If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD820.25), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Boredom is not a concept with which Montage Los Cabos, a luxury mini metropolis on the shores of the Sea of Cortez, is acquainted. At a whopping 40,000 square-feet, complete with a dozen treatment rooms, a hair salon and a semi-Olympic pool, the spa is virtually a resort in its own right. The calm, crystal-clear waters of sandy Santa Maria Bay simply beg to be snorkelled in, and the raft of in-resort activities extends to pickleball, archery, paddle-boarding and – for the less sport-inclined – tequila- and agave-tasting sessions in the aptly named Mezcal restaurant. Plot the finer details of your stay over breakfast in Marea, where widescreen sea views and syrup-drenched buttermilk pancakes set the bar almost impossibly high from the get-go.
Please note, between 5 July and 14 September 2023 construction work will be taking place next door to the hotel, which will be carried out from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday, and there will be noise disruption to public areas and rooms during these times. Those staying over this period will be given a daily resort credit of US$250 a day (to be used on dining, drinks, spa treatments, shopping onsite and any resort-run activities) as compensation.
122, of which 27 are suites, plus several standalone residences.
Check–Out
Noon, but flexible subject to availability. Check-in is at 3pm and can also be extended where availability permits.
Prices
Double rooms from £761.92 ($951), including tax at 16 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of 4% per room per night prior to arrival and an additional service charge of 15% per room per night prior to arrival.
More details
Breakfast isn’t included but can be purchased in the Mezcal and Marea restaurants or Paletas all-day café. Or demonstrate your mastery of the resort lifestyle by ordering a lavish breakfast buffet to your private terrace and gorging yourself until lunch.
Also
There are two ADA rooms available in the resort, with roll-in showers, grab bars and lowered sinks and switches, although many ground-floor rooms and public areas are easily navigated. (Please note, the buildings housing the hotel's rooms and suites have no elevator to the upper floor).
At the hotel
Private golf course, tennis and pickleball courts, activities including archery, mountain biking, paintballing and more, free non-motorised water sports, 24-hour gym, and free WiFi. In rooms: 55-inch LED HD TV; Bose Bluetooth speaker; Nespresso coffee machine; minibar with free bottled water and curated selection of wines, spirits and snacks; and marble bathroom with bath tub, shower and Gloss Moderne bath products.
Our favourite rooms
The Casa Twin Dolphin Three-Bedroom Home’s trio of modern bedrooms makes it suitable for groups of couples, as well as families with older kids who value their privacy. Chuck in a couple of infinity pools with widescreen views of Santa Maria Bay’s pink-and-gold sunsets, dedicated butler service and a stack of free activities that include signature spa treatments, daily fitness classes and agave- and mezcal-tasting sessions and, well, what’s not to love?
Poolside
Take your pick from three outdoor pools overlooking the Sea of Cortez. There’s a family pool that comes complete with a lifeguard and a fire pit for cooking s’mores, a serene spa pool, and another with convenient swim-up access to the Marea bar’s pineapple-infused signature Mezcalita cocktails.
Spa
Spanning a whopping 40,000 square-feet, Spa Montage Los Cabos ain’t messing about. Treatment rooms (12 in total) surround the semi-Olympic pool and there are steam rooms, hot tubs and relaxation areas galore. Beware: a full-body pummelling using oils and unguents brewed from indigenous desert ingredients may well render you horizontal for the rest of the day.
Packing tips
What do you bring with you to the resort that has everything? We suggest crisp tennis whites for showing off Baja tans (and dazzling opponents) on the courts and (very) dark glasses for combating beach blindness and mezcal mornings-after.
Also
There’s a gym large enough to get lost in, free sunrise yoga sessions for early risers, and a private, guests-only desert golf course designed by former world champ Fred Couples.
Pet‐friendly
Doggos that dig la buena vida will be right at home here, where each room can accommodate two pets of up to 40lbs for a one-off fee of $250. Pampered pooches can look forward to treats, pet menus, dog-sitting and more. See more pet-friendly hotels in Los Cabos.
Children
Residences can sleep up to 12, meaning plenty of space for large families; there’s a family pool, and little Smiths will be in clover with the kids’ club for five-to-12 year-olds and activities including archery and desert paintballing for teens.
Best for
Ages five-to-12 are particularly well catered for, and there’s plenty to distract easily bored teens from their various devices, too.
Recommended rooms
There’s a whole range of options. Queen Queens are great for young families of three or four, but older kids will prefer the space and privacy of a two-bedroom suite (ideally with a private pool).
