Castillo Huatulco Hotel

DISABLED TRAVLERS TAKE NOTE Im in a wheelchair 24/7 this hotel is 100% GREAT and so are the trips I was lifted on all trips.The STAFF couldnt do enough for me and my family and the MANAGER LEO is very very helpful.A chance meeting with him I mentioned a BATH would help me he laughd and said he couldnt help sorry but the next best thing was done in 20mins A PLASTIC CHAIR and a SHOWER that could be brought down to my level.On asking extra towels was always there for me.DOWNFALLS??????????? WOT ARE THESE nothing sorry for those of you looking for them.We have just looked to book again for next year to find that FIRST CHOICE arnt going there anymore so were now looking for some other way to go PERHAPS WE WILL WALK start now get there for next year THATS HOW MUCH WE LOVED IT FOOD is mexican but thats wot you go for isnt it? There is the usual burgers /sausages chips IF YOU ASK and a A'La Carta menu if you ask but its in SPANISH but AGAIN ASK some one will tell you wot you want to know.Veronica duty manager is very good and speaks ENGLISH all staff are willing to LEARN ENGLISH so take the time to talk to them SLOWLY rember were on holiday in their country PLEASE PLEASE let us come again Sooooooooon FROM SHAUN AND GWEN IN SKEM UK

The hotel is situated in the quiet fishing village of Santa Cruz.; The scenery and bays are beautiful and the people are friendly. It is safe to go out in the evening and everything is so cheap. The Hotel Castillo is old but clean and the towels and sheets are changed daily. The hotel staff are very friendly too. The food is Mexican because the majority of the guests are. Although I like spicy food I was very careful to check what I was eating but I still managed to get an upset stomach from the 4th day of my 2 week holiday, which I still have and I've been home two weeks. Most of our party had upset tummies but most lasted only 24 hours. It's a beautiful part of Mexico but I'm afraid being ill spoilt my holiday. Nessie Richardson

We ended up staying at this hotel because of a flight delay. We only stayed there 1 night after a 7 nights stay at the Barcelo. I will go back to the Castillo. The hotel is located in the city of Santa-Cruz and about a 10 minutes walk from the beach, The hotel provides a shuttle to their beach club. By the, it is amazing. The beach club has a pool, hammock, bar, snack bar and it is located in an alomost secluded bay. AMAZING!!! We really enjoyed it, thank God our plane was delaye!!!!

Hotel Castillo in Huatulco is a 2plus star. I loved it! However I’m the type of girl who likes to actually experience the ‘Mexicaness’ in Mexico. Our beach club was quiet, 30 people at the most! It was not at the hotel but you could walk to it or use the free shuttle bus. Actually we had people from the 4 stars pay five dollars a day to be at our beach, simply because it was better. Our room was nothing to special but it was fine. The bathroom was a little older. The food was good, lots of seafood, and not a big selection but it was still good. The workers don’t speak much English, but they are all very nice! Actually i'm looking for anyone who has pictures of the staff who wouldnt mind sending them to me. I fell in love with them all, however i didnt take many pictures. Anyone mind sharing? The location of Castillo is across from the marina, we had no trouble with noise, however we had a pool view. There was a market across the street as well. I absolutely loved Huatulco, I’ve been to Cuba and Cancun, but Huatulco is my very favourite! I would go back in a heartbeat! I strongly recommend Hotel Castillo! I know i'll go back!!

We were the only people getting off the tour bus at this resort...so I was a little hesitant about what we were getting into. The place exceeded my expectations. I gained 8 pounds in a week. Great food, wonderful service, close to everything and we had a great balcony to enjoy our coffee every morning. This place is not fancy, but it delivers where it counts. We are going back next year..Les/Sherri

