Know Before You Go: One&Only Palmilla (Los Cabos)
With its eye-popping sea views, shimmering pools, and dazzling roster of celebrity guests, it can be easy to overlook the history and character at One&Only Palmilla that sets it apart from so many other luxury resorts in Mexico. We found much to entertain families here, with a swimmable beach (one of precious few in Cabo) and an excellent complimentary kids club, not to mention an award-winning spa for adults. Despite all the resort has going for it, the inconsistent service experience, so-so dining program, and sky-high prices for just about everything here left us with mixed feelings about our stay.
OVERALL RATING
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Notable
Overview
At-a-Glance
Date of stay: August 2023
Length of stay: 4 night / 5 days
Trip type: Family vacation
Property type: Luxury beach resort and spa
Tailor-made for: Beach and pool enthusiasts, young and old alike
Highlights
Stunning setting and ocean views
Property was filled with character and history — great sense of place
Swimmable beach (few in Cabo) and resort cabana day rental program with good value
Fantastic kids club —open through dinner
Warm service experience at check-in and with many staff members we met throughout the resort
Stunning family pool and adults pool
Gorgeous spa and solid fitness center
Dining venues and common areas include indoor (air conditioned) and outdoor spaces
Good to Know
Cabo is painfully expensive — expect to pay a premium for nearly everything at this resort
Service experience was inconsistent
Activities booked through the resort with third-party tour operators are not charged to the room and must be paid directly to the tour operator — we found this out the hard way and it nearly scuttled our boat excursion
Guests can enjoy spa facilities on a complimentary basis; booking a treatment is not required
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Location & Setting
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After a 30-minute drive from Cabo San Lucas airport, we arrived at the One&Only Palmilla to a culturally-steeped welcome ceremony. While Los Cabos is generally hot and arid, we learned that Palmilla (named after the palm trees found here) is its own tropical micro-climate where it tends to be slightly less hot but more humid than the surrounding area.
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Property & Grounds
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Originally built in the 1950s as a hacienda for the former Mexican President’s son to entertain family and friends, far away from the then-glitzy scene of Acapulco. Over time, the property expanded as more people (and celebrities) came to visit, until the owner decided to turn the property into a resort. Intricate, character-filled details can be found throughout the property, like the beautiful azulejos (colorful tiles). Today, the property consists of 175 rooms, suites, and multi-bedroom villas, though it’s rumored that the property may undergo a major renovation soon. In addition to the accommodations, the Forbes 5-star rated resort offers:
One of Cabo’s only swimmable beaches (Pelican Beach)
A family pool and adults-only pool
4 dining outlets and private dining
Forbes 5-star spa
Kids club (complimentary for young guests age 4-11)
18-hole Jack Nicklaus golf course (undergoing redevelopment to become a smaller course and add an oceanfront restaurant)
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Room
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The accommodations are spacious, well-equipped, and filled with character. We booked a base room – Palmilla King with sofa bed – through Lartisien, which came with free daily breakfasts and a $100 USD property credit, as well as the possibility of an upgrade, which we did not receive. All room categories have ocean views and terraces (some partially obstructed, many unobstructed) along with a complimentary tequila in-room amenity. There are lots of connecting suite configurations available for families needing more space or multi-family groups. Note that only junior suite and above categories offer bathtubs.
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Service
💛💛💛+
We experienced the service as warm, attentive, and effortful, but the execution was inconsistent, similar to our experience staying at the One&Only Mandarina. Service requests made with our hosts through the property’s WhatsApp-based texting service occasionally fell through the cracks, such as restaurant reservations or requests for information. The service experience from one meal to the next varied widely depending on the server (Jasiel and Osvaldo at Agua were great, as was Sergio at Seared), and we experienced slow service and significant service mistakes at most meals. Our biggest service “uh-oh” moment was when the boat excursion we booked through the hotel turned out to be pay-on-arrival as opposed to charged to the room, which nobody told us until we were on the boat. Thankfully, we had a credit card on us but this could have scuttled the whole day. Our standout service experience here was with Mara, the resort’s sommelier, who very kindly arranged for a special surprise for us on our last night – our favorite wine glasses to drink champagne, even though we brought our own wine to the resort. Housekeeping was also very thorough and attentive, and the nightly turndown service with special local gifts and different aromatherapies were special touches.
