Hard Rock Resort Los Cabos 2021 All-inclusive trip

George and Lisa talk about their travel to Mexico and their week long stay at the all-inclusive Hard Rock Resort in Los Cobos Mexico. Their excursions, sailing, snorkeling, and great restaurants to try.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Hi, welcome back to RView. We’ve got a great show for you this week, we’re going to tell you all about our all inclusive trip to the Hard Rock resort in Los Cabos, San Lucas, Mexico. So stay tuned.

intro
Welcome to RView with your hosts George and Lisa Hernandez each week listening as George and Lisa talk about their RV and travel adventures all around the world. GEORGE And Lisa travel in their 40 foot Class A tiffin motorcoach, and tow their Jeep Wrangler, always looking for fun and adventure.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Hi, welcome back to RView. I’m Lisa RichartHernandez.

George
And I’m George Hernandez.

Lisa RichartHernandez
We have a great show for you this week. We’re so excited to talk to you about our international travel back on the airplane and out of the RV. For a week we spent down in beautiful Cabo. It wasn’t our first time to Cabo. But it was our first time to this hard rock resort there. And we’re gonna tell you all about it today.

George
Yes, it was super exciting. What a great resort and we can’t wait to tell you all about it. So let’s get going.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, so why don’t we just get a start with our our flights, we went through United Airlines traveling with COVID was interesting. Just as we were I was I was nervous a little bit about what we were going to have to do or anything like that. But to travel to Mexico currently, you do not have to provide a negative COVID test. We did go ahead and get tested before we left anyways, just to be on the safe side. So we didn’t get stuck in Mexico. But we booked United Airlines Of course you have to wear your masks. But we have first class service was amazing. Yes,

George
I was very happy with the United We typically travel delta and other airlines united. This was a very pleasant experience. Kudos to United. The food on board was fantastic. It was just a little snack pack. But it was really actually awesome.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, we had drinks a snack pack. And then on the way back, we actually had warm sandwiches.

George
Yes. Which you haven’t seen that in an airplane in a long time.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, for a while they weren’t serving. I don’t think any food or drinks for COVID. Like because of COVID

George
while they were definitely serving drinks.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yes. We never feel like we’re quite yet on vacation until we get on an airplane. And have a Bloody Mary.

George
That’s my go to flying drink. Yes. Bloody Mary starts to vacation. Yes, that’s right. So kudos to United for a wonderful trip. wonderful experience. Service was fantastic. Yeah. And I will definitely fly united again.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, definitely. So we should probably start by saying that George and I are members of the Hard Rock resorts and we bought a package that’s basically kind of like prepaying for your vacations about so we’re what they call, what’s our status?

George
Right now our status is Hall of Fame members. We were VIP. And we bumped up to Hall of Fame. And then there’s another one rock legend or something another status above us, which is just ridiculous, the service. We were so pleased with our service for Hall of Fame members. And it’s one of those things that when we first purchased the package, we were excited and then you go to bed and you’re like, what did we do? What are we doing? This is crazy. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez
because basically it’s like timeshare sales. Right? But fuck you and

George
they suck the sand. But I’m pleasantly pleased with what we’ve the service we’ve gotten so far. The way they treat us our packages. Like Lisa said, we’re basically just pre paying for our vacations. And we’re not stuck to one resort, which is what I like it’s not well,

Lisa RichartHernandez
we have the option of all the different all inclusive hard rock resorts. So there’s one in Punta Cana, which we did over Christmas several times. Yeah, we’ve been there many times. That’s where they sold us. That’s where they got and they said, oh, we’re opening Cabo this year. And that’s how we ended up upgrading. Yes. And then there’s one in Riviera, Maya, I believe, and kancare. Kuhn,

George
and I always forget the name of the other one. So now

Lisa RichartHernandez
they’ve also included the una goes. And one other resort, that I can’t remember for sure. I thought it was just we’re building some new ones. That’s what they told us this time anyway. So we’ll give you more details on that.

George
And they’re branching out to Jamaica, also, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Mexico now. So that’s the part that I like better than the old school timeshares, where you were stuck to wherever you bought it. That was your one week in that place. You could try to sell it out, but typically never happened with this. package we, for example, 10 weeks, and we can use all 10 weeks in one shot, or we can use 10 weeks, one week a year. And we can use it at any of those resorts that we spoke about. So that that makes me feel a little better.

Lisa RichartHernandez
And it like transfers to our children and people could inherit it or whatever. So like if anything ever happened, or kids would have vacations for a long time.

George
Yes. So we hope to hang out for a long time and be able to use those wait weeks and tell you all about them.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yes, exactly. Well, so that all that being said, understand that all the things that we’re going to talk about our from our our legendary status, not just the standard come in, off the

George
right so we are Hall of Fame. So to our listeners, if you would like to vacation at any of these places, please contact us and we can get you 30% off

Lisa RichartHernandez
30% discount off a week, lowest internet price.

George
And with that package, if you booked through us, or using our membership number, you will be bumped up to VIP status,

Lisa RichartHernandez
right, which includes your airport transfers, which is nice, and you get access to the VIP bowls and that kind of thing.

George
Yes, correct. So you get bumped up one level, which is really nice.

Lisa RichartHernandez
So that being said, though, we had a private car that picked us up, which was about an hour ride, so the resort from the airport.

George
Yeah, it’s a nice ride. It’s the resort is actually pretty far. Actually all the resorts are pretty far from the airport. They’re all about an hour. Hard walk Hard Rock was pretty interesting, because they it looks like they purchased a huge piece of property. So when you come in the main gate, you’re like, yes, we’re here. And then you still have like another half hour.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Half hour. It’s like 15 minutes. But yeah,

George
it was long. I

Lisa RichartHernandez
think you’re there. And then there’s another gate and then another gate.

