Rancho Pescadero is a 30-acre oceanfront wellness resort in Baja California, Mexico which is located far from the all-inclusive properties in the Cabo region. It is still easy to reach via rental car in less than an hour from the San José del Cabo (SJD) international airport.
Rancho Pescadero Award Booking
The standard room requires 30,000 Hyatt points per night and I used 150K total points for our 5-night stay. It is important to note that most of the rooms in the resort that you can book with points and suite upgrade certificates are just ocean-view from a distance and not true ocean-front (despite the nomenclature). The Panoramic Ocean View suite is a standard suite that can be booked using the suite upgrade certificate. The Ocean Front Villas are the best rooms you can get closest to the ocean and I recommend interested users call the property ahead of time to pay extra money.
Drive from SJD airport to Rancho Pescadero
The scenic drive from SJD airport to Rancho Pescadero takes less than an hour on a well maintained highway with two lanes for the most part. I recommend visitors to obtain Mexican Paso (1 USD =18.77 Paso) from one of the ATM machines in the airport before getting into the rental car, since the toll booth on this highway accepts cash only (~$5 each way). To reach the resort, you have to turn from the highway into a 1 mile dirt road (for the time being) and you will finally reach the guarded/gated entrance to the property. Free valet parking is included in the nightly price and they worked very efficiently in bringing the car on short notice and also cleaning the dirt off the windshield.
Rancho Pescadero Property Grounds and Check-in
Once we entered the property through the beautiful wooden door, we were greeted by a couple of employees who took our luggage and offered some fresh juices made with fruits from their garden. We took a short walk through the property before reaching the reception desk. There was no automatic recognition of our Globalist status and we had to remind them to get a room upgrade. The front desk employee quickly assigned us an Oceanfront Rancho Suite with a King bed. All the Ocean Front Villas have been sold out while we were visiting.
Oceanfront Rancho Suite
The suite design is breathtaking with very unique furniture selections and the king bed was placed on a higher level compared to the seating area. The bathroom is very spacious with all the needed amenities. The only things missing were a magnifying mirror and a Hotel Room Safe to keep your belongings.
Panoramic Ocean View Suite with Rooftop Deck
We also looked at the Panoramic Ocean View Suite with Rooftop Deck with King bed option, but preferred the Oceanfront Rancho Suite instead. The Panoramic Ocean View Suite with Rooftop Deck is a standard suite and Globalist suite upgrade certificates can be used to book in advance. The suite room indoor space is significantly smaller when compared to the Oceanfront Rancho Suite, but it has two nice outdoor deck areas. Once you walk into the spacious first deck with seating, there is a spiral staircase leading to a second higher rooftop deck which has unobstructed views of the ocean.
Rancho Pescadero Breakfast
Breakfast is served daily on the 2nd floor of the reception area with nice views of the ocean from above the pools. For being a Globalist, the daily breakfast was included during our stay and it was an A La Carte Menu, with no day to day changes. The resort has an extensive area of gardens with various fruits and vegetables along with several chickens and roosters. The resort also offers the opportunity to go with the chef in the morning to pick your own eggs and vegetables and cook a fresh breakfast with them. We mostly had scrambled eggs with bacon and sausages every day and everything tasted phenomenal. We also saw humpback whales flipping from a distance almost every day during our breakfast time.
Rancho Pescadero Dining
The resort currently has one restaurant open and a second one (Kahal) is being built close to the ocean with a separate pool area. The property manager offered us a free 3-course dinner for two as part of a special for the grand opening. The restaurant seating was mostly outdoors with several heaters to warm up in chilly weather. Everything we tasted was good which included a pizza and delicious fresh, hot churros with cinnamon sugar and ice cream.
Rancho Pescadero Fitness Center
The resort has a wonderful fitness center with a large pool next to it and a separate wellness area that includes separate rooms for yoga classes, saunas, hot-tubs and massages. By design, sauna sections are gender specific and there is no way to enjoy the wellness area as a couple. There are some daily yoga classes offered by trainers and some are free of charge and others incur a fee. The one time we tried the sauna, the temperature was too low and we did not enjoy the experience (temperature controls were locked). The pool next to the gym was not heated when we visited and the water was too cold to get in.
Rancho Pescadero Swimming Pools
The resort has a total of 3 swimming pools (one near the wellness center and two right next to each other from the pool bar. Only one swimming pool was heated during our stay which also has a hot tub. I am not sure if the resort is saving money on heating costs after a soft opening but it forced all the guests to gather around the only heated pool in the winter month. If heated, we would have enjoyed spending more private time at all three swimming pools.
Rancho Pescadero Whale Watching
I highly recommend going for a 2-hour whale watching trip from Cabo port when visiting this property. We used a local company (Cabo Trek) and saw 2 humpback whales that stayed close to our boat for over an hour with frequent breaches and flipping activities. This tour made our whole trip to Cabo, Mexico very memorable.
Conclusion
I highly recommend Hyatt enthusiasts to make a trip to Baja California, Mexico just to enjoy the Rancho Pescadero property, hospitality and the unique cooking done with their own produce. It is far from the typical all-inclusive hotels in Cabo with very few guests and a guaranteed relaxing holiday trip. Since their standard suites are not truly ocean-fronted, beach lovers should plan to pay extra to upgrade to Ocean Front Villas.