Activities
The Paintbox kids’ club for ages five-to-12 runs themed days with activities and crafts by the pool, on the beach and indoors. Think piñatas, treasure hunts, jewellery-making and tide-pool exploration. Full- and half-day sessions are available. Meanwhile, teens can let off steam with archery, mountain biking and paintball activities. There’s also a children’s movie night with dinner, popcorn and a feature film on Friday and Saturday evenings.
Swimming pool
Kids have the run of the Sky Pool, where there’s a lifeguard on duty until 6pm and a sandy area with buckets and spades for younger children.
Meals
There are children’s menus in all three restaurants, and the all-day café has you covered for pastries and ice-creams.
Babysitting
Services can be arranged via the concierge, with a minimum booking time of three hours and hourly rates of $25 for one-to-two children and $30 for three.
No need to pack
Leave beach toys at home – there are more than enough available to borrow at the resort.
Window seats at Marea, overlooking Santa Maria Bay and the glittering Sea of Cortez beyond, are among the best in the resort, and quite possibly the entire peninsula.
Dress Code
Keep it casual in shorts and open-toed sandals at Talay, but vamp it up for dinner in Mezcal and Marea, where sprucer garb is encouraged. We recommend going bold in Baja-influenced colours: mezcal golds, cactus greens and spicy chilli reds.
Hotel restaurant
Montage Los Cabos offers a wild variety of flavours across its trio of restaurants. Topping the bill is Mezcal, a fine-dining option with handpainted zig-zag floors from Oaxaca and Instagrammable backlit shelves stacked with brightly coloured glass bottles and vases. An apéritif cocktail made with small-batch artisanal mezcal is a must, as is the soft-shell crab taco. But don’t make the mistake of limiting yourself to dinner here; the breakfast is just as good. Try the Mezcal Benedict: lobster poached in vanilla butter, served with sautéed spinach and the pleasant kick of mezcal-chipotle hollandaise. Breakfast is served from 7am until noon, and dinner between 6pm and 10pm. Alfresco Marea brings Mediterranean-inspired flavours to the Gulf of California, with a menu that’s heavy on freshly caught seafood, including oysters, clams and a frankly unmissable signature lobster risotto, all served with a side of superlative sea views. Thailand street-food culture is the order of the day at lively Talay, where wicker lanterns bob in the trees, guests share plates at colourful bench tables, and a DJ spins the tunes on weekends. Fire-flamed favourites at this casual diner include whopping great tiger prawns and organic chicken smothered in yellow coconut curry sauce. A sushi bar and all-day café-cum-gift shop Paletas complete the resort’s culinary line-up.
Hotel bar
Marea’s breezy bar is open all day for swim-up snacks and cocktails, with the added bonus of a dedicated sushi bar that’s open in the evenings and all day on weekends. Mezcal is where it’s at for a flavour of Mexico’s finest spirits, including tequila, bacanora and small batch artisanal mezcals that are still made exactly as they were 200 years ago. Regular live music is accompanied by handcrafted cocktails inspired by the Aztec gods, and often just as fiery.
Last orders
Mezcal’s bar serves beer and cocktails until the midnight hour, after which you can continue the party on your private patio thanks to all-night room service.
Room service
The 24-hour in-room dining menu means Montage Los Cabos has your 4am quesadilla craving covered.
Twin Dolphin, Carretera Transpeninsular KM. 12.5
Int. Bahía Santa María
Cabo San Lucas
23450
Mexico
Caught between the desert and the deep blue sea on the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula, Montage Los Cabos overlooks a secluded bay on the Golden Corridor between the colourful colonial port towns of Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo.
Planes
Los Cabos International Airport is a 40-minute drive from the resort. Transfers are available via luxury SUV for up to five passengers ($185 one-way) or Sprinter van for up to 18 ($250 one-way). Private jets touch down at Cabo San Lucas Airport, around 30 minutes away.
Automobiles
You’ll need wheels if you plan to fully immerse in this wild peninsula’s alien landscapes, full of soaring saguaro cacti, bizarre rock formations, and epic mountain ranges. Cars are available to rent at both airports and there’s free 24-hour valet parking at the resort.
Worth getting out of bed for
We get it: the temptation to lounge on your own private terrace from sunrise to sunset, grapefruit margarita in one hand and Baja fish taco in the other, is near-impossible to resist. But, whether you enjoy activity with a capital ‘A’ or prefer your vacation diversions to be a little more…sedentary, Montage Los Cabos has your back.
We’re talking in-resort activities that run the gamut from spying humpback whales cruising through the bay to eyeing that elusive hole-in-one on the resort’s exclusive Twin Dolphin golf course, designed by legendary swinger Fred Couples. Though, admittedly, the likelihood of a lapse in concentration along these fairways to heaven seems high given the views up here: extraterrestrial rocky outcrops, canyon-like arroyos, colourful native flora, towering saguaro cacti that point their long fingers skywards, and glimpses of the shimmering Sea of Cortez from every hole. Those who wish to explore the alien terrain of the Golden Corridor further can ditch the five-irons and take to the club’s 10 miles of trails by mountain bike instead.
