Los Cabos

For my birthday this year, my boyfriend and I decided to go on a trip. One of his favorite spots just happened to have an insane discount on my industry site ( for being a flight attendant). Since the stars aligned so incredibly, we booked a long weekend trip to Los Cabos, Mexico.

Thursday

My boyfriend, Kevin, had flown through Tijuana. I guess a trick if you’re flying to Cabo from around San Diego is to take the cross border to the express bridge to the Tijuana airport where flights are significantly cheaper. We both arrived at the airport around noon and since I was a little bit earlier I walked from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1 where Kevin was waiting. From there, since they don’t allow Uber to pick us up at the airport, we ordered a car to take us to the resort.

It is easy to find a ride outside the airport and then a quick thirty-minute drive to the JW Marriott. Kevin had stayed there before and so had my mom, so they both deemed it worthy of a birthday vacation. And it was.

As soon as we walked in they gave us Arnold Palmer’s while we checked in. We were a few hours early, so our room wasn’t ready, but we left our bags, explored the property, got lunch, and enjoyed the sun while we waited.

When our room was ready, we headed over and I walked into an extraordinary surprise. Kevin had set up flowers and a bottle of champagne to be in the room waiting when arrived. The sweetest surprise. The hotel also added a beautiful plate of chocolate-covered strawberries. We popped the bottle of champagne and enjoyed it on our balcony before heading to the pool to catch a little sun.

We spent pretty much all of our pool time at the adult pool on the property. It has a swim-up bar, lounge chairs that overlook the ocean, and a huge hot tub. We enjoyed a few of those stereotypical vacation drinks from the swim-up bar and relaxed for a few hours.

For dinner, we decided to go somewhere on the hotel property since we’d had a long day of traveling. When we walked to the pool we passed Cafe des Artistes and it looked cool, so we made a reservation there. It was a dining experience and easily the nicest meal we went to. Some highlights were oysters that tasted like they were plucked from the ocean moments prior to being placed on our table and the Short Rib And Charcoal Beef Filet, which my boyfriend and I both ordered.

Ten out of ten. If you’re staying at the JW or anywhere within driving distance and are looking for a fine dining experience, this is your spot.

Friday

To sum it up, Friday was our fun day. We got out early, secured spots by the pool, and were there for eight or more hours. We claimed chairs overlooking the ocean at the adult pool and posted up there.

There was everything you’d want for your ideal pool day. An umbrella between us for shade, a swim-up bar, stairs right down to a beautiful beach, and chicken tenders delivered right to your pool chair. We had such a fun day of ordering pool food, getting slushy, tropical drinks and making new friends (most of whom were old enough to be our parents).

After our big pool day, we decided to take it easy with dinner at Niparaya JW Bar. It was about a minute walk away from our room and offered small plates which was the perfect end to our big day.

Saturday

The most important day of them all: my birthday, or Saturday. We started off with an all-you-can-eat brunch buffet overlooking the ocean at UÁ Culinary Artisans.

After our big breakfast, we headed back to the pool. We had our fun Friday, so we took it a little easier. We relaxed in a shady spot and split a quesadilla to save plenty of room for dinner.

Next, we went to our room for a little post-pool and sunshine nap. I had a birthday bubble bath and then started getting ready for our big night at Flora Farms.

I think the most highly recommended place I got when planning a trip to Cabo was Flora Farms. My boyfriend had been before and luckily knew we needed to get there at least an hour early to explore the property.

Flora Farms is quite literally, a farm. The property is made up of so much more than the restaurant we were going to for dinner. It contains a farm where the food for the restaurant is cultivated, a bar, shops with local trinkets, a spa, and an incredible restaurant.

We enjoyed our time walking around the shops and I bought myself, and my mom since her birthday is four days after mine, a freshwater pearl and beaded bracelet as a birthday present. We got drinks at the farm bar and enjoyed sitting outside. I started with a martini that was infused with fresh lavender. Refreshing as hell.

Once our table was ready we walked through the outdoor seating area with our cocktails to a table that had an adorable ‘Happy Birthday Anna’ sign. Right away they set down these interesting jelly and beat little spoonfuls to kickstart our culinary experience.

