Hotel Bahia Chac Chi...

So, on day six of my trip, I headed to Isla. I have lots more to post about that, but I thought I'd take some time to give my hotel review. When I looked into a short stay on Isla this Christmas, I checked out the Bahia Chac Chi...a new hotel on the west side of the island. I had looked at it on my last stay in July, and since it was only $70 a night during the holidays, I went ahead and reserved it.

Here it is as I'm approaching on the ferry. It's only a couple blocks from the ferry, so it's very convenient to get to.

The lobby area...

And the pool area which is just behind the lobby. It's kind of a strange pool layout and I never once saw anyone swimming in it. Not a very warm or inviting layout.

Here it is from my fourth floor...

And here's the fourth floor...

A single room with a king-size bed...

And the opposite view...

The sink in the bathroom area...

And the other side of the sink area...

The shower and toilet area.

This shower set-up is way cool, but just a little warning. I didn't know how to work everything, so I was playing with the settings and see those six little circular jets on each side? Make sure you warm those up before you use them, because if you're taking a shower with the other jets and switch to those without warming them up? HOLY SHIT!! I think everyone in the hotel probably heard me scream when that freezing water hit me at full blast. So that was probably too much information...on to more...

This is the best part of this hotel...the view...more of that later...

One of the downsides is that they don't provide patio furniture. If you want to sit outside to see the gorgeous view, you have to take the little upholstered chair outside on the patio. Here's my neighbor's...

And another guest below me. (Try to ignore the tighty whities on the chair.)

Here's the Justicia Social across the street...which I never went to this time. Have been to it before, but just never got around to it on this trip.

And here was my view when I went outside my door. So I got views of both sides of the island.

Standing on my balcony, here's my view towards the north...

And the view to the south...

This is the empty space between my balcony and my neighbor's. It would be a perfect area for big plants to better separate the two areas. Maybe they'll do that some day.

The balcony was a great spot in the morning to take advantage of island activity. This was the morning pelican meeting...

And this was the morning police boat getting ready to protect Mexican waters. I noticed several soldiers with machine guns and drug dogs getting into this boat.

There are several down sides to this hotel. It doesn't have refrigerators. It's also very noisy when you have the sliding doors open. Rueda Medina can be noisy since it's the main street between the north and south areas of the island. That actually didn't bother me because I kind of liked the activity of the island. That might not be the same case with other people. One good thing, though, is once you closed the sliding glass doors, you didn't hear anything. In addition, I felt like it was "incomplete" in that the space was empty between the balconies, there was no art on the walls and there were no lamps on the sides of the beds...just a big fluorescent lamp above the bed which lit up the entire room. That could be just part of the "contemporary" design, but they were things I noticed. They also claimed that they had internet, but I was never able to connect. I don't know...maybe that was just me...I'm not going to condemn them for that when it could have been my fault. They DO have a safe that will accommodate a laptop and the bed is VERY comfortable with plenty of pillows. They had a complimentary breakfast in the morning at 8:30 a.m...but be sure not to get there before then. I got there at about 8:20 and was told several times that it didn't open until 8:30. I asked if they had coffee ready, and he said "yes," but when I put some fruit onto a plate (since it was out on the table), I was reminded that it didn't start until 8:30. Okay, fine. Breakfast consisted of watermelon, mango and cantelope, dry toast, juice and coffee.

So...would I stay there again?? Definitely...but only if I was staying with another person...or friends or family members. It's not real conducive to meeting other people in comparison to places like Plaza Almendros, where you sit out with other people in a courtyard...or at a place like I stayed in Playa del Carmen where everyone congregates at the hotel bar. But the view was to die for. In all honesty, every time I came out of the bathroom area into the bedroom, I thought, "Oh, my God...this is beautiful!"