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Brooke Sloman

My Trip to Baja California

Updated: Sep 14, 2019

Cerritos:


For years my family and I have visited Cerritos Beach whenever we stayed in Cabo and we always saw this pretty boutique hotel on the cliff and talked about staying there, but never did until this summer. The Hacienda Cerritos has around 10 rooms with private pools/jacuzzis facing the ocean. This little slice of heaven has the nicest, helpful staff and comfy extra-wide lounge chairs for sitting by the pool. With the beach just down some stairs, the staff helped us schedule a surf lesson with Mario’s Surf School. My dad was finally able to stand up on a surfboard after twenty years. The restaurant located at the Hacienda is called La Mision and the grilled vegetables with chicken and the catch of the day ceviche were some of our favorites.

One night we tried out Hierbabuena, which is located about half a mile off the main road in Pescadero. Walking in, we walked past their gardens and were seated in a large, covered outdoor seating area. We ordered the Organic Chicken, which was served with delicious sweet potato among other fresh veggies, Arugula Salad, with sunflower seeds, avocado, etc., and the gluten-free Pizza Bueno, which was topped with pesto sauce (big fan), a spicy red sauce, and two different cheeses. We saw that they also had a fig pizza that sounded really good, however, we didn’t order it. For dessert, it was tough to decide between all four options, which were all gluten-free, but we opted for the flourless chocolate cake and chia seed pudding which has passion fruit on the bottom. After dinner, we walked around the gardens and took some cool photos at sunset. Overall a really good dinner and would highly recommend.

On the way back to our hotel, we decided to detour and check out Todos Santos. We drove through the town and familiarized ourselves with where we would be visiting the next day. We also checked out Hotel San Cristóbol and asked about breakfast options at the hotel. They told us that there are two restaurants located at the hotel, day passes were $75, and that we are welcome to walk around and take a look for ourselves. They had a s’mores station set up for guests from 8-10 pm and the views of the sunset were beautiful. My mom and I agreed that it would be super fun to get some breakfast there the next day.

We arrived at the Hotel San Cristóbol for breakfast the next day and ate at the Benno Restaurant. I ordered a side of poached eggs and the fruit plate which was topped with honey and mint, my dad ordered the avocado toast (probably my favorite food in the entire world when on gluten-free toast), and my mom ordered a side of eggs, bacon, and hash browns to make a meal. I love the overall vibe to this place with a bohemian and contemporary feel. After breakfast, we checked out their little store and it was super cute and they had a lot of items made in Mexico.

We explored Todos Santos for the rest of the day and for lunch we ate at the scenic El Mirador. Unfortunately, we were there on a gloomy day, but even with the clouds you could see down the beach Hotel San Cristóbol as well as the amazing views of the ocean. My parents ordered the tuna tartare and the caprese salad, and I got the rosemary chicken, which came with fresh veggies. They were all good, but the views are definitely what you visit for.



Cerritos Beach is a popular surf spot in Mexico and we have been visiting every time since our neighbors introduced us to the area. Each time we go, we always rent surfboards and attempt to stand up on a couple of waves. The Mario Surf School was super helpful and managed to get me standing on just about each wave. I’m no pro, but with a little more practice, maybe I’ll be able to go out to where the surfers go and not just in the white wash.



Our time in Cerritos had come to an end and we were moving onto Cabo!


Cabo:


We drove to our hotel Casa Dorada, which took about half an hour. Casa Dorada is great for if you want to be at the center of it all, walking distance from town, right on the bay, and surrounded by lots of good restaurants.


The Nobu Hotel recently opened around three months ago and within it are three restaurants: the pool restaurant, Nobu, and Malibu Farm. We went to Malibu Farm for lunch at one and although we made a reservation, there were not that many other people. The locals told us that Cabo’s busiest times of the year are around New Years, so if you are visiting then, it is probably best to make reservations for wherever you go. Nevertheless, the food at Malibu Farm was amazing and we arrived hungry and left extremely full. We sat near the sliding doors, which they opened, and could see the tops of the palm trees near the pool. For appetizers we ordered the cauliflower crust pizza and the ceviche which left us quite full afterwards, but were so delicious. We waited a little for our mains, which were the steak sandwich, the brussel sprouts salad with salmon, and the burrata salad with salmon.


