FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Hacienda San Jose, Yucatan [Master Thread]
Old Jan 20, 2010, 7:20 pm
  #7  
sergeic
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: New York NY
Programs: Hyatt Diamond, SPG Gold
Posts: 139
Arrow Hacienda san jose, Yucatan [master thread]

It was first time in meixco for myself and my girlfriend and we spent 3 nights at this wonderful Hacienda San Jose resort.

First of all, the hotel wasn't easy to find, it was about 3.5 hours drive from the Cancun airport and we don't advise you to drive at night for a few reasons. There is a highway connects you from Cancun to about 2 hours away from the hotel but then everything turns into a local road with 2 ways traffic and it could get quite scary at night. We called and ask the hotel if they could pick us up at the cancun airport and they said for $450 USD, yes.

On the way to the hotel, you must pass through a few local towns and we spent so much time trying to follow the GPS (and we were lucky that we got one, please be sure to have a map and a GPS handy), and the difficult moments come when we pass through the city center and get lost there, directing us to various different towns by 1 street sign and the signs were not exactly visible especially, at night. Also, there were speed bumps everywhere in the city and we got hit a few times too.

The hotel is in the middle of nowhere, which means you must go through these towns and speed bumps every time you drive, and no matter where you drive to.

We check into our hotel at night and I didn't get a good glance of how it looks, but from the lighting, the hotel looks wonderful. We made a trip to the dining room at night and the restaurant has good vibe, we sat outdoor and enjoyed our meal by the fireplace, but the food was so-so.

We booked a Mayan Villa and got a deal at about USD400 a night (compare to 600+ a night) and the room was impressive for its location. The villa is as pictured on the hotel's website. It is modeled after the Mayan construction dating back hundreds years ago and it is really quiet and secluded. The hotel manager is nice and the staff was very helpful.

About the villa itself - the room is very spacious. It comes with this hanging bed (with fresh flower decor on your bed everyday), if you don't have motion sickness, it is definitely fun to try. There is this outdoor pool that we took full advantage of. You are bathing in the wood and the pool is huge, you could fit a family of 4 for sure. Watching the star at night or just listening to the sound of nature is one of the things that we enjoy a lot. The bathroom and the shower is connected by the corridor with water sink and a hallway. I needed to wake up to go to the bathroom and thought the walk was quite a bit, but it was manageable.

The villa is basically in a mini forest/ plantation and there are some buds. There were spiders on the shower floor, it wasn't a big deal but things happen. Likewise for the outdoor pool as well, there were bees, ants and other things, but it is as natural as it could be. If you completely completely can't stand bugs, you shouldn't go there already.

About the food - we ordered room service twice, both for breakfast and we got sick both times. I was told not to drink any unbottled water but still that doesn't help. I think we got some different degree of food poisoning but that wasn't that serious, we didn't go to the hospital.

About the staff -- i have to say the staff are friendly and they are trying to helpful with the hot water situation, killing the bugs, delivering the room service, speaking English and preparing meal and carrying your staff with their bikes.

The resort is really big for its size and the whole resorts have 11 rooms. The staff to guest ratio must be larger, and from a big city person like myself, I know they could do better. But if you really try to feel the village and think about being in the wood, in a fine, decent, clean, safe place - I would still recommend you this hotel even after all this driving and food poisoning. Afterall, you are in Mexico, somewhere in the middle of a few villages.
sergeic is offline