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Secrets Los Cabos: The Perfect All-Inclusive Mexican Getaway

Secrets Los Cabos Review: The Adults-Only All-Inclusive Getaway in Mexico

If you’re dreaming of an all-inclusive Mexican escape filled with ocean views, personalized service, and easy access to town—Secrets Resort in Los Cabos should be at the top of your list. Just 35 minutes from the Los Cabos International Airport, Secrets is a luxury adults-only resort ideal for couples, groups, or anyone looking for a relaxing and indulgent getaway.

Easy Arrival & VIP Transport

Your vacation starts the moment you land. We booked our private car transfer ahead of time—seamless pickup, cold champagne on arrival (you can add drinks to your reservation), and a smooth ride to the resort.

Why You Should Upgrade to Preferred Club

Upon arrival, we requested an oceanfront Preferred Club room—highly recommended. Not only did we wake up to panoramic ocean views, but the upgrade also gave us access to:

  • The exclusive Preferred Club Lounge
  • A quieter, more relaxing Preferred Pool with drink service
  • Upgraded amenities in the room

In short: If you’re going to Secrets Los Cabos, Preferred Club is worth it.

What to Pack: Dress Code at Secrets Los Cabos

The dress code is very casual. Around the resort, swimwear, cover-ups, and sundresses were the norm. For dinners and going out into town, I dressed up a little, but it wasn’t required. Here’s everything I packed to give you an idea:

  • Swimsuits + cover-ups
  • Flip flops + 1 pair of dressy sandals
  • Casual sundresses
  • One or two nicer outfits for dinner off the resort
  • Light sweater or wrap for cooler evenings

All-Inclusive Drinks & Dining

The drink options are solid, and the bartenders are happy to make them just the way you like. While there are several restaurants on property, including Italian, French, and seafood, the hibachi restaurant is the only one requiring reservations (available 24 hours in advance for Preferred guests).

Pro tip: If you’re a foodie, take advantage of the resort’s proximity to downtown San José del Cabo. Our favorite off-resort dining experiences were:

  • Flora Farms – a charming farm-to-table experience
  • Omakase – perfect for sushi lovers looking for a curated chef-driven menu

Golf & Adventures

Blake played a round at a nearby Los Cabos golf course and raved about the condition and views. If you’re a golfer, you’ll love this option—there are multiple championship courses within 20–30 minutes.

One of the highlights of our trip? A private sunset yacht cruise with drinks, tacos, and views of the iconic Cabo Arch. It was the perfect way to end the trip and easily the best meal of the week.

Final Thoughts

Whether you’re planning a romantic getaway, girls’ trip, or a relaxing escape with friends, Secrets Los Cabos offers the right blend of all-inclusive luxury, flexibility, and easy access to authentic Mexican experiences.

Holiday Gift Guide For Him

The holidays can be overwhelming with all the gifts to find and buy, so hopefully this gift guide is a little help during this busy season of life. I start my shopping in September/October to try and get it all done. The holiday blog gift guide for him are some items that are not only cozy, but active thoughtful gifts.

I have made it easy to link the items below to zip on over and make your purchases.

Hope this is helpful!

XOXO KT

Augusta’s Strawberry Bundt Cake with Strawberry Cream Cheese Glaze

Chloe’s favorite things at the moment are strawberries and flowers and that’s what she asked for on her cake this year. My mom delivered with this Strawberry Bundt Cake with a Strawberry Cream Cheese Glaze. The cream cheese glaze is nice because it is thick and has a wonderful weight to it where it doesn’t just fall off the cake. If you like cream cheese icing, which is definitely my preference, then you will really love this glaze, it’s gooey deliciousness.

My mom is known for her cakes and she was nice enough to share this recipe with me for you guys, so enjoy!

