Where to Stay

Las Ventanas vs One&Only Palmilla: Which One I'd Book

By Cabo Wander

Las Ventanas vs One&Only Palmilla is the question I get from friends who've already settled on the San José end of the Corridor and a four-figure room. They're the two classic names in Los Cabos, they sit about five miles apart on the same highway, and in winter they cost close to the same.

For a couple, I'd book Las Ventanas. It has the best service in Los Cabos, the stronger restaurants and a much bigger entry-level room. What flips it is the ocean. You can't swim at Las Ventanas, and Palmilla has two sandy coves with the calmest hotel swimming on the whole Corridor. So if getting in the sea matters to you, or you're bringing small kids, or you want dinner in San José to be a ten-minute ride, I'd book Palmilla.

That's the same order I landed on in my ranking of the best luxury resorts in Cabo, where Las Ventanas is third and Palmilla is fifth. This post is just these two, head to head, so you can see where each one wins.

The Quick Version

Book Las Ventanas if you're a couple, it's a honeymoon or an anniversary, being looked after is the whole point, and a pool is all the water you need.

Book One&Only Palmilla if you want to swim in the ocean from your hotel, you have kids (especially little ones), you golf, or you plan to eat in San José more than once.

The Beach, and Whether You Can Swim

This is the biggest difference between the two, and Palmilla wins it easily.

Palmilla sits on a point with a sandy cove on each side, sheltered by the headland. It's the calmest hotel swimming on the Corridor, flat enough that it's where I'd bring a toddler, with an adult right alongside. The paddleboards are free and there are life vests for kids. The public beach is right next door, and it's number two on my list of the best swimmable beaches in Cabo.

The beach at Las Ventanas is wide and beautiful, and it's for looking at. Like most of this coast it's open, steep and south-facing, and the water isn't safe to get into. Guests who want an ocean swim walk down the sand to the small cove behind the breakwater in front of the Hilton, a hotel that costs a fraction as much. It works, and mornings are the calm time to do it. I still think it's a funny errand to run from one of the most expensive hotels in Mexico.

Palmilla's coves do face south, so a summer or fall swell can put a red flag up there too, and September is the worst month for it. And from February to April the water is cold, around 71°F. The best swimming of the year is late October and November, when it's about 80°F and the swells have settled. I've got the month-by-month version in the best time to visit Cabo.

If the swim is your top priority, it's worth knowing how short the list is. Only a handful of hotels here sit on water you can use, and I've rounded them up in the best Cabo resorts with swimmable beaches.

Winner: Palmilla, and it isn't close.

Rooms, and Which Category to Book

Las Ventanas wins on rooms, mostly on size.

Las Ventanas has about 80 suites and villas. Palmilla has about 170 rooms, so it's roughly twice the hotel.

The entry-level room at Las Ventanas is a junior suite of close to a thousand square feet, with a big patio on top of that. The entry-level room at Palmilla is around 500 square feet, which makes it the smallest starting room among the top luxury hotels here. In Palmilla's favor, every room has an ocean view and a terrace, whatever you book. You don't get a bathtub there until you move up to a junior suite.

Neither one gives you a plunge pool or a hot tub at the entry level, which surprises people at these rates. And neither one is the freshest room in Los Cabos anymore. Some of Palmilla's rooms and fixtures are showing their age, and the junior suites at Las Ventanas have newer competition up and down the highway. So I'd call the "which is newer" question a draw and decide on space.

Here's what I'd book at each:

• Las Ventanas: the junior suite with a rooftop terrace. It's the upgrade I'd pay for. If money is no object, the villas come with their own infinity pool and a villa host.
• One&Only Palmilla: a junior suite. I'd skip the entry-level room for a stay of more than a night or two.

If you're traveling with teenagers, know that at Las Ventanas kids under 16 aren't allowed in the oceanfront junior suites.

Winner: Las Ventanas.

Pools

Las Ventanas has a LOT of pools, and it needs them, because they're standing in for the ocean. There are eight pool areas, with a lazy river and swim-up bars, and one of them is adults only. For plenty of couples that's all the water they want.

Palmilla keeps it simpler. There's a family infinity pool with a gelato cart, which is about as good as a family pool gets, and an adults-only pool with a swim-up bar.

