The Charming Alvaro at the Casablanca Hotel, Ruta del Vino

After many hours, we finally get the rental car situation finalized and it’s time to head off to our hotel in Casablanca.   We have 4 nights of luxury, wine tasting and beach lounging ahead of us!   After so much traveling about, I can’t wait to get settled into a hotel and relax for a few days!  Given we left during “rush hour” we are expecting a lot of traffic heading out of the city in anticipation of the long weekend  New Year’s celebrations.  We are pleasantly surprised by the lack of traffic and it only takes an hour to get to Casablanca, our home until it’s time to head back to the states. 

I must admit the hotel has all the amenities one could want, a pool, a spa, a restaurant etc.   However, it appears to fall just a little short of the luxury I was expecting based on the website, especially considering I had just come from the W in Santiago. 

It appears to be under expansion and renovation.   It looks like it was a much smaller place with just a few rooms and a couple of cabins.   However, they have added a whole new section of rooms, along with a sauna and another pool.   I think within the next year, it will be beautiful, but right now it’s still in the “construction phase” and not quite up to expectations. 

However, the owners Alvaro and his wife Monica are the sweetest people you could ever hope to meet.  Alvaro greets us and has gone out of his way to make sure we are happy.  He is a very charming man and you can’t help but forgive the place its shortcomings because you can tell he has a vision for the place and is putting his heart and soul into it.   He and his wife run the place together.   It truly is charming but I guess the Traveling Hillbilly has become a little spoiled and was really hoping for a little more luxury the last few days of the trip.