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Dining
💛💛💛+
Dining here was okay but not outstanding, especially given the prices. “Tableside guac” for $35 USD arrived at the table already prepared and the chips tasted stale. Our favorite meals here were dinner at Suviche, the Japanese restaurant, and our first breakfast at Agua with Jasiel and Osvaldo. Our dinner at Seared, a wood-fired grill concept from Michelin-starred restaurateur Jean-Georges, was good but nothing outstanding. Notably, the restaurants have outdoor and indoor climate-controlled spaces, which was a huge plus given the heat and humidity, even early morning and late evening. Wine prices in Cabo are sky-high, so we were very glad we were able to bring our own wine (courtesy of The Wine Check) and pay the $60 corkage fee. We found it curious that One&Only Palmilla veered away from having their gourmet dining concepts be authentic Mexican cuisine — our dinners at Carao, the Enrique Olvera concept at One&Only Mandarina, were really incredible.
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Family Services & Amenities
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KidsOnly, the kids club at One&Only Palmilla, was outstanding and complimentary for kids age 4-11, with lots of fun activities and programs for children, including the option for kids to stay over lunch and / or dinner (with kids’ meals charged to the room). There is a family pool with a kids splash and play area, kiddie cabanas, a giant Connect 4, and table tennis. Kids menus were available in all the restaurants. Child-sized life vests were available at the beach club. The only misses here were there were no kids robes or slippers (at least none were provided in our room), and there was supposed to have been a specialized kids’ welcome amenity in our room on arrival but we didn’t get this until our last day when someone at KidsOnly asked us about it.
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Activities
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On-property, there is the family pool and adults-only pool, a swimmable beach (very few in Cabo, and this is a huge plus for families) with private cabanas and complimentary water sports, a golf course, tennis and pickleball courts, a half-basketball court, and a plethora of on- and off-property activities and excursions available to book through the concierge. We opted for a boat excursion to the Arches, which turned out to be beautiful, but the water became too choppy due to high winds and we all had to head back early from seasickness. Private beach cabanas are a great value (for Cabo) and are hard to come by — book early.
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Wellness
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The Forbes 5-Star Spa at One&Only Palmilla is lovely, and guests can use the spa facilities on a complimentary basis regardless of whether or not a spa treatment is booked. The spa facilities included a Terrace Garden and pool, juice bar, separate men’s and women’s facilities with indoor sauna, steam room, and experience showers, and outdoor spa gardens with hot and cold plunge pools. The salon — which can do adults’ and kids’ haircuts — features an Italian Barber Shop run by Alfonso, who is allegedly one of the best barbers in Mexico, and Podiatrist Bastien Gonzalez’s award-winning foot and nail care program. The fitness center is spacious, air conditioned, and well-equipped, and offers complimentary daily fitness classes.
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Wow Factor
💛💛💛💛+
Aside from the eye-popping sea views, the most outstanding features of this resort include its beautiful pools, beach, and generous ocean-view terraces in the rooms, along with a top-notch kids club. There were lots of wow moments here. However, the rooms were a bit dated and could use some modernizing. Also — and this was completely on us — it was absolutely sweltering here during the time of year we visited (August), and we would not want to visit Cabo again during the summer months.
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Value
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Cabo is expensive, but this place is next-level. The best value at the resort was the beach cabana, which was advertised in the flyer we were sent in advance as having a $200 USD minimum food and beverage spend to be reserved for the day. Upon checkout, we were surprised to learn the cabana was actually $300 – we never found out whether this was a new food and beverage minimum or if an additional fee was tacked on. The resort adjusted our bill for this upon raising this discrepancy, but it was still a little surprising.
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Overall
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Overall, we enjoyed our stay here and the kids loved the kids club, beach, and pools. Although our bucket list experience of spending an afternoon boating out to the Arches turned out to be a bust, and the prices of everything in Cabo were exorbitant, we’re still glad we had a chance to visit this storied resort. Would we return? Possibly, but we didn’t check out yearning to book another trip here, which is how we normally feel on our last day of vacation. As long as Cabo prices and exchange rates remain what they are, it will be difficult for us to cost-justify a return visit here when our dollars can go so much further other places. If we do book another trip to Cabo, we will likely do so outside the summer months for cooler temperatures and lower humidity.
Rating Legend*
💛💛💛💛💛 Exceptional
💛💛💛💛 Notable
💛💛💛 Standard
💛💛 Substandard
💛 Unsatisfactory
*All ratings are relative to similar-class properties
