I just retruned from 5 glorious days at the Hotel Boca Chica. I arrived early at 8am and was allowed an early check in without incident or upcharge. The staff was helpful and the twice daily maid service was something I didn't expect from a $90/night rate. The hotel has a bunch of really cool retro touches to complement the original decorative concrete block architecture: the old Frigidaire full of ice-cold beer in the lobby, the boomerang coffee tables in the public areas, and the patio furniture. And all the modern conveniences like Hansgroghe rainfall showers, digital A/C controls, flatscreen TVs with iPod ports, awesome soundtrack at the pool, and wireless. My favorite thing to do was take an afternoon nap each day in the hammock strung across my balcony. (The shuttered windows fold away to give unfettered access to the balcony). And the food was a teriffic melding of Asian and Mexican offerings that I did not expect.

Hotel Boca Chica is not located along the tourist beach strip (or up in the hills at Las Brisas, where I usually stay); instead it is adjacent to the most popular local beach in the city and close to the historical center, complete with zocalo and nightly local performances. However, let the hotel staff call you a cab if you venture out a night for your own safety.

The fashionista of Mexico must agree with me the that the pool area and outdoor gym (7 easy steps to the aquarium-like ocean) offer a scenic panorama: there were 5 gorgeous models being photographed there for a fashion spread one afternoon! Sadly, the only area of the hotel I didn't explore was the spa. Next time.

I cannot wait to return for another relaxing and delightful stay.

I was certainly lured by the charm and nice photography of the hotel, the reviews posted on it are all over the place, but here is my take. Know what it is, and what it is isn't. It is retro 1950's Hotel in dense urban environment, it is NOT a secluded all-inclusive resort on a beach which might tailor to Americans and Canadians. My impression is that it caters to Mexican Tourist moreover English speaking ones, but we managed only knowing a little Espanol. When my wife and I were there for five days, we were one of the few English speakers in the whole joint, including some of the staff.

In my opinion the hotel is clean, chique and insect free. I thought the staff was extremely helpful and interested in serving our needs. Like anywhere outside the America's when you want your dining bill you need to ask for 'la Quenta', it's not just going to come on its own, patience is key, everything is 'manana' in Mexico. I found the resturant and bar to have excellent food and service, if you're staying more than a few days you're going to start eating the same things though. Menus were in Spanish, though on our last day one miraculously surfaced in English- huh.

They don't have a beach, but Riccardo is the gateway to exploring water activities. the cove immediately outside the workout room is excellent for snorkling, actually better than what we paid to do away from the hotel. Riccardo can hook you up to snorkel, scuba, ski, rent a boat, kayak, sail, or go fishing. the hotel snorkeling equiment is a little dated and doesn't really work. they chose to be more honest to the retro aspect, and less honest to the practicality of their free equipment. so the snorkleing gear and such is also from the 60's. bring your own if you have it.

What we didn't like about the place... On the water side- it is still surrounded by a dense urban envirnoment which only seems to quiet down between 9pm-9am. directly outside the hotel facing East is a public beach which is usually teaming with families and kids all day long, music blares all day and into the night, if your room faces it, one cannot escape the action. The bar/pool area facing south also plays music all day and evening, a little too loud for me, it will be heard in your room as well, whether you like it or not, and it became quite repetative after a couple of days.

As mentioned in other reviews- the front door facing north of this place is connected to a rather gritty low income urban fabric. My wife and I did venture out almost every day into it and never felt threatened or intimidated. that said, I would not recommend straying too far at night and not eating too much from the street and beach vendors as my wife feel quite ill from doing so- at least no raw vegetables, though cooked food seemed fine. But surprisingly it was not much cheaper to eat outside of the hotel as at the hotel. which makes me say there is value at the hotel.

Overall, I liked the ambiance and vibe of the place. I felt service was good and genuine, resturant has very good and drinks. the pool and water activities were adequate. only drawbacks to me were very isolated location from other interesting activies like safe dining and that equipment for guests was little dated and unuseable. Rooms were clean and very accomodating- we did the Sunset Suite. Showers are not conspicuous, and bathrooms are the bare essentials- no thrills there, but modern fixtures.

The property itself is spectacular, though as mentioned earlier it is in a poor (certainly NOT unsafe) area. You can easily catch a bus or cab to town. We had a great experience for the 10 days that we stayed - very lazy lounging by the pool - but we had issues with the room when we arrived since we were not given the sunset suite that we reserved (corrected), and they were didn't fulfill our reservation with the hotel boat. The worst was the New Years party to 6am that literally consumed the hotel with ear drum breaking music for a few people who were largely the inept manager's freinds. The also neglected to order the cab that we requested so we ended up packed into a VW bug for the 75 minute trip to the airport - with 6 bags. Food is execellent though. I'm glad we when, just know what you are getting into.

We visited this hotel the fist week of January 2011.
Like advertised, newly refurbished in 50's style, and they did a very nice job!

Hotel looks very fresh and crisp with lot of nice details.
Rooms spacious and well designed, we liked the in-the-room shower and the hammock outside. Very clean as well.

The other areas of the hotel are beautiful, the terasses at the restaurant are the place to breakfast, hang out in the afternoon or have dinner!

Food in the restaurant is very good, service very very slow........... Could easily take 20 minutes before you had the attention of a waiter and another 15 for the drinks/food to arrive. This at times when it was not very busy in the area. Defenetely a point that needs some attention!

During the daytime there is limited shadow at the pool area and the deck. Could use some more umbrellas there....

We had a massage at the spa. Staff was very friendly, massage average, location bad. Rooms where they do the massage are beautiful, and it is nice that they can open the windows to allow the breeze to come in. What's wrong then? The rooms are above the place where they do the dishes. So lots of washing-up souns, and talking there. Since there was no music to distract you a bit from all of this, I found this a bit bothersome.

Then the neighbourhood. Boca Chica is close to La Caletta, a very popular (working class) beach. This is no problem at all, fun to watch the scenery. But right behind the hotel you have some cheap hotels and run down houses. There was a lot of waste outside, which didn't smell too nice. Lot's of noise from (street)dogs as well in the evening night.... And because of the traffic it will take you a while to get to the boulevard, nice restaurants (at the las brisas hill) or golfcourses (we went several times to the other side of the bay which took approx. an hour).

So to wrap it up: very nice hotel where the service needs some attention. Location is no problem if you want too stay at the site and enjoy the pool, bay and scenery. If you want to explore some things in the center or to the east, you might want to consider another place.