We stayed at the Villa del Arco. It is one of 3 timeshare resorts owned by the Villa Group. However, you can book rooms in these resorts either directly with the resort or through a third party travel website without being an owner. All three resorts are adjacent to one another with the first being Villa del Arco, then Villa del Estancia, followed by Villa del Palmar.
I booked our vacation directly through the Villa Group. You can enjoy significant savings and I have to admit, I think it helped us get a better room location as well. The resort offers both All-Inclusive (AI) and European plan options. We opted for partial all-inclusive. The only caveat is that you need to book it for at least 3 consecutive days. We went for 8 days and started our AI on our first full day and reserved the non-AI days for the last leg of our trip. In hindsight, I don’t think I’d purchase the AI in advance. You can actually book it at any point during your stay as long as you book the 3 consecutive days. Reason being, it caused a lot of confusion with our reservation and the unfortunate incident of almost being kicked out of our room mid-way through our trip. In fact, when you book directly, you have the option of doing pre check-in to save time when you arrive. However, when they did our booking, they had to do 3 separate bookings to account for the non-AI verses AI days. When I called to inquire whether to do the pre-check-in I had concerns it would screw with our booking. They advised me to wait until we arrived at our resort to ensure we wouldn’t need to change rooms. Sadly, there was still a mix up causing us to be blindsided by a potential room change after our All-Inclusive expired.
I was thoroughly impressed with the resort, the accommodations, and the entire staff with the exception of the front desk. They appeared to be very confused and incompetent and they could use a lesson on how to be polite to their customers. Unbeknownst to us they had us checking out of our room Wednesday morning when our AI reservation expired. There was no mention at check-in that we’d have to change rooms mid vacation and in fact I even confirmed with the guy at the front desk when we received our keys that we had the same room all week. We had almost booked a whale watching tour Wednesday morning. Thank god we didn’t! We would have come back to find out we had been evicted! The only reason we ever knew we had to change rooms was because my husband went to the front desk to inquire about what time our All-Inclusive was expiring that day. (By the way, it expires at noon). He was so taken aback when they mentioned we needed to change rooms that he got into an argument. They were completely rude to him with no apology other than you need to be out by 11 because they needed the room for an elite member. After squabbling with my husband they said they’d see what they could do. Rather than be able to relax at the beach like we intended, we were in limbo for almost 2 hours wondering if we needed pack up all our things and move. It made for a very stressful and upsetting situation. We were having the most wonderful time up until that point and it really left a sour taste in our mouths. It would have been one thing if we knew in advance, because I would have requested another room where we didn’t have to vacate mid-week. Thankfully all was resolved without having to resort to escalation. They allowed us to stay and the front desk person who was completely rude to my husband sent up a bottle of champagne and chocolate covered strawberries as an apology. I’m very thankful they made it right, but the stress and distraught could have all been avoided if the front desk staff was better trained and knew what they were doing in the first place. So long story short, just make sure upon check-in you are certain you get to keep your room for your entire stay, especially if you opt to do the partial All-Inclusive where it creates multiple reservations. Anyway, aside from that incident, we had the most fantastic stay, so lets move on to the more exciting details!
Our Room
There are 7 stories total at del Arco and we were given a room on the 6thfloor. We booked a 1 bedroom, ocean front suite and boy did they deliver!! After seeing the views we enjoyed, you can understand why we didn’t want to move mid-week! We had suite 1602, which was just one room in from the ocean on the left side if you are facing the beach. Our view was spectacular! We had a beautiful view of the ocean and the gorgeous rock formations right from our balcony. The balcony was spacious and expanded the entire length of the room complete with lighting, ceiling fan, a table for four, and 2 lounge chaises. Families with young kids could still enjoy their outdoor time, while their kiddos napped in the room or if they needed to get a reprieve from the hot sun.
Seating for 4 on the balcony 
Lounge chairs on the balcony
The room itself was a one-bedroom 2 full bath suite. It was much more reminiscent of a condo than a hotel room, which is definitely an advantage of booking at a timeshare resort. Lots of owners come to this resort and stay for weeks at a time. It had a fully stocked kitchen with refrigerator, dishwasher, stove, toaster oven, coffee maker, and blender. Perfect for making those frozen margaritas at happy hour! Although we didn’t take advantage of the kitchen amenities, it had everything you would need to cook a proper meal, which you could enjoy indoors or outdoors, since you had plenty of space and supplies to do so. We opted to go out for our meals, but enjoyed being able to store a few minor groceries in the fridge. By the way, there are plenty of grocery store options for stocking your fridge including Walmart and Costco. We had stopped at a store our driver recommended on our way from the airport called Fresco, which is a large grocery store with lots of options especially if you don’t want to have to buy items in bulk.
