The facts:
- We didn't do much research before driving to San Felipe.
- We stayed in this Motel for 3 nights.
- We payed around $150 (3 nights) - booked through
internet/phone.
- our expectations before the trip: low, we are camping folks.

Our experience:
Good/neutral:
- cleaning, security and Eldorade Ranch staff were very nice.
- room was clean and we had hot water.
- motel and parking seemed to be a safe place.
- nice, quite beach south of San Felipe. this was the only reason why decided to stay and not to just donate the $150 and drive home.

"sub-optimal":
- room: small, no closet. motel 6 style.
- "not very clean" area: EXTREMELY boring, except if you like fishing or driving ATV's all day long.
- breakfast in motel's restaurant was ok, definitly not extraordinary
- food in Eldorado Ranch restaurant could be better,
- overall: We were lucky that we brought a lot to eat from California... but we still lost weight.

San Felipe in general:
- good, fast road from Mexicali to San Felipe.
- boring, "not very clean" village.
- one beach (south of SF, called Rancho Estrella) was nice, but they charge $20 a day (camping), or $2 per hour.
- we met an older couple (probably 60+) from Arizona who asked us if we found anything interesting in the area. Execept for the lonely beach, nothing! They decided to shorten their vacation.
- nice weather, water was warm enough to swim a few minutes.
- night-life: very, very, very little.

Overall rating:
- we did not regret the trip, because we enjoyed Estrella beach and the weather.
- "a little bit" too expensive for a motel but it seems as if there are some nice campgrounds in the area
- food is terrible in the area, we love sea food a lot, but this probably ruined our appetit for sea food for long time. we tried three different, recommended restaurants (not the restaurant of the hotel, might be better than were we went).
- if we ever come back, then only for beach camping, because the beach was quite and nice, had restrooms and showers. the area around the southern beaches looks nicer than the village.

Of course, this is our personal opinion/experience.

I agree with the review posted prior to mine. We vacation frequently in San Felipe, and on many occasions have stayed at the Langosta. It has always been clean, and the staff have always been willing to help (extra towels, room service from the restuarant, etc), when approached in a respectful manner.
Something to make note of: the owner of El Dorado Ranch bought this hotel and restuarant over a year ago. He is obviously a VERY wealthy american, who is now buying up real estate within the town at an alarming rate. If something is unacceptable about your stay (more than slow service, and other gripes some seem to have), I would definitely put it in writing to him, as he should easily comp you for unaccecptable facilities, etc.
Lastly, I'd like to share one more thought. (I am NOT addressing the parking lot security guard issue a man wrote of). PLEASE do not hesitate to generously tip the maids or other staff, if you'd like special treatment. In San Felipe, a woman working full time, 6 days per week, makes only $35-50 per week on average! I can't even imagine buying enough food for the week with that money!

First of all ,you're in a small Mexican fishing town, so you should under stand, everthing isn't going to be up to a four star hotel. I like the hotel, the people were very nice, the food was great, and we are going to be back later this year, and after reading the other review before this one i can see where the term (the ugly American ) comes from!

We arrived on Friday afternoon, found the hotel after the directions they gave us got us lost. When we got in our room we expected something a little nicer but at least it was clean...
The hotel was Ok service in the restaurant was a little slow our housekeeper was great.
What was really frustrating was that before we made our reservations we asked if parking was included and if they had ample parking for larger cars they assured us that it would be no problem. They told us they had two large parking lots was that a surprise when we arrived and saw there two large parking lots or should I say there lack of especially when you drive a large SUV and you have two jetskis hitched to the back of it. What made it worst was that we would arrive from the Marina earlier than normal so we could assure parking and when we would get there the parking lots were half empty but the security guards would not allow us to park because they were reserved. We found out later that they would reserve you a spot for a fee. There was nothing at this Hotel that would ever bring me back other than desperation.