Celebrating my birthday with my old college roommates. Vacation time!!

August 2019

It was my first time in Mexico and I’m not going to lie, I was a bit worried about safety. Before I went, I read a ton of blogs and I was getting sucked into it. I was mainly worried about the transportation situation: how do we get from the airport to our hotel and back, how do we get around, etc.

There are tons of websites and companies that you can book from online to get to/from the airport, but I’ll tell you about my experience. We stayed at the Riu Palace hotel which included free transportation roundtrip – you must book through Riu Palace hotel in order to get this service. The shuttle company is called “Destination Services”. Once you book through Riu Palace, they will ask you for your flight information, e-mail you a voucher, and directions to look for your person once you get off the airport.

We flew into SJD and once you exit (go straight instead of the right side, because it was all taxis). There will be a ton of people coming up to you to ask you about your rides: taxi, timeshare, etc. There were a lot of people in uniform holding up hotel signs. Just be nice, focus, and look for your person. Our person wore a green top with black bottoms. It was “hard” to find our person, because there are so many of them. One of the workers asked me: “What company are you looking for? Where are you going? Need a ride, etc.” and I hoped that they wouldn’t advertise for us to take their ride – and he didn’t! He told us that Destination Services is standing under #5. We went to #5 and our guy was standing off on the side so we couldn’t see him until we got there. I wished that Destination Services told us what number signed they were staying underneath. Nonetheless, we checked in with the guy, showed the voucher, and waited a few minutes. It is a shared shuttle, so you would need to wait for others, if you don’t want that, then I would recommend booking a private shuttle.

We got to our hotel to check in, stood in line, and one of the worker from Destination Services came up to us and told us that we needed to see him the next day to book our ride back (since he was leaving for the day). It was somewhat inconvenient, since we just wanted to book it right then and there. We met up with him downstairs of the hotel next to the spa & theatre area. At that location, there are ton of other companies sitting there and meeting with guests to book rides back to airport as well. Our guy asked if we received a paper voucher from the driver that dropped us off yesterday and we said “No”. They didn’t give us anything, so he told us to come back again so he can give us the voucher. How inconvenient of our time again! He did book our time back, but we needed the new voucher to show the driver. We showed back up the next day and it was a different employee. We asked him for a paper voucher, and he said he didn’t hear anything from the previous worker, so he couldn’t get us a voucher, and told us to just tell the driver that he said it’s okay to go without the voucher. I didn’t like that, because, I personally feel like it’s not secure nor trustworthy. It was a little annoying going back and forth and wasting our time meeting up with this company multiple times to not get what we needed: a voucher. Thank goodness I had my roommates there to calm my anxiousness – I just worried a lot.

On the last day, Destination Services were about 10 minutes late to pick us up, but luckily, we arrived to the airport safe and sound with some time to spare. They didn’t even ask us for a paper voucher. Hotel Riu Palace did give us a small paper to a shuttle ride back, but Destination Services didn’t even check. They just called our name.

Overall, Destination Services is fine. I think they need to improve on being accurate with time and communication in general. It’s inconvenient for us to go out of our vacation to meet up with this company 3 times to get transportation done with. It should just be 1-2 times to confirm and that’s it.

By the way, the ride to/from airport to/from hotel is about a 45min-1 hour drive.

Now…let’s get onto the vacation!!

Day 1:

Hotel Riu Palace has three hotels: Riu Palace, Riu Santa Fe, and Riu Baja California. We stayed in Riu Palace and it was a beautiful hotel. Super clean and spacious. You get a wristband upon check in. Riu Palace has access to all three hotels and they’re near each other, within a 5-10 min walk. Look at this gorgeous lobby below. I didn’t get to take a photo outside of the hotel, but the Riu sign is red, it’s a loop drop off & pick up, & has an armor statue outside. It’s exactly the pictures you see on Google or Youtube.

We stayed in a two double bed with a garden view. It was beautiful!

After we checked in, we went to the bar and pool to relax.

You also get a towel card to trade in for a towel. You can leave your phone, slippers, etc. on the chairs. No one will take it, everyone left their stuff out there too.

 After that, we ate at the buffet and for dinner, you need to be cover up/dressed – no swim suits. You can sit indoors or outdoors. There were a tons of food and drinks! Unlimited/all inclusive!

After that, we got ready to go to the pool parties. All of the pool parties are hosted at Riu Santa Fe and they have different themes every other day. We were there for Neon night!

Day 2:

We ate breakfast at the buffet and they have tons of selections from bagels, eggs, cereal, fruits, etc. and mimosas!

