Los Cabos Luxury Resorts Compared

Los Cabos Luxury Resorts Include the Four Seasons, Zadun, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, and others–which one should you choose? Having stayed at three of these resorts over the last few days, here's our experience:

Preferred Partner Inclusions

Zadun tops the list since with STARS benefits, it includes roundtrip airport transfers and provides a $150 resort credit once per stay even for entry level rooms. The Four Seasons Los Cabos, as with all Four Seasons resorts, does offer a $200 resort credit per suite per stay, but regular rooms receive the usual $100 per room per stay credit. The Four Seasons, similar to Zadun, does provide roundtrip airport transfers as a Preferred Partner benefit. The Cape doesn't include roundtrip airport transfers except for its highest priced suites; expect to pay ~$70 each way, or $140 roundtrip, if not more.

Zadun ($150 resort credit + roundtrip airport transfers + daily breakfast, upgrade if available, early check-in and late check-out if available)
Four Seasons (roundtrip airport transfers + FSPP benefits, including $200 for suites, $100 for rooms, daily breakfast, upgrade if available, early check-in and late check-out if available)
The Cape (airport transfers not included; confirmed room to room upgrade except for times forecast to be high occupancy, daily breakfast, a $100 resort credit, early check-in and late check-out if available)

Resort Amenities

If you get easily bored lounging by a swimming pool, we recommend choosing the Four Seasons, which also offers golf, tennis, pickle ball, basketball, a swimmable beach with water sports, a spa, and excursions further afield for snorkeling and hiking. If you want shopping and more restaurant choices, it's true you'd be better off with The Cape, since it's close to Cabo San Lucas, while the Four Seasons is in a more remote area of the East Cape. Zadun is between these: the resort has a larger footprint than The Cape and offers golf, but there's no tennis or basketball, the beach isn't swimmable, and the adults-only pool is smaller than at the Four Seasons. The Cape doesn't have an adults-only pool, no golf, no tennis, and its spa is tiny and dark compared to the offerings at the Four Seasons and Zadun.

Four Seasons
Zadun
The Cape

Beach

In terms of the beach, if it's important to get in the ocean, the Four Seasons is the only viable choice since there can be dangerous rip tides at Zadun, The Cape, and other resorts in that part of Cabo. The Four Seasons Los Cabos also has an enormous, wide beach, which we typically had entirely to ourselves, though the sand is on the coarse side. Zadun and The Cape have much smaller beaches, with a particularly steep drop off at Zadun, so don't even plan on going in the water there. We did see an intrepid soul swimming out to a rock off of The Cape's beach, but it's not recommended, and most content themselves with walking along the beach.

Four Seasons
The Cape
Zadun

Room

We were most impressed by Zadun, where even our entry level Oceanview Plunge Pool, Upper Floor room was over 750 square feet, with a private plunge pool on its private terrace, and beautifully finished with natural stone, wood, and both an indoor bathroom and outdoor stone shower. The Four Seasons was more contemporary in its design, but the splashes of color helped infuse some panache, and we enjoyed lounging on the spacious private terrace, with its comfortable sofa and pleasant breeze. Although we were in a “Villa” at The Cape, one of the residential apartments, we weren't impressed apart from the greater amount of space, which we expected. The apartment was dated and worn, with a stained sink, rusty filter in the dryer, nicks in the furniture, and while functional, it wasn't luxurious.

Zadun
Four Seasons
The Cape

Birthday Amenity + Welcome Amenities

We were belatedly celebrating a birthday, so we got to see how different resorts recognized our special occasion. The chocolate birthday cake at Zadun was fantastic, the best we've enjoyed in recent memory (although we did have an allergy snafu, see below). A “Happy Birthday” sign and balloons were also in the room. There were no other welcome amenities, however. The Four Seasons had a pretty vanilla birthday cake that easily served the three of us, but taste-wise it couldn't compare to Zadun's. There was some fresh watermelon as a welcome amenity. The Cape's was the least impressive, an iced chocolate cupcake with a couple chocolate truffles, and seemed like an afterthought, as it wasn't in the apartment the first day, but only brought on the second evening. The “Villa” came with a tequila welcome amenity that we didn't partake of as neither my husband nor I drink tequila.