We traveled to the Hotel Castillo in Huatulco, Mexico on January 30th – February 6th, 2007. We booked this vacation online about 4-days prior to departure as a last minute honeymoon after we had to cancel our 3-week trek to Thailand. Hotel Castillo is rated as a 2.5/3 star hotel but after reading reviews we found the only negative was on spicy food (we love Mexican food!) we thought we would take our chance since we heard wonderful things about Huatulco. We were greeting by beautiful sunshine and clear blue skies upon arrival in Huatulco. If you can sit by a window, try to as the landscape in Huatulco is beautiful and lush rolling hills. The airport is very new, clean and beautiful. We went through customs fairly quickly and the customs agents actually smiled as they looked through and stamped our passports! Once you are stamped through you then grab your luggage off the conveyer belt and bring your luggage to get x-rayed before you leave the airport. There is food and drink stands just after you are through immigration….the beer is $2.50 and tastes wonderful after that flight. We grabbed a beer and headed to our bus. The ride to the Hotel Castillo is about 25 minutes and you go through the town of La Crucecita. Upon arrival at the Hotel Castillo we were greeted with fruity drinks and welcoming smiles. …Now into the specifics: Hotel Castillo The hotel is right on the main road “Santa Cruz Blvd” and across from the Marina. It is good shape with a nice open lobby at the front of the hotel that serves as the bar, evening entertainment, and overall inviting place to relax and enjoy the fact that you are in Mexico. We nicknamed it “the living room” because it had such a welcoming feel to it. There is a nice garden pool in the back of the hotel as well as some pool tables and loungers. This area is empty during the day so we used it on a few afternoons. The only time the pool was really used was about 4-6pm. The pool area also provided a nice place to relax with a drink in the evening. Service anywhere you went was fantastic, however be prepared as Spanish is the primary language. The Rooms Upon arrival we asked for a room upgrade since it was our honeymoon. They provided us a room on the second floor with a large terrace overlooking the road. We loved having the terrace and being at the front of the hotel provided a beautiful and hot morning and afternoon sun. We didn’t even notice or hear the traffic so not to worry unless you are a super-light sleeper. The furniture and bathroom was basic but clean. Actually I will emphasis how clean the room was; the girls did a great job. We brought along little hair clips and make up from the dollar store which we left as tips. The Food Breakfast is a buffet at the hotel form 7am – 11am. Depending on how full the hotel is we recommend you get there before 9am as it does fill up and you don’t wan to wait. The buffet was basic but there was enough options, plus you can get an omelets made. I ate the buffet everyday to try the different options and I recommend the banana bread and the coffee. My husband had an omelet everyday. Lunch is served at the Beach Club (which is open 10am – 5pm), for the most part you order off the “all-inclusive menu”, the food was great and we mostly had the chicken wraps, salads, seafood. On the weekend when it was busier the beach club had a buffet which was small but still had some yummy options. The fish is great! Dinner starts at 7:00pm as was back at the hotel and was a themed buffet, again it’s not a huge buffet but we always found more then enough choices and yummy options. Again, we loved the soup, fish, chicken and pizza. Entertainment We never went on any planned tours but they do have them available in the lobby. Otherwise the beach club (10 min walk or take the hotel shuttle) is a great place. There is a pool, volleyball courts, hammocks, playground for kids, and of course the beach. There are also numerous beaches to visit and no matter where you go the food is plentiful and the beer is cheap ($1.50). Huatulco is very safe so feel free to walk anywhere or take cab to a beach and walk back. Beaches we checked out and loved were La Entrega and La Bocana (good for surfing!). Make sure you walk around the Marina, there is a wonderful coffee shop in the centre of the park and live music there in the evening. The stores around the marina are just as cheap, if not cheaper, then in La Crucecita. As for La Crucecita, it is a $2.50 cab ride or a 15-minutes walk. There are numerous stores and restaurants. If you want a North American feel, check out The Tipsy Blow Fish for a beverage or Café Dublin (superb iced cappuccinos!). We tried a few restaurants and they were all fabulous. Overall, we loved the Hotel Castillo and although we’ve visited numerous 4 & 5 stars this is the first hotel we would return to in a heart beat. The freedom of being able to travel around and not be in a gated community was fantastic. Oh yes, if you need internet access it is now available at the hotel. Happy Travelers from Calgary!

