No Wrong Turns: Accommodations and Restaurants in Todos Santos

by Kelsey Mulyk on

Todos Santos, the little town I mentioned in my last post, offers a quiet escape from the typical vacation destination of Cabo San Lucas. This small town is home to a mix of Mexicans, artists, surfers and ex-pats and offers some of the best surfing in the Baja. Pair that with great places to eat, interesting galleries, beautiful beaches and cheap beer and you have a pretty perfect vacation spot.

To get here you will need to fly into the San Jose Del Cabo Airport and either rent a car or hire a taxi. It is more cost efficient to rent a car and the SJD airport has numerous car rental agencies to choose from. The highway from Cabo San Lucas to Todos Santos is apparently the most dangerous road in Mexico, so make sure you are prepared to focus on the journey ahead. If you are tired after your flight, spend a night in Cabo San Lucas and head out the next day refreshed and ready to enter the madness that is Mexican driving.

Once you arrive in Todos Santos, you will find that there are numerous places to stay as well as some truly great places to eat. Be advised that most of Baja California Sur has been affected by the influx of foreign money, so prices are higher than those found in mainland Mexico but they are less expensive that Cabo. That being said, depending on the time of year you travel, here you might be able to negotiate lower room costs, especially if you are planning on a longer-term stay.

Where to Stay: Short -Term
Don’t be surprised to find the hotels in Todos Santos starting at about $45US a night for pretty basic accommodations. The Maria Bonita Hotel, located at the corner of Colegio Militar and Hidalgo, offers clean rooms with hot showers for around $50US per night. The couple who manage the hotel are very friendly and will happily encourage all of your Spanish speaking attempts. Be warned this hotel is located on a main street so it can be quite loud at night. There also happens to be a laundromat below the hotel which also contributes to the noise by running at all hours of the day and night.

Hotel California….nope it’s not the one from the Eagles song though the rumors about it have run rampant in the past few years. This hotel, found on Calle Juarez, was one of the first hotels in Todos Santos and is now, after upgrades, renovations and an ownership change, one of the busiest hotels here with a full restaurant, bar and its own souvenir shop. This hotel tends to be full of people just off of tourist buses and the staff expects to be tipped well.

Sole Caliente is located near La Pastora beach and provides a quiet and relaxing atmosphere for those looking to get away. Run by a very amicable Italian guy named Alberto, you can expect a warm welcome and a very peaceful stay. It is worth knowing that the beach this accommodation is located by is not safe to swim in, but it is the perfect spot to whale watch during the months of March and April. Getting here is a little bit tricky to explain as there are not too many road signs out this way — email the management for detailed instructions.

Where to Stay: Long -Term
If you are looking for a mellow place to spend anywhere from a few weeks to maybe even a few months, you should definitely look into the local vacation rentals. This little town is full of them! Fully-furnished homes complete with kitchens are a great way to save money when you are traveling. Cooking for yourself lets you try your hand at creating local dishes, and with all the cheap produce around you can’t go wrong. Alternatively, if you have a bit of time, it is worth coming into to town and asking around. There is usually someone looking to rent their place out while they go home for a visit. If you are reliable and trustworthy, you’ll most likely be able to negotiate a good price. Good places to start looking or asking around are El Tecolote bookstore or Cafe Felix which are both located on Calle Juarez, the main street.

Where to Eat
Main Street Taco Stand
Please tell me you love tacos! If you do, head to the main street to the large taco stand beside the El Tecolote bookstore and dig into tacos de carne asada, burritos and the cholesterol increaser papas rellenas (Mexican stuffed potatoes). This place can feed two people for less than $8US. Unfortunately of you want to drink you will have to pick up your own beer elsewhere as they don’t serve alcohol. Be careful what you say when you eat here, the owner is fluent in English though he chooses not to speak it.

Café Todos Santos
Delicious dishes, both American and Mexican, are served at this long-standing eating establishment. Meals are a bit pricier compared to other places but the large portions make up for this. Coffee aficionados will be more than pleased to walk into this café and find a strong espresso awaiting them. They also have an amazing selection of baked goods — the banana bread is my personal favorite. To get a good cup of coffee or stop in for a mea,l take a left on Topete and then a right onto Calle Centenario to find this cafe. One thing to note: the servers at this restaurant are notoriously bad. That’s just the way it is according to the locals — you get great food but poor service. To be honest the food at the Café Todos Santos is worth it, if you can deal with the lackluster service.

Il Giardino
Ok, so it is not Mexican cuisine but if you love pizza then you will love this little restaurant. Run by an Italian family, you can enjoy oven-fired pizzas, pastas, salads and other entrees all of which can be paired with a wine from their wine list. Pizzas cost about $12 US but they can easily feed two people or, if you are starving, add an appetizer and call it an even $25 US for the both of you. This Italian eatery is located on Calle Degollado about three blocks past the Pemex station.

There are many more great hotels and restaurants to experience in Todos Santos — this is a mere sampling of what this pueblo has to offer. It is pretty amazing when such a small town has so many great hotels and restaurants….maybe that is why some people come here and never ever leave.

Next Up: What to do in Todos Santos

“No Wrong Turns” chronicl
es Kelsey and her husband’s road trip — in real time — from Canada to the southern tip of South America in their trusty red VW Golf named Marlin.

WiFi? Yes. Free breakfast? Not so much: What else are hotels offering these days?

by Jamie Rhein on

If you’re a person who likes a free breakfast when you go to a hotel–the donuts and Fruit Loops call out your name the moment you open your eyes in the morning, you might be missing out.