1 bedroom with king bed 
Master bathroom 
Master bedroom jacuzzi 
Living room with pull out couch 
Full size kitchen
The Grounds
The Villa del Arco is beautifully maintained and the grounds are perfectly manicured. You can tell their staff takes great pride in keeping the place clean and presentable. The public bathrooms were immaculate. Always fully stocked, clean, and in proper working order. The pools and beach were also very well maintained. As I mentioned, del Arco has 3 pools that cascade through the property. One pool contained a splash pad with fountains for the kiddos as well as a zero entry wading area. They also had 2 hot tubs intertwined with the pools. All the pools are heated and the pool closet to the beach contains a large pirate ship (one of the restaurants) and a small lazy river. Although I don’t know how well the “lazy river” really worked. There are plenty of lounge chairs throughout with umbrellas and adequate shade for those who seek it.
The prime real estate of course was the chairs that were right up against the wall, ocean front. Sadly, if you wanted a slice of this heaven, you had to be up at 6am or sooner to stake your claim. The biggest advantage to sitting in this spot is it allows you to enjoy the spectacular ocean views without being pestered by the beach vendors. We are beach people though, so we set up shop for the day down below. We found that if we reserved our chairs between 7:30 – 8:00am, we could find 4 chairs with umbrellas in the front row of lounge chairs closest to the ocean. The beach is roped off to keep the vendors at bay, but this doesn’t really help. This is definitely one of the biggest downfalls of being on the beach and this isn’t unique to del Arco. The beach vendors are relentless and set up behind the ropes in certain spots for the entire day. Then you have the plethora of other vendors walking up and down the beach trying to sell whatever it is they have! Forget about relaxing for more than 10 minute increments without a vendor pestering you. Granted some of them had some great merchandise available for sale, but I swear, I wish I had a sign on a stake that I could plant right in front of my lounge chair that said “No Gracias!” I understand this is how they make their living so I was more forgiving, but for the love of God, I’ll approach you if I want something! The one advantage of having them right there is it was a great way to shop! I ended buying a hand painted mahogany bowl for my house, sterling silver earrings, and a bathing suit wrap without ever leaving my lounge chair!
Medano Beach is a beautiful and vast stretch of sand with a stunning backdrop of the Sea of Cortez and the incredible rock formations. You can’t see the famous arch from shore, but you can hop aboard a water taxi right from the beach that will take you out there to see the stunning views and the infamous Lover’s Beach for a fee. If long walks are your thing, then you’ll be pleased with this beach because you can walk for miles along the shoreline and if you were feeling adventurous you could hit up some of the crazy day-time bars/restaurants along the way or even walk to the marina.
The water in Cabo is a stunning azure blue and it’s as clear as can be. Visibility was impressive to say the least. I could see down to my toes with no trouble in 6 feet of water. I also loved how clean and refreshing the water was. There was no seaweed in sight unlike the east coast of Mexico, which is plagued by carpets of Sargassum seaweed. During February the water temperature is about 70s degrees, so while it took your breath away when you first got in, you could quickly get used to it and it provided a nice reprieve from the hot Cabo sun.
Villa del Arco has non-motorized sports available for use during certain times of the day. Provided the caution flags weren’t out, the paddleboards were available at 10am and 11am every morning and the kayaks were available at 2pm & 3pm every day. They also had snorkel gear available for use. The water activities guy was named Omar and he was fantastic! He was the sweetest and he’d go out on the water with you so he could assist you if you had any trouble. We decided to give both the paddleboards and the kayaks a try. Kids have to be 6 years or older to use the water equipment. Life vests are provided. I went out with my youngest daughter sitting on my board and my husband took our other. The first day we were able to navigate the waters just fine, but when we attempted to take the paddleboards out a second day we had to quickly head back to shore. The current was just too strong to properly steer and get anywhere and my arms felt like jello after doing paddle boarding, kayaking, and water aerobics all in one day! I just didn’t have the strength to paddle against the current. We weren’t the only one’s struggling. They winded up closing down the water activities for the majority of the week due to the challenging water conditions.