On our 12th trip to Mexico we happened upon Huatulco through Apple Vacations. Fabulous in small size, not-too-hot or muggy weather, assorted activities and the Hotel Castillo! What a pleasant surprise. Having stayed at the mega-resort Mayan Palaces in Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta the last two trips (which served their purposes quite well when travelling with two teenage girls) this colonial style hotel was just the change of pace just my wife and I were looking for. While catering to Mexican families and speaking very little English (imagine that, being almost in Guatemala), the front desk upgraded my wife and I to a suite upon our request, with no problem. The next morning the breakfast buffet offered Mexican food and omelettes, with choices of salsas, along with abundant fresh fruit. We could practice our Spanish as the wait staff spoke little English, but managed to keep our coffee hot and full. We could eat breakfast in the dining room or out by the pool. The beach bus left the hotel every 45 minutes to pristine sand and water, or you could walk there in about 10 minutes. The beach at the marina was not even a 5 minute walk if you preferred. Or, take the two minute walk to the marina, hire a boat for $5 each and be taken to Entranga beach, where you could rent snorkel gear for $5 and have reasonable snorkel activity. A dozen restaurants on either beach kept the $2 beer and the $8-$9 cerviche choices good and cold. We came back after morning excursions of snorkel or golf to fresh sheets and flowers, warm, clean showers and cool air-conditioning. We met friendly people from Calgary and Toronto, Milwaukee and Michigan who were tired of the "sterile hotels of Tangolunda Bay and, on their third or fourth trips to Huatulco had chosen the Castillo. While struggling with a phone card on the Tel-Mex phone in the lobby, two of the staff came over immediately to assist. If golf, shopping and snorkeling were not enough, my wife would do laps in the clean, shaded, relaxing pool. No thumping music and pre-arranged water games, whistles for drink specials or slides or wave pools here. Going to Las Crucecitas or "old town" was a 15-20 minute walk from Castillo to work up an appetite for fabulous mole' dinner and then a quick 3 minute cab ride back. Several nights we happened upon fellow travellers at the lobby bar upon our return to discuss the day's activities or the evening meal. What a way to relax. No US newspapers. Little or no US tv shows. No perfect-English speaking staff. Just wonderful Mexican food and activities and a chance to watch and talk to Mexican people while on vacation in Mexico! What a concept. It was everything that I had hoped for and expected.

My husband and I just had the best vacation in Huatulco, and a large part of that is because we stayed at the Castillo. We are seasoned travellers, having experienced everything from a hut on a beach in Thailand to a traditional B&B in Stratford-on-Avon to a 5 Star luxury hotel in Melbourne. We loved the Castillo. We chose the it after reading the reviews recorded here, and when other travellers complained that the Castillo was "too Mexican", we knew this was the hotel for us. Afterall, we go to Mexico to experience Mexico, not so we can stay in a Holiday Inn type place and shop at Costco. We purposely stay away from hotels like the Gala because they are too generic and "North American". So, checking in was no trouble. We also received a refreshing drink from Richardo. Upon check-in, I asked if the hotel had a honeymoon special as this was our honeymoon. We were told they would check. Two days later, a bouquet of roses appeared in our room, and the bed was made up with flower petals and chocolates every day for the rest of our stay. We found the staff friendly and helpful (when we needed it). The food was good, and the pool area very clean. If you go, be sure to go to the beach club - - besides the beach, there's a pool, hammocks, a play area for the kids, and a fairly good lunch-style restaurant. The staff at the beach club were also friendly and helpful. ...to the point where they would see us elsewhere in the village of Santa Cruz and wave at us. Away from home, it was nice to be recognized. Our room was clean and representative of the pictures on the hotel web site (we didn't stay in a junior suite, but the front desk staff did suggest [without us asking] that if we wanted a room upgrade, to check in with them after the weekend - - we never got around to it as we liked our room just fine). The restaurant was good, and had a wide variety of dishes to choose from. Breakfast is served from 7 - 11 am, and dinner from 7 - 10 pm (we never ate lunch there) and I'd recommend you get their earlier rather than later as the dining room fills up. The adult area was closed, and from what I've read, it has been for a while. We got the feeling this hotel is changing its targetted clientelle from partiers to families. Make no mistake, this is a Mexican-style hotel that caters to Mexican tourists. We were there from January 19 - 26, and the Mexican tourists filled the place on the days around and on the weekend. That said, we never felt like second-class citizens, and the staff (though most spoke at least rudimentary English) were delighted when we spoke the little Spanish we know. We booked our vacation through Signature (exitnow.ca), and the only word of warning I'd give is to do with them. We booked what was represented to us as a sunset sailboat cruise (the brochure even had a picture of the local sailboat Luna Azul), but what we ended up on was a sunset booze cruise. We were not impressed, and I've already written Signature about that. On the flip side, I could rave to you until tomorrow about our experience with Hurricane Divers. Bottom-line: it's your choice, and be clear on what you're looking for before you choose. The Castillo is a Mexican-style hotel, in a small village in a bay. We had a great time there, and loved the Huatulco area. We will definitely go back to both.

