Hotel Bahia Taganga

First, the good stuff: The views from the room, the restaurant and the pool were stunning. None of the staff spoke English, but they were all very patient with us using Google Translate and were very responsive to our requests, which included pre-ordering breakfast to be ready earlier than traditionally offered due to us having to be at the dive shop each day by 8am. Breakfast was hearty and filling. The staff also carried our two heavy bags up and down several flights of steep stairs, which would have been very difficult for us to do ourselves. Now, the rest of the story. The room is VERY small. The bathroom was tiny, and had NO shelves to put anything on. There is a small closet in the room with a few hangers and shelves, and a TINY table and chairs, and only one tiny nightstand. I ended up needing to use one of the chairs as a nightstand so both my wife and I could have a bottle of water and a place to place our phones at night. Also, there is NO HOT WATER. The sink and shower are FREEZING COLD. Apparently, this is common in hotels in different parts of the world, but I have have only run into this in a remote jungle camp in Belize and a remote diving outpost in Indonesia, NOT in a hotel in town with a restaurant, pool, WiFi, etc. The pool is clean and beautiful, but oddly, also colder than expected, considering how strong the sun is there. There is indeed a large Jacuzzi which could seat at least 8 people and has jets, also COLD (are we detecting a theme here?). Lastly, and I need to state that this is not the hotel’s fault, nor it it anything they can control, but Taganga is LOUD. For reference, I live in New York City so I am not accustomed to silence, but picture multiple establishments blasting music on speakers meant for a stadium-sized concert, concurrently playing their own music, starting around 10am and going ALL. NIGHT. LONG. Considering this hotel is up the mountain a bit and this was all coming from several blocks away, it still felt like I was trying to sleep in the middle of a parade. So if you read, like I did, that Taganga is a chill fishing village, apparently that’s old news. The scuba diving there was great (highly recommend Poseidon Divers!) but it is arguably the LEAST relaxing place I have ever been.

Staff is wonderfull, friendly and helpful. I felt welcome and safe. The swiming pool and it view is increduble. The food at the restaurant is pretty basic but does the job. The room that we got had an awesome view, but auper noisy over the week end. We had to change room after for one night to make sure we could at least sleep a few hours. Matress needs a little update. Other than that i recomande, it beautiful, close to playa grande beach and Taganga is a little hidden treasure to discover.

A garbage compactor at the entrance of hotel. Roads similar to a war zone. Wind sound in the trees will not allow you to sleep the whole night. Merchants ready to overcharge for their products. Hotel without hot water. Definitely no a good place for vacation. If you find a hotel without a Bible in their night table. You can imagine than no even cult people want to visit there.