Bundt Cake Ingredients

  • 3 cups of sugar
  • 2 sticks of softened butter
  • 6 eggs (room temperature)
  • 1 cup of heavy cream
  • 3 cups of Flour sifted
  • 1 tsp of vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp of Strawberry extract
  • 1 cup of chopped strawberries

Bundt Cake Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 300 Degrees
  2. Prepare bundt pan …liberally butter pan with butter and flour so it is ready to go
  3. Combine butter and sugar combine and mix in Kitchen Aide Mixer until smooth
  4. Add eggs one at a time to mixture of sugar and butter in mixer
  5. Once all above ingredients are incorporated alternately add the two following ingredients the cream and flour into the mixing blow with the mixed butter, sugar and eggs
  6. Lastly add the extracts and the strawberries below in the mixer and blend well.
  7. Finally pour into well-greased and floured Bundt pan and place in a 300-degree preheated oven for 90 minutes until done

Strawberry Cream Glaze Ingredients

  • 1 cup of fresh puréed strawberries
  • 2 Cups of powdered sugar
  • 3 Tsps of lemon juice
  • 1 tsp of strawberry extract
  • 1 8 oz package of cream cheese (room temperature)
  • 1 cup of heavy cream

Strawberry Glaze Directions

  1. Place Strawberries, Powdered Sugar, Lemon Juice, & Strawberry Extract ingredients into a saucepan on stove top on low heat, then add the cream cheese and the heavy cream listed below and heat thoroughly until cream cheese is totally melted
  2. Then…use a measure cup Add I TBSP of corn starch or arrow root to a small amount of water to make a slurry then add to mixture and bring to simmer and stir until mixture thickens…You may have to add a bit more slurry mixture if the 1 TBSP with the water slurry is not enough…but remember it takes a little bit of stirring on the heated stove for the thickening to happen.
  3. When cake is done…let it cool and remove from pan.
  4. Once cooled, glaze cake with a spoon letting it drizzle over sides then garnish with pansies and fresh cut strawberries. Keep in fridge.

Including some fun bundt cake pans for the holidays!

It is yummy!

Buying an Investment Property

Blake and I have been talking about purchasing an investment property for a long time. It’s always been an interest to buy a fixer upper that we can make into a short term rental. It’s been a long process, but we ended up picking a property in Fripp Island, South Carolina. Fripp is right off the coast of Beaufort, South Carolina. The best way to describe Beaufort is, it’s a mini Charleston, South Carolina 20 years ago. Beautiful historic town without all the tourists and traffic.

The home that we ended up purchasing was built in the late 70’s and a family had owned it for the entire time. They were able to enjoy it for decades, and we feel lucky to be able to now do the same. I don’t know if you have ever been to Fripp, but it is definitely a special place. If you enjoy nature, riding around on a golf cart, and a laid back vacation on an island, with access to a really cute historic town, this is a great option.

Our goal with this house is to get it up and running as an Airbnb/VRBO by November. In our case we are doing a couple of updates to the property. Blake makes fun of me because I told him we would just “do a few”, and that has turned into new floors, new bathrooms, new kitchen, paint, and a few more things that aren’t as fun to talk about. I mean we are really doing all the things, and I can’t wait to share when we are done.

Choosing a location for our investment property took a lot of time and energy. I want to share some of the factors that helped drive our decision.

Things to consider when buying an investment property at the beach:

  • How often do you plan on personally using it?
    • If you plan on using it often you want to make sure the property is closer to your primary residence and easy to get to.
  • Do you plan on managing the property yourself?
    • Property Management can be a challenge if you live far away from the property.
  • How much do property management companies in the area charge?
    • This can be crippling if you are using the rental as secondary income, make sure you do your homework here.
  • How close is it to the water?
    • Vacationers want to be near the water, or have easy access to it. (ie. golf cart)
  • How much is flood insurance?
    • You want to make sure that all of your costs with the property don’t put you into a deficit if you are trying to turn a property, make sure you understand how much the flood insurance is going to cost.
  • Is there a history of flood/water damage on the property?
    • This is really important so that you can understand what you are up against when you take ownership of the property.
  • Are there activities/restaurants to do things year round?
    • If you are looking at this as a secondary income source you ideally don’t want your home sitting around vacant for half the year. Try to ensure that you will have income at least 70% of the time.

