I knew I was in the right place somewhere between the first sip of fresh-squeezed orange juice and the first bite of French toast.
Breakfast at Anica became one of those little rituals that quietly defines a trip. We would sit outside in the morning, with the Cabo sun warming the patio just enough, the Pacific air moving gently across the resort, and the kind of view that makes you forget to check your phone. There are places that try very hard to announce themselves as luxury destinations. Grand Solmar Pacific Dunes Golf & Spa does something far better. It lets the setting, the service, the food, and the rhythm of the day do the talking.
And for the record, I had the best French toast of my life at Anica.
That is not a line I write lightly. After years of traveling for Golf Aficionado, I have learned that the best resort experiences are often revealed in small moments. A breakfast table you request more than once. A room that gives you space to breathe. A golf course you want to play again before you have even finished the first round. A property that feels refined without feeling stiff. Grand Solmar Pacific Dunes delivered all of that, and then kept going.
Set on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, Grand Solmar Pacific Dunes feels intentionally removed from the louder, faster version of Cabo most travelers know. This is not the Cabo of crowded marina afternoons and late-night energy, although that version is available when you want it. Pacific Dunes is quieter, more expansive, more restorative. It has the feel of a place built for long mornings, unhurried meals, ocean views, and golf that stays with you long after the scorecard is discarded.
The accommodations matched that mood beautifully. Our room felt five-star in the way that matters most. It had space, comfort, thoughtful appointments, and a sense of calm that made it easy to settle in. Luxury can sometimes be overdesigned to the point of distraction. Here, it felt natural. The room gave us room to spread out, reset, and enjoy the property rather than simply use it as a place to sleep. It was polished, comfortable, and exactly what you hope for when you travel somewhere with the intention of truly getting away.
The all-inclusive dining experience was another highlight. Resort food can be uneven, even at high-end properties, but Grand Solmar Pacific Dunes treated dining as part of the destination rather than a convenience. Anica became our favorite, and not just because of that French toast. The restaurant draws from local ingredients and traditional Mexican flavors, with an alfresco terrace and panoramic ocean views that make breakfast feel less like the start of a day and more like a reason to linger. We dined there several times, and each time we chose to sit outside. In Cabo, that decision hardly requires debate.
The food mattered because it fit the larger personality of the resort. Pacific Dunes is not trying to be everything at once. It knows what it is. It is relaxing, upscale, and spa-like, with enough polish to feel special and enough ease to make you actually relax. That balance is harder to find than most people realize.
Then there is the golf.
Solmar Golf Links
Solmar Golf Links is the kind of course that benefits from a second round. That might be the highest compliment I can give a resort course. Some courses impress you once. Others reveal themselves over time. We played two rounds, and I am glad we did. The first time around, you are taking in the scale of it all: the Pacific Ocean, the dunes, the desert terrain, the cactus, the movement in the land, the way the course seems to sit naturally inside its surroundings. The second time, you begin to understand the architecture. You start to see the preferred angles, the places where the fairways are more generous than they first appear, and the holes where restraint is rewarded just as much as power.
Designed by Greg Norman, Solmar Golf Links is an 18-hole, par-72 championship course that stretches to 7,260 yards. The course sits only about 15 minutes from Cabo San Lucas and is located next to Grand Solmar Pacific Dunes Golf & Spa. Pacific Ocean views from every hole, a ranch-style clubhouse perched above the course, a full-service practice facility, and recognition that includes Audubon International certification, a Golfweek ranking as the No. 16 best course in Mexico and the Caribbean, a LINKS Magazine cover feature, and World Golf Awards recognition as Latin America’s Best Golf Course 2025.
I have played several Greg Norman courses over the years, and Solmar Golf Links is the best Norman design I have had the pleasure to play. What stood out most was not simply the scenery, although the scenery is spectacular. It was the playability. This is a course that understands the resort golfer without pandering to him. It has enough teeth to keep your attention, but it is not punishing for the sake of being difficult. It gives you width where you need it. It asks questions without making you feel like you are taking an exam. It rewards good shots, forgives enough imperfect ones, and keeps you engaged from the opening tee shot to the final putt.
That is a rare combination.
Too often, destination golf courses lean too heavily in one direction. Some are beautiful but forgettable. Some are difficult but exhausting. Some seem designed more for drone photography than for actual golfers. Solmar Golf Links manages to be visually dramatic and genuinely enjoyable. The Pacific is present throughout the round, not as a backdrop you see once or twice, but as a constant companion. The course moves through dunes and desert, with cactus framing holes in a way that reminds you this is unmistakably Baja. The surfaces were excellent, and the routing allowed the round to build naturally.
The amenities on the course elevated the experience even further. The Solmar Golf Links snacks and beverages are included at comfort stations during play. Those details matter because they change the way a round feels. You are not simply moving from tee to green. You are being hosted.
That sense of hospitality is important in Cabo, where golf is often part of a larger travel decision. You are not only choosing a course. You are choosing how you want the day to unfold. At Solmar Golf Links, the day unfolds beautifully. You warm up at a proper practice facility, head into a course that gives you ocean, desert, and dunes in equal measure, stop at comfort stations that feel like part of the experience, and finish with the feeling that you would happily go right back to the first tee.
We did exactly what I would recommend most golfers do here. We played it twice. The first round gave us the wow factor. The second gave us the appreciation. Or as a friend mine would say, “Once to know it, twice to own it!”
One of the interesting advantages of staying with Solmar is that the experience is not limited to one version of Cabo. The brand’s footprint allows guests to move between Pacific Dunes and Grand Solmar Land’s End. That connection gives travelers two very different expressions of Cabo within the same trip.
On our last day, we took the shuttle to Land’s End, which sits closer to downtown Cabo, the marina, local shopping, and the energy many travelers associate with Cabo San Lucas. The contrast was immediate and, honestly, part of the appeal. Land’s End has more movement. More nightlife energy. More of that lively Cabo personality. It is the place you go when you want to be closer to the action.
Pacific Dunes is where you go when you want to exhale.
Both have their place, and I can understand why guests would enjoy having access to both. But for this trip, Pacific Dunes was exactly what I wanted. It gave me the quieter side of Cabo without taking away the option to visit the more energetic side. It gave me golf that was memorable without being punishing. It gave me mornings at Anica that I am still thinking about. It gave me the kind of room that makes a trip feel restorative rather than transactional.
That is what the best golf resorts understand. The course matters, of course. It always will. But the experience around the course matters just as much. The breakfast burrito before the round. The comfort station at the turn. The meal afterward. The view from the terrace. The room waiting when the day is done. The ability to wake up and do it all again.
Grand Solmar Pacific Dunes Golf & Spa gets that formula right.
Cabo has no shortage of beautiful places to stay, and the region has become one of the world’s great golf travel destinations. But there is a difference between a resort that checks the boxes and one that creates a feeling. Pacific Dunes created a feeling. Calm. Spacious. Polished. Comfortable. A little indulgent in all the right ways. It was luxury without noise, golf without frustration, and hospitality without pretense.
By the end of the trip, I found myself thinking less about any single amenity and more about the totality of it. The way breakfast at Anica set the tone for the day. The way the course was even better the second time around. The way the Pacific seemed to be present everywhere, sometimes dramatically, sometimes quietly. The way Pacific Dunes gave us a version of Cabo that felt tailored to the kind of golf traveler I have become. Someone who loves a great course but appreciates even more when the entire experience has been thoughtfully composed.
The Final Score
Grand Solmar Pacific Dunes Golf & Spa is not just a place to play golf in Cabo. It is a place to settle into Cabo. To enjoy the game, the food, the views, the service, and the luxury of having enough time to appreciate all of it.
And yes, I would go back for the French toast alone.