Ten Bits Ranch — Hotel in Manuel Benavides

I'm from Texas. Been going to Big Bend for 40+ years. Long story short: this is an INCREDIBLE property, by far THE best I have ever stayed at in the entire Big Bend region, and is just an amazing little slice of Texas. The location is excellent. Just an hour outside of Alpine, and just over 20 minutes to stores / restaurants / and the Big Bend entry point, it could not be better.

Yes, there is a gravel road you drive down for about two miles to get there. Any passenger car will be fine, just take your time. Yes, your car will get dusty. Yes, that is part of a real Big Bend experience. If you do not want to drive down a road with some bumps and get your car dusty, just stay in Alpine and stick to the pavement. But seriously, this is part of the appeal of this place.

The setting is right out of a Western. There are NO visible structures or lights anywhere in any direction. You feel like you could have gone back 150 years. The rock formations are incredible and like some of the best beautiful areas in the national park. But it is YOUR park while you are staying there. The star gazing is a 10 out of 10. I have been all over the world, and I have never seen better. The first night we arrived, I could hardly believe the display of stars. Felt like I was floating in space (which we are, but it is rare to feel like you are truly IN space).

The facilities are top notch. We stayed in the Blacksmith cabin, and it was super clean (zero bugs by the way). King bed is comfortable. TV has all the cable channels you need. Wifi and cell service was surprisingly good and solid. The fridge and microwave are convenient, and they supply all of the water you need (yes they use recycled rain water as they are off the grid, but you would never know it ... the water is crystal clear, water pressure is just fine, shower gets plenty hot, you just have to remember to not drink the water, basically like staying in a nice resort in Mexico). We usually stay at Hampton Inns when traveling, and the condition and amenities reminded me of staying in a brand new Hampton Inn hotel on the inside, except with lots of additional themed details (lots of blacksmith tools on the walls and things like that, oh yeah, beautiful gas fireplace, I could go on!).

Breakfast options are surprisingly good: plenty of continental style options that are available 24/7 in the cantina, so we tended to stroll by each night, pick up some bagels, jelly packs, oatmeal, and water bottles, and then the next morning we were set. Oh yes, they also provide a Kurig coffee maker and have an unlimited number of coffee "modules" if you need extra.

Communication with the management was excellent, although we did not really ever need to contact them during the stay as everything was basically perfect. But they were great about texting the entry code, directions, and tons of info about the property in advance. You can tell this entire operation is managed like clockwork; they keep this place up ship-shape.

I'm a bit of an introvert and was concerned we would land next to chatty neighbors, but there is plenty of space and guests generally kept to themselves (I'm sure 99% of the people that head to this area are looking for a little peace and quiet). But we did briefly chat with a couple of guests, including some from Europe, and they were blown away with the property and that gave me some pride for being a Texan and knowing guests will be returning to homes all over the world with stories about the amazing Big Bend area and this wonderful little western town you can stay in.

Although we stayed four nights, we ran out of time and did not get to fully explore the property, except for climbing up to the Apache Indian cave (photo taken from that of the property - and note you can see how "rough" the dirt road is ... I have literally driven on rougher highways). But we absolutely will be back and cannot wait to return to this rare slice of Texas...

