I’ve been lucky to stay at many hotels in Los Cabos and officially visited far more — over 100 in total during the years when I wrote hotel reviews for Fodor’s and Forbes Travel Guide and ranked hotels and restaurants for the USA Today travel site 10 Best.
Most of those I visited were amazing. Los Cabos fully deserves its reputation as a great hotel and resort destination. It’s an increasingly expensive one — over $500 per night, on average — but the accommodations, amenities, and service are consistently spectacular.
However, rather than simply share my own opinions, I also wanted to see what the top raters in the field — companies like AAA, Mobil (now Forbes Travel Guide), and Michelin have been doing ratings for decades — think are the best Los Cabos lodgings currently and compare their opinions with those from some of the over four million people who visit annually (represented via Trip Advisor’s Travelers’ Choice Awards Best of the Best rankings).
Not surprisingly, the two groups weren’t always in agreement. I say not surprisingly because the experts generally judge quality only, not based on value relative to the rates.
AAA Five Diamond Awards
The American Automobile Association (AAA) has one of the longest-running rating systems for lodgings, dating back to 1976. Like the star system initiated by Mobil (more on this later), the AAA diamond system has well-defined criteria for earning each diamond. One diamond represents “budget-oriented, offering basic comfort and hospitality.” Meanwhile, fived diamond-designated properties showcase “ultimate luxury, sophistication, and comfort with extraordinary physical attributes, meticulous personalized service, extensive amenities, and impeccable standard excellence.”
Nine Los Hotel hotels and resorts earned five diamond status for 2025:
- Four Seasons Resort & Residences Los Cabos at Costa Palmas
- Grand Velas Los Cabos
- Grand Velas Boutique Hotel Los Cabos
- Las Ventanas al Paraíso, A Rosewood Resort
- Le Blanc Spa Resort Los Cabos
- Montage Los Cabos
- One&Only Palmilla
- Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal
- Zadún, A Ritz-Carlton Reserve
My Opinion: This is a superb list. Las Ventanas al Paraíso has the most seniority, having been on the list since 2002. That’s appropriate as it was the first true luxury resort in Los Cabos when it opened in 1997. Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal also merits a note, as I believe it has the best service of any accommodation in Los Cabos or La Paz. That’s not just a function of the Waldorf Astoria name either. I thought the same thing when it opened as Capella Pedregal in 2009 and during the period when it operated independently as The Resort at Pedregal.
Forbes Travel Guide
Mobil Travel Guide invented the five-star rating system (yes, really) in 1958, and has continued since becoming Forbes Travel Guide in 2005. Its ratings are based on up to 900 criteria and have been applied only to what they judge to be the world’s best hotels, restaurants, and spas, a list that includes 2,100 properties in 90 countries.
Here’s a list of the outlet’s four and five-star-rated properties in Los Cabos for 2025.
Four Stars
- The Cape, A Thompson Hotel
- Grand Velas Los Cabos
- Grand Velas Boutique Hotel Los Cabos
- Hilton Los Cabos Beach & Golf Resort
- Le Blanc Spa Resort Los Cabos
- ME Cabo
- Nobu Hotel Los Cabos
- Solaz, A Luxury Collection Resort
Five Stars
- Chileno Bay Resort & Residences, Auberge Resorts Collection
- Esperanza, Auberge Resorts Collection
- Las Ventanas al Paraíso, A Rosewood Resort
- Montage Los Cabos
- One&Only Palmilla
- Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal
- Zadún, A Ritz-Carlton Reserve
My Opinion: This is another fantastic list. I was happy to see Hilton Los Cabos awarded four stars, as this is one of the most underrated properties in the area, with excellent onsite restaurants and spa services. Esperanza is another favorite and it deserves its five-star rating. Its spa is as good as it gets in Los Cabos and the signature restaurant, Cocina del Mar, is a wow-factor dining destination of the highest order.
Michelin Guide
Famed for their restaurant reviews, which for the first time included a Michelin-star restaurant in Los Cabos and many other recommended dining spots locally in 2024. However, the French tire company, it should be noted, also recommends hotels. How does a property qualify? “Style and service. Personality and reliability. Culture, comfort, and a consistently extraordinary experience — this is what makes a Michelin Guide hotel.”
Fourteen have been selected to represent this ideal in Los Cabos:
- The Cape, A Thompson Hotel
- Chileno Bay Resort & Residences, Auberge Resorts Collection
- Esperanza, Auberge Resorts Collection
- Garza Blanca Los Cabos
- Hotel El Ganzo
- ME Cabo
- Montage Los Cabos
- Nobu Hotel Los Cabos
- Las Ventanas al Paraíso, A Rosewood Resort
- One&Only Palmilla
- Solaz, A Luxury Collection Resort
- Viceroy Los Cabos
- Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal
- Zoëtry Casa del Mar
My Opinion: So, for those keeping score at home, only four resorts made the lists for AAA Five Diamond, Forbes Travel Guide’s Five Star, and Michelin Guide:
- Las Ventanas al Paraíso, A Rosewood Resort
- Montage Los Cabos
- One&Only Palmilla
- Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal
If you therefore want to anoint these as the best properties in Los Cabos, I’d say that’s probably accurate.
TripAdvisor
As expected, Trip Advisor’s Travelers’ Choice Awards Best of the Best has at least one new entry, since it accounts not just for qualitative criteria, but the hotels and resorts that have received the greatest quality and quantity of reviews. According to Trip Advisor, this category represents the top 1% of accommodation options, chosen by those who have stayed there.
Here’s the current top five for Los Cabos:
- Marquis Los Cabos
- Grand Velas Los Cabos
- Le Blanc Spa Resort Los Cabos
- Esperanza, Auberge Resorts Collection
- Nobu Hotel Los Cabos
My Opinion: These are all great properties. Notably, the top three are all-inclusive.
Green Key International
Green Key International rates hotels not only on service and amenities but also on criteria related to environmental sustainability. For travelers who value this kind of responsible approach, this is a significant imprimatur. Interestingly, the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) oversees these ratings — the same group that rates Blue Flag Beaches.
In Los Cabos, three properties currently have Green Key status:
- The Cape, A Thompson Hotel
- Solaz, A Luxury Collection Resort
- Zadún, A Ritz-Carlton Reserve
My Opinion: All three are outstanding hotels by any standard and I like that one of these standards is sustainability.
Chris Sands is the Cabo San Lucas local expert for the USA Today travel website 10 Best, writer of Fodor’s Los Cabos travel guidebook and a contributor to numerous websites and publications, including Tasting Table, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Forbes Travel Guide, Porthole Cruise, Cabo Living and Mexico News Daily. His specialty is travel-related content and lifestyle features focused on food, wine and golf.