According to a survey conducted for the American Hotel and Lodging Association, of the 10,000 hotels out of 45,000 that participated, they’re providing wireless Internet more often, but cutting out the free breakfast. You can get the free breakfast at many– but don’t assume.

Here is a summary of the survey findings to help you compare what you’ll be getting for your dollars before you make that reservation.

  • 91% offer Internet (15% hotels charge for it, and of those, 75% to 91% of them fit into the luxury to up upscale category)
  • 75% have a computer in the lobby for guest use
  • 47% have indoor swimming pools.
  • 58% have outdoor swimming pools
  • 82% have refrigerator in the room
  • 40% have only non-smoking rooms
  • 25% have allergy-free rooms
  • 67% have weekend specials
  • 56% allow pets, and of those, 67% charge extra for your four-legged family member.
  • 43% have flat-screen TVs
  • 48% offer vegan meals
  • 66% offer healthy meals
  • 70% offer a free newspaper

And about that free breakfast? 59% offer it, but that’s down 9% from two years ago, the last time the survey was conducted.

For more details, read the MSNBC article. You’ll notice how the changes reflect societal trends and habits.

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Tripkick your way to a better hotel room

by Jeremy Kressmann on

If you travel at all for business, you’ve probably experienced your fair share of horrendous, anonymous hotel rooms. You know that room you had that smelled like a combination of mildew and bleach? Or with the million dollar view of the garbage bins out the back? What about that room where the construction crew jackhammers woke you up at 7am? Yeah, been there.

Perhaps then we should all take a look at Tripkick, a website that promises to help find “the hotel room that’s perfect for you.” Rather than focusing on overall ratings for hotels, Tripkick helps users rate and review particular rooms in each hotel. Looking for a nice view of the bay at the Grand Hyatt San Francisco? Request a room ending in either 05, 06, 07 or 08. How about if you want to find the quietest room at the W in Chicago? Stay away from rooms ending in numbers 28-33, which are noisier because of the nearby El trains.

While Tripkick offers some interesting functionality, it’s not for everyone. Hotel bargain hunters are at an obvious disadvantage here – mostly because hotels frequently assign less desirable rooms to customers who book the most discounted rates. It’s going to be a much tougher sell to get upgraded to nice “bay view” room when you booked a 20% off room using Priceline. Not to mention most of us are not really considering swanky places like the Four Seasons, which form the majority of Tripkick’s hotel reviews. But frequent business travelers take note – a site like Tripkick can mean the difference between a good night’s sleep or yet another jackhammer wake-up call.

Upgrade your Priority Club account with free Ambassador Status

by Grant Martin on

If you travel with any regular frequency, hopefully you’ve started stockpiling rewards points. Whether these are frequent flyer miles with an airline or reward points with a credit card or hotel chain, it’s surprising how quickly things will add up when you’re on the road.

Most rewards programs have tiers of earning and rewards — American Airlines, for example has Gold, Platinum and Executive Platinum. At each of these levels, one earns and can redeem their awards at different rates. The problem is that you have to travel a certain amount to obtain each level. In AA’s case, you have to fly 25k, 50k or 75k miles to reach these tiers, so most people won’t reach these levels and be able to reap the benefits.

Occasionally, however, one can sneak into higher brackets by participating in a promotion or being granted “status” by a customer representative. In the case of a new Priority Club promo code that came out, this is the case.

Priority Club is the frequent traveler rewards program of the Intercontinental Hotels system, home to Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza and a few other, smaller chains.

Apparently by going to the secret promotion link and plugging in code 5446 you can catapult from your lowly plebeian status all of the way up to Ambassador Status in one, swift, ordinary-traveler-smiting move after staying in an IC hotels group three times before June 30.

And what do you get with this hifalutin Ambassador Status? According to members of the underground, you get “5,000 bonus points along with the usual perks of the Ambassador Status – Weekend Night Certificate, Guaranteed room upgrade to superior, Extended check-out (4 p.m.), Special check-in desk, Gold Elite Reward Status, and fresh fruit and mineral water upon arrival”

Not a bad deal for three nights in the next few months.

I’m not really sure how widespread or publicized this promo goes, or whether it was ever meant for the general public. So if you do decide to indulge, register as soon as you can before they yank the promo.

Travel Alert! $50 off Expedia coupon code

by Grant Martin on

[Edit — this deal has expired! Congrats to those who got in!]

Tooling around for hotels in Japan (I still haven’t found anything, Firestone) this morning, I stumbled upon a mistake discount code good for Expedia.com

Code ELITEPLUS50 takes 50$ off per night for what appears to be any hotel room in the database over 50$. I’ve been pandering around all morning pricing out various rooms over various periods. For starters, my girlfriend is leaving town early Monday morning next week, so I booked a hotel room for under 10$ near the airport so we can wake up as late as possible.

Hotels in Chicago, Tokyo and everywhere else I looked seem to work as well.

It crossed my mind that I could enroll in one of those hotel rewards jobbers and try too book a month straight of 4$ hotel rooms. Show up the first day, get the key and let the points roll in. After a month or so, show back up and check out.

But I suppose that would be unethical, wouldn’t it?

So if you do make use of this coupon code, try to keep it under control. I have a feeling once Expedia gets around to finding out their error that the code won’t last more than a couple of hours anyway. Happy booking.