Cabo houses with a hot tub: where to soak

Yes. Hot tubs and jacuzzis sit across our Los Cabos homes, from two-bedroom resort suites to an eleven-bedroom oceanfront block, and we have forty-six places in Los Cabos to draw on. The useful question isn't whether we can find you one. It's which kind you want: a tub on your own terrace with nobody else near it, a jacuzzi built into a balcony that looks straight down the coast, or a villa where the tub is one of several reasons to be there.

That distinction decides more than people expect. A hot tub on a private villa terrace at Quivira is a different thing at eleven at night than a soaking tub in a resort residence where the pools and the restaurants are three minutes' walk away. Below is how the homes actually divide.

The jacuzzi you sit in while looking at Land's End

The 3 Bedroom Suite Villa Del Palmar has an infinity jacuzzi on the terrace with a view of Land's End, and it seats ten people. That is not a two-person tub with a view; it's the reason the terrace exists. Three master bedrooms with king beds, three bathrooms with sunken tubs, and a fourth convertible room behind a retractable door. Eight adults, or six plus two children.

It's a condo, which means the resort does the heavy lifting: daily maid service, a heated pool with a swim-up bar, five on-site hot tubs beyond your own, and Medano Beach close by. Medano is the one beach around Cabo San Lucas you can actually swim at, because it sits inside the protected bay on the Sea of Cortez side rather than facing the Pacific's currents. Water taxis to El Arco leave from the pier there.

Carla, the vacation assistant attached to the property, picks up groceries before you arrive, books restaurants, and can arrange a private chef to cook on the terrace. If you want the hot tub to be the centre of the trip and you'd rather not run a house, start here.

Two bedrooms, Pacific side, and a resort that does the rest

Couples and small groups tend to land on the Grand Solmar pair, and they are genuinely different animals despite the matching name.

• 2BD Solmar Luxury Resort, Ocean View & Pool — two bedrooms, four beds, sleeps eight, three bathrooms. Listed with a hot tub and jacuzzi, an outdoor pool and a community pool, a full kitchen with oven and dishwasher, a dedicated workspace, and free parking. At Grand Solmar Pacific Dunes, north of Cabo, where the resort runs three large pools and a spread of hot tubs, and the Cabo San Lucas Country Club is a couple of miles off.
• 2BD Grand Solmar: Presidential Suite — two bedrooms, sleeps six, three bathrooms, just under 1,900 square feet. Hot tub and jacuzzi listed, big soaking tubs in the bathrooms, a kitchen with proper appliances, a private balcony over the Pacific, and toys in the unit. No pool of its own in the listing; the resort's three pools and its hot tubs are the swimming.

The gap between them is capacity and water. Eight sleep in the Solmar suite and it carries its own outdoor pool; six sleep in the Presidential and the pools are all shared. If you're two couples who want to cook, swim without walking anywhere, and still have a dedicated desk for the one person who has to take a call, the first one does more.

A villa where the hot tub is yours alone

At 4BD Oceanfront Montecristo Estates Villa, inside the gated Quivira community, the hot tub and jacuzzi are on the property along with an outdoor pool and a BBQ area, and the ocean view is unobstructed Pacific. Four bedrooms, seven beds, sleeps ten. It's privately owned rather than part of the resort's timeshare stock, which is why the interiors were recently redone and why it feels like a house instead of a unit.

What you get beyond the walls: access to the Pueblo Bonito resorts, including the adults-only Pacifica, transportation within the resort included, discounted green fees at Quivira's golf course, a concierge desk, and spa service that will come to the villa for a surcharge. The Beach Club facilities are the one thing excluded, reserved for Quivira real-estate owners. Self check-in by keypad, exterior cameras, a cot and travel cot if you have a baby, and an outdoor playground on site.

Cooking happens here. There's a grill, a dishwasher, cooking basics, and enough terrace to eat outside every night. For a family of eight or ten who want the pool and the hot tub to themselves and the golf course over the fence, this is the house to beat.

Fourteen people, a funicular, and a putting green

The 6BD Oceanview Playboy Mansion in Cabo is in Pedregal, above Cabo San Lucas, and it runs to 10,000 square feet across six bedrooms and five and a half baths for up to fourteen. Big pool, jacuzzi, putting green, Kreiss furniture, a funicular between levels, two-car garage, 24-hour security, and a fully staffed house.

The thing that makes it work is the walk. Solmar Beach is a minute from the door, Cannery Beach about ten, and downtown roughly ten minutes on foot, so the group that wants dinner and the marina and the nightlife doesn't need to organise cars every evening. It has also been used as an event venue, with catering for very large numbers, which tells you something about the scale of the terraces. Panoramic Sea of Cortez views from most of them.

Worth saying plainly: this is a party-capable house in a residential neighbourhood with a view of the water, not a quiet retreat. If you're bringing fourteen people and a reason to celebrate, that's the point.

Jacuzzis, plural, and a heated infinity pool

One home goes further than a single tub. Novaispania Governor Beachfront Villa at Quivira has four ensuite bedrooms, two jacuzzis, a large heated infinity pool looking at the Pacific, two outdoor fireplaces plus one indoors, and a terrace with an outdoor grill, kitchen and bar. Viking appliances in the kitchen. Daily service included, transport within the resort included, and that includes the Jack Nicklaus course. Sleeps twelve.

The heated infinity pool matters more in Cabo than people assume. December and January evenings on the Pacific side come with wind, and an unheated pool goes untouched after four in the afternoon while the jacuzzi does all the work. If you're coming over Christmas and New Year's, ask about pool heating before you ask about anything else.

Two other Quivira houses are worth putting beside it. Unique Renovated Montecristo 3 BR Villa at Quivira is one of the few fully renovated villas in Montecristo, privately owned, with a private pool, a hot tub and ocean views, and it sleeps ten across three bedrooms, which is a lot of people for a three-bedroom and exactly what a group of friends splitting a villa wants. And Coronado Luxury at Quivira throws in a six-passenger golf cart with the stay, which in a community built across hillside and fairway is the difference between walking to dinner and not bothering.

Before you book: the three things to settle

Hot tub listings in Los Cabos cover a lot of ground, so when you write to us, tell us which of these you care about and we'll match it rather than guess.

• Private or shared. A tub on your own terrace and a bank of tubs around a resort pool deck are both honest answers to "has a hot tub". Grand Solmar's resort has plenty of the second kind; the Quivira villas are the first kind. We'll confirm which applies to the home you're looking at, and whether it's heated and running during your dates.
• Heads, not bedrooms. Our Los Cabos homes run from six sleepers up to twenty-two at Triple Ocean 11 BR Empire, three condos fused into one at Alvar Quivira with private pools and terraces above the water. Bedroom counts mislead: a three-bedroom villa at Montecristo sleeps ten.
• Where you want to be at seven in the evening. Pedregal and the marina put you in walking distance of dinner. Quivira and the Pacific Dunes side put you behind a gate with the ocean and a golf course, and you'll be driving or taking resort transport to get anywhere else. San José del Cabo, where Casa Pueblo sits, is about half an hour up the coast from Cabo San Lucas and ten or fifteen minutes from Flora Farms, the organic farm in the foothills whose kitchen is now in the Michelin guide.

Every stay comes with a dedicated concierge, and we're a licensed travel agency, so private transport from the airport, a chef for the night you don't want to cook, whale watching in winter, diving and snorkelling, and a table at the places that fill up are all arranged by the same person. Book with us directly and there are no third-party fees. Tell us your dates, your headcount, and whether the tub needs to be yours alone, and we'll come back with the two or three homes that genuinely fit.