Since the food comes straight from the farm, the menu is frequently changing with what’s in season. I will say that every single thing we had when we went was incredible. First, we split a beet salad and Neapolitan-style arugula and feta pizza. Not only is the food amazingly crafted but the ingredients were so incredibly fresh.

For our main entrées, we both picked different kinds of pasta from the menu. I can’t tell you exactly what my boyfriend got but it was some type of ravioli with bacon on top. It was good but didn’t stand a chance against what I ordered. I got tortellini with shrimp, heirloom tomatoes, and spinach, drizzled in olive oil and farm herbs. The best summer pasta I’ve ever had. Sadly I didn’t lick my plate clean because we had so much food.

Along with dinner, I tried another martini infused with fresh basil which was different, but so refreshing and not too sweet. They served us Mexican flan for dessert, another hit.

We closed out our night by watching the live band and sitting at the bar. Flora Farms was easily one of my favorite adventures from this trip. I highly recommend making the trek, no matter where you’re staying in Cabo.

Sunday

Sunday morning we had a slow morning of coffee and getting ready to head to Cabo San Lucas. We ordered an uber and headed to our 1 pm reservation at The Office. The Office was easily the most recommended spot. Everyone said it was somewhere we had to go.

The Office beach club sits right on the water. We got a table closest to the water which at first we thought was amazing. It was until we realized the street vendors there constantly stood right in front of us and tried to get us to buy an array of things we didn’t want (well except for a little straw bag I got my boyfriend to buy me).

The food we had was so good, the drinks a little sugary for my liking. Overall, a very good time. We still had some time to kill before our sunset cruise. We, and by we I mean me, stopped in some shops and then found another beach spot to have another drink.

Corazon Beach Club was our next stop. We sat on an upstairs deck that overlooked the water, and didn’t have constant street vendors in your face. We each enjoyed an espresso martini, or two, as we relaxed and enjoyed the view. Corazon beat the Office for me, mostly because there weren’t any street vendors constantly in our face trying to get us to buy crap and we were able to enjoy the view.

After our afternoon of people-watching and cocktail sipping, we walked over to where our cruise was.

I booked the boat tour through Viator because I didn’t really have any suggestions from friends. I booked the La Princesa Catamaran which I found by searching ‘sunset cruises Cabo’ so didn’t do an extensive amount of research, to say the least. Overall the tour was fun. Both of us had never seen El Arco de Cabo San Lucas and wanted to do some kind of boat tour.

The cruise included drinks and snacks and about a two-hour cruise around the Arch. Let me tell you, a sunset cruise in that area is a busy, busy time. There were so many boats out, it was hard to snipe a picture of the Arch without another boat in the frame. Not saying my rating factor of sunset cruises is the ability to take cute pics, but if you’re looking for a calm relaxing cruise this might not be it.

I’m glad we had the experience, but booking next time I would do a lot more research on what sunset cruise to take. We wandered around the downtown area and popped in some touristy bars before ordering an uber back to our hotel.

Monday

We may or may not have extended our trip a day. We did.

We just weren’t able to leave and head back to reality just yet, so we booked the hotel for one more night. Luckily we were able to stay in our same room, too.

All day we spent at the pool, yet again. Hanging at the pool was no doubt our favorite activity. We waded in the water, made more friends, and ordered beachy cocktails from the swim-up bar. It was the perfect finale to our amazing trip.

Since we had one more night, we decided to head into downtown San Jose. It was a ten-minute uber ride from our hotel and we had them drop us off in the Art District. We didn’t have a reservation anywhere since we decided to go last minute, but there were plenty of restaurants to pick from.

We looked at a few menus before deciding on Jazmin’s. I had chicken enchiladas and a massive margarita, the perfect closing meal to our Mexican vacation. The restaurant was great and there was even a mariachi band that toured the restaurant.

Downtown San Jose was one of my favorite things we did. It was adorable and had plenty of shops and restaurants to keep us entertained.

When we got back to the hotel I grabbed a glass of champagne and we sat by one of the fire pits on the hotel’s property.

I knew I would love Cabo from what all my friends and family had told me before going. I couldn’t have imagined though that it would be probably my favorite vacation to date. I guess my boyfriend had some influence on that too, but mostly the JW Marriott in Cabo is the ultimate dream.

I can’t wait to go back.

If you want to see a highlight from my Cabo adventure click here!