El Cielo Resort Valle de Guadalupe — Restaurant in Baja California

This is a tough rating. tldr (go to end)

The resort was good. I would call it moderate upscale for Mexico, but ritzy upsacale due to the price per night. Upon check in we were upsold on a suite for an additional fee, we were told there was a hot tub, personal fire pit. We took the deal. The room was great, BUT it was a stand alone two unit villa. The issue is that the suite is the entire first floor leaving our, heavy footed, loud, late night coming and going upstairs neighbors keeping us on our toes. Up the stairs, down the stairs,, open the door, close the door is all we heard all day. Also the upstairs balcony is over the downstairs suites master bed room, so you have to hear the deck door opening and closing and the patio furniture being dragged across the floor. It was painful. Oh and the rooster with a sore throat. Every morning at about 4 am. Other than this the room was fine. The kitchen doesnt have any pots and pans, so no cooking or reheating left overs. One particular day we wanted to nap all day, so we put the do not disturb on the door and the no new sheets needed sign. Welp....they called the room and let the phone ring and ring, and when I woke up and answered they ignored the grogginess of my voice and kept asking me am I sure that I didnt want service.

There are not many amenities that do not cost money. I would think that since it is a winery you would get a free bottle of wine, maybe help us schedule the wine tasting and tour. We got none of this. So we didnt do a tour or wine tasting on site because it wasnt offered or sold to us. There were no meals included, which was fine, but in order to charge food to the room at the two restaurants they put a $1000 (15000p) hold on my cc for this purpose.

Ultimately, I WOULD do it again, knowing what I know now. It was actually a great experience despite my rating. Check out my ratings for Latitude 32 Restaurant, etc.

Advice: Rent a car (there is no transportation other than to the restaurant and back). Get a room on with no one above you. Make sure all the doors can close (trust me). Ask at check in about tours and tasting and schedule them asap, because the way the compound is set up, you may be far away from the reception and may not feel like doing it later. The wine they have is not cheap, so if we were drinking outside of dinner, we would go to a local grocery and buy it. You think it would be cheaper at the source lol. Also if you enjoy swimming, ask to stay close to the pool and you will have it all...

Do yourself a favor and stay elsewhere. The only reason I gave it two stars, rather than one, was because of our amazing “butler” - Manuel. Otherwise, this place was and continues to be a headache.

We booked a junior suite for three nights. Traveling into Mexico was chaotic and we ended up getting to the hotel later than expected, it’s in a rural area and we ended up lost. I called and spoke to someone who informed me not to worry - we can check in whenever we arrive, someone will be there. (I had read other reviews stating otherwise and called to double check). As it for later, we called the hotel several times to ask for directions - no one answered. We left several messages on their machine. After giving up, we stayed in Rosarito for the night and made our way back out their the following day.

Upon check in - we had expected our room to be ready since we were supposed to be there the day before. They stated that it wasn’t ready and they had our reservation for the day we showed up, not the the night before. We took out our confirmation to show them we were supposed to be there the night prior - and they barely glanced at us. Instead - they told us to keep ourselves busy for the next few hours because they needed to prepare our room. Four hours later - we sat down to sign our “check in form” and noticed the wrong name at the top of the paper. They thought we were somebody else the whole time - never checked our IDs or bothered to look at the confirmation we were begging them to look at. Low and behold — they pulled up our reservation and saw that we were supposed to be there the night before AND our room was ready the whole time.

After talking with them - they agreed that we would only pay for the two nights that we would be staying there. They appeared to be understanding that we were lost and acknowledged that we had left them voicemails trying to make it, but they were not answering. Our check in form that we signed stated that we would be there for two nights.

Overall - great trip. The Valle de Guadalupe was incredible! After returning home - they charged us for three nights. We are STILL trying to dispute the charges. Only problem - they won’t pick up their phone or answer any emails. It is IMPOSSIBLE to get ahold of them. I am merely asking for the documentation that we signed at check in, so I can provide it to my bank to show proof, but El Cielos complete lack of customer service is frustrating and not worth...

Pros: The resort includes beautiful new homes that have 2 suites on top and full suite on bottom. The 2 entrances have guards who inquire every time you leave & when you will be back, as an American it provides some comfort. The beds were very comfortable. Wifi was good.

The overall service of the hotel staff needs a lot of training to warrant the $400/nightly rates.

1. Nespresso in the room. First 3 pods are complementary and then $2/cup. I haven't stayed in a hotel where that was the case but ok, It's Mexico. What is not acceptable is when they are not refilled by room service, and it takes room service 50 minutes + to deliver. Coffee in the morning is a must for me and when you are walking out the door by the time they arrive, that doesn't live up to expectations or charging for it.
2. BUGS. Minor bugs, lizards, etc I've gotten comfortable with in tropical environments. Not here. From the moment you take your shoes off by the entrance we started noticing them. Most originated from the bathroom. It was as bad. I found one on the toilet seat after raising the cover! My friend had one drop out of her towel after she wrapped her wet hair. We did ask to change rooms by Day 2 (day 1 we were out all day) and the new suite did not have any problems. Still, if there are pests in the room - don't rent it out. Or Sweep them up!
3. Pool Time. Upon arrival Thur Night the only 2 hr block that was available was Sun afternoon and Monday morning. We took the Monday morning assuming that the rules were very strict given all the bookings. Upon arrival, there were 4-5 parties there at a lap pool sized space that has 6 loungers. We felt uncomfortable kicking people out even though we had reservations. This is the only pool for a property with a dozen + homes that can house 100+ people. We came back and somebody was leaving - we had to change towels ourselves at that point.
4. We booked a Jr suite with 4 named guests. EVERY time we had 2 cups and 2 glasses. Were the many bags and 2 beds not clues? Calling to get extra cups again was a 45 minute+ process. And even when our suite was right across from the restaurant the time was still that long. One morning it took 3 calls to front desk to get them to relay the message to...