George
But it was a beautiful resort. It’s brand new. And we were very, very pleased with everything we saw. So let’s tell you all about hard rock.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. So we arrived there. And our flight got in later than expected. So it was about 11 o’clock at night. Probably. Yeah, by the time we got there. Yes, yes. So our Butler met us and brought us to our presidential suite. It was beautiful. It’s a like a living room in the middle with a full bath. And then on either side is like another additional hotel room that’s like beautiful and big with their own private baths. We traveled with another couple Brian and BJ had their room had two queens bathroom, their own private balcony. And then our room had a king, a tub and our

George
private balcony. And each balcony has a tub outside. Which was really cool. Yeah, well,

Lisa RichartHernandez
it’s kind of cool. Yeah,

George
if you go in your bathing suit, no too hard rock, you may want to block the

Lisa RichartHernandez
or maybe have some like a little bit shades that you can pull across the thing because you wouldn’t want to like them. It’s the top on the balcony. But you couldn’t really go out there with no clothes on because everyone could see you unless you’re into that kind of thing.

George
That’s a whole nother podcast. Lisa, let’s move on.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Okay, so we arrived at our beautiful room he checks us in, we get our wristbands which everything is operated by a wristband, which is awesome. So it’s our room key. It’s everything. We don’t have to remember where our keys are, or anything like that immediately brings us a bucket of champagne eyes, beer, a bottle of vodka, whatever we wanted for cocktails,

George
well that our room includes a bottle of alcohol. So I contacted him and had the vodka delivered. I contacted him had the bottle champagne set up. And that’s another wonderful service with Hall of Fame membership, you get a butler, they contact you a week before you get there. And they ask you what would you like, how can we set up the room? It’s just I cannot say how awesome the experience was because of the butler. He Well, he

Lisa RichartHernandez
just added to our service level. So so much. I mean, ever. It was like, oh, if we want to change our dinner time, oh, you just text the butler. And he takes care of all of that for you. It was really

George
great. It was incredible. And I want to give him a shout out. Ricardo Latinos Orosco so if any of you ever go there and you have Hall of Fame status, please request them. He was incredible. He did. Above and Beyond everything that we asked. So shout out to latios Thank you.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yep. So the check in was awesome. We the first. The first day we got there, we got to go to the pool. We went to the legendary pool. And they had a cabana. Well, the next morning the next morning. Yeah, the

George
next morning. So we texted lotto. And we said We’d like a cabana, please. We have a. So our package also includes a cabana for the week. So we just texted him and said, Hey, can you set us up? And he texted back? Yes, we got you a cabana plus two lounge chairs because the cabana is you don’t get much sun. So he just hooked everything up and you walk down there. And there’s this beautiful sign that says reserve for the Hernandez family and it’s just such great service.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, it’s awesome not to have to worry about waking up early to get your spot at the pool to be able to get a chair for the day or anything like that. Of course they weren’t at full occupancy. So there really wasn’t a struggle for chairs. That many places.

George
Not at all. The main pool. Yes. Because I was down there early one morning. And you could see the people waiting around vultures, I call them yeah, does hovering to see which ones open and then they drop a towel and they don’t come back for three hours. We stayed at the

Lisa RichartHernandez
legendary poker Hall of Fame Hall of Fame. Okay, yeah. That that was beautiful. And this one out bars had just opened that day,

George
literally open the day that we went in the pool because we met a young man there, Romeo. And he said, yesterday, all this was boarded up. They didn’t have the swim up bars. And they told me that they were going to open them up. And here they are. And it was awesome. Just to swim up set by the bar in the pool. With the ocean right next to you. It was incredible.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, it’s an infinity pool. So like when you’re standing in the pool, you can like almost looks like it goes right into the ocean. And it was gorgeous.

George
Yes. And even the service at the pool bar. I really can’t say enough about how incredible The service was at the resort everywhere. Everywhere. Everybody was super friendly. Just whatever you needed. They got for you. Just incredible.

Lisa RichartHernandez
So let’s talk a little bit about the restaurants. We didn’t get to go to all the restaurants because well, there was a hurricane one day, which there was literally a category one hurricane while we were there. It went right over us. And I guess we didn’t even know it was coming before we left.

George
No, we had no clue because we didn’t do our homework. And the day we landed there was a 7.1 earthquake in Guadalajara wasn’t somewhere near somewhere near where we were. So we landed with a bang. And then the hurricane hit us. Yeah, and

Lisa RichartHernandez
I gotta say, like, we learned later that it only rains like four days a year in Cabo. So I guess we were lucky that we got to be there one of the rainy days. But they had to take down all of the umbrellas and put everything away. And I was amazed at how fast they the the staff worked to put all that stuff away. And then like they thought they were gonna have to cancel everything the next day. And then like they’d even close the spa, because I thought it was gonna be way worse. And the next morning, we got a message and they’re like, hey, this bar is open. We were getting back together. Like if you wanted SOCOM, please come and we did. And they just did a great job of putting things back together. And

George
they had various systems set up because they all the pools, pool lounge chairs were gone by four o’clock in the afternoon, something they did everything, they could take everything away that would fly away in the wind. And then by noon, the next day, we were back up and running. I mean, again, kudos to the resort.

Lisa RichartHernandez
You know, one sense that I got from the people that work at the resort. And I think this is kind of one of the things that makes hard rock special. And I noticed that in Punta Cana also, is it seems like they really take care of their employees. Like if they couldn’t drive home, they were putting them up. You know, how they’re saying the night they’re the sales people all say, you know, they take such good care of my family and all of this stuff. Seems like well, we really did care.

