Solmar Resort Review – Cabo

For Thanksgiving week we decided to ditch the normal cold weather and turkey tradition for getting a tan on the beach in Mexico! Yep, we are totally that couple from the movie Four Christmases. Except we were honest with our families what we were doing.

We decided to stay at the Solmar Resort for a number of reasons. 1. Affordability 2. Familiarity (several of the guests at our wedding stayed there) and 3. They offered an all-inclusive package.

Mat was especially excited about the all-inclusive, because that is the one part about travel that he struggles with-always being hungry. Well, I can assure you, that definitely didn’t happen this trip.

We got in pretty late at night, so all of the restaurants on the resort were closed, which meant we had to order room service for our first dinner. We found out that room service wasn’t included in the all-inclusive package. Bummer. But we found out that because we had the all-inclusive, we did get a 25% discount on room service. Not as bummed now.

I was so exhausted from traveling that I honestly don’t remember the first meal that night from room service. Is there such a thing as sleep eating? If so, that’s what I did.

We woke up refreshed on our first morning and were psyched to finally be on vacation! We of course went straight to breakfast. For my first meal, I had basically an ice cream cone with two mimosas. Not a bad start. The meal I ordered was actually waffles with a side of ice cream, but since they didn’t bring us syrup, I put the ice cream on top of the waffles. Basically a waffle cone.

It took us a couple of days to figure out which meals we liked and which we didn’t. By the end of the week, we were getting the same thing for breakfast and dinner each day. Lunch and mid-day snacks (hey, you can’t expect us to eat only three times a day at an all-inclusive) were a little trickier. We never did quite find anything that we liked well enough to order it again.

We aren’t going to lie, the food isn’t fantastic, but it’s not terrible either. And it’s available anytime between 6 a.m.-10 p.m.

We didn’t try too many different drinks either. Similar to the meals, once we found something we liked, we stuck with it. We had so many pina colladas and mimosas that I think I lost count.

I was impressed that they had fresh juice-but only two kinds: green and orange. And that was seriously the name of the juice. Green Juice. I’m still not sure what was in it (we think kiwis and cucumbers) but I really liked it. It was fresh and sweet at the same time.

The staff of the Solmar were all very friendly. We of course had a favorite waiter, Emmanuel. I’m not sure if we loved him because he was polite and attentive or because we saw him accidentally whack an annoying lady in the head with an umbrella. Either way, he was our favorite. We also loved one lady in particular out by the pool. I especially loved her because she told me that having children was like having a nightmare that lasts forever and you never get to wake up. We laughed so hard! I appreciate the honesty, Irene.

They of course had one “Activities Leader” that, well, led the activities. The resort offered daily Spanish lessons, water aerobics, bracelet making, board games, casino, etc. At the beginning of the week I was very excited and motivated to participate in all of the activities. But as the week drug on, I just wanted to lay in the sun and have Irene bring another round of pina colladas.

The day that there was a “tropical storm” (it was just rainy and windy-not deserving a tropical storm category) I did make a bracelet. The Activities Leader was very kind and attentive to all the guests. He helped me make a bracelet and gave Mat a “special drink” for winning some silly guessing game (guessing how many pages were in a book the activity leader was holding). I call it silly because I didn’t win. Mat now thinks he is a local legend, “El Mateo-Counter of Pages”.

The day it rained I also decided to try out one of the resort’s spa services. Since we had the all-inclusive package, that meant we got an extra free 30 min if we booked a massage. I of course booked a massage. The prices were ok, I guess, depending on what you are used to and what your expectations are. I got a 90 minute massage for $100. That seems pricey because you can get massages in town for $20 (or so I have heard). However I wasn’t in the mood to go traipsing around downtown Cabo looking for a place across the street from a bar called The Laughing Donkey. I also didn’t feel like being uncomfortable/unsafe during my massage, so I chose the lazy/more safe/more expensive option.

The massages are given in these adorable little huts made of what look like twigs at the end of the property line for the resort, looking out over the ocean. Sounds amazing and relaxing right? Well, yes and no. It is amazing if there is nobody on the beach and nobody in the resort hot tub, which is located right beside the huts. Lucky for me, it was raining so there weren’t many people on the beach or in the hot tub, so it was actually nice. The massage itself was fairly standard to other massages I have had in the states. Other than the whole armpit massage thing. And the ringing of some chimes. But other than that, pretty standard.

Overall, we enjoyed our vacation, but decided that maybe five days, not seven, of all-inclusive would have been sufficient.

See our ratings below, based on our four lemon scale:

Room/Grounds –

 

 

 

Food/drink-

 

 

 
Service-

 

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