered strawberries and a large bed that hung from rope on each corner so it swayed like a hammock. It was very nice.

Service: By far, my biggest complaint was the service, or should I say, lack thereof. There are a few GREAT pool-side servers and there are some not so great. Andres was phenomenal and probably gave us our best day of service. We are very generous tippers from the very first drink brought to us, so for the poor service that follows that first tip, is unacceptable in my opinion. Misael was a good server as well along with Jose on our last day. To elaborate on the poor service; there is only ONE bartender working each of the bars and they are incredibly slow. Every time you order a drink from them, they print out a long receipt and it takes forever. Standing in a line of 3-4 people ahead of you takes approximately 30 minutes which is just ridiculous in my opinion and unlike anything I've ever seen at an all-inclusive resort. They almost seem put out that they are having to make drinks. I'll reiterate, we are VERY good tippers so I'm not sure how else I could have remedied that issue of poor service. Everything just took a long time and nobody seemed in a hurry to serve anybody. You can find much better service at surrounding all-inclusive resorts.

Events: There were activities each day by the pool usually starting at 11AM with blackjack, then at noon was water aerobics, 2PM was Water Volleyball, 3PM they had a "crazy game" usually geared toward children, and 3:30PM they finished with Bingo. Alana, Sam, Chloe, and Chuy were great at their jobs and made everything really fun. At night, they had a show with live performers. For example, we watched The Lion King, The Greatest Showman, and Chicago. There was a Michael Jackson show and I just don't remember the other days, but they are entertaining.

Food: I tried all of the places so you don't have to. Bella California - was great for me because I ordered the Penne Ai Quattro and it was delicious. The rest of the table didn't have my experience and told me their food wasn't great. Tomatillos - Probably the best chicken I had all week was at Tomatillos. The steak was good as well and they served us family style entrees with everything to try on the menu. Sports Bar - This place was just okay. It's fine for just a quick bite, but nothing on the menu was out of this world. Carbon Grill - Ate here on the first night and it was pretty good. The steak was really well-done and chewy which is not to my liking, but they had good chicken. Taco Bar - LOVED Pizza Bar...

I was in Cabo for a wedding being held at another resort, and my family and I stayed at the Villa Del Palmar to save money on the trip. I would not choose to stay at this resort again in the future.

Staff: The staff who work at the restaurants, pools, and market, and the staff who clean and service the rooms were all friendly and professional, and they were the best part of visiting Villa Del Palmar. However, we overheard one waiter say that they work 6 days a week every week. That is 6 days a week working on their feet, outside, and probably for not much money.

Bathroom leaks: My family and I stayed in two separate rooms in two separate buildings on opposing sides of the main pool, but we each experienced similar issues during our stay. Both rooms were on the ground floor and had two bathrooms, but the bathrooms attached to the bedrooms in both rooms became unusable while we were there. In my parents' room, their shower would not work at all and water would only run from the tub spout. They also had leaking from their shower that was later determined to have come from rooms above them. They reported the leak and nonworking shower and both were "fixed" the same day, but the issue returned two days later. In my room, our shower leaked so badly that it filled the entire bathroom with an inch of water overnight. We had ours "fixed" as well, but you could still hear dripping coming from the plumbing area.

Food: We did not purchase the all-inclusive plan but it might have been a better value to have done so because the food and drinks were very expensive. The quality of the food was not good enough to justify such high prices, but it wasn't terrible. However, there is only one restaurant that serves breakfast, and there was almost always a wait to get in even though it was a buffet. The buffet breakfast does come with a mimosa or bloody mary, but at $50 USD per person, it wasn't worth it. Also, all of the restaurants/bars only take credit cards, not cash, which we did not know before arriving with cash.

Noise: The resort itself is very compact, with all of the pools located in the center of the rooms and restaurants. All of the daytime and evening events (think loud speakers, cheering, games) happened at the main pool. There was nowhere you could go within the resort to escape the noise while these events were going on.

Beach: While Villa Del Palmar is technically on the beach, they do not offer any seating on the beach itself, and the only access is through a set of stairs tucked away behind a restaurant. When you go down those stairs, you are bombarded with people trying to sell you sunglasses, jewelry, hats, etc. The only seating available on the beach is through other resorts or if you bring your own.

COVID: Lastly, the resort WILL NOT give you a covid test, even if you ask for one. My dad was showing signs of covid and had experienced a health emergency. We asked the onsite medical facility to come give him an exam. The people who arrived introduced themselves as doctors so I choose to believe they were. They took my dad's vitals and told us he looked like he was probably just dehydrated. We asked them to do a covid test and they told us he was not showing symptoms of covid (he was) and so they didn't think it was necessary to do one. They didn't charge us for this "exam" since they only did his vitals, and they left. This was a Saturday, and we returned home that Tuesday night. By Tuesday, my dad could not walk through the airport and required a wheelchair because he could not breathe. He went to the ER first thing Wednesday morning and was diagnosed with severe covid and pneumonia. He was kept in the hospital for 11 days and will remain on oxygen at home for several months. The resort did not have any covid tests at the front desk or at the onsite market/pharmacy, and the medical facility would not give him one when we directly asked. I called the resort to let them know this had happened and was hung up on as soon as I started speaking.

I do not recommend...