Hotel del Dique

After one night I had bites all over, and a doctor in Salta confirmed they were bed bug bites. I'm adding that after finding out. The rooms were bad and ancient, and the staff seemed apathetic. The plumbing was surprisingly great, with water pressure like I haven't seen since Russia. They also have beautiful birds and a fox, which was awesome and playful. Half the amenities were underwater, lol.

The gentleman at the restaurant was extremely friendly and helpful, which is the reason I'm giving this two stars instead of one. The hotel seems to rely on its location near the lake, and probably had its best years 20 years ago. Everything is old, damaged, or worn out. Breakfast was very limited, with no eggs, or at least none offered to us. The mini golf course was overgrown and unusable, and the pool and towels were dirty. In our room the only socket near the bed was coming out of the wall, which felt dangerous, and the door stuck. On our last day the key card stopped working. They also wanted to charge us the 21% VAT as foreigners when paying with Mastercard, which isn't correct. The price and quality just don't match.

We only stopped for the restaurant and didn't sleep here. Our waiter Franco took great care of my family, and the view was beautiful. The trout was fresh from the lake, served with lemon caper butter sauce. The food and service were excellent, well worth the detour from Salta to Cafayate.

The room was still comfortable, with a good bed, and breakfast was very good. The view over the pool, lake, and gardens is lovely. But there were so many mosquitos that it was hard to enjoy the pool. The room seemed like it must have been great once, though now the curtains were dirty and the walls had dirty spots from squashed mosquitos. It felt a bit run down.