The Ridge at Playa Grande — Hotel in Baja California Sur

I stayed 6 nights at The Ridge at Playa Grande with wife and two guests. I booked two separate rooms, with one night not all-inclusive and the remaining 5 nights all-inclusive.

The Good: Check in was relatively easy, despite multiple rooms and essentially 4 different reservations. One bedroom master suites are spacious, if somewhat dated, with 2 bathrooms and a kitchen. It is possible to sleep 4, as there is a murphy bed. The views from the room and the pool overlooking both the marina and the Pacific are excellent (Note that not all rooms at The Ridge have those views. Some rooms are lower on The Ridge, nearer street level, and may only have a low marina view). We felt very fortunate with the view from one room. The view from the other room was not good. Service and food were OK to good at Calima and Brigantine restaurants Ernesto at the Sports Bar was very accommodating and friendly

The Bad: Food and drink prices are extremely high, if not on all-inclusive. Not enough restaurant/food choices on property All-inclusive left us bored with choices, but $12 per drink and $5 per water can get very expensive.

The Terrible: Pool and restaurant service at The Ridge (seemed very poorly managed and I am not sure if these same problems exist at the lower pools at Playa Grande) Staff seemed more concerned about keeping track of every drink and who got the tip, rather than actually waiting on customers. Typical wait for a drink was over an hour Waited 1 hour 10 minutes to get 4 water bottles moved 20 yards from the bar to our chairs (Yes, I could have picked them up from the bar tender, but that would have meant checking out of my tab with my current waiter and opening and closing a new tab with the bartender even thought I was all inclusive. Just another hassle.) Only one bar tender on The Ridge serving restaurant and pool areas. He was completely overworked and was annoyed at every drink order. Part of the reason he was overworked was he would have to ring up every order that did not come through a waiter (see above about water bottles) Waiters at The Ridge seemed annoyed that anyone would order a drink or food, I believe in part because of the time it took to get orders out of the bar. Waiters were catching the brunt of unhappiness from customers all around the pool area. While all waiters had on masks, the masks can't hide a smile or disguise a frown. I have visited numerous resorts and have never seen everyone (customers and staff) in such a bad mood. Vacations should be fun, but this atmosphere was terrible. I emailed management to notify them of the situation in hopes that it might be rectified while I was there. No response via email. I spoke to Manager Carlos while in the lobby. He said 'Thanks for your feedback and I will notify the food and beverage Manager'. This did not seem to help much.

The Exceptional: Jesus Rodriguez, who I believe typically is a waiter at Calima, was brought up to The Ridge to help with service. Jesus hustled and smiled and did everything he could to provide exceptional service. After only serving for a portion of one day, he knew my name and everyone in my party. He was a shining star in an otherwise dark night of service. I did see Jesus the next morning at Calima for breakfast and asked if he would be back on The Ridge later in the day. He informed me he had not been assigned to The Ridge again. That was disappointing.

Summary: Nice place with beautiful views. Too expensive to not go all-inclusive, unless you plan to bring your own drinks and eat off site. They need to re-focus on the customer at The Ridge. This is something that can be fixed. It felt more like work than vacation. I usually hate that day when I have to leave vacation and say goodbye to new friends, both staff and guests, but not this time. I was...

CONS Cesear behind the desk was NOT friendly or apologetic when he could not find any reservation for us and made the check in process take forever. The resort is huge with tons of walking and stairs and stairs. We got a suite with a full kitchen. There was no coffee in the room and no creamer. They charged us $10 just for the coffee. There was no water in the room. We had to pay for it also down at their little shop, and it closes at 10pm. So right off the bat we had a bad taste in our mouths. I picked this place because on trip advisor it showed a huge swim up pool bar, so I thought it would be a great place to party and hang out without going downtown. Nope. First the pool surface is so rough below the water line from either low PH for too long or low calcium (been in the pool biz for 24years). I actually got my foot cut up so badly it’s still not healed a week after I’m back to the states and everyone in the pool was complaining. No one was sitting on the bar stools because they hurt your butt. Oh and it’s not a part pool bar. I’m 47 one of the youngest people there. And they close the pool bar down at 6pm! Do not think you can get in the ocean either because while it was beautiful, a big red flag and a guard was running people off.

PROS the wait and bartending staff at the ridge pool was great, especially cirilo and Andres. Keep those 2 and give them a raise! The drinks and food everywhere we ate on the resort were great or above average. The wait staff in Calima was great and Ophelia was especially excellent. The temperature in February was amazing with a particularly cool breeze always blowing atop the ridge.beautiful well kept hotel and the views from the ridge which is separate from the main hotel (and you have to have an access key) were incredible. 10-15 minute walk to the marina depending on how far away you are from the hotel. Oh and you cannot get to divorce or lovers beach unless you want to do some serious mountain climbing, so if you are thinking you want to go there since it “looks” so close, take a $12 water taxi...

5 stars for the staff, 2 stars for the Ridge. We stayed at the Ridge at Playa Grande for 5 days during the first week of June and it was the second time we stayed there. The staff was great to be around. They were attentive to our needs at the restaurants, beach, and front desk. They were professional at their duties yet relaxed enough to sit and have a conversation with. The restaurants were comfortable, and the food was good. The room itself was great. It was in good condition and had lots of outdoor space. The kitchen had all that we needed to make what we wanted. As for the location of the Ridge, it did not come anywhere near meeting expectations. Buildings B and E are just above a street that is busy with local transportation buses, which isn’t bad if you want to get around town, but quite noisy. One block beyond the street is the marina, which seems close, but the direct gate from the Ridge is welded shut and blocked off with planters. To get to the marina, or the private beach, you must go up a ramp (about 1 story), down a ramp, and up another ramp (2 stories), across a bridge, down an elevator, down a hall, then you get to the front desk area. From there it’s a just less than a quarter mile walk down the road and you end up at the bus stop; that is less than 100 yards from your room. Altogether it’s nearly half a mile trip. Building D shares the same up down, up down walk, but it’s set back from the road. Building C and A have a direct line to the bridge. I understand that the gate leading directly to the street was shuttered for safety reasons, but why not have someone attend the gate? They have people standing at the private beach to make sure no one goes into the Pacific Ocean (the surf is way too rough for swimming), so why not have someone at the gate to the marina? Will we go back to the Ridge, no, but we plan on going to Playa Grande in the future. The location of the Ridge is too much of a nuisance stay in...