La Ritoqueña — Hotel in Quintero

La Ritoqueña is a very special place with only 6 rooms built on stilts you do share a bathroom with one other room but this really is not a problem. All the rooms look out onto the Pacific Ocean and they all have balconies, giving you the opportunity to spend quiet time with your partner overlooking a 15 kilometre sand beach backed by sand dunes. From the minute you arrive at the hotel you feel that you made the right decision so ignore any press about how awful Quintero is, as it simply isn't true. It's real and probably I shouldn't be writing this review as it will become impossible to get a booking their in the future. Diageo, Diano, Christobel and of course not forgetting there adorable son Gaston run the hotel that they built and run. You have a beautiful natural wood bedroom with balcony then there is a dining area and lounge adjacent to the rooms with a sun deck on the roof.||We didn't have a car and arrived by bus and taxi from Santiago. The buses are really frequent and won't break the bank at £6 from Santiago to Quintero. Then it's a £2.50 taxi ride to the hotel which is outside the town at a place called Playa Ritoque. Whilst you may think you need a car you really don't! We stayed for 6 nights. During this time we walked to Quintero along the headland about 3 hours then walked through an amazing flea market and food market, prawns with salsa for two on a stall right in the middle of the market £2 and for dessert we bought 5 oranges and 2 bananas off a stall for 20p. ||We also did a 10 mile walk along the beach to Concon a town which you can reach by just walking along a desolate beach with 1000s of birds to watch on the way. Another village we visited on the bus was a fishing village north called Maitencello, we even travelled to the huge city of Valparaiso for the day. For lunch you could eat at a surfers restaurant on the beach with delicious local fresh fish and it was yards from the hotel. ||We ate every night at the hotel for $10 USD per person per night Diaego and Christobel cooked a 3 course meal which was a surprise every night but simply delicious. One night fish, one night meat what ever they put in front of you was just delicious. Diaego has a great selection of wines but for me it was 2 Pisco sours, I love them. The culinary highlight of the week was one evening they did a BBQ which all the guests and the Ritoqueña family shared on one long table in front of the hotel. Just fantastic great food and talking till the early hours.||We met lots of the locals and when we came to leave we felt really privileged to have spent time with such wonderful people and were sad to leave. The hotel is currently a well kept secret and has only been open a year but this is the most romantic boutique experience set in nature you will find. Sure you can find fancier environments but this place is special run by special people and friends. Try and visit it already has a 9.4 on some sites you won't be disappointed. Steve &...

My wife and I choose La Ritoquena based on a favorable citing by Lonely Planet, near the end of a long trip in Chile, when relaxation was at the top of our list. La Ritoquena is a six room guesthouse owned and operated by a lovely couple, Diego and Dayenu. Diego speaks excellent English and is very engaging. He is also an excellent chef. We spent four nights here in March and were the only guests, the start of the offseason, except for our last night, which was a Saturday night. La Ritoquena is right on the beach, in fact at the northern end of a beautiful beach that goes on for miles and miles and is virtually empty. The rooms are in three duplexes, each with rooms top and bottom, with a shared bath on the landing between the two rooms. It was not at all an issue to share the bathroom on the one night there were guests in the other room. Our room was somewhat on the small side but was clean, comfortable, and modern, with a small balcony looking out on the beach and crashing surf. There are two small restaurants on the beach, but we elected to have three of our four dinners at La Ritoquena and Diego delighted us with Pisco sours and delectable three-course meals. During our stay, we did all three activities sponsored by the hotel. We rode fat tire bicycles and then horses down the pristine beach. We also had a wonderful yoga class with their next door neighbor, Sharon. She actually got me to stand on my head for the first time in 50 years! My wife and I were sad to leave at the end of our stay because we were really starting to feel...

Well located at the quiet end of a popular beach for families and surfers. The cabanas are visually appealing with simple décor and basic but good facilities. Likewise the public areas. Resident owners, Diego and Daye, are really lovely people that must be very proud of what they have achieved. As we were a party of 4, travelling with a lot of baggage, we were very please for Diego's assistance in carrying our heavy baggage up the steep steps to reception and cabanas. Daye's cuisine is simple but fresh and v.very good. As were the Pisco Sours. It would have been nice to have been afforded the opportunity of outside dining. The dining are is quite small. Sharing a bathroom between 4 friends was not a problem. We stayed on 14 February. The cabanas proved to be a very romantic choice for...