An introduction to Hacienda San Jose

My wife and I were trying to find the perfect place to celebrate our tenth anniversary. We found it. A group in Mexico called Grupo Plan has been buying run down Haciendas on the Yucatan peninsula and restoring them as magnificent resorts. The resorts are operated as part of the Starwood Luxury Collection. We were priveleged to be able to stay at the Hacienda San Jose for three nights from April 9 to 12 2005. The place is hard to describe in words, hopefully the pictures below will help.

The people that work at the hotel were amazing. Since my wife speaks Spanish, they shared all kinds of incredible stories with us. They made us feel so welcome, like we were staying with friends, only friends that take incredible care of you.

The entire resort consists of 13 rooms, of which only 3-5 were occupied at the time we were there. We were upgraded to a Mayan Villa. It is a standalone structure that has a very large main room, a long hall with doors that open to both sides. One side opens to a private porch with dining area and a hammock. The other side opens to a private plunge pool. The hall also has two sinks and leads into the bathroom that has a huge shower and toilet. It was by far, the most amazing room that I have ever stayed at.

It is hard to express the beauty and expanse of the hotels grounds. We rode horses around them one day, seeing the gardens where they grew vegetables for the restaurant, to the homes for some of the people that worked at the Hacienda. Every day we saw at least three gardeners working on the grounds. Every morning we would awake to all the birds singing in the area. The server that brought us breakfast told us the birds were singing to make a beautiful day.

The only disapointment was that the main pool was closed for rennovations. The smaller pool was fine, but from the picture below, you can see the incredible main pool.

Now I am just trying to figure out how to earn enough money to return to the Hacienda San Jose and explore the other Haciendas of the collection.