Neither hotel publishes a minimum age for its adult pool that I could find, so if a kid-free pool is why you're paying up, get the number in writing. And loungers are free at Las Ventanas, but a cabana is a few hundred dollars a day before tax and service.

Winner: Las Ventanas.

Service and Butlers

This is the reason to book Las Ventanas, and I don't think any hotel in Los Cabos matches it. Every room gets a personal butler, whatever category you're in, and the whole place is built around getting to things before you ask. It even has a Romance Department, which tells you who the hotel is for.

Palmilla has butlers too. You reach yours by WhatsApp, and at the lower room categories that butler is shared between rooms. The service there is warm and good. It's just less consistent than at Las Ventanas, and at this price I think that's a fair thing to weigh.

At either hotel, read your final bill at the desk before you leave, because a mistake is a lot easier to fix in the lobby than from home. And look at the check before you add a tip. A service charge of around 15% is already on everything, and nobody will tell you that you have to add more.

Winner: Las Ventanas.

Food

Las Ventanas has the best set of hotel restaurants in Los Cabos. Árbol is the headliner, and there's also Alebrije, the Sea Grill, La Cava and a tequila and ceviche bar. It's priced to match. A light dinner for two, an appetizer to share and a fish, can come to well over US$200.

Palmilla's food is good, and I'd stop short of great. Agua is the main restaurant, Seared is the steakhouse, and Breeze and Lucille's café cover the casual end. The prices are in the same league as Las Ventanas (the tableside guacamole is US$35) without quite the same payoff.

Breakfast is often included in Palmilla's rate, which helps even this up, so check whether it's in yours. And Palmilla is five minutes from Carbón Cabrón and ten from San José's plaza, so you can fix a so-so hotel dinner with a short ride. From Las Ventanas, eating out is more of a production, which is fine because you'll want to eat in. My picks for the nights you do go out are in the best restaurants in Cabo.

Winner: Las Ventanas, unless you plan to eat out most nights.

Couples or Families?

These two sort themselves pretty neatly here.

Las Ventanas is a couples' hotel. With under-16s kept out of the oceanfront junior suites, a family is looking at a villa. For a honeymoon or an anniversary where being taken care of is the point, it's my first pick in Los Cabos, and I compare it with the other romantic ones in the best Cabo honeymoon resorts.

Palmilla is the family hotel of the two. The kids' club doesn't cost extra, the family pool has that gelato cart, and the coves are flat and sandy with life vests on hand. If your kids are tiny and soft sand and calm water matter most, I'd put it ahead of almost anywhere. There's more on that in the best family resorts in Cabo.

Don't write Palmilla off as a couple, though. It has the adults-only pool, and if the two of you want to swim in the sea, it's the only one of these two where you can.

Winner: Las Ventanas for couples, Palmilla for families.

What It Costs All In

Okay, now the part the booking page leaves out.

The quoted rate for an entry-level room starts around US$1,200 a night at Las Ventanas and US$900 at Palmilla in late summer. In winter it's US$2,000 to $2,900 at Las Ventanas and US$1,700 to $2,800 at Palmilla. Then tax and the service charge add about a third to the room at both.

So here are my rough estimates for two people, per night, with tax and fees already in. They swing a lot by season, so treat them as a guide.

• Las Ventanas, the room: about US$1,600 in late summer, US$2,700 to $3,900 in winter
• One&Only Palmilla, the room: about US$1,200 in late summer, US$2,300 to $3,800 in winter
• A day of eating and drinking on property, at either one: US$450 to $700

Add those together and most of the year you're somewhere in the US$2,000 to $3,500 a night range, with Las Ventanas going past that in the peak winter weeks. If breakfast is in your Palmilla rate, take US$35 to $50 a person off the food number.

In winter the two hotels cost about the same, so I wouldn't let price pick for you. Palmilla is a few hundred dollars cheaper in late summer, and that happens to be when a swell is most likely to close its coves.

There's also an environmental fee of four or five dollars a night per room, and a state visitor fee of about US$25 a person that you pay online. A private car from the airport to either hotel is about US$75 to $95, and the arrival is covered in my Cabo airport guide. Las Ventanas also has minimum stays over Christmas and New Year's, so ask before you get attached to dates.