Santa Maria Bay is that rarest of beasts down here where the Sea of Cortez’s sheltered waters meet the wild, restless Pacific: a beach you can actually swim, snorkel, kayak and paddle-board from safely all-year round. The warm, clear waters in this horseshoe-shaped cove fairly teem with life. Besides the dashing dolphins and breaching whales, you can expect to spot great rainbows of iridescent tropical fish darting in and out of the nearby coral reef. Snorkelling these shores is just one of the 12 outdoorsy activities you’ll need to complete to earn a Marlin pin badge in the resort’s ‘Montage Merits’ scheme. But fear not: the remaining 11, including hiking the Twin Dolphin trail and grabbing a selfie or six at El Arco – the famous sea arch at Cabo San Lucas – are every bit as alluring. Not included in the Montage Merits scheme but equally worthy of your attention are the various culinary classes at Mezcal, the resort’s fine-dining restaurant. Discover the history of Mexico’s national drinks (and train your tastebuds to truly appreciate them) at agave and tequila tasting sessions, and try your hand at knocking up classic Mexican dishes and cocktails yourself in fun chef- and mixologist-led classes.
In summary, there’s little need to leave the resort at all. But if itchy feet get the better of you, the Golden Corridor has plenty more to offer the intrepid explorer, from the colourful colonial architecture, cool art galleries and bustling marinas of nearby Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo to the pueblo mágico charm of Todos Santos, a little further north up the Baja Sur Peninsula’s dramatic Pacific Coast.
Naturally, Montage Los Cabos can facilitate any such day trips, with an awesome line-up of non-nonsense excursions for the deep of pocket. These include all of the above, plus world-class diving and snorkelling at Cabo Pulmo reef ($750 each), off-roading in the Baja outback ($1,150 each), and – sharp intake of breath – spotting migrating Monarch butterflies in the mountain forests west of Mexico City, a snip at $35,000 for up to seven guests.
Local restaurants
Though the trio of restaurants at Montage Los Cabos certainly bear repeat visits, there are plenty of dining and drinking alternatives in nearby Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo should you deign to venture out.
La Lupita is a colourful cantina that serves up tacos as authentic and artful as the contents of the hip galleries that surround it in downtown San José. Grab a table on the patio and get stuck into what are surely the finest tacos in town, if not the entire region: joyously crunchy pockets of freshly grilled pork, shrimp or chicken, topped with pickles and hot sauces. Wash down with a cold cerveza or treat yourself to a flight of mezcal which, naturally, La Lupita also specialises in. Salud!
Agriturismo is big business here in Baja, where the phrase ‘farm to fork’ transcends the cliché. Seek out Flora Farms, a 25-acre working organic farm in the foothills of the Sierra de la Laguna Mountains, where dinner is served against a skyline so impressive you may have to lift your jaw from the floor before tucking in. Work up an appetite with a stroll around the estate, with its gently swaying palms and swoonsome mountain views, and sip an apéritif at the Farm Bar, where vegetable-infused craft cocktails such as the Farmarita (tequila and heirloom carrot juice) are the order of the day. For the main event, expect an ever-changing roster of homegrown farm favourites like heirloom tomato salad, chargrilled squash with tahini, plate-sized pork chops and a range of wood-fired pizzas with toppings that include fennel sausage and mozzarella and farmyard bacon and eggs.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this luxury beach and spa resort, tipped the sand from their shoes and unpacked their stash of artisan mezcal, a full account of their Mexican adventure will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Montage Los Cabos on the tip of the Baja California Sur peninsula…
Montage Los Cabos really leans into its desert location. A totemic torote tree stands sentinel at the resort’s entrance, while the abundance of indigenous agave, saguaro and fig plants that pepper the grounds and golf course nod to the region’s wild, sun-scorched landscapes. That’s not to say there isn’t plenty of hedonistic Golden Corridor spirit to be found here, though even the signature cocktails borrow from the desert’s bounty, chock-full as they are of dragon fruit, agave syrup and, of course, mezcal.
The village-style resort cuts a relatively low-key figure against all this wilderness, with modern low-rise suite blocks and a collection of hillside casas that cascade down to the jewel in Los Cabos’s crown: the cobalt-blue waters and fine white sands of Santa Maria Bay, this stretch of coast’s most swimmable cove. Those pelicans dive-bombing the water in search of supper are the real deal too, but may, after one mezcal too many, seem like nothing more than a mirage.
