Weekend Surf Trip Getaway to Cabo Surf Hotel

The Cabo Surf Hotel is the ultimate paradise for long boarding surfing. I briefly visited the surf break that is within footsteps of the hotel, Old Man’s or locals call it Playa Acupulito, on my indie excursion event I planned while on a cruise stop to Cabo.

I surfed the spot in front of the hotel for a couple hours then and knew I would be back soon to stay at the hotel and spend more time there. The surf spot has a very easy take off and is a super long wave when the waves are bigger – and that is my kind of wave! You cannot beat this hotel’s location either. I’ve never stayed at a hotel that was this close to the actual surf spot and it has every amenity a surfer needs.

Waiting on waves at Old Man's surf spot in Cabo - on my trip staying at the Cabo Surf Hotel — Patiently waiting for waves on a beautiful sunny and warm but flat day – had the spot to myself though!

You can rent a surfboard at the hotel, which is ideal, as who likes to travel with a long board. They even have a surfboard valet place to put your board so that you don’t even have to lug the thing back to your hotel room. The hot tub and pool are right next to the surfboard valet and it was so nice to be able to pop in the hot tub after a surf session, in the cooler month of February.

Chilling out in the hot tub overlooking the ocean after a surf sesh at Cabo Surf Hotel — Chilling out in the hot tub after a surf sesh at Cabo Surf Hotel

I visited the hotel in February, as a post birthday celebration, so it wasn’t the ideal time to travel there. The best waves are generally from May-September (when it’s the hottest there too). However, I really wanted to escape the cold winter ocean waters of San Diego and surf in some warm water.

I wouldn’t call the water exactly warm in February, but if it’s a sunny or warmer day you really don’t need a wet suit. Sure, I wore a wet suit on Sunday, when it was raining, as it was a bit cooler, however the other days, I just had a rash guard and was perfectly fine! I know, I shouldn’t have been out surfing on a rainy day, but I was only there a few days, so I was determined to at least catch one wave each day.

Friday – Day of Cabo Surf Hotel Arrival

After going through customs at the Cabo airport, I was looking for my private shuttle that I booked from Nice Ride Cabo, to get to my hotel easily and quickly and have a chance to pick up some food/water before I got to the hotel. The Nice Ride Cabo place said to just look for their sign and to ignore everyone else, which I now understand why.

I told the people inside the airport I had already booked my ride with Nice Cabo but that didn’t stop them from trying to sell me in on lots of other excursions that the Cabo area offers. However, they didn’t realize that I came to Cabo for one thing and one thing only – to surf at Playa Acupulquito – aka Old Man’s at Cabo Surf Hotel. I finally found the driver outside of the airport and was on my way!

When I arrived to the Cabo Surf Hotel on Friday afternoon, we were greeted by the staff who helped bring our bags to our room and gave us a complimentary sorbet type treat in an ice cream type of cup. It was perfectly refreshing.

I was unexpectedly surprised that the garden view room I was in (to save a bit of money vs. the ocean view rooms) actually had a great view of the surfing area from its patio. There was a hammock on the patio as well as some chairs – it was the absolute perfect set up!

Cabo Surf Hotel - "Garden" room "ocean" view — Cabo Surf Hotel – “Garden” room “ocean” view

By the time I got settled in my room and ready to surf, it was around 3 pm so I only had a couple of hours left to surf before sunset. The waves were pretty fun that evening, but I didn’t get any footage that day as I hadn’t set up all my tech gear yet.

Dinner at the 7 Seas restaurant was great. The restaurant and hotel has a bit of an elegant sophisticated vibe, a bit different then the casual and fun type environment I’m used to in Mexico, but it was nice for the first evening!

Saturday – 1st Full Day Surfing at Cabo Surf Hotel

I had time the night before to get all my camera gear set up but I decided to try and keep it simple and just use my Soloshot 3 from my hotel balcony that day, and keep it on manual mode, instead of auto follow mode, since most of the field of surfing was within view of the hotel room’s balcony.

Before I went surfing, I wanted to explore the beach area around the hotel first. I didn’t get to explore it on my last visit, however there really isn’t much to explore. There’s rocks on both sides and a sewage tunnel that is backed by a public parking lot for locals to use and access the beach. I did notice that there is a new condo/housing development being built up next to the hotel and I’ve heard that might effect the local access, which is a shame. I doubt I would ever be able to afford buying a place there, although that would be a dream home indeed.