We have received a refund for the unused portion of our reservation, so we have no additional grievance beyond the unacceptable and vulgar treatment that we received from one of the property owners that resulted in the cancellation of our reservations. We made a reservation through VRBO to stay in Unit #6 (The Hattery) which had a floor plan identical to The Courthouse unit, where my parents stayed. When we checked in the evening of May 17, 2023, I found that the air conditioning duct in the ceiling was dripping water on the sofa. I moved the sofa, dried it off, and placed a plastic wastebasket under the duct to catch the dripping water. I called the owners, who incidentally don’t live on the property, and reported the problem. I was told someone would come the next day to fix the air conditioner. They also asked me to text them a picture, which I did. Meanwhile, one of my daughters discovered a scorpion in the bathroom sink. My dad removed it. When we returned to the ranch after a day of sightseeing the next day (May 18), the air conditioner in The Hattery no longer dripped water, but it didn’t WORK either. I again reported (texted) the problem to the owners. "Cowboy" supposedly texted a reply, but I never received it. After dinner, I called the owner (Cowboy) to inquire about what was being done to fix the air conditioner. We had listened to water dripping into the wastebasket all night the previous night, and now we were faced with a second night in an uncomfortably warm room in the desert without any air conditioning. Since my text hadn't received a reply, I called to see if it had been received, and what other options there might be for us to have a comfortable night's sleep. "Cowboy" reacted with hostility to my phone call, accused me of being rude when I said I hadn't received a text from him, and told me to “GET THE F--K OFF MY RANCH!” I was upset, shaking, and immediately informed my parents, who were staying next door, of the incident. My 81-year-old-mother politely called the owners to see if she couldn’t resolve the issue. "Sis" answered, but almost immediately "Cowboy" got on the phone and said to my mother, “I want ALL OF YOUR AS--S OFF OF MY RANCH!” End of conversation! It was 9:00 at night in the middle of nowhere, so we couldn't leave until the next morning, but we packed and suffered through a night with no Air Conditioning and upset feelings. We had made reservations to go horseback riding in Lajitas early the next morning; however, during the night there was a thunderstorm, which made the two mile dirt road from Ten Bits Ranch to highway 118 impassable. I had no choice but to cancel our reservations (the horse stable couldn't offer a refund, but were understanding about the dirt roads and gave us a voucher). As soon as the road dried out sufficiently, we left. "Cowboy," based on our experience, was offensive, unhelpful, and vulgar. Vrbo has numerous other properties available in the Terlingua area. Considering the questionable management at Ten Bits Ranch and the difficulty of reaching it on a two-mile unimproved, extremely rough, sometimes impassable dirt road, anyone looking for a place to stay would do better to...

Like others have said, CUTE concept, but poor implementation. We love the Western Town Theme. Great idea. The issue for us was in the amenities/implementation - or lack thereof.||Pros: Cute concept. Very Quiet. Very Dark skies for seeing the stars. Location is nestled on 3 sides by rock formations. The Cantina is a great idea though we never utilized it. Nice to have a microwave and small refrigerator in the room. Water temperature was great. The TV and Wi-fi worked great. No cell service, which is to be expected, but you can use Wi-fi calling. Plenty of towels and bottled water in the room.||Location: 2 Stars for the long and difficult, bumpy, dusty drive to the ranch. 5 Stars for the dark skies, quiet and seclusion...||Cons: First - the road that you turn off of from the highway is unpaved, rocky, dusty and bumpy (2.2 miles takes 10 minutes) so takes 25 minutes to get into town. Poor amenities in the room which would be so simple to fix. They do not have any hair dryers on the property and there was no place in town to buy one. A must for me. I have NEVER stayed anywhere in the past 30 years that didn't offer a hair dryer. Also, the room is very large, but minimal, useful furniture/storage. There is no dresser or wardrobe and no place to hang or unpack clothes. You MUST live out of your suitcase - even if staying for multiple nights. No luggage stand, so your luggage has to be set on the floor or you use the couch, which then defeats the purpose of the couch. No hooks in the bathroom or way to hang wet towels. The little kitchen area has no storage or place to unpack your food or other items. We could not figure out how to light the gas fireplace, so could not take advantage of that. Instructions were confusing and unclear. These same issues were expressed to us when talking with our neighbors in the 2 rooms next to us. Also, since there is NO ONE available to reach out to to ask, we felt unsupported. If someone had been there, they might have been able to help us light our fireplace. (Same for the room next door). You can text a number and someone eventually responds, but not always helpful or timely.||Simple fix for this would be: Small dresser or wardrobe in bed area to unpack clothes, a luggage stand/rack, small cabinet or shelving piece in kitchen area to store food and supplies, hooks in the bathroom for towels and a hanging dowel installed under the TV stand for hanging clothes. Also a hair dryer (or state that no hair dryer available). These issues caused me a lot of frustration. I could fix these in 2 days and make this place AWESOME!!!! I would have LOVED this place and given it 10 stars with just a few improvements..... The frustrations I felt just buffered my feelings toward this place. If we came again, we would definitely bring a table, folding storage unit, hair dryer and removeable hooks to help make the stay...