Kids Club & Babysitting
Villa del Arco has a kids club available, but it’s an additional fee and they also have babysitting services. The kid’s club is actually located at the sister resort Villa del Palmar. It’s available for ages 4-12 and includes half day and full day services. It only runs from 10am – 4:30pm. They charge $40 for the full day camp and it includes lunch and the cost of the activities they are participating in that day. Honestly, most of the activities are geared toward younger children and we knew my oldest, who is 10, would be bored out of her skull, so we opted to forgo the kid’s club this vacation. Especially since it wasn’t included in the cost of the trip. I’ve been to other resorts with Kids Clubs that are far more superior to this one.
Since we were in Cabo during Valentine’s Day, we decided to treat ourselves to a night out without the kids. Villa del Arco offers in-room babysitting services for a fee. Well worth it in my opinion! It does get pricy though if you have more than 2 children. You need to book with the front desk at least 48 hours in advance. You fill out a form with your requested date/time and details and they confirm with you once they’ve assigned a sitter. It requires a $20 cash deposit to book the service and that money is applied toward the sitter’s fee. You then pay the sitter in cash the remaining balance.
The cost is $20 per hour for 2 kids ($10 extra an hour for additional children). If you are staying out past 8pm, you will also need to provide the sitter’s cab fare home, which is an additional 150 pesos or roughly $10. Our sitter was Gloria and she was perfectly lovely. The girls weren’t feeling well, so they mainly laid in bed and watched tv, but they said she was very nice and they were more than comfortable with her and so were we. We were very happy to have some time alone and a much needed night out!
Restaurants at Villa del Arco & Downtown
Villa del Arco has 4 restaurants on site: El Patron, Taco Bar (daytime) turns into South American Grill (nighttime), El Bucanero, and Neptune. You also have restaurant privileges at their sister resorts, so you have access to even more options.
We visited all the on-site restaurants except the South American Grill. Since we had All-Inclusive for part of our trip, we wanted to make sure we took full advantage of the restaurant options on property. I booked online dinner reservations in advance for the two most popular restaurants on Villa del Arco’s website: Neptune and El Patron. In hindsight, I should have booked a reservation for our first night there as well. We weren’t on the all-inclusive plan at this point and figured we could just hit up one of the restaurants on property with no issue. We went over to Bella California at the Palmar. They gave us a hard time at first, but then were willing to accommodate us. I made this same mistake on our last trip thinking we could just pop in somewhere. Heed my advice, when you are tired from a long day of travel and don’t feel like venturing off-site, it is an extremely good idea to have a reservation made, so you can eat quickly and get the children to bed! We were all “hangry” and it made for a challenging evening. Not a good way to kick off vacation. Lesson learned, next time I will definitely plan accordingly!
When we first arrived to the resort, our room wasn’t quite ready so we decided to grab some lunch at Taco Bar. It’s a little outdoor facility right along the pool serving authentic Mexican tacos. I wasn’t really a fan of this place. The tacos just contained meat with nothing else and while they had a fixings bar, I found the choices very limited. I had the fish tacos, which were good, but I like cheese on my tacos and that wasn’t even an offering. The food was mediocre at best and certainly not my favorite. I much preferred El Bucanero for lunch, located on a pirate ship in the pool closet to the beach. We actually didn’t sit down for a meal at this restaurant, but ordered our food to our lounge chairs on the beach. The menu was much more extensive, with better options for the kids, and much better tasting food. I really enjoyed the guacamole, the shrimp burrito, the quesadillas, and the different ceviches. The kids enjoyed the avocado wrap, chicken tenders, and hamburgers available. This was our “go to” restaurant for lunch everyday and our server Juan was amazing. He was great at making sure we had plenty to drink and eat the entire week. He was so sweet and kind and truly a pleasure to have as our waiter!
