We (my wife, 3 year old daughter, 6 month old son, and I) just completed a five night cash and points stay as plats. I'm trying to keep the hotel related information here and I have a
trip report here.
The hotel and the region were awesome. We flew into Merida and rented a car. The drive was just under an hour and pretty easy. The route is well marked and the directions on the website are great; there is a sign on the highway that says "Hacienda Santa Rosa - 53 km."
We arrived a little after 4 and were greeted by name once we responded that we had a reservation. The checkin process took place on the front veranda where they served some sort of juice and offered me a 10 minute massage, which I declined. They offered a choice of handicrafts as the platinum amenity; we chose a basket with soap and a couple of other things. They told us there were four rooms occupied when we arrived.
We had been upgraded to a large room (number 6) with a nice terrace (the one pictured on their website) with a large outdoor bath. The bath was not full, but they said to let them know and they would fill it. We ended up fillng it our last night. There was also a nice daybed on the terrace. It wasn't totally private, but we never had an issue. Inside the room there were a king and a double bed and a hammock that could hung across the room. Each day they put flower petals on the bed when they made it, and they brought a fresh bouquet in the middle of our stay.
The staff were extremely pleasant and helpful. They held our son during two of our meals so we could eat. We never had an issue communicating.
The restaurant is out on a veranda and seemed to be set up each meal for the number of guests they anticipated. I had written the hotel ahead of time to let them know my wife is vegetarian and they had a unique meal planned for her each night. As an example, one night it was very thinly sliced
potato, banana, a green (chaya?), grilled cheese, and a couple of other things stacked up with a light green cream sauce. She said that dish was amazing. The food was pricey but quite good. My favorites were the salbutes and the cochinita pibil. The stuffed chicken breast was also very good. Breakfast was a la carte and also good. The room service menu was different than the regular menu but we just ordered off the regular menu and they brought it to the room without issue. They mentioned at checkin that dinner started at 7 which is late for us. It turned out not to be an issue except for our last night, when we pushed it a little and asked for the food to be delivered at 7, which they happily did.
The pool and grounds are very nice. We didn't see anyone else in the pool area during our stay. They have a nice botanical garden with extensive guidebooks in English and Spanish. Don't save this until the last minute like we did.
They moved the car somewhere and retrieved it for us whenever we needed it.
The hotel is in the center of a small village. We only visited the part of the village between the hotel and the main road, plus the handicraft shops right behind the hotel. In the village there are a few small markets and one very small place to get food. There was another place selling hamburgers on Sunday but I didn't see it other than that. The place we visited a couple of times is a little red building with a table out front. It is on the right as you are going from the hotel out of the village. They sold us salbutes, panuchos, and bean empanadas for 6 pesos each. We enjoyed them very much and the people running the place were very sweet. We went back two other times to see them just to say hello. The little bit of Spanish I could remember was very helpful there.
At the market nearest the hotel, the sign says a water is 7 pesos, though there was not any water when we were there, only coke. At the hotel, a 600 ml water was 45 pesos and a 1 liter was 90. The markets also have chips and things, including some baked goods sometimes.
It took us 2 hours and 15 minutes to drive to Chichen Itza. Celestun (highly recommended) took close to two hours via Uman and we got lost both directions. There is a larger town called Maxcanu near the hotel. There were plenty of stores there, including a supermarket. There is also a farmer's market of sorts north of the town square, which we unfortunately discovered on our way to the airport. I don't know when it is open but it is definitely worth checking out. There are also several restaurants. The town square has a nice playground. We also visited the temple called Oxkintok which is near Maxcanu. We got there ten minutes before it closed but it was nice. We then went to the caves at Calcehtok which were just a few minutes away. Close to dusk, several hundred bats came out and flew around for a few minutes before going out for the night. It was very fun. The hotel told us they recommend the cenote at Kopoma but we went to one a little further in Chochola since we were heading to Merida anyway. It was also very fun. We did not make it to Uxmal, unfortunately. We had planned to go our last day but the kids seemed to have had enough of the car.
All in all, this was an excellent trip. As I said above, both the hotel and this part of Mexico were awesome. I rarely like to go back to places I have been, but I've already been thinking about making an exception.