summerfrost
Guest
So we have just returned from our first visit to both Las Palomas and Puerto Penasco. Our first thoughts are the same on both, wow is this beautiful and why are not their more people here.
Our next thoughts go to what's the catch. We are from San Diego and that is one of the prime reasons for us never visiting here before, it is a much longer drive than many of our other Mexican destinations and there is no easy/cheap flight to be had, so it was always down on the list. So that explains it for us, but not all the folks from Arizona and such.
The city is much more welcoming that most we have been to in Mexico. We went from one end (Mayan all the way to the Reef), did not get to Chola on this trip, and looked at many things in between. All we found were wonderful inviting an helpful people of all types and backrounds. We also stayed a night on the Mirador at the Baja Hotel for a little different flavor than the resorts.
The only thing that truly dissapointed us was the volume of closed restaurants, closed/abandoned buildings and half finished projects.
That brings me to Las Palomas. What a beautiful, and truly potentially world class facility. The key word is potentially.
The facility while being maintained and spotlessly cleaned, does not appear to being managed well. Many of the amenities are closed even on weekends, and even more are not open at all. On this weekend June 18/19/20 we were suprised to find the kids club closed, towel service not opened, no activities of any type occurring, and only one restaurant (besides the pool bar/restaurant) open part time. The property seemed to have a decent amount of people. I talked to one owner and he has said it was a typical weekend, middling busy, not full or slow. I also noted the "deli/convenience mart" was also open on minimal hours as well. There was little to no staff working the pool area pushing food or drinks and that too was surprising to us first timers.
Do not get me wrong there was plenty of staff cleaning regularly, and seemed like an excess of security monitoring/bugging people about the bracelets (which we were all wearing having rented from the famous/infamous Las Palomas rental pool).
We still were impressed enough with both Rocky Point and Las Palomas to look into buying a vacation property and wanted to try and gather more information on both. We visited a number of other properties including the aforementioned Mayan (most resort like activity of any place visited), a Sonoran property as well as smaller ones just to get a flavor for the service, activity, and atmosphere.
We will be making another trip soon for more personal research, but wanted to get some feedback on our experiences from more seasoned visitors and residents of this beautiful city and it's facilities to help guide us on our decision. We have found very few current blogs or forums besides this one, and that also really surprises us. Seems like in most cases, no one on VRBO will allow a review that is not a 5 star review to even remain posted about this place to give a true picture (which is still really good) to get a honest understanding of the potential. We will see if our stays posted because it will have the good and the not so good about our stay.
We did really enjoy our visit to the Hotel Baja as well, even if the beds were hard, rooms stark, and the place almost empty. The staff were all wonderful, the pool bar fun, the music just loud enough and the prices unbeatable for both the food and the drinks. The Mirador was not as beautiful of sand beach as Sandy Beach, but my daughter had more fun at low tide wandering the tide pools then she did playing in the sand at the resort. So we truly love this place, we just want to learn more.
Not looking for flames or riotous arguements, but we do welcome all comments and opinions especially passionate ones!
Our next thoughts go to what's the catch. We are from San Diego and that is one of the prime reasons for us never visiting here before, it is a much longer drive than many of our other Mexican destinations and there is no easy/cheap flight to be had, so it was always down on the list. So that explains it for us, but not all the folks from Arizona and such.
The city is much more welcoming that most we have been to in Mexico. We went from one end (Mayan all the way to the Reef), did not get to Chola on this trip, and looked at many things in between. All we found were wonderful inviting an helpful people of all types and backrounds. We also stayed a night on the Mirador at the Baja Hotel for a little different flavor than the resorts.
The only thing that truly dissapointed us was the volume of closed restaurants, closed/abandoned buildings and half finished projects.
That brings me to Las Palomas. What a beautiful, and truly potentially world class facility. The key word is potentially.
The facility while being maintained and spotlessly cleaned, does not appear to being managed well. Many of the amenities are closed even on weekends, and even more are not open at all. On this weekend June 18/19/20 we were suprised to find the kids club closed, towel service not opened, no activities of any type occurring, and only one restaurant (besides the pool bar/restaurant) open part time. The property seemed to have a decent amount of people. I talked to one owner and he has said it was a typical weekend, middling busy, not full or slow. I also noted the "deli/convenience mart" was also open on minimal hours as well. There was little to no staff working the pool area pushing food or drinks and that too was surprising to us first timers.
Do not get me wrong there was plenty of staff cleaning regularly, and seemed like an excess of security monitoring/bugging people about the bracelets (which we were all wearing having rented from the famous/infamous Las Palomas rental pool).
We still were impressed enough with both Rocky Point and Las Palomas to look into buying a vacation property and wanted to try and gather more information on both. We visited a number of other properties including the aforementioned Mayan (most resort like activity of any place visited), a Sonoran property as well as smaller ones just to get a flavor for the service, activity, and atmosphere.
We will be making another trip soon for more personal research, but wanted to get some feedback on our experiences from more seasoned visitors and residents of this beautiful city and it's facilities to help guide us on our decision. We have found very few current blogs or forums besides this one, and that also really surprises us. Seems like in most cases, no one on VRBO will allow a review that is not a 5 star review to even remain posted about this place to give a true picture (which is still really good) to get a honest understanding of the potential. We will see if our stays posted because it will have the good and the not so good about our stay.
We did really enjoy our visit to the Hotel Baja as well, even if the beds were hard, rooms stark, and the place almost empty. The staff were all wonderful, the pool bar fun, the music just loud enough and the prices unbeatable for both the food and the drinks. The Mirador was not as beautiful of sand beach as Sandy Beach, but my daughter had more fun at low tide wandering the tide pools then she did playing in the sand at the resort. So we truly love this place, we just want to learn more.
Not looking for flames or riotous arguements, but we do welcome all comments and opinions especially passionate ones!
