Originally, we planned to spend three nights at the Barceló
Hotel in Mismaloya, an all-inclusive resort with beautiful pools, group
activities available, and all food and drink included in the price. We’ve only gone to an
all-inclusive resort once and decided we didn’t eat enough to get our money’s
worth. Plus, much of the food is served buffet style—not our favorite. But we wanted to evaluate it once more.
So, we decided to try hanging out at the Barceló Hotel for one day.
A Day Pass costs 1000 pesos (equivalent to $50 US) per person and seemed
reasonable to see if we liked it before spending the high prices to stay the
night. A Day Pass allowed us to use the facilities from 9:00 AM until 6:00 PM.
I was glad we arrived in time for me to join the water aerobics class at noon. That was great fun! The activity board showed that we'd missed the 10:00AM Kayak Tour, and there was Bingo, water volleyball, and other activities in the afternoon.
We had a choice of relaxing in lounge chairs near several
pools or on the beach under umbrellas. We parked ourselves near two man-made
waterfalls next to the adult-only pool and soon were cooling off in the water.
A large iguana looking to cool off, too, crawled behind my
lounge chair and into the artificial stream running next to me. Several
tourists were amazed to see him and shocked when he started looking for a place
to dive into the pool, splashing him to make him stay in the vegetation. After
living in Sayulita, it was just another pretty iguana to us.
We had lunch at the buffet, and before we left at 6:00 we had a mediocre pizza at the café overlooking Mismaloya Bay—the only two restaurants available to people with a Day Pass.
We wished we would have skipped them and walked south a little way down the
beach and across the shallow river to one of the palapa restaurants. We would
have preferred to have fish tacos instead of buffet food, and the margaritas would have
probably tasted better, too.
Jon and I have good memories of spending our honeymoon at Hotel La Jolla de Mismaloya next to Barceló Hotel and enjoying the little town of Mismaloya almost thirty years ago. Now La Jolla de Mismaloya is a condominium. This was our first time back to Playa Mismaloya in thirty years.
Lesson Learned: When we return to Playa Mismaloya, we will either spend the day at one of the palapa restaurants and cool off in the ocean. That's more our style and less expensive. Or we'll use the wonderful pools and lounge chairs at Barceló Hotel with a Day Pass again, but eat elsewhere.
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Interesting to know. I too think that I would prefer Mismaloya and palapa restaurants. Thanks for the overview.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment.
DeleteAny update?
ReplyDeleteYelapa is another fun place to visit. It's past Mismaloya and you reach it by boat. I invite you to see more at this link: https://retirementbeforetheageof59.blogspot.com/2023/04/birthday-weekend-in-yelapawhat.html
DeleteYelapa is another fun place to visit. It's past Mismaloya and you reach it by boat. I invite you to see more at this link: https://retirementbeforetheageof59.blogspot.com/2023/04/birthday-weekend-in-yelapawhat.html
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