Jeffrey Del Favero
Google
Dates Stayed: 5/9- 5/12
Room Type: Tree House
Guests: 2
Value: Medium/low
Hot Take: the tree house experience is not worth it. Stay at another resort and go to eat at Flora Farms.
Property Summary: The resort is a beautiful place with exceptional grounds, a fancy restaurant, and relaxing pool. The tree house is a unique experience with just enough space for 2 people to enjoy. Surrounded by new growth palm trees in the middle of a desert, it's a beautiful setting. It's truly an oasis as the surrounding area around the resort is remote in the hills and surrounded by dumpy and/or unfinished houses. The roads to get to the resort are rough but once you are there, its fine. The hotel guest pool is beautiful (closed at 3 for weddings) which forced all guests to go to the villa owners pool which was surrounded by cabanas and a bar under construction making it noisy and dusty to be around. The villas owners were not pleased by this. Bikes on the property and a couple pickleball courts were a nice addition.
Experience Summary: It's worth noting that the resort is still under construction and has 2 different areas to stay 1) the tree house and 2) the partial ownership villas. They also host weddings. This dramatically negatively impacted our experience. Of the 3 nights we were there, they hosted a wedding on 2 of the nights including rehearsal dinners and the ceremony. The ceremony festivities went past the time they told us they would (10pm) and with the landscape, there was no hiding from the loudness and bass from the DJ. The weddings were also not hotel guests which made the property extra crowded, and our perception was this impacted the resorts willingness to shut the music off or turn it down. We felt as tree house guests, we were the lowest priority on the property (pecking order: weddings (where they make most money), Villa owners (who basically are funding the resort expansion), and then tree house guests). We became friendly with some villa owners who confirmed the tension between them and the hotel over the weddings.
Restaurant Summary: My gosh its expensive, and for no reason. For instance, a glass of Prosecco is $25. The food was not spectacular for the price and the menu had little no Mexican on it at all. They try to get you to purchase their house red wine from Italy. They did bring a small birthday dessert which was nice, but then they charge you $0.01 for it. More on this below.
Other:
- This place is basically like being in California. We nicknamed it Mexifornia. The resort is actually owned by Canadians. You arrive at the resort and are greeted by an American. The resort guests are largely all from California as well. If you are looking for this then its great, but don't expect any kind of authentic Mexican experience.
- In addition to the overpriced restaurant, they are generally very stingy. As a tree house guest, you get a "free" continental breakfast of 1 pastry, 1 coffee, and 1 juice. Thats it. No other type of coffee drink allowed without being charged. An espresso is $8. This is nit-picking but when you say its free, don't charge for it. They actually charge you $0.01 for each meal.
- They don't tell you this up front or give you the option to decline but they charge you an additional fee for room service each day. You don't find out about this until you check out, however.
- There were a lot of rules and restrictions. Pool closes at 3 for weddings, only get this specific thing for "free" for breakfast, can't order guacamole right now and its only available between these times at the pool. Was not relaxing.