I'm back to provide a trip report as I said I would. Overall, it was a great trip. Los Cabos is such a unique place, like a mountainous desert on the ocean.

Hotel
The Hilton Los Cabos is a very nice hotel. We've stayed at quite a few Hilton beachfront resorts and this was one of the best. It is all open air which works great with the warm, dry location. Even just walking to your room you get beautiful glimpses of scenery. We got upgraded to a Full Oceanview room and the best part was the view. Looking out the sliding glass doors all you could see was a little beach and the ocean. The room itself was nice but pretty standard. Closet and bathroom as you walk in. Bed, dresser, TV, and a little table and chairs further in. I did ask about a refrigerator before arrival and they had one in our room, otherwise it doesn't look like each room has them automatically. The balcony was a great place to sit and watch the ocean.

The main pool was also really nice, an infinity pool which blends with the ocean. The only downside is your still quite a ways up and away from the ocean so you can't really hear it from the pool. The first day we got breakfast, went back to the room to get changed, headed back down to the pool around 9:30 and found only a few chairs were "reserved." I was glad to see that as the whole chair reserving thing is a race to the bottom in my view, but unfortunately it didn't last. The second day all of the good chairs were reserved and we didn't get as good a view even though we were one of the only people down there at first. The third and fourth days we joined the crowd and put towels out before having breakfast. The good news is there seemed to be plenty of chairs available and they came in pairs with an umbrella. The resort seemed to not be at full capacity, but I don't know if they ever have a shortage of chairs. There is also a long line of chairs on the beach all with umbrellas as well. Each section of chairs has an assigned attendant for drinks and ordering from the poolside restaurant. We were mostly too cheap for that but did splurge for some poolside nachos one day.

There is a second pool which they try to make more of a kids area with a kids club, games, a play set, etc. We didn't really spend any time there but it didn't stop many kids and families from being in the main pool area.

Breakfast is excellent, but the charges did irk me. The "free" Diamond breakfast is far from it. As others reported, the continental is free, but the hot breakfast is an extra ~$8 per person. There is also a mandatory $5 tip for the free breakfast. I know all the workers are working for tips and they were all very nice, but it is a buffet. So altogether your free breakfast ends up being ~$21. Where I'm from $21 is about what I would expect to pay all-in for a nice breakfast for 2. Yes, I admit it is really good quality in a resort area, but it still seems a bit laughable for a free breakfast. Just Hilton getting another $20 out of a lifetime Diamond member. We upgraded to the hot breakfast a couple days and just did the continental the other days. It's a little confusing to know what is included in the free breakfast and what is not if you don't upgrade, and hard to resist the temptations. Another negative of the continental breakfast is it lacks savory options, consisting mainly of fruit, pastries, and breads.

There are multiple restaurants in the hotel, but we did not eat at any of them outside of breakfast. They all seemed fairly pricey.

Car Rental
We debated getting a rental car or not, but our thinking was this: Shuttles from the airport to the Hilton are $60-$70 each way. Even a cab I think is $35 each way. For not much more, we could get a car for the airport transfers and then also have it available for anything else we wanted to do. Parking at the Hilton is free.

Here's where things got a little bit difficult. I used our corporate booking tool to rent the car and got a wide range of quotes. Budget came back at $7 per day for a total of $47 including taxes and fees. National was $153 all-in. I booked both since Budget seemed unrealistic. Upon arrival, we got in the Budget shuttle. (Side note: Be careful at the airport. After you get your luggage you go through another room that has shuttle counters and agents all over. They will try to intercept you saying they will get you to your rental car. Keep going. All of the rental car shuttles are outside with workers holding logo signs.) The rental car agencies are all in little buildings along the road leading into the airport. When we got to Budget, the $47 rental turned into $240 to get out the door. Needless to say, I was not pleased and the agent picked up on that. To make things worse, he then tried to pawn me off on some non-Budget guy who was sitting in the building saying he was very trustworthy and could rent us a car for free. The whole thing was very unprofessional and seemed like a scam so I had no interest. Luckily I had my backup reservation at National, but was unsure if they would do the same thing. We decided to try it anyways which meant dragging our luggage through some sand and rocks and crossing the 4 lane airport road to get to the National building on the other side. My wife was not thrilled and just wanted to get a cab. Thankfully I was redeemed when we got there and the rental price was exactly what the reservation said.

We got a nearly brand new Nissan Sentra. Gas was a little more than I expected, about $35 for half a tank when we were done. Gas stations are easy to find and I think they all have attendants.

We liked the freedom of having a car to be able to go wherever whenever we wanted. Driving around Cabo is easy, mainly on the one main road that connects San Jose and Cabo San Lucas. There is a toll road from the airport to either town but it even takes dollars. We stopped at La Comer in San Jose before heading to the Hilton to stock up on cheap drinks and snacks. We also used it to go into Cabo San Lucas a couple times. You can park at the shopping mall which has a cheap garage. My advice would be to park near where the cars enter and walk out to the road. We tried to go through the mall once but it is a windowless labyrinth. Just make sure to have small denominations of pesos to pay.

Restaurants/Food
As I've previously shared, we had the hotel breakfast every morning and then used our snacks from the grocery store as a light lunch. Ok, maybe not so light, we did have bread, ham and cheese. We stopped at La Comer, but there is also a brand new grocery store across the street that looked really nice. Further down on the way to the Hilton we also saw a La Frescada, which looked like a newer version of La Comer. I would highly recommend stocking up at one of these. A Corona or Pacifico at the Hilton is $7, we got a 6 pack for less than that at the store.

Reviews of the restaurants we visited:
Blue Fish Cabo - in a strip mall just a little up the road from the Hilton. It was a good mid-tier place with seating outside.
El Markado - a newly built market just up the road with multiple food vendors inside. It was fine, about what you expect from a nice food court.
Los Tres Gallos - We were in Cabo San Lucas one day and went here. It was very nice but pretty expensive. To make matters worse, I found when we got the bill that we were charged $7 each for a normal sized bottle of water. All seating is outside and it was windy so dress appropriately.
7 Seas - In a small hotel up the road from the Hilton. It's open air with seating looking right out at the beach and water. Also kind of expensive but very good.
Edith's - Was recommended to us and wanted to go there on our last night. Asked the concierge the day before to make a reservation and they only had 5:00 or 9:00 so we passed. The concierge told us it was good but overrated. Take that for what it's worth.

Activities
We went into Cabo San Lucas one afternoon to check it out. Parked at the shopping mall and walked to the beach area. It's a small beach filled with tourists, vendors, and loud places. We paid $12/ea to take a boat ride out to the arch and got a little tour. The driver also dropped our group off at Lover's Beach for a half an hour and came back to pick us up. After that we walked the main beach, had a couple drinks at one of the beach bars, and then went to Los Tres Gallos for dinner. After dinner we walked the main stretch of Cabo San Lucas a little, Lazaro Cardenas, but didn't find much appealing. Souvenir shops and get wasted clubs getting ready for the night. I would highly recommend going into Cabo and at least doing a boat tour. We debated it but were glad we did.

Other than that, we didn't do a whole lot. Hung out at the Hilton pool and beach. Went for a couple beach walks every day. Some vendors set up massage tables if you walk up the beach a bit.

Before we left, we had some concerns about safety but found it to be very safe near the Hilton. Even in Cabo San Lucas we didn't feel unsafe. The worst thing is just people trying to get money out of you. Saying "no, gracias" over and over again seems to do the trick.

Overall, I would definitely recommend Hilton Los Cabos for a high quality 5 night point redemption. It was exactly what we were looking for. A nice beachside Hilton still somewhat easy to get to from the US.