I read about this place here on Trip Advisor and booked it. My wife, daughter and I wanted to visit Chichen Itza and couldn't have picked a better place. We travel alot, having spent time traveling around Europe and staying at small hotels. I lived many years in Guadalajara, an American transplanted there. I have to say that this place fit the bill....beautiful grounds, trees, sounds and the food was good too....
you aren't staying at a 5 star resort here, but if your a little daring, then this is the place for you to stay. We had rented a car in Cancun, drove here in 2 hours, spent the night, toured Chichen Itza before all of the tourists arrived and returned to Cancun to stay at a 5 star resort...the only regret we had was not booking another night here....it was that good and peaceful...the trio during dinner was great, even my 9 year liked them...so if you wanted to visit the ruins stay here, get up early and enjoy...oh yeah, we rented from Avis, great service from them too. Rent from the Airport and you can return it in town along the hotel strip after you check in, it's alot closer that way..Ciao....

My husband and I stayed at the Hacienda Chichen at the beginning of our anniversary vacation May 13 - 15, 2008 and we loved it! It's a perfect place to stay a couple of nights to de-stress from the hustle and bustle of real life in the U.S.!

Here's what we loved:

- The staff was excellent and so helpful - anything we needed or any question we had, they were more than willing to help.

- The grounds and the Hacienda itself is breathtaking.

- The pool was wonderful and peaceful.

- THE SPA! Oh my word - I've never experienced anything like it. At home I have to pay for every single service, but if you get the deluxe Sasil-tun massage, they do a massage, cleansing, facial, hot stone therapy - the works! They even paint Mayan Clay all over your body and then wrap you in leaves from their garden to detoxify your skin - It is heaven - and, the spa room is decorated beautifully!

- All you can hear are the sounds of the birds - there is no radio by the pool, or crazy games like the big resorts.

- The rooms are decorated BEAUTIFULLY!

- Even though we were in the jungle, we did not see even ONE bug in our room, or anywhere else for that matter.

- The grounds have lots of interesting places to explore and take photographs (I'm an amateur photographer).

- It was incredibly romantic!

- The food was amazing - they grow all of their own organic veggies and everything we had was wonderful.

- The ambience on the terrace at meal times was very, very nice.

- They have wireless internet up on the front porch and comfy furniture so you can work or check in at home.

- They even have an American phone line so you can call home if your cell phones don't work (ours didn't).

- They support the Maya Foundation that helps a ton of local Mayans who live in poverty. It's an incredible organization and 10% of their profits go to help their community.

What I would warn you about:

- The food is wonderful but a little on the pricey side - bring extra money for food or bring snacks.

- There is no snack bar, just the restaurant. You can go into the little town and buy water and stuff at the grocery for a lot less money (we didn't eat any meals in town because we didn't know if we could trust it).

- There's no phone, radio or TV in the room (which we loved). I brought my ipod and little speakers and that was perfect for some relaxing music. There is a TV up in the Hacienda in a really nice living room that you can use anytime.

- This is not a place I would stay for an entire vacation, but I'd definitely go for more than just one night. There isn't a lot to do, but that was the beauty of it for us.

If you go, bring some donations in your suitcase for the Maya Foundation - you can e-mail Hacienda Chichen and they will tell you what the community is in need of. We brought an entire suitcase and then just left it so we didn't have to haul it back, and it felt good to know that we were contributing to the lovely people in the area.

Lanette Rajski
Osceola, Indiana, USA

The hacienda is within walking distance to the ruins. The hotel has amazing service and rooms are well kept and clean. Since, they only offer 28 rooms, its perfect for couples. You will feel, the hacienda is all for you. We booked the best suite they had, it has a huge two person tile tub. If you plan to use the tub, make sure you start filling it up early, it will take awhile to fill.
The swiming pool is awesome, very clean and quite.
We also made dinner reservations after the ruins spectacular they offer daily at night. The food is exceptional and nicely priced.
I understand the herbs and veggies are farmed at the hacienda.
The gardens are gorgeous, and nicely kept. You will find many bird species flying around. For you bird watchers you will enjoy, I understand they are well over 150 different type of birds.
You want a hotel by the ruins, if you can get a room here do it. You will love it.

PS
No phones,TV's and no radios are available in the rooms. Cell phone reception is strong. The hacienda offers a free internet access and you can also use a deskstop to check your emails at the bar.

The Hacienda is within walking distance of the Chichen Itza ruins. The rooms are clean and the A/C works. That's really all you need if your goal is to see the ruins, and it's all your going to get at the Hacienda.

The property consists of one central building with reception and a restaurant and a number of small cabins where the "suites" are located. (The "suites" have only one small bedroom, so they are misnamed.) The gardens and pathways in between the buildings are pleasingly landscaped, and it is a very pleasant place to walk around.

The room itself was clean, though with a bit of a mildew smell. The bathroom was also fine. Both rooms were smaller than I would have expected. The bed was old, and sagged too much. The remaining furniture in the room was very basic. While the A/C did a great job (I think it hit 35C the day we were there), it was very loud.

The restaurant was not good. The waiters were not on top of their game (one had trouble finding a fork!) and the service generally took way too long. The food itself was not very good.. reminded me of a place I went to when I was in school that we called "microwave Mexican".

You can walk from the hotel to a back (less crowded) entrance to the ruins--around 300m. And, the hotel is about a 5 minute bus ride to the center of Piste, from which you can get buses to other points in the Yucatan. An aside: if you can't get a bus direct to Piste, we were able to negotiate a taxi from Valladolid for about 200 pesos.

All-in: I'd recommend this for someone who wants a good hotel near Chichen Itza, but it definitely leaves a lot to be desired, especially given what we paid for it.