“a minor respite from the urban jungle- not exactly a diamond in the rough, maybe a pearl.”
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.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