While in Cabo, my husband was turning 45 so we decided to dine at Neptune to celebrate the occasion. Neptune is a more upscale seafood restaurant located on the second floor, over looking the ocean. The ambiance is beautiful and the views are spectacular! We arrived about 20 minutes early for our reservation and were escorted to a set of couches surrounded by a fire pit to enjoy a drink while we waited. We chose to dine al fresco that evening and luckily they had heat lamps to offset the cool ocean breezes. Our experience at Neptune was lovely, until the drunk, blundering idiot and his loud mouth party of 6 ruined our evening by being seated adjacent to us half way through our meal. They were so incredibly rude to the staff, I couldn’t believe they weren’t kicked out. Up until that point, we had a beautiful ocean front table, with a nice quiet and peaceful atmosphere. One downfall of this place is the service is extremely slow. We didn’t care since we didn’t have anywhere else to be, but if you have evening plans, keep this mind. We must have waited at least 25 minutes for our appetizers to come out and then another obnoxious wait for our food. They had no problem getting our kids their meals quickly. Those came out before our appetizers, which was appreciated since the kids were starving! We opted to skip dessert and end our evening, especially since we no longer cared to listen to the obnoxious people next to us. Regardless of the slow service and the unfortunate incident of the rude patrons, I quite enjoyed this restaurant and its food and would definitely recommend checking this out at least once!
Another restaurant we tried under our all-inclusive plan was El Patron. This restaurant sits at the water’s edge with a large patio and beautiful view. They have a breakfast buffet set up here every morning with plenty of shaded seats. I don’t recommend eating here unless you have the AI plan. We ate here on our first morning without the plan and our bill was $100 for a party of 4. Yikes! Otherwise, the buffet is really nice. They have your typical buffet fare: French toast, pancakes, eggs, bacon, breads & pastries, and fresh fruit. In addition they had some authentic Mexican breakfast dishes, a made to order quesadilla station, omelet station and bloody mary / mimosa bar. My girls loved the variety and really ate their monies worth here. I personally much rather grab a coffee and have a piece of fruit of yogurt for breakfast, but it was a nice option to have available.
At night, El Patron turns into an upscale restaurant. The ambiance is beautiful since it sits right on the beach with a view of the azure water and rock formations. Very picturesque! I found the service to be a little better here than Neptune, but the food was equally as delicious. Make sure you try the Mexican Coffee. It’s a delicious after dinner drink and it’s fun to watch them make it! It’s made with Kaluhua and Tequilia that is burned off and added to the coffee with cinnamon and fresh cream. It’s scrumptious! It was considered premium under the AI Plan. Some of the entrée options are as well. However, they provided a 40% discount on those items should you decide to go that route.
The final restaurant we dined at while on property was Bella California located at the Palmar. This restaurant is also outdoors. It offers Italian fare and brick oven pizza. We dined here on our first night, but this time we had a reservation and we were eating under the AI plan. The kids really enjoyed this place. They really liked the mac & cheese, so we decided to return. I was pleased with both my entrees when I dined here, but I have to say the dessert wasn’t great. Don’t bother ordering unless it’s included.
Since we only had AI only part of the time, we decided to venture into town for the remainder of our dinners. On Wednesday night we decided to try Maria Jimenez on recommendation of the concierge. It was a cute, small restaurant downtown with authentic Mexican food. The ambiance was nice and they had a mariachi band that came around to the different tables to perform. The food was very good, but I wasn’t blown away, but it was a nice, inexpensive place to dine. Definitely worth checking out!
Our absolute favorite was Edith’s! We originally dined here on my birthday during our honeymoon and loved it so much we were dying to come back! It was just as I remembered it! The food is amazing and the décor is just beautiful! It’s an open air restaurant with lush surroundings and gorgeous tin lanterns that hang from the ceilings. Here too they had a mariachi band to serenade you and the service is impeccable!
We ventured down to “The Office” afterwards for a drink. This restaurant sits right on Medano Beach so you can dine with your toes in the sand. It gets pretty crazy during the day and at night it was definitely more of a club scene with a young crowd. Not really what we were looking for, but sat and had a drink before leaving the area. It actually closes down early at 10pm so we headed to Cabo Wabo to finish off our evening. Finally the last place we dined offsite was La Tabasco. This restuarnt is a quick stroll down the beach from our hotel and sits right on Medano Beach. It’s open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and I absolutely loved the ambiance and local feel to the place. The margaritas were delicious! The food was good, but nothing to write home about. You really come here more for the atmosphere and it was the perfect way to wrap up our vacation dining under the stars.
While not without its faults, our stay at Villa del Arco was spectacular! It was in a great location with a beautiful beach, spacious pools, plenty of lounge chairs, a hard working staff and a room that was perfectly suited for a family of 4 with the most breathtaking views one could hope for. I highly recommend this resort and wouldn’t hesitate to stay here again!
