Hotel Agua Blanca

Lovely hotel in a great location; was with a tour group that had visited the biospheres to witness the monarch butterfly migration (an hour or two away). We had a great happy hour and dinner....the trees, flora, birds and waterfall are fabulous! Just one word of caution: we were only there for one night and the next morning I noticed all these bite marks on my arms and shoulders. We had swam in the hot springs pools the afternoon before and apparently there are midges/no-see 'ems or whatever you call them. Had I known, I would have brought out my Deet. It's been almost a week since I returned to the US and I'm still itching!

I stayed here one night as part of a natural habitat trip. This is a beautiful property that is family run. There is a green space that faces a canyon with sheer walls that have colorful rock. There is a trail with a slight uphill to many birds tweeting in the morning. A bit further is a trail to a very tall waterfall. There are many flowers. I think this would be a beautiful platform a wedding. The rooms have colorful painted ceiling beams and doors. The bedspreads are colorful as well. There is a beautiful swimming pool that is fed by hot springs. It is warm, not hot. There are options to do a sweat lodge experience and a massage. I did both. I was at first a bit nervous about the sweat lodge but I feel it was a great experience. The massage was not expensive and was more of a free style massage, We had a good buffet dinner organized for our group. I remember having fish that was fresh. No fishy taste. We were entertained by for 4 high school students who danced for us with 3 costume changes.

The location for this hotel is unbeatable! The surrounding mountains, river, trees combined with the property gardens is gorgeous - a very private, quiet oasis in Central Mexico. We were there to see the Monarchs, which was good but not great and were grateful to have a place to return to that felt so special. The mineral pool is lovely - takes getting used to given color, etc. but a very nice way to relax after a long day hiking and out on the road. The rooms are very clean and while the hotel is older things have been pretty well maintained. We had one bed that was fine and one bed that had an older mattress but we slept fine. No A/C but not needed this time of year. The restaurant staff are very friendly and helpful and the food was good - we did find that for our group they tended to Americanize the food a bit but if you ask ahead of time, you can easily get Mexican food. Breakfast was plentiful. They have filtered water stations throughout the property, which is much appreciated. We wish they would do more about their sustainability practices and remove small plastic bottles from the bathrooms - would be so simple to replace with bulk.

A friend found a yoga retreat in her facebook feed that included a trip to a Monarch butterfly preserve. I was immediately drawn to it as the hotel was a final stop on a trip I had been planning which was unfortunately cancelled by the organizer. The hotel, Agua Blanca, sounded amazing with natural mineral springs filling their pools, acres to hike with several waterfalls, spa treatments & healthy meals. A friend & I booked the retreat & we were not disappointed. We flew into Mexico City & a driver met us & the others on the retreat to take us on the 3 hour drive to our destination. When we arrived we were greeted by the family that owns the property. They were all wonderful & treated us like family. The rooms were clean & bright. There were water filtering stations around the property to fill your water bottles. They offered bottled water if we wanted but it really wasn’t necessary. No one had any digestive issues with water, ice or food served. Our retreat included yoga, several spa treatments, guided hikes, meditation, a sweat lodge experience, all meals, with the trip to see the Monarch’s as a bonus! There is a bar & gift shop which were, of course, extra. The entire family was involved. I had inquired about tipping in advance knowing I was getting spa treatments & was told they have a cashless system. If I wanted to add a tip at the end of my stay, it would be shared by all 30 employees, many of whom we had no direct contact with but just as valuable to operating & maintaining the property. It clearly does take a village to maintain this beautiful property. I highly recommend Agua Blanca & hope to return with more friends in the future!