The first hour I surfed, there weren’t many waves, I think I caught one fairly early into my surf session and then caught my 2nd wave probably an hour or so later. It was during the last half hour of my surf session that I caught most of my waves, and by that point, the batteries had died on my Soloshot 3. However here’s some quick footage of that day – in time lapsed and slow motion mixes.

I caught 14 waves clocked by RipCurl’s Search GPS watch that day – from 2 separate surf sessions, with over half of them being 100+ yards long. It was low tide when I was out so the one big rock there was very exposed and I felt a bit like Mason Ho, surfing over all these rocks, while avoiding falling off my board onto one!! I even made an attempt to try and get barreled on these smaller waves, but hey, maybe one day, this practice will help me actually get into one – ha.

If you look right to the bottom left of the palm tree, you can see a blurry zoomed in pic of me creeping down low, trying to get barreled on a 2 footer – ha.

I did a lot of paddling that day too (over 3 miles), and I wish I had my TriggerPoint Impact Massage Gun then (see my review of it here as I just recently tried one out), as my arms were total noodles by the end of my surfing that day and I could have used a massage. However, I was on a budget, so I didn’t go to the spa they have on site at the hotel.

Here’s the starting point of the time lapsed footage from that day! (starting at the 11:24 mark and ending at the 15:37 mark).

That night for dinner, we headed down to Zipper’s, a casual Mexican restaurant in front of Zippers beach (which is a place known for hosting pro short boarding competitions), for some authentic, casual Mexican fare. It’s super close to paddle down there, but really not advisable to walk there, even though it’s so close, because of the roadway setup. Therefore we just Ubered down and back.

I was thinking about staying at the Las Olas hotel right in front of Zippers break as well, as the Cabo Surf Hotel was sold out on my actual birthday weekend. I was thinking since it’s really close to Old Man’s beach, I could just paddle over. However, I’m so glad I just waited another weekend and stayed at Cabo Surf Hotel, the location just can’t be beat and you can save your paddle energy for more surfing (and take advantage of the hot tub & pool).

Sunday – 2nd Full Day at Cabo Surf Hotel

This was Super Bowl Sunday. I hadn’t even realized that when I planned this trip, but it didn’t really matter to me. I would have surfed through the Super Bowl if the waves and weather were good.

Unfortunately it rained that day. I didn’t even think I’d go out and surf at all, but the rain let up for a bit, and I had to at least get out and catch one wave, which I did, and take advantage of staying so close to this amazing surf spot.

The hot tub definitely came in handy that day. When I finished surfing, it was almost half time during the Super Bowl, which was fine with me, as the 2nd half is usually the most interesting anyways. I’m glad the Chiefs won though, so it was a good way to end that day.

Monday – Last Day at Cabo Surf Hotel and flying back to San Diego

I got up and out surfing early that day to maximize my surf time before checkout and heading back to the airport. I’m usually a sunny afternoon kind of surfer but I actually made it out before 9am – it’s much easier to do when you’re footsteps from the beach!

The last day was an amazing day as far as weather was concerned, much warmer and 100% sunny, my favorite surf conditions. I had the whole surf spot to myself as well, however the reason I had the whole spot to myself as there were really no waves to be ridden.

You can see, from this time lapsed view (starting at 15:37 – that I had the spot completely to myself)!

I at least was able to paddle out and enjoy the beautiful view though, and get some video/photo footage of the surf break and hotel from the ocean. I managed to stand up on my surfboard on a wave, I wouldn’t exactly call it surfing, but it counted for my catching a wave every day goal.

I probably could have caught quite a few waves if I wasn’t so paranoid about running into the rock that was directly in the path of most of the waves. However, I do have a bit of a fear of rocks, so I was just glad to avoid any injury colliding into them on this trip, as I did not get travel health insurance!

Overall Review of Cabo Surf Hotel

I would highly recommend this hotel for anyone in Southern California (or anywhere else in that regard) that wants a quick weekend surf trip getaway. The hotel is a bit pricey, but if you come with a few people and pack up a bigger room with multiple beds/couches/kitchen area, it’s much more affordable and definitely worth paying a premium for, for staying directly in front of an amazing surf break, within footsteps of any room, and all the amenities a surfer needs!