Bona Vida Hostel la Quinta

I came hoping to rest after three days in the La Guajira desert and ended up wishing I'd gone straight to Palomino. Getting settled was frustrating: although I was the second person in the dorm, I was assigned an upper bunk and told no when I asked to move downstairs so packing would be easier. The receptionist also said the AC wouldn't go on until 8 pm, even though it was 7:50. It seemed like he could have sorted that out in ten minutes, just as he could have changed my bed. The shower was another problem. It has an automatic light that switches off if you don't move every ten seconds, so after three days in the desert I had to keep moving around just to shower without being left in the dark. My fan didn't work, and my upper bunk was farthest from the dorm's shared AC. I had a terrible night. People started talking at 7 am and left the dorm door open while others were trying to sleep. On top of that, the hostel's luggage room is inside the dorm, so other guests and the receptionist kept walking through. What disappointing service. Don't plan to rest here.

The location worked well, about three blocks from the beach and main street, and I enjoyed the pool despite its small size and some pieces coming apart. One of the few attentive staff members was the female janitor, who even brought me coffee. Thank you for that. The bigger problem was customer service. Our room faced the pool, so it got loud during the day and evening. When we asked to move, they wanted to charge us extra even though the other room cost less than the one we'd booked. At breakfast, the attendant made an order mistake, then took the fruit away after serving it and realizing the error. I'd never seen staff remove food from a table when we hadn't done anything wrong. Breakfast was the same every day, with no variety, and got old after a few days. Laundry was expensive, and one of our towels came back with blue spots, which made it seem like they hadn't checked what was in the washer. Overall, a disappointing stay with poor customer service.

We meant to stay one night and ended up staying four because it was so pleasant. The place is lovely in a town where there's not much to do. Breakfast is included and good, as is the coffee. I enjoyed sitting by the window with a book, coffee, and a cat or dog to pet. Rooms are clean and comfortable, with everything we needed, and the staff are very helpful. They also have lots of useful price information and directions for getting around Guajira, more reliable than Google or Lonely Planet. There are discounts at a few nice restaurants in town too. Highly recommend.

The clean, comfortable dorm had air conditioning, and Bona Vida arranged an amazing tour of La Guajira. I had an incredible time here.