Villas El Encanto

Charming garden boutique hotel

Villas El Encanto's staff are extremely kind, starting with the handmade welcome gift. You feel like family. Rooms are in one of six private or 2-3 suite villas on the lush gated grounds, along with the owners' home, eleven friendly dogs (usually in the back yard), and a resident peacock. We stayed in both the one-bedroom apartment with its own kitchen, and the private pool deluxe suite. Both were well appointed and comfortable; beds are restfully firm with a variety of pillow types. The one-bedroom apartment kitchen is stocked, including all kitchen needs - even a little cooler for a day at the beach. Birds are plentiful - as birdwatchers, we saw at least a dozen new species on the grounds alone including the endemic Cozumel Emerald. Flowering trees attract warblers and bananaquits. Local parrots visit briefly twice a day. Both the main and private pools are unheated but comfortable for a dip, at 5 feet maximum depth. Location is good - far enough from the busy area to be quiet at night, but close to the water and some nice restaurants. We walked most places within 30 minutes, and for ice, hot tortillas, or anything you forgot to bring with you, the Chedraui supermarket is just three blocks away (use the Mexican ATMs there for a lower withdrawal fee). The local tourism economy runs mostly on cash, but Villas accepts credit no problem. They can arrange for taxi to pick up and even local rental cars or dune buggies to be delivered to the door. Cleaning staff do a phenomenal job. The Palapa and its plentiful hammocks are oh-so-comfortable! Like us, you won't want to leave.

We didn't have anything we disliked enough to spoil our stay. Construction on two of the villas did make daytime noise but not before 9 am. Here are a few useful tips for travelers however. Hot water can take a minute of running the tap - lesson learned: leave the shower temperature in the private pool deluxe suite on warm while running the tap if not sure which side is hot the first day. We left it running on cold and wrongly convinced ourselves there was no hot water. :) Birds in the morning can be loud, though we enjoyed them, and louvered windows don't fully block outdoor sounds. The one bedroom apartment's kitchen area is quite narrow but sufficient; the private pool deluxe suite has a shared kitchen. First-floor rooms should expect a few ants, but it's a tropical paradise at your doorstep after all. The private pool is semi-private; it is visible from part of the grounds (though not where people usually are). Safes are provided in every room but vary in size; the safe in the one-bedroom apartment with kitchen would not hold even a large tablet, for instance, but the deluxe suite's safe would hold a small laptop.