Zadun
Four Seasons
The Cape

Attention to Allergy

Because we have a serious allergy in the family, this is something we also were able to compare resort responses to. Only the Four Seasons executed flawlessly on this one; we were at serious risk at both Zadun and The Cape. At the Four Seasons, the F&B Director greeted us personally on our arrival and went over our allergy with us, noting that all F&B outlets had been alerted. It was a much more relaxing stay, having the confidence that we wouldn't encounter the allergen in any of the food we ordered. Unfortunately, at Zadun, the initial birthday cake amenity had the exact allergen we'd alerted the resort to, so it had to be whisked away. A replacement cake was only able to be delivered the following day. At The Cape, there were multiple occasions where we were initially told the allergen wouldn't be in food given to us, but then we were given food with that allergen, or we were given food that could have had that allergen and had some stressful moments while we had to double and triple check with multiple F&B staff and the chef. We can't recommend The Cape for anyone who has a severe allergy given our close calls there.

Four Seasons
Zadun
The Cape

Bed

Both my husband and I appreciate a good mattress. When you spend 7-8 hours each day sleeping and good sleep lays the groundwork for daily productivity, a good night's sleep is essential. We had by far our best sleep at the Four Seasons, which is typically the case given the high quality of the Four Seasons mattress. Zadun was next best, although my husband in particular didn't sleep as well there as at the Four Seasons. The Cape's mattress was the least comfortable.

Four Seasons
Zadun
The Cape

Food Quality

Our best dining was at the Four Seasons, particularly our dinner at Limon, where we enjoyed a fantastic roasted cauliflower dish, excellent roasted red pepper soup with jocoque cheese, and succulent organic pork ribs with chile guajillo puree. We also really enjoyed my husband's french toast dish at breakfast and our son's lobster eggs benedict with chipotle hollandaise. After the Four Seasons, it was a tie between Zadun and The Cape. We enjoyed our dinners at Humo at Zadun and Manta at The Cape, although they weren't quite as good as Limon at the Four Seasons. Breakfast at Zadun was somewhat underwhelming, apart from our son's incredible Torrejas (french toast) with whipped cream, bananas and berries. The Cape had quite good breakfasts, with a choice between the continental fresh fruit and avocado toast buffet (served to you) or menu items, although lunch and dinner items from the regular F&B outlets (apart from the signature restaurant, Manta) were underwhelming.

Four Seasons
Tie between Zadun and The Cape

Service

Service and attention to detail was strongest at the Four Seasons. After our arrival, the driver of our buggy asked if we'd like a tour of the resort en route to our room or if we preferred to go straight to our room. Since we'd had a longish travel day, we appreciate his asking, and asked to be taken straight to our room. Later, my husband had a minor medical issue, and the doctor visited him in our room, free of charge, to take a look and provide advice. At breakfast, because my husband had forgotten his Tevas, he padded into the restaurant in his room slippers. One of the servers politely observed that he seemed to be wearing a size L slipper but might be more comfortable in XL slippers, and offered to get him a pair.

At Zadun, as mentioned, there was less attention to detail with our serious allergy; also, our butler failed to follow through on the four requests we made of him, and we had to follow up ourselves. At The Cape, there was even less attention to our allergy and several close calls. While we had some great service at breakfast from Elizabeth, on other occasions while dining it was as if we'd been forgotten, and it would take multiple requests just to get our water refilled. It was also more trying to communicate with Housekeeping, which didn't really speak English.

Four Seasons
Zadun
The Cape

Spa

Zadun has the most extensive spa facilities, so spa junkies should go there. Just be aware that if you're a more casual user, you'll need to pay for spa treatments to be able to use any of the spa facilities, including the large spa pool. The Four Seasons Los Cabos Spa is smaller, but it's the only spa where you don't have to have booked a treatment to be able to use the hydrotherapy pools, sauna, and changing room. The Cape's Spa is small and dark, so avoid The Cape if a good spa is important to you.

Zadun
Four Seasons
The Cape

Insects

Chances are, unless you're an entomologist, you're less than enthused at encountering bugs or insects while on vacation. We had no insect issues at all at the Four Seasons. At Zadun, there were a couple instances when we noticed fast crawling ant-like bugs on the walls of our room. A large wasp also got into our plunge pool, and since my husband has a deadly allergy to bees and wasps, we quickly exited the plunge pool. At The Cape, our son was bitten multiple times by mosquitoes at night, so that wasn't fun for him.