At the end of 2019 and for NYE, we discovered a magical place in Baja California, Mexico. Located about 3h away (driving) from Orange County, California, Encuentro Guadalupe is an unique place in the Guadalupe Valley, a beautiful wine region of Mexico.

The Place

When you arrived at Encuentro Guadalupe, you discover a place with modern architecture and unique design that fits perfectly this beautiful region of Mexico.

From what we have seen during our stay, Encuentro Guadalupe offers about 13 cabins / rooms (most of them are behind the hills) as well as a stunning glass house that you can rent for 4 people. This very modern house can be combined with the 3 cabins located around it to welcome a group of 10 people (definitely on our list for our next trip + who wants to join?!).

The glass house on the right and one of the additional room on the left of the picture.

The Food

Number one, the Raw Oyster Bar. This seafood restaurant, located on site and open during the weekend, is just incredible. We tried it as soon as we arrived and shared few items including oysters, shrimp ceviche and octopus tacos. Everything was fantastic. As Ryan was saying, we will drive from California only to have lunch there! Also, look at this presentation…

Number two, the Breakfast place. Walking distance from the rooms (if you are behind the hill), the terrace offers an incredible view on the pool and the valley. A continental breakfast, including granola, fruits, coffee and orange juice is offer and you can also pay for some additional items (which of course we did). I’ll let you discover my go to below.

Favorite breakfast choice: blueberry French toast.

Their is quite a few options outside of the hotel for dinner, lunch and of course, wine tasting. Our ultimate favorite was Fauna. I didn’t take any great pictures there (click on the link to see how it look like) but this place was incredible and quite affordable for the quality of the food and service. Talking about driving 3h just to have dinner somewhere, we will definitely do it for Fauna! The scallops served with ink and lemon juice were to die for.

Beside the Raw Oyster Bar, Encuentro Guadalupe has another restaurant (close to the lobby area) as well as a wine cellar downstairs. We were not able to experience the cellar this time (NYE was not a good time to use this place) but would love to try it once we will be back.

The Rooms

As mentioned above, our room was located on the other side of the hill, close to the breakfast place and the pool. You can walk there from the lobby area (main building) or a shuttle will take you there. More private, we felt it was really a plus to be on this side of the hill.

Each room has a little private outside terrace with a fire place. The room is coming with all of the necessary amenities as well as robes that we had to try on while drinking some Mexican wines :)

I did not take any great picture of the inside of the room but you have some in my instastories.

Few bonus pics below: jacuzzi, my favorite view of our stay and, of course some local beers tasting :) Let me know what you thought about those pictures and article!