Hacienda La Laguna is clean, quiet and reasonably priced but it was not what we were seeking, or had expected from our investigations beforehand (including reading the reviews and both this and other sites).

We had decided to book a place out of town as a bit of a get-away, but this wasn't really somewhere you could sit around all day and relax. Essentially, it was a bit like a North American or Australian motel, with the standard rooms opening directly onto a large internal courtyard and the 'deluxe' rooms off a narrow internal corridor. The rooms were quite compact and there also wasn't really anywhere else on-site to sit around apart from the pool area. We had planned to spend a few nights here but moved on to somewhere else after one night.

We booked a double/twin 'deluxe' room in advance, and specifically requested a double bed, This was not commented upon in a subsequent email exchange, but once we had checked in we were told none were available, so ended up with twin beds. We could lived with that, but I didn't like the apparent deception as (from the fire plan, at least) all rooms seemed to have twin beds. As far as we could tell there was also no one else in any other deluxe room on that night.

That said, the 'deluxe' room was clean and modern, but it was also quite small and dark. Some effort seemed to have been put into the decor but it had only one small window and that faced onto a small internal courtyard. For some reason we were also given the room that overlooked the stairs onto the roof, and there was a fair bit of traffic up and down those stairs while we were there (I think because the lift was being fixed) so we didn't have much privacy when the blind was raised ... but then it was dark when the blind was down! I suggest that if you are seeking that sort of place then the standard rooms are probably sufficient even though they are older and a little more basic (although they seemed to have only one small window in each room as well).

On the positive side, the continental breakfast was a basic 'serve yourself' but there was plenty to eat and it was of reasonable quality (and was included in our rate). You definitely need a car (or taxi) to get there but it was not difficult to find from the map that was emailed to me. We didn't try the restaurant as we had been driving all day and still had some of our 'picnic' with us, so we stayed in our room and searched for a better hotel for the following nights.

The pool looked nice from the photos but it was actually in a large open area that was some distance from the rooms ... out of the front door of the hotel, along the road and across a carpark. It wasn't an especially inviting setting to laze around in, and seemed a bit 'neglected'. It looked like there used to be a bar next to the pool but that was all closed up while were there, and didn't appeared to have been used for a some time. In fact there was a bit of a sense that the whole place (including the museum and catering school) had been developed a fe years ago but wasn't attracting very many customers anymore and so was gradually cutting back on its costs. We were there in mid-September but there were apparently no more than 5 or 6 other rooms occupied, and all but us were in the standard rooms.

A couple of odd things: there was a strange smell in the corridor of 'deluxe' rooms (perhaps from the spa underneath) and also the power and water went out in the middle of the night and did not return until about 6.30am. Perhaps it was a one-off, but it made a late-night toilet stop a little tricky!

In summary, if you have done your research in advance and are happy to stay in this sort of place and location then it might suit your needs as well as some of the other reviews suggest. However, I suggest going with the cheaper standard rooms and just use it as a base for staying overnight.