George
We met one of the sales guys from Punta Cana on our vacation he was in the cabana next to us that he told us that his boss they had this tray of seafood that was enough for 20 people yeah that shrimp and he was telling us that his boss sent it to him as a thank you for you know for doing a wonderful job and so they went to four different resorts which is I think a great idea if you’re selling them

Lisa RichartHernandez
right so you’ve experienced it firsthand. Yeah, right. First are so we were supposed to eat at the Zen tap Inaki restaurant the first night but we got into late so we missed that. Then we were supposed to go to Los Gatos which is the Mexican restaurant with they had to move that from a different location because of the hurricane. So we did get that but it wasn’t the same. Yeah, cuz

George
I did a buffet style was supposed to be here. Sit down, sit down dinner butter,

Lisa RichartHernandez
but it was so very, very good.

George
They just they, they thought everything through. It was my take on it. Instead of just closing those guys and saying sorry guys, no, no meals. They just said, Hey, we’re not going to do it there but come to they moved it to the mark to the marketing building market restaurant in the main building and working on therapy, the same food unfortunately, it’s buffet style. Yeah. But at least we got to experience it.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yes, definitely. And even the food at the pool was really good. Like, first of ej and ahi tuna. A lot of good seafood.

George
And super fresh. I mean, it’s Yeah, I’m touching it every day.

Lisa RichartHernandez
You know, we talked about the food overall, in general. And that’s, you know, we live in Charleston, South Carolina, which is like foodie capital of the country, probably. We have amazing restaurants here. So whenever we travel in general, we have low expectations of the food. We’re like, yeah, it will be okay. You know, it is what it is, or neither one of us are super picky. But we are foodies, and we love to go to good places. So we just kind of have our expectations set to a certain level at like an all inclusive. And I think that probably the reason that Mexico has better food, I would say then, for example, poor Punta Cana, is because they have better sourcing like, right, they’ve got the fresh fishermen coming in there. And I mean, it’s even more easily accessible than an island.

George
Right? I was just gonna say it’s not an island. It’s it’s a huge country. And they have much better providers and local, even local providers. Yeah, I

Lisa RichartHernandez
mean, the food was really good every, even the snacks.

George
I mean, compared to puntacana. Yes, I would say it was far better, and far better than a lot of resorts that we’ve been to. Yeah, not including the Hard Rock or just put the content as resorts in general. I thought their food was very, very good.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. And I think that says a lot coming from us. And he kind of put that in perspective. We also went to chow, the Italian restaurant. That was good. We had pasta, and I can’t even remember what we ate that night. But I know it was good.

George
It was all good. Yeah, Chow was good to Italian. That night, we may have drank a little too much. So to remember a little bit of a blur, but it was pretty sure it was so good. It was good. Because we said we would go back.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, exactly. So we went to chow. So as a incentive to come and listen to their spiel. It was hurricane day so kind of worked out perfectly. So we both the other couple that we were with in Georgia and I said we would go listen to the timeshare thing because they always want to try to sell you more stuff. And I knew we were not going to buy any more things. So I was like just practice saying no. But they gave us each $300 towards Nobu, which is right next door to the Hard Rock and Nobu is like a high end luxury resort. Also, I don’t know if it’s connected somehow to the Hard Rock, but they gave us $600 in vouchers, which didn’t cover our meal for four people. But we might have expensive tastes and maybe wine and chalky. Yeah, I mean, we went all out. It was beautiful. And we sat outside and it was just this like, fresh, fresh fish. And, you know, like, sushi,

George
sushi, fresh Toonami that tuna was

Lisa RichartHernandez
incredible. It’s just amazing. When you get that fresh, fresh fish. The difference in the taste. And the I mean, just all around is so much better. Like if you don’t like fish in you’re going to try fish. That’s the place to try fish Gabo where the vs is so fresh and delicious. Yeah, I

George
mean, it literally just comes right on. You’re

Lisa RichartHernandez
not a big fish eater. I mean, you

George
chat down. Yeah. So let me touch on. One thing real quick. You were talking about the mandatory timeshare. That’s the only drawback to this place, but that’s how they do their business. It is a timeshare it is a Vacation Club, however you want to look at it and they want to sell sell you. So here’s an insider tip. Don’t tell hardrock that I told you this. But before you go sit down, think of an excursion. Think of something that you want to do. And then when they start pressuring you, you say I’ll sit with you for 90 minutes if you give me this for free, and they’ll do it.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, we got four new year when we went over Christmas. We got there was nine of us traveling and we got like all day ATV excursion that would have been about $300 a person Yeah, for all nine of us just to go sit, of course they got our money.

George
They’re gonna get you one way or another. Yeah. But at least try to get something out of it, right? And if you stick to your guns and you say, No, no, no, no, no the whole time, if you’re not interested at all, maybe you are interested, I’m very happy with what we’ve purchased. But just make sure you get something out of it, they’re more than happy to give you something if all they want is a chance chance. They just want to open that door. So yeah, talk about a little bit further. Let

Lisa RichartHernandez
me kind of explain to you about that. How that basically goes, like they say, well, we’re going to meet you for breakfast, we’ll buy you breakfast, which of course, it’s all inclusive. So there doesn’t really make a difference if you meet them for breakfast or not. But then they’re going to ask you, how do you like to travel? Who’s in your family? What kind of things do you like to do, and they just sort of get to know you, before they get to sell you. And then once you get in there, you’ll have your first guy and he’s going to be what I think the very first thing he offered us was like, for $250,000. You can have this for like, are you crazy, like we’re not doing that. So then it comes down to like for $150,000. We could know this. And we’re like, yeah, we’re not doing that. As they just keep going down and going. I think the very first time maybe we spent like $2,000, I think

