I have stayed here many times, and I have also stayed at other hotels in Cabo. The reason we always stay here is the staff, and the excellent service. I feel like a family memeber when I syat at Casa Rafaels, and the long term staff always remember me. I would HIGHLY recommend this place to anyone, unless your looking for a hopping pool scene. Its very casual and laid back, no phone or tv in room. I love the resident cats and birds, and the food...well its outstanding. Absolutley anything you need, ask for and they will deliver..no problem.

We had no reservations for this property, and had simply viewed it on-line. When we arrived in early May, we were lucky there was room vacancy for 2 nights for us. This is a mid-priced establishment with rooms starting at US $75. There is a small discount if you pay w/ cash or travelers checks.
We were given room Cari...which had windows facing the street and side of the building. The hotel has now been painted a bright green (over the pink)...so it looks very different from old photos of it. All rooms are located on the 2nd floor of this old house. There is limited free parking in a small 'lot' in front of the hotel. And you are literally steps away from Medano beach....literally down a walkway.
Our room was large; with a king size bed and private bath in old mexican tile. No TV, phones or alarm clocks. We were surprised to see a light magnifying mirror, hair dryer in the bath, and CD player/radio w/ remote with an excellent AC unit pumping cool air. The bed was very firm with clean sheets and towels. We also could not believe they offered fluffy spa-type robes, which hung on the bathroom door. WOW!!!!!
The ceiling fan didn't work though. Outside our room is a central 'drawing room' type area with kitchy tables and loveseats made from broken colorful mexican tile. And the walls were lined with funky art. The rooms (about 7 of them) surrounded this open area. The owners digs are behind a locked gate...the next flight up. You reach the 2nd floor via stairs ONLY.
We saw one other tenant our stay, and the place was very quiet...other than workers chatting early AM on both days (on the bottom floor). There is a large 5-10 gallon of purfied bottled water to help yourself and nice glass flasks and glasses in your room for the water.
On the first floor, this establishment is known for its wine bar, cigar bar and restaurant. It was very quiet during our stay, and we heard no noise of any time from these areas. There is also a small 'lap pool' outside that looked wonderful, but we swam in the ocean instead.
I love cats, and the owner has a 'shop cat' that lounges inside and out of the hotel. Also, squaking parrots have a large cage of their own facing the street. Staff is english speaking and the hotel is clean as a whistle. We'd stay here again, just because of it's funkyness and central location.

After looking at the earlier reviews of Casa Rafael's we decided to spend a weekend there before moving to our timeshare on Monday. We set up the everything with Maria via emails and used the vouchers from Los Cabos Guide to bring the stay down to under 50.00 per night. We were rewarded with a very comfortable room in a great location.
The rooms are upstairs form the resturant/ bar surrounding an indoor courtyard. The room we had was furnished with a Queen bed, firm but comfortable, love seat, Dorm style fridge set up with a minibar if needed, large closet and dresser drawers. No TV, but a CD player for music. Full, roomy bathroom with a walk in shower. Also a combo safe that you program for security. Each room is air-conditioned, but we didnt need it.
The room we had faced the street. With the previous reviews, we were concerned about the early noise. The construction next door is not as big a concern now as the building shell is completed. There still will be noise but it seemed to be lessened without the heavy equipment. Facing the street does have its share of noise as it is a main thoroghfare.

Its location is a plus, a short walk to the beach, the Mall and Marina area, and the main part of town is just a few blocks.
Yes, as a previous review mentioned, the pool is small and unheated. We did not use it, but in the hot summer, it should be a nice place to relax with a cool drink.

We did not try the resturant, but other we know did and all raved about the food. We will definitely try it next year.
If we decide to come down early again next year, we will book here again. The staff was great and really made us feel welcome.

Here is my review of the Casa Raphael:

Here we go: I arrived CSL on Sunday Jan21st to stay until Tuesday Jan 30th and arrival was easy and very unbusy for Cabo. Straight thru from customs and directly out to my waiting Transcabo driver. Fortunately I was the only pick up for that day! Straight through to Casa Raphael in the middle of town. This is the first time I have stayed at this location, after having stayed at Solmar two years ago and loved the pacific side. This time, I was traveling with a girlfriend (arriving a few days after me) and thought that the pacific side would be too quiet for two single gals!

As it turned out, Casa Raphael was the perfect location! Right in the middle of Medano beach, without paying a ton of money. Using the Los Cabos magazine vouchers, my nightly rate came to approximately 49.00 a night! Great place! I just have to warn you about the construction going on everywhere near Medano. Right next door is the new Dorado timeshare going in. This is owned in partnership with the owner of Casa Raphael. It is going to be beautiful, but a bit pricey! They have a model room set up in Casa Raphael, and it is very modern and lovely, but I prefer the small Casa Raphael!

The rooms are very clean and decorated very nicely. Most rooms have a small fridge in the room. Full bathroom with giant step in showers. Each room has a CD player, but NOT TV or phone. I was fine with this, my friend that arrived after I did, kind of missed having a tv late at night after returning to the hotel, and or early morning… but she got used to it. Make sure to ask for rooms by name. The quiet side of the hotel was Sophia, Cari, and Josephine. There were two others, but I cannot remember the names. There is only one or two rooms with two double beds. Those are on the noisy construction side. AVOID them at this time, due to the workers starting as early as 6:30 am!!! Yikes!!! Also, the lunch truck arrived at 7:00 to feed them all, and it was outside my room! No sleeping in on that side! Fortunately, after two days, when my girlfriend arrived, they moved me and her to the quiet side where we each had a king size bed in our separate rooms. Since the pool at Casa Raphael is so small, it is actually a lap pool, we spent our beach time in front of Cabo Villas, using their beach chairs and just ordered a drink and a small bite to eat. They did not mind and took very good care of us! We did bring our own drinks after buying the first, just asking for ice as we went along. We left a good tip each day and the waiters were very sweet to us.

Back to the vouchers, there was a glitch and somehow, the assistant to Gerry at Los Cabos Magazine sent the vouchers to the wrong address! They had me at a Oregon address which I was at two years ago when I first found out about the voucher program. Well, when I place the order, Gerry corrected the address to my home in California, but when the assistant entered the information into the Fedex spreadsheet, is showed me automatically at the Oregon address. She was not aware that this address did not match the new information that Gerry had entered in the order, and they went automatically to the old Oregon address! Well, two days before I was to leave, I called to find out what was going on. She entered the tracking number and it showed that they were delivered to the Portland address! Yikes! Not good!



Fortunately, after almost a full week, they got the vouchers to Casa Raphael, and they were so wonderful. Told me not to worry, they held my credit card info, and when the vouchers eventually made it there, all was fine.

I have to say, that there is a restaurant in the Casa Raphael that is quite popular, but we did not try it,as I had my list of places to try and there were too many, although it did smell wonderful and every night when we would return for a glass of wine in the piano bar, the clientele seemed to be raving for the food! Great staff and the waiters there are HUGE flirts! I think they thought my girlfriend and I would be their sugar mommas!! Uhhhh, NOT!!!!! They must try on a weekly basis to hit on the single women!
We enjoyed the attention, but once they realized we were not interested, they went back to just being polite! No harm done!

So, I would definitely recommend Casa Raphael, even without the vouchers. It is a very welcoming place and I will definitely stay there again. If anyone has any questions you can contact me at chicamundo@yahoo.com