We booked an Outback & Camel Safari ride through Cabo Adventures online and the company is GREAT! They are legit with legit logos, shuttle logos, etc. They picked us up on time, picked up other people in different hotels, and drove about 45min-1 hour away up to Tierra Sagrada Ranch. We checked in and got instructions about the tour.

Our tour guide was Ivonne and she was amazing!! So enthusiastic – especially in the hot weather. We started off by learning about the camels and the ranch, then we had a interactive photo session with the camel, Hercules. You can’t have any phones out here. There is a professional photographer that will take photos of you and for you to purchase. We hug the camel, fed the camel with a sliced apple, and got besos from the camel.

After that, we rode the camel! You will need to take off your backpack and items and leave it in a box – it was completely safe. They will give you a helmet for safety. The ride was chill and the beach was gorgeous. There will be a drone flying around and photographers to capture your moment, so pose 😉 but also, I will not ride a camel or any other animal again.

After the camel ride, we did a walking tour through the desert garden and I learned a ton of things!! There were such amazing plants that can help us survive in the desert. One was a drop of water, and when you rub it, it becomes sunscreen, it was white Lombard kind of plant. There was another plant that you can rip off and when you sniff it, it smells like eucalyptus. And another pepper plant that you can eat. Nature is amazing.

Then we walked to the ranch for a buffet lunch. There were homemade tortillas and horchatas, yum! After the lunch, our guide showed us how to made tortillas and we had tequila tastings. I don’t like tequila, but after this trip, I appreciate it a lot more.

Cabo Adventures had great service! I would book through them again. After the tour, we got dropped back off at our hotel and we swam some more at the pool and the beach!

Then we went ate dinner at the Steakhouse & went back to the beach for the sunset.

I loved that the access to the pool and beach from the hotel is literally a two minute walk. It was perfect.

Day 3:

We had breakfast at the hotel.

So, we book a luxury sailing adventure through a 3rd party company owned by a couple and I wasn’t sure if it was legit since the website didn’t seem legit. I wanted to book through Cabo Adventures again for the $129 luxury day sailing, but we went with what was cheaper $107 – however…we ended up with Cabo Adventures?! It was weird! The shuttle pick up from our hotel was late, but Cabo Adventures ended picking us up. We drove through downtown which was nice to see. We checked in, greeted with champagne, and were off to sail!

If I’m going to be honest, I thought the arch was going to be MUCH bigger!! It was so small and the waves weren’t as high as what it usually is. We also saw Lovers & Divorce beach on the way.

The boat had an open bar, appetizer, lunch, and music. Plus, the views were beautiful. We saw two dolphins popped out and a turtle!!

We sailed to Santa Maria beach to snorkel. They had all of the snorkel gear for you and a hose for you to rinse off afterwards. We had about 45 minutes to swim around.

There were tons of fishes and we saw sting rays!! It was SO awesome!! It was my first time snorkeling too!!

The luxury sailing with Cabo Adventures took really good care of us. I enjoyed it a lot!

Then we sailed back and the shuttle pick up time to go back to the hotel is every two hours: 2pm, 4pm, 6pm & 8pm. We were done with the sailing by 3:30ish, explored downtown area, souvenir shopped, and did tequila tasting until 6pm.

We got back, rested, ate, and caught one last sunset. It was gorgeous. It got more pink by the minute!

Day 4:

It was my birthday! Felt super blessed to wake up alive and to celebrate my birthday in another country & at home (we went home later that afternoon). We got brunch and went to the beach one last time before heading out.

We ate outside a for a little bit then went inside because it got really hot, haha. Kelly requested that the restaurant bring this little desert out for me with a candle. The workers sang for me. It was a cute little surprise.

It was a beautiful last day here in Cabo!

After the beach, we washed up, checked out, and I mentioned above about our transportation back. Thank you Cabo, Mexico for everything! Thank you Riu Palace for such an amazing place to stay and to all of the activities that you had in the hotel! What I didn’t get to participate in were the dance and workout classes that they had. It was my first time staying in an all inclusive hotel and it is really nice. No need to think about rental car, going out to find food, buying drinks, etc. It’s all there for you and it’s unlimited! It’s vacation, you should be feel relaxed. Thank you Cabo for the amazing weather, fun activities, and the lovely water! #viviansventures

As always, thank you for visiting Vivian’s Ventures. Have you been to Cabo? If so, tell me in the comments/reply section of your experience. What should I do there if I go back? Should I try another transportation? Should I stay at another All Inclusive Resort? If you haven’t been, tell me what you are planning to do there. Any questions or comments, let me know.