Winner: Palmilla by a little in the low season. In winter it's a tie.

Getting Into San José

Palmilla wins this one on the map. It's about ten minutes from San José's plaza and 20 to 30 from the airport, and a supermarket and a pharmacy are about five minutes away. It's the easiest hotel on the Corridor to live in.

Las Ventanas carries a San José del Cabo address and is about 20 minutes from the plaza, a little more in the evening traffic. There's nothing outside its gate. A taxi from that part of the highway runs about US$25 to $50 each way, and it's less from Palmilla since you're already at the San José end. Uber is roughly half the taxi fare. Ask either hotel how pickups work before you count on it, because at a lot of Corridor resorts the car waits at the gate. I compare all the options in getting around Cabo.

How much that matters depends on how many dinners out you're planning. San José has the best walkable restaurants in Los Cabos and a gallery walk on Thursday evenings from November through June. From Palmilla I'd happily go in two or three times in a week. From Las Ventanas I'd go once, and I lay out that one evening in my San José del Cabo guide.

The flip side is Cabo San Lucas. It's 25 to 30 minutes from Las Ventanas and 30 to 40 from Palmilla, longer in traffic, so the Arch and the boats are a real outing from either. The whole highway, kilometer by kilometer, is in my Tourist Corridor guide.

Winner: Palmilla.

What Each One Is Known For

Las Ventanas built its name on service and romance, and I think that reputation still describes the hotel you'd check into. What the reputation leaves out is the beach. If you book it picturing a morning swim in the sea, you'll be at the pool.

Palmilla is the name everybody knows. For a long time it was the automatic answer to "what's the best resort in Cabo", and the rooms and restaurants used to lead the field. I don't think they do anymore. What you're paying a famous-name rate for now is the coves and the location, and both are still the best of their kind.

Palmilla is also the golf one. It has 27 holes, and two of the three nines are reserved for club members and guests of the hotel. I wouldn't count on the third as a visitor either, so a room here is the dependable way onto that course. Confirm your access and the fee when you book. Las Ventanas is in Cabo Real, which has the one course on the Corridor that a visitor can simply book, so you don't need its room key to play there.

Winner: Las Ventanas, because its reputation still matches the hotel.

The Verdict

If you made me pick one for a couple, I'd book Las Ventanas. The service, the food and the size of the room all go its way, and those are the things you feel every hour of the stay. I'd do it knowing the ocean is scenery.

For a family, or for anyone who'd be sad about a week on the coast without a swim in the sea, I'd book Palmilla and move up to a junior suite. You give up some polish and get the two things Las Ventanas can't offer at any price, which are the coves and San José ten minutes away.

And if you read all that and thought "I want the swim AND a fresher room", neither of these is your hotel. The two I'd look at are both a little farther west, and I put them head to head in Montage vs Chileno Bay.

And here's how I'd text it to a friend: Las Ventanas if it's just the two of you and you want to be spoiled, rooftop terrace suite, swim in the pool. Palmilla if you've got kids or you need the ocean, junior suite, dinner in San José. Same money in winter, so pick by the beach. Add a third to whatever rate you see.

Quick Answers

Which is better, Las Ventanas or One&Only Palmilla? Las Ventanas for couples who want the best service and food in Los Cabos and are happy with a pool. Palmilla for families and for anyone who wants to swim in the ocean or be close to San José.

Can you swim in the ocean at Las Ventanas? No. The beach is for walking and looking at, and guests who want a sea swim walk down the sand to the breakwater cove in front of the Hilton.

Can you swim at One&Only Palmilla? Yes, at two sandy coves that are the calmest hotel swimming on the Corridor. A summer or fall swell can still close them for a day or more, and the water is cold from February to April.

Which one is better for a honeymoon? Las Ventanas, in a junior suite with a rooftop terrace. I'd only switch to Palmilla if swimming in the sea is a big part of the trip for you.

Which one is cheaper? Palmilla, by a few hundred dollars a night in late summer. In winter the two cost about the same, and both add about a third in tax and service on top of the quoted rate.