Before I start this review, I feel that it is necessary to point out that my parents, my kids, and I are pretty easy travellers. In previous years, we have stayed in Mexico, Italy, London in very basic rooms and camp every summer in a tent, so please understand that we are not fussy travellers who expect fancy accomodations. We booked our hotel room at the Castillo through Expedia.ca and received our confirmation email. Feeling a little nervous, I decided to email the Castillo to confirm our rooms. (We booked 2 rooms - one for my parents and one for my 2 children and me.) I received no response to the email so I sent a second asking for a response ASAP to ensure our rooms were booked. At this point, I decided to print up my confirmation email and bring it along just in case. I should also note that I phoned the Castillo before we left and nobody at the hotel spoke English. (By the way, when we arrived, every single person at the front desk spoke English.) Arriving in beautiful Huatulco in the late evening (8 - 9 p.m.), we headed directly to the Castillo to settle in. A very sweet employee there named Ricardo handed us drinks upon our arrival and greeted us. (Ricardo does not belong in this hotel. He was a gem.) When we got to the front desk, we were introduced to the reservation manager. Her name was Guadalupe, and she proceeded to tell us that their hotel had no room for us. We showed her our confirmation email and she just shook her head, repeating that there was no space for us. What followed was a 2 hour discussion with Guadalupe which led us absolutely nowhere. Finally, with two exhausted children & three very annoyed adults, she agreed to find us accomodation in another hotel owned by the Castillo. This hotel deserves a paragraph all to itself. After being driven to the hotel, we noticed that there wasn't much...actually no activity at all. As a matter of fact, other than the Castillo employee with us, there wasn't a soul in sight. We were led to to the very back of the hotel and on our way, passed the "pool". I wouldn't bathe a dog in this pool. We bumped into the only human being at this hotel who happened to speak English, so we asked him where everybody was. He told us that it was a "ghost hotel" (dead ringer for the Bates Motel) and before even getting into the room, we said "no way". So....back to the Castillo we went. We spoke again with the intransigent Guadalupe who seemed surprised that we were unhappy with the second hotel. I used her phone to call Expedia, hoping that they would be able to help us out somehow. We spoke to three Expedia employees who were very helpful. They gave us a couple of options for other hotels. At this point, suddenly out of nowhere (suuuure), a hotel room opened up for the evening. It was a junior suite with two levels and three beds. The kicker was that we could only stay for one night and find our own accomodations the next day. By this stage (approx. 11:00 pm), we really had no choice so we took the room and continued booking a room at Las Brisas with Expedia. This suite was suitable, other than the fact that it was a death trap for children. If you go to the Castillo's website, you can see a picture of the junior suite. The spiral staircases, although beautiful, are extremely dangerous for children. The entire time in this room was spent supervising the kids to make sure they didn't fall from the stairs or worse, from the upper level down to the lower level. Through the entire night, we could hear every sound other guests made in the hallway. The staff at this hotel (other than Ricardo) were rude, indifferent, and unbelievably unfriendly. Guadalupe, the reservations manager, was one of the most frustrating human beings I have ever encountered. She was very rude and quite unreasonable. On the following day, we spoke with the general manager briefly (no English ... so Guadalupe translated) who actually made faces at us as we walked away from him!! We spoke to the general manager (named Gerente En Turno) briefly who actually made faces at us as we walked away from him. We spoke to another Canadian in the lobby who confirmed our suspicions that the Castillo does not welcome Canadian or American guests, despite the fact that there is a Canada flag hanging at the front door (what a joke). She told us that the hotel is okay, but that any English speaking tourists are given second class treatment. I wasn't at all blown away by the physical appearance of the Castillo. However, to be fair, we didn't get to see the beach club and I gather that it is really nice. The lobby bar seemed to have a lot of activity, but to be honest, people seemed unfriendly and unhappy throughout the entire hotel. Expedia found us a suite at Las Brisas (more expensive). We had the time of our lives there and we have all agreed that we would stay there again in a heartbeat. If you really want to enjoy Huatulco, I recommend staying at a better grade hotel than the Castillo. It is truly the most beautiful place in Mexico, and it would be a real shame to waste your holiday at a hotel like the Castillo.

