Hotel Misión Santa Maria San Quintín — Hotel in Baja California

Part of me doesn't want to write this review for fear that if too many people read it, it will get crowded, but then, it wouldn't be fair.

This place is a diamond in the rough. It's not particularly well advertised, and definitely is not one of your All Inclusive resorts catered to American audiences, but if you want to drive south of the border, I would suggest getting past Ensenada (where you can stop for lunch or whatever), and get here for some real quiet time.

Once upon a time, I guess this was a mission, and the rooms have a dormitory kind of feel, which sort of adds to the charm. The proximity to the beach is the real plus. You can walk out the front of the hotel, and find a good mile of a largely empty beach. The low tide is so low that you could literally walk a couple of hundred yards through wet sand before you get to knee deep water. Never seen a beach like that.

The restaurant gives you a taste of authentic Mexican hospitality. The bar is a bit old with not-intentional retro lighting, and limited in its offerings, but still, a great place to sit down, relax, and enjoy a Michelada or two or more. They also have tennis courts, and if you didn't bring your own, they'll provide you with equipment. Plenty of parking. There's a nice children's play area right by the restaurant which is nice for families.

There's not much to do in walking distance, and you absolutely need a car. Molino Viejo is about 17km from here, where you could rent a boat and explore Bahia San Quintin, not to mention some shops and bars there.

But that's not what this place is for. If you want to unwind, and need to place that's far from the crowds, this is it (it does have wifi, just fyi). I guess you could call it romantic from that point of view, but I went there with friends (my wife wouldn't want to drive that far south of...

Comfortable rooms - great A/C - very clean (bathroom was very clean, but could use a deep cleaning in the shower). Staff was very friendly and accommodating. Phone in room didn't work so I had to walk to front desk to request a carafe of coffee and milk be delivered - waited over 30 mins with nothing. Waled back and told the front desk to cancel the order - she was very apologetic that it never arrived. My only issue was with the resturant waitstaff (perhaps the reason why our coffee was never delivered). We had both dinner and breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Breakfast was great service with on site handmade tortillas (YUM!) however, my small coffee cup was rarely refilled and I had to get up and request a refill a few times. The dinner service was not good. This was probably waiter specific. He took our food order but left before we could give him a drink order (he never asked) and we couldn't find him (one of only 3 tables that night) to order drinks (after waiting 10+ minutes we went directly to the bar). He saw my husband ordering at that point and came out to help with a wine selection. I ordered the filet minion - if you are expecting it to be a similar cut to an American version - don't order it. It came slathered in gravy and was very fibrous and tough (perhaps the beef selection here is reflective of the meat quality). I asked for it med-rare and strongly specified closer to rare; not medium. The steak came well done. The baked potato was very dry with a bit of sour cream on it. I asked for butter 3 times but it never came so I didn't end up eating the potato. The only good thing about dinner was that our meals came with a soup starter which...

Location: A few miles off Hwy 1 on well-paved roads, right on the beach. Excellent distance from Tecate or from Catavina/Guerrero Negro, makes for reasonable travel day duration.|Facility: Rooms are on 3 levels with shallow staircases connecting them. There is a ramp to one wing for WC access. Most rooms exit to outdoor corridors. The facility is clean, new paint and window installations.|Room: Excellent mattresses. This hotel had heat, a rarity in the Baja in our experience but very welcome in January, as well as air conditioning. Pillows are synthetic but not too bad, but you should bring your own if you are fussy - there's no pillow bar here. Plenty of space in the room, adequate electrical outlets but none near the head of the bed, we couldn't use our electronics while charging. Bathroom layout for shower entrance is a bit tight (see photo) but the blue ceramic bathroom fixtures make up for that, I'm just crazy about them. Getting extra towels wasn't a problem. Wi-Fi came with our room, signal strength isn't impressive but we could all text and read emails. Plenty...