George
it was $5,000, maybe 5000 or $5,000 for five weeks. And if we purchased at the time, they would give us an additional five, five weeks. So we ended up with 10 weeks for $5,000 and blah, blah, blah. And that just starts the ball rolling. And we were happy with that. And then the second time they got us with the Hey, will bump you up to Hall of Fame membership. And, you know, when they get to a realistic number, it’s not bad. Yeah. And here’s what I say to all our friends who asked us about it. It’s not bad if you’re going to use it. If you’re not going to use it, don’t do it because you’re prepaying something you’re not going to use.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, it’s basically like pre paying 40%. Instead of paying 100% you’d be paying about 40% say it’s about 60% off the list price basically of of the vacation, right? Generally speaking,

George
for example, our our room, if we would have booked it the way we had it set up directly online, without having the membership would have been $27,000 for one week for one week. For people, right? We got it because of our membership and our status. We got it for what six?

Lisa RichartHernandez
weeks, maybe seven or eight? Right? Okay.

George
$1,000? I think for two bedrooms in a presidential suite, the service we got incredible. And I didn’t pay $27,000.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Right. Yes. So that kind of, because everybody kind of wants to know, like, How much is it gonna cost me? The other thing they do is, so after the first guy gives you the 100, the 150 then brings it down and you’re like, No, no, no, hold on a second. Let me go get my boss. So he goes and gets his boss. And then that guy starts. How about this? How about that. And then you keep asking for more stuff. Like, George got, I think 35 rounds of golf included. And we have like, literally 100,000 probably resort credits that we can be used in the spa, which we’ll talk about resort credits in a minute. And so anyways, we we said no to the second guy, then the big boss cubs, and that’s when the real slashing starts. So don’t say yes to anything if even if you think that you may want to become a member by until you get to that last boss.

George
Oh, it’s the third or fourth guy that he’s the real decision guys. So don’t fall for the first or second guys. Those are I call them salesmen. Or the training or the fluffers. salesman and training. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez
so the guys, I told the guy today, like he pulled up our thing, like we were just there and just you know, in January just bought this whole package, you know, like, he’s like, Oh, you’ve got 100 weeks. And we’re like, yeah, you know, we’re not buying any more Well, we just want to tell you about the things that we have or whatever. So he does. And I was like, Listen, I know you probably have other people that you want to sell. So I don’t want to waste your time I’ve been practicing saying no for like three days, or not buying any more. We just really upgraded I suppose if you want to get your like your boss, two bosses up to just come over right now we can just, you know, save everybody a whole bunch of time. He’s like, Oh, no, what do you mean? And then? So once we said no to this guy showed up, the guy like at the table next to us comes over and he’s the manager and says, you know, how about this? And we’re like, he goes, I’m sorry. I had to laugh. I heard you say about the next few bosses, but I really am the last one. And then I think one more guy did come after that. Yeah, yeah. So it’s like, I know what you’re gonna do to us. Like give us your other two bosses, you know? But um, so those are your little tips for the timeshare. Yeah,

George
and we’ve had fun experiences and we’ve had frustrating experiences and I’m not gonna lie. There’s been a couple of times where we’re like, Listen, dude, we don’t want anything just, we’re done. I’m bout to stand up and leave if you don’t get through this spiel quick. Yeah, the guys this last trip or cracking up because, you know, I mean, we like Lisa said, we have 100 weeks, what else are they going to sell? So even when the big boss came over, and he looked at the computer, and he was like, Yeah, okay, we’re done here. Have a nice day.

Unknown Speaker
I know I like. So for us. I appreciate

George
that. It was nice to hear what’s coming. That was cool. I appreciate that. So for us, that was something useful out of it. And we got our $300 per couple gift certificate. That was very nice. But I think we spoke enough about that. It’s

Lisa RichartHernandez
$600 Is it right for we’re probably over two hours. We’re

George
very happy with our package. We’re very happy with everything we’ve gotten for so far. And if you’re interested at all, and you have any more questions, please send us a email and we’ll, we’ll be happy to answer your questions. And keep that in mind. If you want to go to any of these places and you want to look through us you will get an additional 30% and bumped up to VIP status.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. So did we finish talking about all the restaurants I don’t even think we did. We didn’t make it to Toro, which was the Steakhouse that was supposed to be really good. And we did go to inven. Nima,

George
yes. And emphysema used to be a Brazilian steakhouse. But they are changing them in at all the resorts and it is now an Indian cuisine. restaurant. It was very good. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez
we had a lot of Indian. Yes, we did. It was like, I think they brought it all like, family style family style. Yeah.

George
So Lisa says, I think because every night, there was a lot of alcohol involved and the whole entire it’s all inclusive. All Inclusive. We drank so much. Oh my god. I know nursing. Yes. But hey, when in Rome.

Lisa RichartHernandez
That’s right. That’s right. That was excellent. We did go back to Zen. And we didn’t get to do the hibachi top and Aki thing. So if you guys know us and you follow us on our social media, you know that we have our own hibachi table at home like a literal like a separate room that has like chop chop hibachi table where you can sit around it like you do like a you models or miyabi or Benihana that kind of plays and you post pictures, right? So I have always looking for a good, like hibachi cooker that does all the tricks. And so we were sitting at a table that week, because we weren’t at the hibachi table for this because we missed our reservation the first night for that. And he was doing so many good tricks.

George
I don’t know why you’re looking. I’m the one that does the trick.

Lisa RichartHernandez
I know. But I’ve got to learn some of those nights, like chop chop, and then he was like flipping his specials around. He’s lighting everything on fire. And I mean, it looked like a really good thing. So definitely say, definitely try that. And the sushi was really good there. And then just Asian food that we had done was also really good, but highly recommend that chopped up was that all the restaurants. Those are the only ones we made it to. Okay. And so I feel like we just need to go back. So yeah, go to the rest of us.

George
And if you want to stay in the room, room service was very good.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh, yeah. Are the couple that we came with Brian and BJ. They literally had breakfast syrup sent to the room every single morning. You

George
can set it up on the first day for breakfast for the whole week. And it’ll be there at the same time. And man every time it came in, we’re like, why didn’t we do

Lisa RichartHernandez
that like huevos rancheros, and coffee and fruit and yeah, it was really good.

George
And all the fruit was super fresh, too. Yes. Excellent.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. So I think we’ve touched on the food. We’ve also

George
No we still have one more restaurant that was absolutely incredible.

Lisa RichartHernandez
So this is like our side of the resort. I wanted to do a something special like one thing I love about Cabo as you can go outside of the resort there. Yes. Right. There’s, there’s a town there. There’s things to do. So it’s really cool to get out of there and go exploring. The resort itself is beautiful, but you can go out which

George
is cool. And the main center of Los Cabo San Lucas is the Marina. And that’s that’s their downtown, and it’s beautiful. And it’s we’ve been down there a couple times. And

Lisa RichartHernandez
it’s like surrounded by shops and tourist restaurants and T shirts and all kinds of things. Yeah, you

George
know, you hit tourists how when you see senior frogs, he has seen your frogs and you see that, you know, you’re hitting the right

Lisa RichartHernandez
tourist area. Yes. So that was and we saw that a little bit on our excursions but on our very last night, I booked a reservation. at alpha own

George
Okay, let’s try it again.

Lisa RichartHernandez
How do you pronounce it?

George
El pa rayon. Much better. Okay, see?

Lisa RichartHernandez
Practicing me Espanyol.

George
Yes. So,

Lisa RichartHernandez
this is a restaurant that is on the side of a cliff, overlooking the ocean.

George
And it’s part of what it’s part of the Waldorf Astoria. Yes. beautiful resort. So

Lisa RichartHernandez
it’s about a 25 minute car ride to the hour from the resort. And we arrive and the valet guy guys meets us there walks us through this whole, like, stones or like rocks. It looks like you were in the middle of, of the mountain.

George
Or you were I mean, the resort is built on the cliffs. Not like literally into the cliffs. It was beautiful. What a beautiful resort and then a bunch of the rooms are right on the beach. I mean, I’m like,

Lisa RichartHernandez
it was like a little city. Built on a cliff. It was just gorgeous. I think. It reminded me of the Amalfi Coast, like it reminded me when we were in southern Italy, that kind of feel.

George
I think if we ever go back to Cabo, or when we go back to Cabo, I wouldn’t mind going there for like a day or two. Just I mean, it was so beautiful.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yes, it was. It was very beautiful. So it, I did get this reservation, and I had to get it. Literally, I think like three weeks before we left,

George
I would highly recommend a friend of ours is going to Cabo and he booked now four months from now. And he said he barely got in

Lisa RichartHernandez
to this restaurant. Yes, yeah. And so we now there were reservations at a lot of places at nine o’clock at night, which is fine. It was pretty at nighttime. We got there about so sunset, there was around eight o’clock ish, maybe 738

George
I think it was more like,

Lisa RichartHernandez
let’s just say we got there about 45 minutes to an hour before sunset. And it was gorgeous. So we could see the waves crashing in and the sun was just starting to set making that purpley red sky and it was just gorgeous. And then the sun goes down. And there’s, you know, beautiful lighting. And fireworks.

George
Yeah, we need to post some pictures of that. Yes. So that was funny too, with the fireworks because the our waiter was pretty funny. He just kept saying, Are you here for any special event? And we were like, no nothing. And he looked at our friend Brian and goes, Oh, it’s your birthday today. So he just kept going. He just rolled with it. He brought a shot. And he’s like birthday shots. And don’t worry, I ordered some fireworks for you.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Sort of there’s the fireworks.

George
Yeah, it was pretty cool.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, that was awesome. So the way the menu works there and this is you know, if you’re if you’re not a foodie, and you’re a picky eater, you should know this in advance. You they have different fresh fish every single day. And so when you come in, the waiter will bring a board and you basically choose the fish or protein that you want. So it could be shrimp it could I think that they have a steak. I think that a steak. Yeah, they had they did have a volume alone. Yeah. And then. And lobster. But the main things were these, like I had the sea bass. You had the tuna? I think, what were some of the there’s two other fish are amberjack. And the red snapper and red sample. Yeah. So you chose those. And they they cook them with just like a butter, light sauce. And then

George
pan seared Right. Yeah. So

Lisa RichartHernandez
everyone gets the same appetizer, like a same the same soup. And then they bring appetizers for the table to share. Then you have your entree, and then they bring in dessert for the table to share.

George
So the only thing you select is your protein. Yeah, that’s it.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yep. So Oh, and then Besides, there was like sides that came family style also. Right.

George
And there was four of us. And I think there was six sides. And so bring us one of each which worked out great.

Lisa RichartHernandez
So good. Yes. And I think it’s probably one of the best fish I ever ate. I

George
I’ll tell you what, like Lisa said a minute ago, I’m not a big fish person. I’ll leave the white fish. I’m very playing on fish,

Lisa RichartHernandez
fish and chips.

George
But that tuna that we had was incredible. And our friend Brian loves seafood he and even he was blown away by just how it was delicious and prepared perfectly.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, I mean, it was just such it was the I highly recommend if you can do that. And it’s something you’re interested in, do it on your last night before you leave. Because it was it sort of was the Final last cherry on it was almost like he wanted to cry. You didn’t want to leave. It was perfect weather. Like the you got a little mist from the ocean as the waves crashed up on there and sunsetting and the fireworks are the amazing food. It was just like you couldn’t, you couldn’t ask for really anything more in my opinion, it was well worth it.

George
And if you’re a wine connoisseur, our friend Brian is incredible. Whenever he picks wine, it is the best wine I’ve ever had in my life. Of course you pay for it. Yes, yes. He doesn’t mind dropping some change on mine. But I’ll tell you what, he was very impressed with the selection of wine that they had. So just keep that in mind if you’re a whiny, go there.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. And just to give you an idea on price, like each Andrea was about $60 and that included the soup, which was a cucumber gazpacho with like, crab and something else in it. And then the appetizer was like, some kind of Sidi che,

George
because the BJ the cats? Oh, yeah, those are some seafood cats. And they’re like little crab cakes. Yeah.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. And one other thing. I can’t remember what I know. But it was delicious. Sweet at all. But yeah, so I mean, it was a good amount of food for $60 a person, but not

George
to the point where you we did not leave there feeling like oh my God, we just ate a ton of

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, yeah, it was just perfect. I mean, really was perfect. So highly, highly recommend that. And if you’re gonna do that, definitely make reservations way ahead of time.

George
Yes, absolutely. And tried it. If, if you can make it way ahead of time, you might be able to pick look at the timing and see when sunset is because that is a sunset

Lisa RichartHernandez
spot. Definitely. You want to do like a 637 o’clock reservation

George
or sharp changes all the time. Yeah, I

Lisa RichartHernandez
guess. So. Figure it out in the summer. Yes, for sure. So let’s talk about our excursions. We did do a couple excursions we were supposed to do a snorkeling excursion and that got cancelled because of the hurricane. So we sort of rescheduled and did a luxury sailing and snorkeling tour one day. Yes. Yeah. And so that was on a sailboat, there was only 12 people.

George
So you can do a luxury snorkel cruise on a sailboat, or you could do the normal snorkel. Oh, boy, we saw that boat pull up next to us. And we were very happy that we chose the

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, so first off, let’s talk about snorkeling in general, like it’s not real snorkeling, like, oh, we’re going to, you know, a barrier reef? No, they’re just like those chum in the water and everybody goes to Monroe with your masks.

George
But I will give them a little bit of defense that a hurricane had just blown through. So the whole time we were there. The waves were over. I can do not over 10 feet.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh, yeah. So as an aside, you don’t go in the water on the beach at Cabo anyways, because

George
Even when the tides normal conditions the riptides there are vicious. So you don’t it kind of sucks because you got these beautiful beaches, but you really can’t swim in them, right or swim at your own risk. But there are a couple beaches that you can go to and swim there outside the resort, right if that’s what you want to do, but I’d rather sit at the pool and have a cocktail with an umbrella on it.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, so that that sailing and snorkeling thing was about four hours. It was in the Marina, who was on a sailboat. It took us by the arches, which is the thing to see in Cabo and get photos of and then it took us kind of like, I don’t know, on about a maybe hour down, down or so down to where we did some. We just really went swimming. It wasn’t really snorkeling. Yeah. We did some swimming and then they had you know, things went off and drinks were included the whole time they had beer and vodka and a full open bar had whatever you had and the guy served it to us. They had snacks and we had a

George
lunch Yeah, really nice lunch the veto guy and why are we drawing a blank on?

Lisa RichartHernandez
I don’t know, there was like chips and guacamole and awesome. It was very nice. You know, lunch for being on a boat. It wasn’t like a little sandwich wrapped in plastic or anything like that. They served them on these like nice little wooden trays. And so that was enjoyable. They played sort of, you know, more relaxing mix of music between country and some Latin music and stuff very kind of universal. Not it wasn’t like a big big party boat, but it was it was fun.

George
Yeah. No, I, I enjoyed it. I rather do a smaller group than what we saw on the other boats. I mean, they packed 30 people on some learning it looked like 50 people in the same size boat that we had 12 You know, it was for bigger, maybe a little bit bigger. Not my favorite press me. Yeah. So that one I will say, I’m gonna give them a little bit of defense because it was the hurricane it just come through. But it was still a little bit of a letdown. You weren’t.

Lisa RichartHernandez
It was not snorkeling. Like it wasn’t like, Oh, I’m gonna go see some fish snorkeling.

George
But it was still very rough. So again, I’ll give them a little bit of credit. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez
great service, great, great staff on board. Like all of that was really good. It was part of the excursions that you get through the resort though, and we tend to stick to those because they we can pay for them through the resort and they’re sort of like accredited and trusted. That’s sort of like our general thing that we do. But like in places like for example in like Punta Cana, that’s what you want to do. But places like cap Cabo, you can go outside of the resort and get

George
you can walk down to the the excursion shop and book it yourself. And

Lisa RichartHernandez
yeah, and I would feel totally safe doing that there.

George
But again, through the resort, we have so many credits that we book stuff with our credits.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. And then the other thing we did was the side by sides and the camels

George
rz RS and camel ride that was actually turned out to be a lot of fun. We, we went down, we rented some rz Rs, we did pay to upgrade we did pay to upgrade, which I would highly recommend because the little ones they put you in are no fun. It’s like a souped up golf Go Kart.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Well, that just also does depends on your experience level and what you’re looking for, like we wanted to go fast and right in the dunes and go big bumps and stuff.

George
Upgrade, trust me upgrade. You will be bored after the first two minutes. So we lucked out because there was a ton of people there. And they offer four different excursions. So they offer the side by side, they offer quad rides, they offer camel rides, and then what was the other one like zip lining or something. And you can you can do like a combo package, which is what we did. So we selected the side by side rz ours and then a camel ride. So we got there, they checked us in it was all cool again, everywhere we went the service was spectacular. Even at this excursion plays, the guy took care of us. As soon as he found out that we were the four of us were together. He tried to rush us through so that we wouldn’t get stuck with anybody else. Because, like he told us, I can only go as fast as the slowest person. So he said, Do you guys want to go fast? And we’re like, yeah, we don’t want to go slow. He’s like, Okay, then let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s get out of here. So kudos to him. That was awesome. So we got on the side by side, and we went riding through the trails and uphills and downhills and then we actually got to go on the beach, which is cool. But then we were like, boom, we hit the camels and we’re like, that better not be it for the side by sides. So then we went on the camels.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, so the camels, you know, they’re super tall giant. camels just get on there. It’s kind of like riding a horse. Maybe. Oh, no,

George
I wrote a horse for for work. No. Okay. camels are like, they’re like, super sketchy. You feel like you’re gonna fall with every day until you get the rhythm. And then you’re okay, but they’re so riding a horse. Yes. You know, the people we say, Oh, my legs hurt because I was riding a horse. I’m bow legged because I’m riding a horse. Okay, get on a camel. And then talk to me about bowling. Bad Boys are nutcrackers

Lisa RichartHernandez
super walk? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, God. Well, there was a, they basically tie all the camels sorted together and like is certified. And they one guy like, walks you out to the beach, to the ocean through the sand and everything. And then, of course, they take tons of pictures of you which they’re going to sell you later. And they tell you not to bring your camera or whatever. But in hindsight, I have a camera that like my phone camera has a strap on it. It’s like a bandolier so I should have taken that with me because I would have been able to get more trust me

George
it’s totally up to you. They they tell you to leave everything so it doesn’t get quote unquote damaged. What they want is to damage you at the end by selling $150 for the big dry which we bought there were beautiful pictures you can’t get that angle that they’re getting them out so I get that but I wish we would have taken our phone so we could take some pictures from inside the RAZR. Yeah, and video Which we didn’t get any video? Yeah, but you know, it’s all a business there. It’s like this. Neither just trying to separate you from your money.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So those were two excursions that we did the camel and the four by fours. Yes.

George
But hold on, we didn’t finish with the four by fours. So we wrote the side by side to the camels, got on the camels that a camel ride. And then we got back on the side by sides. And we did a much longer loop was really fun. I mean, by that point, he knew way down the beat. He knew that we knew what we were doing in the cars. And he was bugging and it was so much fun. And we actually went on the beach, which is really cool.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, yeah. And good ways down there, too. Yeah. Yeah, that would be a really cool place just to have our zeros, if you like, lived around there and just go riding it was really cool. What else? What else did we do? We did the excursions are great dinners. Just to kind of talk a little bit about COVID, we had to have tests to fly back into the United States. So the resort provided those, I don’t even do they charge for those even though you

George
No, so? It was actually that was a really smooth transaction. Also, no, we contacted our Butler asked him what we needed to do. He sent us a link. I filled out the link, they sent me an email saying, congrats, we got your this is your confirmation that we got your request for a test. And then they sent us another one saying, show up at this room tomorrow. And we’ll test you. Yeah, took like five minutes. Yeah. And it’s an instant test. And that was it. Now here’s the funny part. So we did this test. We tested negative, they sent us a little letter saying that we tested negative. We never showed that to anybody. Nobody ever asked for it. Nobody asked for you upload it to anything. I had it on my airlines I had on my phone just in case. I mean, they may send it to somebody because they asked for our flight information or passport. They asked for all that information. So maybe they forwarded it. But nobody asked us for it at the airport to fly back into the United States. And which I will also touch on. Because there’s not a lot of people traveling right now. The experience going through customs was a breeze a breeze. I mean, it was just like, here’s our passports. We don’t have anything to declare. Thank you Have a nice day. And we’re like, seriously, this is like the fastest we’ve ever gone through. Yeah, we’re lucky with that. No lines. And I think a lot of people are starting to use the Global Entry for Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez
I think the TSA precheck line was longer than the regular check in at the airport. Yes. Can you read it? Yeah,

George
I think more people are now. It’s like, you might as well stand there for a second. Which line do I want to go in? Yes.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Hey, one thing we didn’t talk about was the spa, which I always go to. And we didn’t really talk about the resort credits. And so that might be something that that is a good thing to touch on for people that are either members. And sometimes they say, limitless resort credits when you book or whatever, they do different promotions. So the resort credits are used sort of like cash. For example, if a massage was going to be $200, you only pay 20% in cash, so it’d be $40 in cash, the rest uses resort credits,

George
right. So that would take $200 200 of your resort credits, and then you pay 40 in cash. Correct. So when you’re talking about a four handed massage for 40 bucks,

Lisa RichartHernandez
no, it was $80 for $80 for a four handed massage. You haven’t had a four handed massage. I highly recommend that. It’s two people massaging you like in sync. I don’t know if they practice together their method or whatever, but it’s like amazing. So I did that my very first day. It’s super relaxing. And then I did another hour massage with a like seaweed wrap. That was like 110 minutes, which was also amazing. And then I did a deep tissue on I think the last day which was also great. All of that was really great. They also have a hydrotherapy whole spa things. So it’s like a steam room a sauna. This ice chips, the bucket water, the shower, water massage, the hot tub, the cold tub. It’s not as big as the one in Punta Cana, but it’s still really nice, but because of COVID you had to make a reservation to do that. So it wasn’t just a free for all for

