ME Cabo: The Baja State of Mind

Cabo, tucked away on the Southern tip of Mexico’s picturesque Baja California peninsula, is a long-time resort hot spot for Americans and vacation-lovers alike. The four letters, when strung together, paint a picture of leisure and luxury; a quintessential adult playground with jet skis, super yachts, table-dancing beach clubs, and spicy margaritas. 

 

For the four-day stint, my home-away-from-home was ME Cabo, a ME by Melia property located a stone’s throw away from the fabulous Playa El Medano, Cabo’s only swimmable beach. The 170-room hotel reopened its doors back in 2021 with a completely new look that captures the essence of Mexican design, the work of designer Alvaro Sans. 

 

There’s a subtle European Summer feel here—a pinch of Ibiza, a splash of Capri, a sprinkle of Mykonos—which can be traced back to the hotel group’s Spanish origins, a perfect balance between coastal Mexican charm and the brand’s effortless Mediterranean sophistication. House music is bumping, faintly reverberating from the human-size speakers that border one of two pools, forming a trance-like layer of white noise. Salt-spray swirls in the air, the presence of it enough to achieve the highly sought-after beach curl. One humble sip of a well-shaken mezcal margarita from the lobby bar and holiday mode is officially activated. 

 

ME Cabo is big enough to keep your curiosity appeased, but small enough to maintain that wholesome, boutique feel. Partnering with Grupo Rosa Negra, the hotel developed four elevated culinary experiences, including a tapas rooftop bar and lounge, an open-air Mexican bistro, an Asian-fusion sushi jaunt on the sand, and a quintessential Mediterranean Beach Club.

 

I unpacked my capsule wardrobe into the semi-open walk-in. Dresses screaming vacation dangled off wooden hangers, shoes—sandals, heels, and flats—lined up on the tile below, forming an impenetrable shoe wall. Off my room, there’s a private balcony with double frontage that wraps around the bedroom and living room. There’s an air of grandeur felt while standing there. The mere beauty is packaged neatly into a picture-perfect view that quite literally takes your breath away. Your eyes zero in on the varying shades of blue beaming out in front of you; from the baby-blue sky to the deep azure sea to the turquoise-headed pool, all three backdropped by the famous El Arco, a postcard-like image synonymous with Cabo. 

 

A self-proclaimed beach-addict, I clocked the most hours at the hotel’s Tamara Beach club, conveniently positioned front-and-center to the swarms of tourists, live beach entertainment, and local vendors selling everything from hand-crafted beach bags to temporary henna tattoos. It’s a people-watcher’s fantasy, and here, while parked up on my lounge chair, I’m happy to own the title of Chief People Watcher. To the left of Tamara, there’s a pale-yellow wooden shack with the word “coconut” faintly written across the wood panels. Underneath the raffia palm roof, a man in a white long-sleeve rash guard smacks down at the hard shell with a sharp, curved knife to reveal the fresh nectar of a coconut. Tamara is full-service, full-luxury, with high-energy servers happy to help you satiate your hunger and quench your thirst.

 

Double-bed-sized cushioned lounges lie diagonally across uneven sand. Next to them are rows of lounge chairs, arranged in twos, with a beach umbrella to match. Delicately secured to the ceiling are Tulum-esque beach swings that double as photo-ops for the slew of amateur influencers. Shamelessly, my no. 1 source of hydration proved to be the watermelon margarita, complete with a splash of everyone’s favorite summer aperitivo, Aperol. Served in a hollowed watermelon half delicately perched atop a gleaming metal martini glass, the cocktail was anything but shy, a theatrical creation that tasted just as impressive as it looked. 

 

Jumping straight into the action, my first evening at ME Cabo was spent sitting amongst a sea of chic fashion folk in the audience of Fashion Talks Vol. IV, a panel series programmed by Vogue Mexico. For this iteration, Mexican designers Sandra Weil and Bala Di Gala came together to host a bold conversation on Latin design sensibility and unapologetic creativity, amongst a generous offering of tequila, and Cabo’s finest sushi, from the kitchen of Funky Geisha. 

 

Lunch, manifested daily in the form of elaborate seafood spreads, with bowls of fresh ceviche and plates of grilled octopus tacos, was enjoyed on prime beach real estate, a mere 30 meters from the waves breaking on the shore. When I wasn’t stuffing my face with raw fish, you could find me parked up at the ME Cabo’s very own KORPO spa, a wellness experience designed to treat all five senses. 

 

The tranquil oasis was a generous feast of indulgence. To kick off my wellness journey, I started with a lukewarm plunge in the spa’s outdoor hot tub, located in an intimate courtyard that housed lounge chairs, a temazcal sweat lodge, and a waterfall feature that doubled as a cold plunge. In the tub, I was offered a platter of green apple dipped in Tajin, the crispness and spiciness proving to be an interesting combination for the tastebuds. To wrap up my shift at the spa, I spent an obligatory 60 minutes face down on the receiving end of a luxe deep tissue massage that left me leaving the room feeling like a newborn baby taking its very first breath. 

 

Cabo has a way of slowing time, stretching moments into memories. There’s a contagious ease in the air, a sort of Baja state of mind only accessible while visiting this magical stretch of peninsula. ME Cabo is the salt on your skin, the house music melting into waves, and the lingering smokiness of mezcal as you toast to another day. If vacation is a state of mind, then ME Cabo is the blueprint. 

---

Book your stay at ME Cabo, and soon enough, you’ll be basking in the sparkling sunlight as you let the chaos of work life slowly dissipate.