I just finished up the most relaxing trip to the Hacienda Encantada Resort & Spa in Cabo San Lucas. This was my first time in Cabo, and I’m still impressed that you can see mountains and the beach all in on place. I could totally get used to this view from my room.
As a contributor to The Daily Meal, I was selected to attend a hosted press trip with the assignment to take pictures of the food and write captions. I took my job very seriously and was able to take a lot of great food photos. I’ll make sure to post a link to The Daily Meal story on my social media channels once it’s published.
While the food at the Hacienda Encantada Resort & Spa is amazing, there is so much more to the resort. I’m dying to tell you all about my experience so I put together a recap of some of the amazing things I experienced at the Hacienda Encantada Resort & Spa.
The room and property
I started out my stay by checking out my room and then taking a quick tour of the property. I stayed in the newest building on the property. My room was a standard studio room with a huge bed, mini fridge, and shower in the bathroom. This particular room is currently $211 a night or $452 for two people on the all inclusive plan (prices go up between Oct. and Dec.). The resort offers pretty great deals too. Head here to check out their featured sale. At the time of publish the featured sale is the spring sale where you can get deals up to 50% off!
You know that view I showed at the beginning of this post? You could see it from almost every inch of this room. It was amazing! The property also has 2 bedroom suites, penthouse like suites, and 3 bedroom residences that would be perfect for large or multigenerational families. Personally, I would go back and stay in the standard room again since the resort offers an all inclusive option. You don’t have to purchase the all inclusive option, but for $100-120 extra a day it seems worth it to not have to worry about buying groceries and preparing them in your room. Although it is tempting to rent one of the residences so I can soak in this beautiful tub and enjoy the outdoor shower.
The rest of the property is just as amazing as the view from my room. The entire resort has this authentic Mexican vibe. It doesn’t feel like you’ve left America for a standard all inclusive experience where you don’t even get a feel for the country. At Hacienda Encantada Resort & Spa you totally get the feel of Mexico. It’s family run by residents of Mexico who are passionate about the resort. Even the decor is picked out by a member of the family. I especially liked that the resort is beautiful even when you aren’t looking at the landscape or the Sea of Cortez. Every view of the property is breathtaking.
There are three pools and all of them are beautiful. Two of them are kid friendly and one is an adults only. This is a view of the adults only pool area with a giant hot tub.
I sat down in the adults only area to look at the water and read for a couple of hours. It was probably the most relaxed I’ve been in years.
As for pools, I loved the adult only pool, but preferred to spend my time at the pool outside my building. It’s mostly because I loved looking at this bar. Isn’t it gorgeous?
The kiddie pool was pretty adorable too. I know that if I’d taken Robert and Jackson they would have loved lounging in these chairs.
What to eat
I feel strongly about this statement: eat all the food at the Hacienda Encantada Resort & Spa. You’ll be glad you did. This resort isn’t like some of the tourist trap all inclusive resorts that serve subpar, overpriced American food. The food and drinks at the Hacienda Encantada are the real deal. There is a sommelier on staff to help you pair wine and even tequila!
As for where to eat at the Hacienda Encantada, there are eight on site restaurants, as well as seven other restaurants at their sister property, Marina Fiesta. All 15 restaurants are included in the all inclusive plan. I did breakfast everyday at the buffet at Las Marias. I’m already missing the savory breakfast food options. Each morning they offered absolutely delicious authentic Mexican food like grilled vegetables, refried beans, marinated pork, and chicken fajitas.
As much as I love my savory food, you know I love donuts too! That’s why I ended every breakfast with a donut dessert.
The lunch options are endless, especially with all the pool bars serving food. I had pizza by the pool twice and sushi once. I especially loved my supreme sushi roll that was cooked. I miss eating raw sushi while pregnant, but love the excuse to eat fried sushi.
We took a cooking class for one of our lunches and it was by far the highlight of the trip for me. I love to learn, cook, eat, and photograph food so this was the perfect experience. I highly recommend taking one of the cooking classes if you ever visit the Hacienda Encantada Resort & Spa. We learned how to make authentic Baja beer battered seabass fish tacos (recipe coming soon).
I also learned how to make pico de gallo and the most delicious guacamole.
The dinners were just as spectacular as the breakfast and lunch. Maybe even more spectacular since all of the dinners were fine dining. We started out the trip by dining by the Sea of Cortez. The resort offers special dining options outside of the restaurants such as a star gazing dinner and the dinner by the beach. My favorite part of that meal was the lobster bisque.
The other dinners were spectacular as well. I’d have to say that our experience as Los Deseos outside of the resort at the Golden Marina Zone (part of the all inclusive plan), was my favorite. I loved watching the table-side cheese and tequila flambe.
I could eat cheese and freshly made pico de gallo every single day for the rest of my life. There is nothing as refreshing as fresh cilantro mixed with tomatoes and onions.
There was so much food to choose from at Los Deseos. This carnivore ended up devouring the perfectly cooked and tender flank steak with onions and peppers. It was the most delicious spin on steak fajitas that I’ve ever experienced.
I could write about food all day, but you’ll have to wait for my Daily Meal piece to come out to see the best of the best pictures.
Activities at the Hacienda Encantada
While I would have been perfectly happy eating and lounging all day, I’m glad this tour scheduled in time for activities. We went for a boat ride from the marina near Marina Fiesta and checked out the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean. It was a beautiful boat ride, even though I ended up feeling a little sea sick. Check out the color of this water!
I saw my first glimpse of sea lions and also saw a juvenile humpback whale. No picture evidence of the whale though. Even my picture of the sea lion didn’t turn out too well. My wildlife photography needs some work.
My favorite part of this tour was seeing the arch between the Sea of Cortez and Pacific Ocean.
I also enjoyed my spa experience. My mani/ pedi was incredibly relaxing. I spent an hour in the spa relaxing and reading the new Sophie Kinsella book on my Kindle.
Very happy with the Hacienda Encantada Resort & Spa
The Hacienda Encantada Resort & Spa is truly a gem. I feel like they do a great job with combining the feel of an all inclusive with a boutique hotel. It feels intimate but also has all the amenities of a large resort. The bar for all inclusives has been set really high for me now that I’ve stayed at the Hacienda Encantada Resort & Spa. Before this trip I didn’t have the best experiences with all inclusive resorts in Mexico. Now I have nothing but great things to say.
Another big perk of the trip was meeting a fellow Traveling Mom. I was able to bond with Mimi from Mimi Travels. Here we are on the last day of our trip- we both look extremely tired!
She is a journalist who has been in the travel industry for years. I feel like I learned so much from her and the other journalists. It’s a pretty good feeling to come home from vacation/ work trip feeling professionally and mentally fulfilled.
Oh, and notice my sweatshirt? Yup, this Florida girl was actually cold in the Baja Peninsula weather.
Have you ever been to Cabo San Lucas? To the Hacienda Encantada? Tell me all about it!
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