Hotel Real de Chapala

After 18 months in the city, we arrived and immediately felt ourselves unwind. This mountain retreat in Mexico is more relaxing than the beach, without the sand. The rooms are huge and clean, with good ventilation. I'd recommend staying a few days to leave city stress behind. Ask for a lakeside room for the best experience. The garden view is lush and green, but doesn't feel as much like a resort as the lake view.

Our room was burglarized while my husband and I were out for the day, and I'm missing more than $2,200 worth of merchandise. The hotel said the cameras showed nothing. They had me write a statement and said their investigation protocol takes two days, but now they aren't answering my calls or emails. I believe everyone was involved, from housekeeping to the hotel director. There was no safe in the room. Stay away!

The bed was excellent, and the very large room had slightly dated furniture. The property's layout and location are exceptional, and check-in went smoothly. Housekeeping did a good job, though the service time was unpredictable. It would be nice to have coffee pots in the rooms, so guests wouldn't need to go downstairs for lukewarm coffee. The restaurant has a nice menu and tasty food, but the kitchen was very slow. The bar also couldn't make a martini because it didn't have very dry vermouth. I'd stay here again.

The lake view was the only good part. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were always wrong for me, and service took 30-45 minutes, sometimes an hour. There were two of us, and wrong items came out often. I also saw dead bugs in food at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The TV had no settings for English, even though I've stayed at hotels that offer it. I know I'm in Mexico, but they should have a few servers who understand some English. Other English-speaking guests told us the service was garbage. The Wi-Fi was terrible too.