We stayed in Huatulco for the first time in March at the Hotel Castillo. We are seasoned travellers and usually stay at large, all-inclusive chains but wanted something smaller and more charming for this trip. We chose Hotel Castillo knowing that there were far fewer restaurants and bars at this facility and a quiet evening atmosphere. We made the right choice. The hotel is situated on a busy street across from the Marina in Santa Cruz where most of the boat excursions were located. Our room was located on the second floor and had a large balcony with a table, 4 chairs and umbrella that overlooked the street and marina. Though it was hectic at times, we enjoyed watching the traffic and people going about their busy day. We love to travel to immerse ourselves in the culture and found our bird's nest view quite humorous at times. We could walk out the lobby of the hotel and walk a mere 2 blocks to the town square where we often enjoyed a cup of iced coffee while chatting with newly acquainted friends. Beachfront restaurants were clean, friendly and buzzing with excitement. We found beach vendors selling freshly baked pastries, the most wonderful chicken tamales I've ever eaten, and locally grown coffee beans and chocolate. Though the hotel restaurant was limited, there was plenty to savor at a very reasonable cost. The Beach Club was a short walking distance (or shuttle if you choose) and very clean with an additional restaurant and bar, swimming pool and plenty of palapas and hammocks. We had the beach to ourselves as there is no other facility currently on the beach. We spent many hours relaxing and discovering this beautiful area. We found the food to our liking (generally all native cuisine) and the beverages cold and plentiful. A wonderful place to relax the afternoon away. When we weren't at the beach, we would take a short walk or taxi to La Crucecita, a small town about a mile away. There we found numerous restaurants, produce stores, working textile factories and souvenir shops. It was like stepping back in time for the town seems completely untouched by fast food chains and mega-discount stores. Our room was small but accommodating. We didn't spend much time there except to sleep and shower, the water was hot and had plenty of water pressure. Our air-conditioning worked great and that was all we cared about after a long day in the hot sun! The maid service was prompt and tidy but you must ask for additional bottled water. There were only a few complaints, one being the 'swim-up' bar seemed inoperable for several years and secondly, the 'adults only' terrace on the forth floor was locked all the time. It would have been nice to have a coctail before 3:00 without going to the beach club as the lobby bar has limited hours. English is not widely spoken and there were a few frustrating moments with the language barrier, but that was no fault of the hotel, just a characteristic of the region. We found the hotel suited our needs nicely and found this one of the most relaxing and enjoyable vacations we've ever had. Two of us stayed at Hotel Castillo for the price of one stay at one of the other larger facilites down the street, so our funds were open to explore the area and take in the local culture. I would highly recommend this hotel if you have a desire to totally unwind, discover the beautiful surroundings and take in the local flavors of the region. If you are looking for a noisy nightlife, bland cuisine and excessive ammenities, this is not the place for you. This is real, this is what it is all about.