Casa Chichipicas Hotel Boutique

We had a great long weekend here. The rooms are comfortable, beautiful, and thoughtfully designed, and the staff were friendly with superb service. At dinner, the Baja fish tacos and chocolate lava cake stood out. The shared balcony is pretty, and the pool, outdoor shower, and jacuzzi add to the boutique feel. We also loved the cozy living room with its fireplace and the covered dining room on rainy evenings. I just wish the WiFi were more stable and there were a self-service water station for guests.

The common areas are well designed, and the staff are nice, though most don’t speak English. The location is okay, and being farther from the city center means less noise, but it’s an uphill walk if you plan to go into town often. Noise carries badly between rooms. You can hear poolside conversations, and the layout suggests this affects all the rooms. Music from the restaurant and pool goes until 11 PM, so keep that in mind if you’re sensitive to noise. At night, crickets chirping can be a nice bit of white noise. Internet is mostly unusable, not enough for video calls. The room is simple, and the bed is soft, despite what other reviews say. There’s no good rest by the pool either, since it’s dirty and you can see sediment swirling in the water. You’ll definitely want a shower after swimming. The jacuzzi needs to be booked in advance and is limited to 45 minutes, but ours was switched on when our slot began and turned off halfway through. That left us with about 20 minutes of hot bubbles. The Mexican dishes at the restaurant are pretty bland. A few menu items looked promising, but we were disappointed to learn they had to be ordered a day ahead. The lamb rack was our favorite. Staff also aren’t trained to handle allergies: even after I asked for gluten-free food, they kept offering dishes with gluten.

The hotel has a nice vibe and comfortable common spaces, and the staff were friendly and provided great service. But the rate sets expectations the product doesn’t meet. Rest and cleanliness were major problems for us. Noise isolation is poor: we clearly heard guests walking overhead and staff moving around early and late. The pillows were much too firm and thick, with no other options. We also found cleanliness issues in important areas, including the bathroom, which had severe humidity problems and hairs clearly left by previous guests.

The design is lovely, and I enjoyed the common areas and fireplace. Having morning coffee with a pool view felt magical, and the chilaquiles were amazing. But I wouldn’t book here again. The bed was too hard and made my hands go numb; the pillows were either too small or too huge to sleep comfortably. There weren’t many vegetarian choices in the restaurant, the balcony door didn’t close all the way so fireplace smoke got into the room, and the WiFi was super slow. Staff also wouldn’t let us stay at the pool after checkout, which felt unbelievable since no hotel has ever done that to us. Next time I’m in Valle de Bravo, I’ll book somewhere else.