Casa Zuniga Might be the Coolest B&B in Guanajuato

I don’t usually do B&Bs. I don’t usually do reviews of accommodations. However, here I am writing a post on a B&B that we stayed in during our two nights in Guanajuato, Mexico. Why? Because Casa Zuniga is that awesome and one of a kind.

Booking a room in Guanajuato during Cervantino, we were lucky to find anything, much less a place with such great reviews and location. The place Bertha recommended to us was full and I was worried there might not be any decent (and cheap) hotels left in the city, even though it was over a month before our departure. To my surprise, I found Casa Zuniga on Hotels.com for our requested dates and all of its reviews on the usual suspect websites checked out. Okay, more than checked out. They were wonderful, glowing, almost kind of unbelievably good. Surely these folks were exaggerating…

Just minutes after booking, the owner of Casa Zuniga, Rick, sent me an email asking how we planned to arrive to the city so that he could provide me with directions and an estimated cost of a cab ride from the bus station. How considerate! It’s always good to know how much a cab ride should cost before say buenos tardes to your cab driver and just hop in his car.

Location. Casa Zuniga is located steps from El Pípila and up above the city. I was kind of nervous that this might be too far away from the action of Guanajuato, but I’d read that upon check-in Rick provides you with a card which gives you free rides on the funicular. The funicular is located super close to Casa Zuniga and takes you straight down to the mix of the city in a few seconds… and back up the hill when you’re tipsy and need to lie down in the comfort of your room.

All taxi drivers know where El Pípila is and when we arrived in the city of Guanajuato, we found a little man right around the monument who scooped up our bags and led us down some steps to Casa Zuniga. He buzzed at the outside door, we tipped him a few pesos (the climbing with your luggage can leave you winded and his services were truly appreciated), and Rick’s wife, Carmen, greeted us and took us to meet Rick.

Great Owner. Rick is high energy, warm, and he has his welcome routine/speech down. He showed us to our room (the Trini), then walked us through all the common areas and explained that breakfast was at 9 AM. Then we walked together to the funicular and Rick pointed out landmarks in the city as well as recommending a few places to visit and eat. He’s originally from San Francisco and built this place on what used to be a dump overlooking Guanajuato over ten years ago. What a badass, enterprising dude.

Facilities. There are metal sculptures and unique artwork all over Casa Zuniga. The architecture and layout of the place is interesting in that hey-I’m-not-sure-if-you-could-build-it-this-way-in-the-US-but-I-like-it style of Mexican building codes, and it’s awesome. You never know where you’ll find another guest room or what kind of views you’ll see next. There’s a lap pool on the roof/deck area and even a helicopter landing pad… I’m still not sure if that’s really for actual use or not (but when you’re standing near the Pípila, you can see it and it helps identify where you’re staying).

Room. Our room was comfortable, spacious and contained a relatively big bathroom with great water pressure, soap, shampoo, and hot water (not always a given during our Mexico adventures). We even had our own private balcony where we could see the crazy colorful vistas. Oh yeah, and great wi-fi if you care about that!

Breakfast. Breakfast in the morning was f’n amazing. There were eggs cooked with pico de gallo, nopales, fresh pastries, beans, and a special treat cooked by the women in the kitchen each morning. The first day it was a stuffed pepper and the second it was a crepe filled with mushrooms and sauce. It was also fun to get to chat with the other guests during breakfast each morning. It was a good way to get recommendations for places to check out in the city and as always it was interesting to meet other travelers and even some expats.

Price. All of this resulted in our most expensive accommodation during our entire trip… a whopping $85 USD a night (including taxes, fees, and breakfast). Seriously, a great deal.

Views. Aside from the great hosts, delicious food, and convenient location, the coolest part about this B&B were the views. You really can’t beat waking up to these scenes every morning. In fact, it was kind of like when we stayed on Railay Beach in Thailand… we figured that once you start getting used to something that beautiful, it’s probably time to pack up and leave. Wouldn’t wanna get desensitized.

During our trip, I read a book called Smile When You’re Lying by Chuck Thompson which was f’n hilarious and I highly recommend. (Thanks to Audrey of That Backpacker for the post that led to me to discover it!) In the book, Thompson lists the places he’s supposed to like as a traveler but doesn’t, among them Graceland, Colorado, Florida, Austin, the old Yankee Stadium, and B&B’s:

Whenever I see “B&B” on a website or brochure, I imagine sharing a bathroom with strangers, awkward chats with the owners, and ‘savoring’ breakfast with a talkative couple from North Carolina.”

But Casa Zuniga didn’t fit the mold of the typical, cheesy, lame B&B where women drag their significant others. It really changed my mind about them. We felt comfortable despite being some of the youngest folks (that we saw) there and it gave us a great place from which to explore Guanajuato. Rick even saw us off after breakfast on our final morning, making sure he called us a cab driver who would drop us by an ATM on the way to the bus station… after we’d so responsibly spent all of our pesos the night before. He then emailed us after we left to check in and tell us to come back any time. I’ve never experienced such concern and care from a host and I’d definitely recommend it to anybody looking to visit Guanajuato. I’d love to go back myself one day!

What do you guys think about B&Bs? How have your experiences been? Would you want to stay somewhere like Casa Zuniga?