These are the main things we were thinking about when we landed on Fripp Island. The biggest hurdle for us was just getting an understanding of what our monthly output is going to be and using the 70% occupancy rule to understand what our potential ROI could be annually.

If you are in the market, good luck!

How To Take Care Of An Orchid

Orchids are one of those plants that I have struggled with forever. I have never been able to figure out how to keep them alive. I buy one orchid and they live through the first round of flowering and then boom donezo.

Over the last couple of years a few plants later I think I have finally figured it out. I am sharing my steps below.

Orchid Care:

  1. Make sure your Orchid is in bright, but indirect light.
  2. Place in a sink with water for 15 minutes once a week.
  3. Once the Orchid has finished flowering below the last blooming flower (at the node), it should bloom again in about 8-12 weeks.
  4. Repot orchids ever couple of years in bark. Make sure to not pot in soil.

That’s all, how easy is that? Comment if you have any other tips or tricks. I would love to hear them.

XOXO, Katie

How to Host an Oyster Roast

For Blake’s Birthday this year we headed to the Mountains to be with family. We wanted to do something fun for his birthday, and we LOVE oysters so we decided to host an Oyster Roast.

An Oyster Roast is fun because of how interactive you are with guests and it can all be done outside for an easy clean up. I wanted to share everything we purchased for the party and why.

Oysters

Island Creek Oysters are so good and worth the price. I actually found out about them through Living with Landyn. If you don’t follow her, she is always hosting and her and her husband make some pretty amazing dishes so I trust her judgment. 🙂

Table:

Shuckers: These matter! The ones pictured above I do not recommend. They didn’t work, splurging on a shucker is definitely worth it. They need to be sharp, and I am sharing one below that has better reviews.

Runner & Tablecloth: Super happy with how these turned out and I can easily use them again.

Plates: These are incredible, and the main reason is because they look great, but I can toss them when we are done with minimal clean-up.

Bin: Make sure you have something cute to toss the Oysters in. I use the bin above all the time for parties so I wanted to share a similar one below.

Shop the Table

Drinks: Bourbon pairs really well with oysters so of course we made Shoo-Fly Punch as recommended by Southern Living. I put a spin on the recipes, so sharing the details below.

Shoo-Fly Punch Recipe:

Ingredients

  • 5 tablespoons bourbon
  • 2 tablespoons Cointreau
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 3 Packets of Stevia in the Raw
  • ¼ teaspoon orange bitters
  • Crushed ice
  • Nonalcoholic Fever Tree ginger beer, chilled
  • Garnishes: orange slices, fresh mint sprigs

Directions

  • Step 1 Muddle Mint, Stevia, Orange Slices, and Bitters in a cocktail shaker
  • Step 2 Add in bourbon, cointreau, and ice to the muddled mixture
  • Step 3 Shake until shaker is thoroughly cold
  • Step 4 Pour mixture into glass filled with crushed ice
  • Step 5 Top with Ginger Beer, and garnish with orange and sprig of Mint
  • Enjoy Immediately!

Shop the Drink

Tips to Look Fresh

I always admire those that keep themselves looking clean and crisp. From their shirts to their shoes. I don’t know all the tricks, but here are a few I rounded up.

Fresh Shirt

  1. Starch: One of the biggest tricks is to starch that shirt. It makes all clothes look fresh and new, especially after a few washes when things start to droop.

Fresh Suede Shoes

  1. Suede Brush: Regularly brush your shoes to remove dirt on the surface
  2. Fight water stains with water
  3. Clean with 2 parts Vinegar and 1 part Water

Old Navy Children’s Haul

I’ve shared with you guys before my favorite place to get children’s basic clothing is Old Navy! You can’t beat their pricing, selection, and quality. When your kids are constantly playing outside in the mud, who wants to spend a fortune on clothes?

Shop My Picks Here:

Tips & Tricks to a Clean Closet

If you think about it, your closet is really the foundational start to every single day. If you start your day in chaos, then couldn’t that potentially seep into the rest of your day? For me, starting the day, with a clean closet, and knowing where all my stuff is, gets me going in the right direction. There is nothing more frustrating than running around looking for something.

Everything has a place in my closet, and now that I have it set-up correctly, it stays that way.

Prior to organizing my closet, the biggest challenge was the act of simply hanging up clothes, walking them all the way to the laundry room, or putting up shoes. This probably sounds familiar because these are easy patterns to fall into. Especially when we were on the go constantly before Covid.

I truly believe keeping a clean and organized closet is a mindset, and can be made easier by repetitive actions and behaviors. Here are some tips and tricks to a clean closet that I have used.

Steps to a Clean and Organized Closet

  1. Organize your hanging closet into sections
    • Tops, pants, skirts, dresses, jackets
  2. Rainbow each section
    • Just do it, it will be the most satisfying thing you have ever done-well maybe not ever, but trust me it’s worth it
    • Rainbow tip: ROYGBIV (remember this from elementary school?) Use it to color code to the rainbow.
  3. For your Folding Section of sweaters, sweatshirts, shirts use these separators:

4. Organize your shoes using these boxes:

5. Keep a Laundry Basket in your closet or near your closet:

6. Hang up your clothes every time you take them off, don’t let yourself pull out an excuse.

What to Plant in Spring

Early spring is really when you want to start thinking about what you want to plant in your yard. What it really comes down to is what colors pallet or look you are you going for. I usually get excited because seeing flowers pop up because it feels like a fresh start and gives me excitement for what’s to come. While year to year I plant a lot of the same flowers they never seem to look the same.

The main reason is because I love a mixture of perennials and annuals because with perennials you know what’s coming and annuals give everything a different look. If you don’t know perennials tend to come back every year, while annuals, depending on your growing zone, do not come back.

My yard is a mixture of potted plants, flower beds and baskets. I have certain go to plants for each of these that I wanted to share with you guys for some inspiration on where to get started.

Flower Baskets

  • Dusty Miller:
    • Easy to grow and keep year after year in Zone 7
    • Flower in the Summer
  • Petunia’s:
    • Switch them out year after year for different colors
    • Cascade out of baskets
  • Sweet Potato Vine:
    • Cascade out of your basket
    • Beautiful varieties of green and purple (awesome contrast against each other)
  • Hyacinth Bean Vine:
    • These climb up the chain, disguising it
    • Flower all summer & turn into a seed to use for the next year

Potted Plants

  • Begonia:
    • There are so many varieties, but these are annuals unless you bring them inside
  • Sweet potato vine:
    • Awesome selection to have something cascading out of your pot
  • Jade Plant:
    • These are beautiful and if you bring them inside every winter you can actually grow a pretty large tree
  • Veronica Plant:
    • Can put this in a pot or yard
    • Adds height to the pot and a splash of color
  • Mint:
    • Great to have for drinks and cooking
    • Easier to contain in a pot the plant can be very aggressive
    • Smells amazing
  • Basil:
    • Easy to pick and eat if potted
    • Let it flower at the end of the season and pick the seed pods to plant for next year

Yard

  • Roses:
    • Bloom all summer
    • Great for cutting and Flower Arrangements
    • Smell Amazing
  • Gardenia
    • Bloom all summer
    • Smell Amazing
  • Wax Leaf Privet
    • Fast Grower
    • Will make a great privacy wall
    • Flower and have berries
  • Wax Myrtle
    • Super Fast Grower
    • Leaves are evergreen
    • Leaves Smell Amazing
    • Great for Arrangement Fillers
  • Tea Olive
    • Fast Grower
    • Smells Amazing in Spring when blooming
  • Clematis
    • Beautiful Flower for Trellis
  • Cleome
    • Beautiful Flowers
  • Hydrangea:
    • Easy to Cut for Arrangements
    • Beautiful in the garden
    • Comes in Bush, tree, or Climber
  • Butterfly Bush
    • Attracts Beautiful Butterflies & has wonderful flowers all summer

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