testimonials

Paradise indeed!

We stayed at Casa Rosa with our 2 daughters and 2 small grand-daughters, and all of us had a really good time. The house was exactly as advertised, very comfortable and well-equipped, and really peaceful. It is indeed paradise! Bernardino, the caretaker, and Maria, the housekeeper, were really great, always very helpful, and the meal they prepared for us at our request one evening was really delicious and not to be missed. It does make a difference having someone there if you need them, and Bernardino is great – discreet but always available. It’s also reassuring to have Noel, the security guard, outside every night as it is such a quiet location. It is difficult to imagine how this wonderful place could be any better.

IAN & RENEE
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

We just arrived home yesterday – had to send you a note to thank you for the wonderful stay at Casa Rosa. Loved everything about it. We had a group of 7 adults and there was plenty of room for us all & easy to get some privacy also. The pictures we had seen prior to our arrival do not do justice. There is no way to capture the beauty of Casa Rosa & Tankah Bay without experiencing it in person. My first walk to the beach brought tears to my eyes! You are truly blessed to own such a piece of paradise. Thank you for sharing. Maria and Bernardino are gems. We will definitely be return visitors.

Thanks again,

AMY & CHRIS M., CINDY & KIM R., JENNIFER M., JOSH A. & MELISSA G.
MINNESOTA & NEW YORK

We had a fabulous stay at Casa Rosa. This is about our 8th vacation rental and your tropical home ranks right up there. The beach is beautiful. The house perfect. The staff great. Thanks again for sharing your piece of paradise with us.

JENNIFER S.
MICHIGAN

We really enjoyed our stay – your house is perfect and we appreciate your effort to make Casa Rosa such a lovely and comfortable home away from home. It had everything you could possibly need.
Thanks,

CHA CHA W.

Thank you so very much for sharing your home with us here in Tankah. You have a beautiful slice of paradise here! We never got our honeymoon in 1983 and waiting until now was worth it. This was also the first trip without our 3 sons…It was almost too quiet. We thoroughly enjoyed everything about this part of Mexico, so much that we plan to visit again with our boys. Your staff, security and the locals here are so warm & friendly to us. It’s nice to see that in such a hectic, busy world. Again, thank you so much!

BRIAN & ANGELA S.

We had a wonderful time in your magnificent, calming place. Our kids and my brother’s kids really developed a thing for Noel, taking him cookies and coffee each night. They brought home little bracelets and grasshoppers that Noel fashioned from the plant fronds. Also, we hired Bernardino and Maria for a night of cooking, which was delicious. And, I perfected my skills at happy hour margaritas. What more can I say? It was just great to hang out seaside.

LINDA, BERKELEY
CALIFORNIA

Our stay at Casa Rosa was outstanding. We had a wonderful time visiting with family and as we did have a chance to see other houses in Tankah, we were happy to have chosen your place. The palm trees on the beach gave us and the children plenty of shade during the hot days. The pool quickly became the central gathering place and was a very nice addition. Both Maria and Bernardino were always very pleasant and we enjoyed learning about things from them. The children loved exploring and catching fiddler and hermit crabs. The waters right off the beach were warm and inviting – everyone loved snorkeling and just sitting in the water. Our family is considering making this trip a biennial event. Hopefully Casa Rosa will be available next time we want to come to Mexico!

Thank you,

LISA & ANTHONY C.
NEW YORK

Hi Sloane,

We got back from Mexico late Monday night despite the snows in the northeast after a truly wonderful vacation in the Yucatan. Your house is beautiful. It was perfect for our family and our grandchildren loved it. We felt we really only scratched the surface of all the offerings of the Yucatan and would love to come back at another time. We particularly loved kayaking in Sian Ka’an Nature Preserve. Our guide, Miguel, was fabulous and we saw so many birds and a crocodile lounging within feet of feeding great blue herons. He also recommended the most beautiful cenote we swam in. It is right near Coba, which we visited (had a great time there) and is called Moulton (I think). We had it all to ourselves.

Maria and Bernardino were so helpful and take care of the house beautifully. They also made us a fabulous dinner. So, again, thank you for sharing your beautiful home. I hope I will get a chance to meet you sometime.

FLORENCE K.

Dear Sloane,

Still suffering from a serious jet lag we would just like to inform you that we spent two very wonderful weeks at Casa Rosa. The house and surroundings really exceeded our expectations. The kids (our two, and our friends’ two) loved the place and thought this was their best vacation ever. And their parents tend to agree ? Thank you so much for sharing this with us!

