An amazing boutique hotel. First, the location is great. You are a three minute walk from the northern end of 5th Avenue which has some of the nicer, more romantic restaurants, and probably a 12 minute walk to the ocean, and a 20 minute walk to the Cozumel ferry and ADO bus station.
As you enter, you will feel the a/c blasting and someone is always present for security (which doesn't feel necessary). Every clerk we encountered was five-star attentive. Upon check in, we received wet towels to wipe our faces clean. They smelled like lime, so I almost ate mine.
The rooms don't merely have numbers- they have names. The nicest is probably The Frida Kahlo. The cheapest is The Dog From Taco Bell Commericials. (I'm kidding). Anyway, our room was the DIEGO RIVERA. I'll be honest. I think it was named after the foreman who was busy doing construction, almost all day, from 830am - 5pm. If you are sensitive to noise, call ahead for their construction schedule. It sounded like the Blue Man Group were doing a show above us.
Everything else, though, was FIVE STAR, especially the little touches. Our room had a patio with an attractive mural and private hot tub. The flat screen had cable channels. The bed was comfortable. The a/c worked great. Easy to access AC plugs. The shower head was super high, the water hot with decent pressure, with a hidden drain and heavy porcelain shampoo bottles. We had robes and slippers. [Only complaint: the fridge was impossible to open without manipulation and it wasn't that cold.]
The free breakfast was incredible, in an attractive and clean restaurant Consuela on the top floor with glass walls for pretty views. At the time, the breakfast included great coffee and pulpy juice, either freshly squeezed orange juice or sweet, delicious, nutritious "green" juice. You also get two pairs of sweet breads in a basket with a little Mexican blanket. You get to pick between fruits, yogurt, parfaits, and cereal. And you get an entree. I loved the omelette, the burrito, and the molettes, all eaten with handcrafted silverware with their own stand. We also had nachos, burgers, fries, and the must: churros.
The rooftop pool is small and shallow, but it was our favorite pool, mostly because it was heated well, it had relatively late hours (we didn't get kicked out, but the heat stops around 9 or 10), it was above the lounge area making it feel private. (Though it has no chlorine, the copper in the minerals turned my girl's blonde hair a little green, but to be fair, we spent 2 or more hours in the water each night). It's right next to the top of the constantly swaying tree (from our patio!). Best of all, you can get served food and drink from the water because there's a bar a few steps down--- my favorite bar in Mexico.
The bar is Purifica, run by Toby, who truly cares about his customers. Acting more like a concierge behind a bar, Toby did more than serve us drinks: he gave us advice about local places, played our choice of music in the nearby pool, changed his hours to accommodate us, served us drinks while in the pool, and was a thoughtful, funny, and playful friend to us. He even offered to get us foods we like served to us that weren't on the Consuela's menu. The bar itself is small, so you are sure to get as much attention as the herb garden adorning the wall. It is so intricate, it must have taken a lot of thyme. Anyway, it'd be nice for management to get a big fan for Toby seeing that it is a rooftop bar, but for now I'll be his biggest fan. Toby made me a special order cocktail with Tito's, fresh grapefruit juice, lime juice, cucumbers, mint and simple syrup. Jokingly, he called it "the Glen", and I ordered quite a few. (180 peso isn't "Mexico" cheap, but it was top shelf vodka and freshly squeezed juice). Anyway, the day we left, he showed me the printed menu and "THE GLEN" is a speciality drink! I'm a drink! I'm not as cool or fresh or sweet or refreshing or strong as The Glen, but I am as cheap. So be sure to order the "Me". Or, if you are lucky, you can order the you. You can't spell Purifica without U!
Highly recommended. read more