Shambhala Visión — Hotel in Oaxaca

Solo female travelers, be aware. I did not feel safe here.

The dorm rooms do not have locks on the door. The key that opened my locker also opened two other lockers. In a dorm room that I was told was female-only, a man shows up, drops off a bag, and leaves again. They are unsure if he is a guest or not and I was told that occasionally strangers will sneak in to sleep for free. They also cannot agree if it was actually an all-female dorm or if they accidentally put me in an all-male dorm (I was the only one occupying a bed that night so far). Teresa, the owners sister, gave me her number to let her know if I was feeling unsafe in the nighttime.

At 1am the man returns to stand at the edge of my bed, watch me, and smoke a cigarette. I text Teresa who sends Enrique, the maintenence guy, to help me move to a private room. I did not sleep that night.

Maria, the owner, brushed off the situation the next day. She told me he was probably a drunk guest. She told a story about how she got attacked by a man while she was cleaning a room here before and she fought back to escape. She recommended that I should have done the same with the stranger at my bed and yelled at him to go away.

I spent my last night in a private room on the ground floor. Because of the dorm room situation, I had hung up curtains in the windows because they have cut-out designs (photos below). The curtains stayed put all day, so I fell asleep that night. I awoke in the morning to find out that one of my windows had been opened from the outside and somebody had pulled the curtain down. It's a visceral feeling to know you slept soundly while anybody could have come in through the window or watched you sleep at night.

Extra star is for Teresa, an absolute angel. She is the only one who gave me her number if I felt unsafe then responded within minutes when I texted at 1am. She validated how scary the dorm room situation was. She helped me translate various things into Spanish despite her own limited English. She is not a staff member and was only visiting, so she is not always here. Teresa, espero todo esta bien. Cuídate.

TL;DR Security is lacking. A man who wasn't a guest snuck into the female dorm and watched me while he thought I was asleep. I was moved to a private room in the middle of the night. The following night, the window in my private room was opened from the outside. Cannot recommend staying here, for...

If you're looking for a cushy experience, this isn't it. But Shambhala is really beautiful, peaceful and I loved the care with which the place was made: stones and shells inlaid in all the cement work, shell lanterns, painted geometry tables. It's amazing to get up in the morning and watch the sunrise from the dining area, the view is beautiful. They've got lots of couches, hammocks, places to hang out. Maria is super lovely and all the staff are really nice. They are quite busy so it works better if you have patience and aren't in a hurry.

The things I'd recommend improving: water isn't always freely available, you have to ask a staff person to get it for you and sometimes...

This place is located at the very end corner of the beach, so its a fair walk to get back to the main center or the main part of the beach. If you're looking for a very calm quiet place where you can hear fairly loud the waves, this is the place for you. I stayed in one of the common areas, the matress is fairly thin and a bit uncomfortable, there is no fan and unfortunately while I was there, there was hardly any wind so it was quite warm. The place does not have alcohol on site and it seems that its frowned upon or not allowed. The staff was very friendly and welcoming, I had a hard time finding someone a couple of times but when I did they were helpful...