Take a Trip to the Rosarito Beach Hotel in Rosarito, Mexico

Last July, I took a trip with two of my favorite girl friends to Rosarito, Mexico. Despite all of the hype about how dangerous Mexico is, we felt perfectly safe and had an awesome time at the Rosarito Beach Hotel.

- Getting There -
Rosarito is just a short way from the Mexico-California border, and it is a beautiful drive along the Baja coast. Be sure to stop somewhere before crossing the border to purchase Mexican Auto Insurance. It is not very expensive, and will be more than worth it if something happens to your car in Mexico.

- The Rooms -
My friends and I had booked a 3 night package at the Rosarito Beach Hotel, which is the best value in resorts in Rosarito. We reserved one of the cheapest rooms, the ones with a garden view, so we could have more spending money while we were there. The rooms were small, but had a quaint, old-town Mexico kind of feel with floral curtains, ceramic tile, and Mexican art on the walls. At one point, we got to see what the ocean view rooms (the more expensive rooms) looked like, and we were shocked to see how incredibly nice and modern they were. Plus, they had air conditioning. We all agreed that if we ever came back we'd spend the extra money for the nicer room

- The Resort -
The Rosarito Beach Hotel is a resort; however it does not have a modern resort feel. It is much more traditional, old Mexico. At the back of the hotel are a number of pools and spas, and a beautiful garden. At the end of the garden is direct access to the beach.
We only spent a little bit of time in the pools and spas at the hotel, mainly because there were too many little kids. We did enjoy the spas, although one spa was way too hot, and the other was only luke warm. There is also a game room, which we spent hours at, playing pool until the wee hours of the morning. The best part by far, however, is the Karaoke Bar- more on that later!

-The Beach-
The beach is just wonderful! It is not covered in palm trees and greenery, or anything like that, but it is soft sand (not the coarse rocky stuff). The water is so warm and the sandy bottom so soft. We went in up to about our chests and could still see our toes. It is certainly much different than beaches in Los Angeles. We took a walk along the beach and discovered how nice it is that the stretch in front of our hotel was pretty much just hotel guests.

-The Locals-
Wandering along the beach and in the streets, you will see many of the locals trying to sell trinkets to the tourists. Avoid making eye contact or they will not leave you alone. My friends unfortunately made eye contact with a woman carrying bundles of blankets and cases filled with jewelry, and wearing about 30 hats on her head, and she came over to see what we wanted to buy. She would not leave, so they each ended up buying a flowery choker, just to make her go away.

- Food -
Dinner and margaritas are included with most reservations at the Rosarito Beach Hotel, so my friends and I took advantage of this and dined in the hotel's main restaurant, which is very nice, overlooking the hotel's pool and the beach. The dinner included in the package is either the buffet, or something from a special combo menu. Since my friends and I are kind of grossed out by the buffet concept (I mean, you don't know who has been breathing on the food or sticking their fingers in it), we went for the combo menu. It was excellent. We enjoyed tacos and enchiladas to our hearts' content. I must say, I have the suspicion that this was Americanized Mexican food, but it was delicious. I highly recommend taking advantage of this option.

-The Town-
During the day, there is a great marketplace where you can try your bargaining skills to buy all kinds of neat stuff.

In the evening, we wandered out onto the streets to see what was going on in the bars. What was going on ended up being pretty much nothing. There were GREAT deals on drinks, but the bars were all pretty much dead. Papas and Beer and Iggy's both looked like they were pretty cool places to be on weekends or spring break, but on a weekday in July, they were dead. If you are looking to meet a lot of people and party on the beach, consider going at Spring Break- but realize that the hotel rates are more expensive then.

We discovered that the best nightlife in Rosarito was right at the Rosarito Beach Hotel, at the Karaoke Bar. It was the most lively place we had been all night! We had a blast singing Karaoke, and dancing to other people singing Karaoke.

Rosarito Beach Hotel is the best resort in Rosarito. The prices are very reasonable, and it is an all around great place to visit. To find out more, check out the website at rosaritobeachhotel.com