We spent one night at the Hotel Fiesta Real in San Carlos, Sonora right after Labor Day - there were few guests. The room had paint peeling from the ceiling, no light at the entrance to the room so you had to grope for the lock after dark. There were no towels in the room and the very pleasant receptionist who was doing double duty at the front desk and dining room could only find two thin towels - no hand towels or bathmat. The only light in the room was between the beds as the ceiling light had no bulb. The ceiling of the porch outside has fallen, exposing wiring, which is rusting away in the salt air. The room had two beds but only one miserable pillow per bed. The toilet only stopped running if you lifted the top and manually pushed the flapper valve down. There were no hangers for clothes.

We were tired after a long drive from Guadalajara so tolerated these conditions as it was only one night but I would seriously recommend that everyone double check the rooms before checking in. The cost for a room in this condition was outrageous.

There were some pluses - the location is great, the staff that we met were nice and the a/c worked well - will we ever stay there again - no way!

We travel with a dog which can lead to hotel problems in Mexico. The Fiesta Real was a happy find after spending other nights in San Carlos in much less plesent environs. The hotel is right on the beach and has a good restaurant. We ate in the Bar with our dog under the table. For those traveling with a pet I highly recommend this hotel as the best deal in town

Reservations: we made a reservation of 1 room for 2 nights. When we arrived we found out that we had a reservation for 2 rooms and one night. Fortunately it wasn't a problem to fix this.

Room: Stayed at Room 111. Recently renovated and perhaps the best room at the hotel, not only because it's the only room with TV but because the front desk clerks referred to it as "the new room". Don't know when the renovations happened but the faucet was already broken. Never mind the plasma TV. There is no remote and the TV it's there only if you want to connect it to your laptop (and have the cables for it) or to play DVDs, which you must bring from home of course. No local channels. No novelas!!!! Room is clean and huge.

Service: Waiters at the restaurant are very attentive.

Location: great, just in front of the beach. There is a 24 hr small store across the street where you can find almost anything (a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g!)

Amenities: it's all on you... Free Wi-Fee in the lobby...

Downside: the chairs under the palapas are all broken...

This was my first visit to Mexico ans so my first stay in a Mexican hotel. The Fiesta Real is right on the beach and the room had a view of the sea and was spacious but, it was also very basic, the A/C was old and noisy, although it did cool the room down, that may have been because it was March and not July!

The staff were friendly most of the time although it was sometimes difficult to get them to cooperate, we'd booked one rom with a kitchenette as we had food to keep in the fridge. When we checked in we were told 'sorry the room is dirty and so you can't have one with a kitchen', as you can imagine this did not go down well, it was after all around 4.30pm and so surely we asked the room should have been cleaned!

However, after my husband asked for help in Spanish and explained why we needed a kitchen or at last acss to a fridge, they were helpful and got us one room with a kitchen and fridge.

Downside to this was there were cockroaches!! Not I have to say in our room, which did not have a kitchen, so we were unmolested.

We ate in the beach bar and the food was good as were the margaritas, there was live music and the atmosphere was great, this was the best part about the hotel as far as we were concerned.