Maria and Bernardino assisted us in the most efficient and pleasant manner and the three dinners they prepared for us were really wonderful. Gina came along the second day of our stay and was very helpful with some practicalities, and we were also very happy to have the discrete but very pleasant night guard around every night.

We went to Blue Sky twice and that was good every time. But the greatest fun was perhaps a 100 % local restaurant at the main street in Tulum Pueblo, with low Mexican prices, only Mexican guests, LOUD music from a jukebox and a boxing match at the TV. However, since the kids did not like their food (truly Mexican) we only went there once.

The pool was great for the kids, snorkeling between the reef and the beach was beatiful and the kayaks were great fun. We visited several attractions in the area during our stay, including the Tulum ruins (of course) and Coba, both of which Kristin and I visited when we backpacked in Mexico in 1993. We also had a very scenic boat trip on the lagoons and canals in Sinai-Kaan, and an interesting (but dusty) car ride down to Punta Allen. Our friends also went to Chitzen Itza and Ek-Balam. Being a scuba diver I had some ocean dives and several cavern dives in various cenotes at Hidden Worlds. The whole family (and our friends) also went on a cenote snorkeling tour with Hidden Worlds – highly recommendable! We also snorkeled all the way up the Casa Cenote – very beautiful indeed! By the way, one of the cavern dive guides I dove with at Hidden Worlds strongly recommended Lucky Fish Diver Center at Tankah Inn. Cave divers are very safety-focussed so this is probably a good center you may recommend to future guests (it is a small operation and did not have capacity when I asked them, so I ended up having my ocean dives with someone else).

I should mention that the area south of Tulum is of particular significance to our family: During a heavy thunderstorm in June 1902 my great grandfather, who was a captain in the Norwegian merchant navy, lost the masts of the sailing vessel he was commanding. Having no engine the vessel drifted ashore and sunk at the reef outside Bahia de la Ascension. Luckily enough everyone on board survived the incident, but my great grandfather, his wife, their two year old daughter and the entire crew spent two weeks at a desert beach before they were rescued. My grandmother (who wasn’t born then) even wrote a book about this many years later.

Again, we spent a wonderful time at Casa Rosa and I consider it more likely than not that we will return some day. I also do hope you take time to use the house yourselves!

Kind regards,

EIVIND V.
THE NETHERLANDS

We had an awesome time! Casa Rosa is a gem. The kayaks were excellent. Take care of this small slice of heaven. We love it!

CAROL & JEFF H.
CALIFORNIA

Hola Nick,

We had a wonderful time and your home is everything you promised. The weather was beautiful all week. There just wasn’t enough time to fit everything in. Maria and Bernadino made us two fabulous meals. Noel was very special. I brought him coffee and fruit and a granola bar every morning and dinner the two nights we ate there. Each day he had more of his palm leaf crafts for us and spent hours lots of chatting with us especially my son who knows a little Spanish. He also taught or tried to teach my other son (the art teacher) how to make the grasshoppers.

I so miss getting up each day and watching the sunrise form the top deck..my special time with my grandson son, Tully, who always found his way up there about 5:30. Thank you so much it was a wonderful departure from our cold dreary spring here in Milwaukee.

KATE T. 
MILWAUKEE, MINNESOTA

Hello Nick and Sloane,

There’s not much I can say about our stay at Casa Rosa which is not ecstatic and maybe a little excessive. But it would certainly not be exaggerated. Robindira, Robbie and I simply drank in your house, your palms, your beach, your pool, your high deck above the water, your moon waxing toward full, the distant roar of the surf, and all other sensual elements of the Gauguinesque paradise you’ve created down there. The warm, soothing wind which blew a soft, healing zephyr across the brows of tired urbanites, made air conditioning irrelevant. The weather, night and day was always pleasing and nurturing. Maria and Bernardino took good care of us, cooked us a great meal, and were always there if we needed them. And every restaurant you recommended worked for us.

On our last night there I was sitting on the deck by the pool and noticed a pile of seaweed down on the beach. On further thought, I couldn’t remember any piles of seaweed a kilometer inside the reef. And this pile, had a shiny top. I walked slowly towards it. The first night of the full moon gave everything a silvery sheen but still I couldn’t tell what I was seeing. Suddenly I stopped. The pile was moving towards me. And then I saw the huge shell and the flippers pushing the sand back. A giant sea turtle, probably four feet long, was preparing to lay its eggs right in front of me. I quickly ran into the house to find Robindira and Robbie and we spent the next hour and a half watching her. She would labor, thrusting her neck out and heaving up the leading edge of her shell, rest for 20 minutes and begin her terrific effort again. Finally her flippers began to flail and soon she had filled in the hole. covered her eggs with sand and slowly crawled off back into the sea. It was a primordial sight none of us will ever forget.