George
yeah COVID I don’t know I don’t know how to describe But it’s a little bit of a pain in the butt, you got to walk around with a mask everywhere.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Only when you’re not like outside basically, anywhere when you’re inside just walking around, they wanted you to wear a mask. And they were very kind about it. Because sometimes, you know, if you were drinking or whatever, they didn’t say anything, but if you were just randomly walking, you know, they would offer you, you know, Oh, do you need a mask? Like, currently I, you know, offer a mask or ask you to put your mask on. It wasn’t? I don’t know. I felt like

George
Yeah, well, it wasn’t somebody in your face telling you to wear a mask. Yeah.

Lisa RichartHernandez
But it was it was so required. But it didn’t. I don’t think it made our experience. No, no, no,

George
no, it was it was, it was fine. It was fine. I didn’t mind wearing a mask for the couple minutes that I was walking through the lobby. Another thing that I know we’ve touched, touched on in previous podcasts as far as the Hard Rock. They still have the Hard Rock cleaning staff or whatever they call them. Safe and sound safe and sound there. I gotta give them kudos everywhere we looked somebody was cleaning or disinfecting. Yes. That was really awesome to see that they’re still continuing that. And it just makes you feel better it Yeah, you know, perception is what it’s all about.

Lisa RichartHernandez
It’s funny, because I think to myself, you know, like, Oh, well, they just went away for a whole week to Mexico, they’re probably just carrying COVID. And I’m thinking, Okay, we’ve been tested more than most people have, we had to test to come back to the United States, we, you know, tested before we we did test before we left just to be on this boat. We didn’t Brian and BJ did just to be on the safe side. Because you don’t want to get stuck out there with COVID. And they were just feeling a little bit tired out that week. And so they just want to be sure that they were going to be safe when they got there. But we had all been vaccinated. But they didn’t tell us they didn’t make us show any cards. Nobody ever one time, not one time. Anybody asked us if we were vaccinated, they’re flying

George
into Mexico. They didn’t ask us anything flying out of Mexico. They didn’t ask us anything. But again, I will say that when I went into the United website, or the app that I have on my phone, they asked for all the information they asked for whether I had been vaccinated, I said yes. So I think they’re taking people on the honor system and maybe pulling some people out of the line and saying, Okay, let me see what you’ve got. Because I don’t know. Besides that there was nowhere nobody asked us we didn’t have to prove show any paperwork. So it was it was actually a wonderful experience flying in and out.

Lisa RichartHernandez
So I think I think we’ve really touched on everything even checking out was easy. If you have any questions about our our hardrock resort trips, any one of them or interested in going on a hard rock, please feel free to reach out to us that our review podcast calm, or, you know, email us and, and just, we’re happy to answer any questions you have. You can always even call us on the phone.

George
They’ll let us hook you up. I mean, 30% discount those places is fantastic. And you will get the VIP upgrade, which is very nice. And I’m telling you the service at all these places is fantastic and right now’s the time to go because most of these places are like 60% only out the Hard Rock in Los Cabos only loud 60% occupancy. So like Lisa said, It was nice to be at the pool and not have 100 people circling like vultures looking for lounge chairs. If you’re looking for vacation, hit us up 30%

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, that’s right. So thanks for listening. And our next trip. We’re gonna maybe probably talk about some tailgating we’ve got a lot of tailgating coming up this fall that we’re super excited for. We did have our first tailgating the first game of the season, which we want. Yeah, so we were in the RV. And that felt so good to get back on the road in the RV, because we really haven’t done much. I don’t know if I’d touched on. My mother fell and broke her ankle and George’s mother and stuff going on. Yeah, so we had so much going on. We hadn’t used the RV. It was great to get back out there tailgating with our kids at the University of South Carolina. And we’re going to tell you all about that and some more tips. We’ve got a trip when’s our next other week and we’re going to be in fantasy fast.

George
Can’t wait to tell you guys about whatever we can tell you about.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, what happens in fantasy those days and fantasy that so let’s start canceling some of those things. Be careful when we get a little worried. Yeah, that’s at the end of October. I think we’ve got a couple of home games before that.

George
But if any of you listeners happen to be at the USC game comm look us up at the fairground parking lot. Our RV says our view podcast right on the windshield. You can’t miss it. Come say hi and I think we are going to do a podcast live from? Well not live, but we’re going to record it live from one of our tailgates. See how that goes. It should be interest. We

Lisa RichartHernandez
could probably do it live. I want to figure that out. I’m sure someone if you know how to do that. Hit us up. We need to figure that out. That’s scary.

George
But that’s what we got going on. We got a lot of tailgating we got fantasy fest coming up. So we promised we’re gonna put out some fun podcasts and more regularly now that we’re traveling again.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yay. Yep. So thanks so much. Don’t forget to follow us like us, share it, do anything you can someday I’d love to retire and just be a podcaster and travel around cannot happen.

George
Yes. And we’d love to meet some of you. And don’t forget seriously hit us up. 30% George and Lisa from RView podcast. Alright guys, thank you for listening. Have a wonderful day.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Bye Bye.

outro
Thanks for listening to another episode of RView. Don’t forget to drop us a line at Rview podcast.com That’s the letter R view podcast.com and like, subscribe and follow us so you don’t miss out on our next adventure.