Las Balsas Relais & Chateaux

A gorgeous hotel in a fabulous setting right on the lake. The staff were wonderful and we had delicious food. It is worth upgrading your room to a suite for the extra room, it was a real treat.

Beautiful location on the lake with great views. The hotel is quite Victorian in some ways decorated well but slightly as your grandmother might have decorated. The bedrooms are comfortable and well equipped. We had a corner suite with stunning views of the lake. The staff are very friendly and helpful. The restaurant is good and they have an interesting wine list. We went on 2 hikes recommended by the hotel: the 12km peninsula walk. You get the catamaran out and walk back. Beautiful forest and a nice hike but plenty of others. The second hike which was difficult to find but spectacular: the Belvedere hike. An amazing view from the top across many lakes and then a walk to a waterfall for a picnic. I would have liked to stay longer as it is a truly beautiful area.

We stayed 4 nights at Las Balsas and there’s no denying it’s in an amazing location with wonderful views! Other positives are the lovely spa, the delicious food, the charming communal areas, and the friendly staff. Although, on the whole, we had a great stay, unfortunately it didn't quite live up to the high expectations we had, given the cost and the Relais & Chateaux label. For example, our room was tiny, with very little storage space for clothes and nowhere to store our bags. The walls were completely bare so it felt a little sparse (especially compared to the rest of the property, which had a cosy decor). The bathroom felt a little worn, particularly around all its wooden features. We also found it a little uncomfortable that the bed was directly against the wall without any kind of headboard. Also, we were woken up during the night by a kind of scratching noise (it sounded like there was a mouse trapped in the roof area) - which was an intermittent issue for the rest of our stay. The reception staff arranged for a maintenance person to look into it but apparently nothing was found so nothing was done to fix it. After dinner one night it was mentioned that we could move to a different room but we weren't minded to pack and move at 10pm so we declined on the basis we'd see how we got on that night. Although we reminded the staff a few times about the ongoing problem, there continued to be no resolution and no further offer to move room and generally, frankly, they didn't seem bothered. We would have expected a bit more of a sense of urgency in trying to resolve the issue and more proactivity to make our stay more comfortable. It's really not ideal when you can't get a good night's sleep. The food at the restaurant was generally excellent although it would have been nice if there could have been specials on offer or different menus for some of the evenings. It seemed a little unusual in a restaurant of this quality for the menu to be the same every day during the 4 days we were there. It would also be nice to see a wider variety of wines available by the glass. Additionally, although we were on a full board rate and there was no problem to arrange a lunchbox for one of the days, we were rather underwhelmed by what we were given: we didn't think a wrap, a banana and a small bag of granola each was really on point for this kind of property (especially compared to the 3 course lunch you could have on site). It was nice to have soft drinks available in the mini bar in the room but it was odd there were no glasses to drink them from (until they were delivered during the turndown each evening) and they were all in plastic bottles, which seemed incongruous with the approach other properties are taking to single-use plastic (and actually our picnic basket included 2 refillable water bottles so it's odd they are inconsistent with this). Equally, it was nice to have an espresso machine in the room but only offering 2 capsules per day seem