We stayed in Midas for 5 nights in early January 2012.
If you are looking for a place to stay in-town, Midas is in the middle of it all: it is between 10 and 15 min walk from all bars, restaurants, tour operators’ offices, town market - try sapote and cocote (coco plum) fruits - and 2 general stores that they call supermarkets. At the same time Midas is not in the dusty centre of San Ignacio – grounds are nicely landscaped, so that you feel like you are in the middle of the forest or at the very least in an oasis removed from hustle and bustle of this busy little town.
Midas is a midsize, nice and clean hotel that offers different levels of comfort. The owner/manager Michael Preston will be the first to tell you that the cabins are somewhat outdated – they were last renovated in mid 90s. Personnel do their best to maintain cabins in order but you can see that some window screens on these cabins are a little damaged and I’ve even seen an occasional leak of plumbing under these cabins. Cabanas are the most popular midrange type of accommodations. They are in perfect order, relatively new and well maintained. As far as I could see the only down side is the total lack of screening on the doors which is problematic because of insects. Same problem applies to the 3 ‘deluxe’ rooms in the garden building where we stayed. Otherwise the deluxe rooms are big, beds are huge and comfortable, and decorations are artful and nice. Weak water pressure though.
There is also a 3 story building with a number of ‘deluxe’ rooms. These offer standard 3 star/2 diamond amenities. Our friends stayed in one of these rooms. Apart of some strange ideas of room designers (like having no doors on bathrooms) one can think of these rooms as very similar to rooms in well maintained Quality Inn in midsize American city.
All types of accommodations are air-conditioned and en-suite.
Pool is big and relatively clean – we actually used it. The bar works late and Michael will mix some unusual drinks for you.
Staff is very helpful. When negotiating reservations over email Dorita was very open and upfront about everything in the hotel including the service fee that is mentioned in other reviews. Think of it as part of the rate. Midas is still worth it. It may be $15 per night more than Martha’s Guesthouse but it is so much nicer. So unless you are on a shoestring I would stay at Midas. BTW Michael explained to me that he doesn’t want to roll the service fee into the rate because it goes directly towards his employees. Sounds fair, isn’t it?
Given where it is located and how difficult it is to maintain a decent establishment in this part of the world, I would have rated Midas 5 stars, if not for one very serious problem that we encountered day after day at breakfast time: it takes forever to be served. You have to allocate at least half an hour for it. I gave up twice in 5 days and left for a tour without breakfast because tour cars were waiting for us. Given that you are going on a tour every day early in the morning this is no minor drawback. Plus breakfast is the only thing in Midas that is somewhat overpriced.
There is no restaurant on premises. But Hodges (a decent establishment) is about 500 feet away so this is no problem even when you come back from tour late. Otherwise go to Hanna’s or Evra’s in town.
They can arrange tours for you but you can save a few bucks by doing it yourself. All tour operators are open late (until 8:30pm).
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC