Golden Bay Galapagos — Hotel in Parroquia Puerto Baquerizo Moreno

I usually never write reviews, but this is worth it.. and simply because with a simple gesture they could have made a client at least less angry for the troubles caused and avoid this review.. I spent 2 nights only, from the 31st of December to the 2nd of January. To start: We arranged a car to pick up us the airport, the person who came from the hotel was not careful and when closing the door, smashed the hand of my 6 years old daughter. Not a single act of consideration/respect to say I'm sorry, or any kind of apologies, or even check if she was ok...| No one ever picked up the phone at the reception, so if you ned something you have to come down and talk to someone personally. We informed about this and they claim the network might not be working | Another minor issue: the safe was not working, they came to fix it but agreed that was having issues and offered to replace it..|* We tried to have dinner at the restaurant, and they told us we couldn't because we didn't have any reservation and this should have been informed at the time of check inn. Of course, no one ever informed this at the check inn. |I had a small issue with some ice I ordered that never arrived to the room, and it was solved by Francisco who among the staff together with Wensel are the only ones that showed real care.|Today at check out I asked if they could make a little gesture and grant us a late check out, whatever they could, and the reply without even finishing asking: NO.. Check out is at 10am, and check inn at 13hs. I explained all the issues to the receptionist and told him if he could just help me out with at least an hour or something. And he said that it was not possible. I paid 2105usd for 2 nights.. for 1k a night and after the issues we had a simple gesture would have made it..|Later on, while I was having breakfast he said he talked to the manager and that it could be possible to stay until 12 but if I pay 140 usd. ..so this really made me want to write this review. |Our room had a little view to the beach, so at night you will get to hear the sound of the sea lions..so if you need silence better to ask for a room at the back. |The hotel is super nice, good rooms, good shower, AC and wifi worked smooth, ..but the way they treated us after I told them everything was simply lack of empathy. Never coming back here.. |*ah. one more thing, at the time of check out, my luggage was taken b leaving some group operator .. and I have to let them know that I was no part of the group to bring them back to the hotel. So if I didn't informed them, my luggage was probably on the way to who knows where.. so this is just lack of attention, lack of consideration and even more for a guest who showed his disappointment, they should have just have a little consideration.. something, even if it's not possible there is always a way to say I'm sorry, thank you, etc. but they simply didn't care, and opt to ignore (because it reached the manager)... since they are probably full all the time at this hot season one more client seemed like a number. A simple gesture would have made "the client" feel that they cared. But the reply of the manager made this review possible. And again, I wouldn't be complaining if I stayed at a hostal, but when paying 1 thousand usd per night.. I think is worth sharing my bad experience and their lack of interest toward...

So having done a bit of research there only appear to be large hotels on the seafront, this hotel and the IHG. We chose this as it provided the better package.|The hotel is on the beach but there is the main pathway that goes along the beach that passes between the hotel and the beach, which we didn't notice in the pictures. It's not a big issue but just to be clear the public beach doesn't directly connect to the hotel grounds. ||Our check in was done by Karol who was very helpful and showed us to room 201 which has a balcony overlooking the beach. The room was spacious with a sofa and a large walk in shower. However we noticed during thee night the AC was really loud and the wifi didn't reach beyond the entrance to the room. We spoke to Karol the next day and without us even asking she upgraded us to room 303 which had none of the issues that 201 had. It also had a balcony but is to the side of the building, but had a fantastic freestanding bath in the room.||The beach has a while colony of sea lions on it so there's plenty of activity to hear and sea, we even had one wonder into the restaurant!|There are no coffee making facilities in the rooms but you can ask for a freshly ground coffee from the restaurant whenever you want. |The breakfast was standard fare with a large selection available to order as well as eggs made to order.|On Monday nights they have freshly made pizzas which were veery nice and on subsequent nights the main kitchen is open and the food was tasty. ||The hotel is well located for easy access to the main town and shops a short walk away.|-Playa Mann beach 8 minute walk - this is a well developed beach with showers and a restaurant on site, but its small and was quite crowded on a Sunday.|-Environmental Interpretation Centre 13 minute walk- This is well worth a visit as it gives through the development and colonisation of the Islands. Its much more informative and bigger than the Darwin Research Centre.|-Playa Punta Carola 20 minute walk - You can a taxi to drop you along Avenida Alsacio Northia to a point near the beach and then the walk is about 5 minutes from there. This route walked back is shorter than the once shown on google maps.|This beach is worth visiting if you want to swim with sea lions as there were plenty around as well as sea turtles. |Its also just a short walk from the main harbour where you pick up your tour boats and where the ferry boats arrive from the other islands.||We had excellent service at the hotel, its a boutique hotel remember so you wont get all the frills of a large chain and the service we got from Karol, Nicolas and Josue at the bar was perfect. I'd happily stay here again and would...

Won't go again. Edible but dissatisfied.

Read on for the whole story, short one bottom!

The restaurant has a great location by the beach. We only stopped for dinner and drinks, so I can't comment on the accommodation.

The food is overpriced, and I can see what they're trying to achive. Fine dining or at least a chic vibe of sorts. It fails quite miserably as the portions end up small, the composition and mix of dishes just doesn't work. For example: I took the rice with cassawa/seafood and the other plate was the "Grilled octopus with potatoes & pineapple".

The rice was OK, except the cassawa croquet that just didn't work with the dish.

The octopus was served with mashed potatoes and a slice of pineapple. That combination didn't work either and was a shame to ruin good octopus that way.

Funny thing about the ginger beer I had:

It was mixed with salt, ginger, lime and soda, with a rim of salt on the glass. HORRIBLE! None can drink it. It was obvious that the bartender had made the misstake of taking salt instead of sugar (was worse than drinking seawater).

When I confronted the waiter he admitted it should be sugar and not salt, then left without a worry in the world. No new drink offered (Had one sip). Well, I confronted the young so called bartender, and he just said it's supposed to be with salt, no misstake. He really didnt like it he said, but some might! Haha!

Obviously he has messed up his instructions and mixed it up. I left it untouched (I don't think it's even healthy to finish that thing...) and refused to pay for it, and they agreed after a while.

Beware the staff is young (20ish) here, and seem more inclined to group up and talk to eachother than serve their guests. I had to leave my table and walk up to them to pay my bill, food took a long time and I heard people in the bar complaining about waiting 20mins for a drink (there were a total of 5-10 guests in the bar/restaurant and 4-5 Staff.

Short story: you'll find heaps of places around town for half the price and better food/service. They wont have the...