I don’t know about you, but I love a good package deal when it comes to everything from food to travel. When my boyfriend and I were deciding on where to vacation this past February, I immediately hit up Groupon and Expedia. After browsing some promising prospects, we settled on Groupon’s all-inclusive package for Bel Air Collection Resort & Spa (now Krystal Grand Los Cabos) in beautiful San José de los Cabos, Mexico. I can proudly say that we made a great decision. We stayed 3 nights and honestly got a lot more than we expected for the price we paid, which is always a good thing.
Taking various factors into consideration including food, the room, pool/beach activities and service/stay package, Bel Air Collection Resort & Spa Los Cabos gets a solid 3.8 out of 5 stars from me. Below is my breakdown of all things that made the stay wonderful, and things that came up short:
THE FOOD
Pros – The restaurant food was very tasty (the fried rice was my favorite) and they have a great selection. There are 2 specialty restaurants and one buffet. I found myself looking forward to the freshly cooked omelets at the buffet for breakfast each morning! The waiters are extremely friendly, especially my man Alfonso.
This fried rice was bomb.com! Am I too old to be saying bomb.com? 🤔
Cons – The restaurants could use some more lighting for nighttime hours because it gets pretty dark and hard to read the menu. Seriously. We had to pull out our cell phone lights at times just to order. In addition, the wait to be seated and served can be abnormally long on some evenings (sometimes there are not enough people working the kitchen/not enough waiters), so go down for dinner early if you can. Otherwise, you’ll end up grabbing whatever scraps are left down at the buffet before they start cleaning up. Lastly, the poolside food was less than stellar… Staff was awesome, though!
THE ROOM
Pros – The garden view deluxe suite was very nice, clean and surprisingly spacious. Although we didn’t opt to pay extra for the ocean-view suite, we still had an amazing
view and could see the ocean from our balcony. There was a full kitchen with fridge and microwave, lots of living room space, a TV in the bedroom and a TV in the living room. The channels are mostly in Español so if you don’t speak Spanish, get ready to read a lot of subtitles. But hey, none of that should matter anyway when you’re there for the gorgeous beach, right?! Luckily, the wifi worked pretty well both in the room and by the pool which was a major plus.
Cons – The bed was essentially two twin-sized beds pushed together with larger sheets placed on top, so keep this in mind if you have back problems, need a large mattress or anything else of that nature. It wasn’t a huge deal for me, but my boyfriend is pretty big and didn’t have too much space to stretch out or move around. I did find myself waking up slightly wedged in that crack between the beds on occasion.
POOL/BEACH AREA
Pros – There are some really fun activities such as karaoke night, beach yoga, pool aerobics, etc. that aren’t mentioned at all on the resort’s website. I think they should definitely add their activity schedule to the site because that is a big selling point for people like me who like an active and energetic vacation atmosphere.
The pool area is gorgeous and literally steps away from the beach, so you can enjoy both at the same time. We also saw people riding horses, and there are a variety of other fun activities to venture out and find! The lobby is filled with brochures for local adventures, and the customer service representatives are more than happy to assist.
Cons – They could use some more umbrellas in the pool/beach area.
OVERALL PACKAGE / SERVICE
Pros – We got the all-inclusive package and we were extremely relieved to have NO hidden fees or extra charges upon check-out. Sometimes you hear these “all-inclusive package gone wrong” horror stories, but the staff made sure that everything was clear and upfront, and that we were completely covered. All meals were unlimited and included with our package, so we could eat at any of the restaurants as many times as we wanted without extra charge. The staff even sets up airport transportation for you if you call a few days in advance, which is extremely affordable and convenient. Plus, it was only about 20 minutes or so from the airport!
Overall, we really had a blast during our stay at Bel Air Collection Resort & Spa Los Cabos (aka Krystal Grand Los Cabos). This was our first Groupon package trip, so we were naturally a bit skeptical and crossing our fingers that everything would go smoothly. However, I’m glad to report that we had absolutely no issues, and even the cons I listed above were nothing major. Was it a 5-star luxury getaway? I wouldn’t exactly say that much, but I would definitely recommend this package for anyone in search of a budget-friendly oceanside vacay. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments!
Check out my video from the trip:
This post has been edited since its original post date to include the resort’s recent name and facility changes.