The Office owns multiple restaurants that are not very far from each other which include Tres Sirenas, Edith’s, La Pintada. We went to Tres Sirenas one night and there was a good vibe with live music playing and the staff are attentive and are there when you need them. They were especially good with me being gluten-free/ dairy-free and even made me my own little appetizer because I couldn’t have the empanadas with cheese. It was funny because it seemed to be everyone’s birthday that night as everyone sang about 5 times. It was super quite though because all of the staff would come and sing and bring the Mariachi and sombreros and then make the birthday boy/girl do shots. The food was delicious and fresh and my parents definitely arrived with eyes bigger than their stomachs as they hardly made a dent in their two kilogram snapper, I however, had no problem with my fish tacos. ;) My favorite food there was definitely the bananas foster, I don’t get it often, so I always like to try each restaurant’s take on it.


The dessert may not look the prettiest, but they cooked it right in front of us and it tasted amazing!


We had to make a reservation for Edith’s because it was so popular and could only get in at 6 or 8:30 and because we had been eating lunch so late in the afternoon, we thought 8:30 would be the better option. The food was good and I loved all the decor with the glass hearts hanging from the ceiling.


So Flora Farms just might be my favorite restaurant in the entire world. I am all about the farm-to-table freshness and they bring it to a whole new level. Their mango is SO good, the freshest, juiciest, and most flavorful mango you will ever taste. They make their own bread, grow their own fruits and veggies, and even have a chicken coop out near the pond where all the turtles hangout. They have started having cooking classes, which I will be doing next time, and you can even buy a house to fulfill your culinary dreams! You will think that you are driving out into the middle of the desert, but you eventually drive into an area so green you’ll think you’re in a different country. The restaurant is super cute and is entirely outdoor and after your meal you can even look around the little shops that are right there. This time around we went for breakfast, I wanted to go twice, but my parents said that we should only go once, darn. The food was an A++++ and I ordered this juice made from ginger, mango juice, and orange juice and it was so good. I treated myself to the brioche egg sandwich (because I am gluten-free and dairy-free, most of the time), my mom got the omelette, and my dad got his go-to order of eggs Benedict, and we all ended up sharing a fruit plate. This is the number one place I recommend to go to in Cabo and if you don’t, you are missing out.


Next time we visit Cabo, I definitely want to try out Acre and Tamarindos which are both farm-to-table restaurants located near Flora Farms. A bakery called Cal Forner also caught my eye as we were driving through downtown Cabo San Lucas, as well as Chula, a vegan cafe located in San Jose del Cabo.


My dad and I got scuba diving certified when I was twelve in preparation for a trip we were taking to Bora-Bora over the summer. We have dived in Cabo multiple times and it is always cool to see the wall and drop-off near Lover’s Rock. It is very pretty over there and there is a lot of sea life to observe. We got to see a mommy stingray with all of her babies, a couple eels, a lobster, and lots and lots of fish. We have used Cabo Dive before and we got to go a little farther away (the weather didn’t allow it this trip) and see some sharks which is always exciting! The dive instructor was super helpful and I remember him from when I was little and he would help me go down because I had ear problems. We love diving with this company and use them just about each time we visit Cabo.


When we were driving from the airport to our hotel, we drove past this furniture shop that looked very bohemian and as my mom and I are in a bohemian everything stage, we agreed that we would have to come back to it. Well we did and they had lots of cute furniture, light fixtures, and even the blankets felt super soft. I fell in love with this hanging light, but I just don’t really have anywhere to put it at the moment, but my mom bought some trays to put in the living room.


I was a little disappointed with the shoppes at the Palmilla, but there was this one store called Sax that had the cutest jewelry and clothes. I fell in love with these earrings (on the left), but didn’t want to drop $90 on them.


La Coyota is a one-stop shop for all of your traditional Mexican pieces, ranging from plates, cups, napkins to day-of-the-dead decorations to clothing and bags. This hotel turned store has items filling rooms downstairs, upstairs, and even outside. Even just looking around was exciting.


I have lots more to explore, but this is all for now!



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