Another great moment for me was when the three of us climbed Nohuc Muul, my totemic spot at Coba and the highest Mayan pyramid in the Yucatan. I’ve come to Quintana Roo several times in the last 30 years and I climb it every time. But for the first time I was with my daughter Robindira and my son in law, Robbie. Wonderful. Great Cuban cigars on the deck at night combined with a shot of Chartreuse, a family tradition which, another miracle, Robindira found, one neglected bottle on a bottom shelf, at a deli-liquor store in Tuluum.

Thanks for a much needed respite from the grind. I don’t have a single suggestion. It was a perfect week out of time. We thank you with all our hearts.

ROB, ROBBIE & ROBINDIRA

Hi Nick,

Just a quick note to let you know what an incredible success our stay at Casa Rosa was. The property itself exceeded our expectations: perfectly situated, beautifully appointed and maintained, and equipped with everything we needed to make our stay with 4 adults and 5 young kids easy and entertaining. Truly, it was perfect. We are already trying to work out which week we want to book for next year.

Your staff were all as wonderful as promised – hardworking, professional, and friendly. Bernardino and Maria cooked us three fabulous dinners, and were patient and sweet with us and our children throughout. We appreciated the extra security of having Noel outside each night, and he was friendly and personable as well.

We had a nice visit with Rhett, who gave us a bunch of pointers — came in very helpful when we experienced our very own police shakedown on our way back from Tulum beach on one of our last nights.

Only improvement I can think of for next year is a way to use the microphones to use the karaoke function on the tv. (Neither we nor Bernardino could figure it out.)

Five star vacation. Still swooning.

Thanks again!

THE BAYSON & BERGER FAMILIES

Sloane:

I am so disappointed that I neglected to write anything in the guest book before we left wonderful Casa Rosa. Call it age (my 40th birthday is approaching quickly) or denial that I was leaving to go home… either way, I had so many wonderful things to say, and want to express my sincere gratitude for entrusting your wonderful home to us. I am hoping you can transfer a few of my thoughts below onto one of the book pages, so that future guests have at least a small sense of how grateful we are for the opportunity to stay at one of the most perfect places on earth.

Where do I start. I suppose my favorite part was the location. Right on a protected beach with constant trade winds, soft sand, and the most relaxing and lovely outdoor space imaginable. Although the beaches on Boca Pailla are my favorite, the accommodations are not particularly conducive or appropriate for children, and Casa Rosa served as the perfect setting for a family accommodation central to all the major sites in and around Tulum. Inside Casa Rosa was equally perfect with anything anyone would need to comfortably immerse themselves in their surroundings. My favorite part – the master bedroom where you could lie on the bed and read a book while the wind and waves lulled you to sleep. Ah – if I could bottle that feeling of total relaxation that I so rarely feel in my day-to-day life. I personally loved the ability to use your wonderful selection of cook books/kitchen tools to try my hand at new Mexican dishes, and thought the accommodations were perfect for kids and adults alike with comfortable mattresses, soft sheets and towels, and beautiful furnishings.

As advertised, Maria and Bernadino were amazing… friendly and discrete and wonderful to have around. The fish they cooked for us was seriously one of the best meals I have ever had, and Bernadino was kind enough to share the recipe, which I plan to try at home this weekend. I unfortunately never met Noel, although I saw him from time to time, always taking his job very seriously and making us feel safe and secure. The fact that I did not meet him was a testament to how discrete he is, not to his lack of personality. Despite all the bad press in America related to Mexican crime, I felt completely secure the entire time, and had no concerns about my children’s safety for even a moment. I went running alone every morning along the Tankah Tres road (beautiful), and never for a second felt threatened or scared. In fact, greeting the local workers going to/from their jobs at other Villas was a highlight since everyone was so friendly and respectful. No cat calls like back at home running in the City.

In a nutshell Sloane – we loved every minute, and I only regret limiting our time to 1 week. Please do not hesitate to use us as a reference for future guests, and expect to be hearing from us again soon to book another trip. My kids are still saying, at least once a day… “We miss Casa Rosa”. ME TOO!!!

Gracias Sloane!!!

THE S. FAMILY

Dear Nick,

We got back last night from Tulum and Casa Rosa. What a fantastic trip. We had a wonderful time on the beach, using the kayaks, exploring cenotes, checking out Tulum beaches, eating, drinking and playing together. It was really, really great.

We all hope to return to Casa Rosa sometime soon. It was so ideal in every way. Thanks again for sharing your slice of paradise.

Best,

EMILY M 
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA