We were fortunate to stay before the resort was open to the general public. We got an UNMATCHABLE deal through our travel club, thank you World Ventures! With that being said, we have decided that we must experience the “Hard Rock lifestyle” at some point to see what that is all about. The resort was not fully functional, and we missed out on some amenities.  So, our review will focus on what we experienced first-hand, not about what Hard Rock promotes. I know The Hard Rock has a following for sure and those folks should add their comments to the comments section of this post. Come on Hard Rock followers…please add what you know to the bottom of this post to help those wanting to visit The Hard Rock Los Cabos!

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The Hard Rock Hotel is a brand new, all-inclusive resort located on the west side of the Baja Peninsula near Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The resort is located about 45 minutes southwest of the Los Cabos International Airport. There are 2 ways to the resort. Either through the heart of Los Cabos or by toll highway through the desert. Both are beautiful drives with plenty to look at. Our stay was 4 nights and 5 days. We arrived a day early and spent the night in Cabo San Lucas by the Marina Cabo San Lucas at the Tesoro Resort. It was a great way to experience an “in town” experience versus an “out of town” experience. The Pacific Ocean pounds the west side of the Los Cabo with gorgeous navy blue and turquoise waters. The water is chilly, and the sand is in between a course sand and a fine sand. The location is remote, untouched (FOR NOW!), and barren. There were many times we were the only people on the beach!

The Hard Rock Resort is a beautiful resort. It has an obvious music theme running through out the resort. The resort itself is hard surfaces and straight lines. Contemporary is the word I would use to describe the design, buildings, grounds, and décor. Lots of tile, typical of the hot weather areas and similar to the Caribbean and the far east side of Mexico (Cancun, Playa del Carmen). As soon as you enter and see the four big boulders you know you are in Los Cabos and at a Hard Rock. Guitars hanging on the walls and the coolest check-in desk area EVER! Drumsticks “flying” towards the ceiling from a large halved bass drum…. very cool!

The check-in process was very “clean” and simple. The front desk person was well trained, spoke perfect English, and covered everything in detail. We left the front desk without a question and found a bellman. After locating our luggage (quickly, may I add) we headed off to the room following our bellman. He too was well trained, spoke perfect English, and covered information about the resort. Once arriving at our room the bellman took time to show all the features of the room. Excellent staff for the entire stay. Also, extremely nice and pleasant smiles. If they aren’t happy workers, then they hide it extremely well!

The room was very nice. Very new! Beautiful tile floors, spacious rain shower, separate toilet area with door, sliding barn door to the bathroom, plenty of storage space for luggage and belongings, deep drawer safe, robes and slippers, stocked refrigerator, recessed LED lighting with dimmer, premium quality beds and bedding, small halogen reading lamps, nice sized balcony with love seat and table, and a soaking tub to finish off a “rock” solid resort room!

After getting settled in we decided to walk the grounds. We always love to explore a resort to see what it has to offer after checking in. We also stopped by to reserve our spots at the a la carte restaurants. We have learned that if you wait you will not get the desired time you want and even worse, you might not even get a table. That can be VERY frustrating. You will always have the buffet option…but no matter how you “slice it” …the buffet food option does NOT beat the a la carte restaurants. Besides, if you don’t like the restaurant, just stop by the buffet AFTER you finish dinner! ALL-INCLUSIVE BABY! The Hard Rock Hotel has 8 restaurants. We only tried Toro (steakhouse), Zen (Japanese/Chinese), Ciao (we only tired breakfast there) and the Market Place (buffet). The food was very good at Toro and Zen, and I would say average at the Marketplace and Ciao.  Plenty of selection at all the restaurants.

The resort has a sports bar with pool tables, a fitness center, a spa, plenty of meeting space, and a “auditorium” that was less than memorable.  The auditorium made watching the show different as we were seated below stage level…the ENTIRE seating area is below stage level. The main pool is well done with a swim up bar and another bar located nearby. There is a restaurant located in the “center” of the pool area that overlooks the secondary pool and beach area. The secondary pool located at beach level and is an infinity pool. It too has a swim up bar. Lounge chairs and umbrellas line both pool areas. There is a small, 3 slide “water park” just beside the secondary pool area.  The grounds surrounding the pool areas are very well down. One of our favorite areas were the large round plush padded wicker swings located under one section of the resort, totally in the shade and above a shallow water pool with cool water. The wind funnels through that area and is a great space to unwind, cool off, or just chill out. This is one of our favorite areas of the resort.

There is plenty of access to the beach area from the resort. The beach is federal property so there is AMPLE beach space between the resort and the ocean. There are ZERO beach vendors due to the remote location of the resort…ADDED bonus! The water is gorgeous, the sand is hot, and ocean is crashing into the beach. It truly is amazing to just stand there and take in all its beauty and power. The strong surf reminds us just how “small” we all are compared to mother nature! This is a must-see beach at least once in your lifetime! I would not say it is the most beautiful beach I have ever experienced, but I would add it to your travel bucket list.

One amazing feature that the Hard Rock offers, that is a game changer, is limitless excursions. They are not totally free, you still must pay the taxes, but that isn’t a Hard Rock thing, blame the Mexican government. We booked a sailboat cruise to The Arch of Cabo San Lucas for three of us. That normally would have cost 300 US Dollars, but with Hard Rock’s limitless excursions that cost was only 75 US Dollars! TOTALLY WORTH IT! Check out the pictures below! If we would have had more time, we would have taken more advantage of this value-oriented offer. The limitless excursion is a great way to explore, play, or relax in Cabo! If you traveled at all, you know how expensive excursions can be!

Overall, I would recommend the Hard Rock Resort of Los Cabos, but ONLY a few months from now. Give the amazingly friendly staff and management time to work the kinks out of this beautiful resort.  We did enjoy the luxury of being one of the first groups of people to “test out” the resort, but we did miss out on some features that the full-on Hard Rock will deliver. I have no doubt that this Hard Rock will be a “jewel in their crown” for years to come….just give them a little bit more time to smooth out they wrinkles. I know there are many Hard Rock Resort/Hotel followers out there….and if you read this…please feel free to add in your opinion in the comments section below. I hope this blog post is helpful to you. Thanks for reading!