The Singular Patagonia Hotel

Esse é um daqueles hotéis fora da curva. Que ficam gravados na memória. Em primeiro lugar pela arquitetura e estilo. Era um antigo frigorífico de ovelhas na região da Patagônia chilena. Na reforma eles mantiveram toda a história e equipamentos do antigo frigorífico. Quartos maravilhosos com vista imensa para o lago. Decoração perfeita e muito confortável. Restaurante é outro destaque. Cozinha maravilhosa, gourmet e atendimento do pessoal de salão é impecável. Café da manhã perfeito. Se tem um ponto que eu poderia sugerir é melhorar um pouco mais a carta de vinhos, pois o Chile tem tantas opções de vinícolas e vinhos maravilhosos que achei a carta de vinhos do restaurante um pouco desalinhada com o potencial do Chile. Mas nada que comprometa o conjunto.

I would have given 3.5 stars but that's unavailable. Starting with the good: The hotel property is beautiful and unusual. Very historic and the architects made great use of the existing buildings. The excursions were great - albeit very weather dependent and , because they would not let us book anything until we got there, we missed the very one activity we wanted to do because of weather on the days after we got there. (Had they let us book in advance, we could have arranged to arrive on time on our first day). Instead, they charge you for a full day at the all-inclusive price and then leave you to find something to do in town. The guides were delightful, interesting and friendly - consistent with all our other guides elsewhere in Chile. And we loved the excursions we did (particularly the Baguales hike). The negatives: They knew we were arriving at 9:30 am yet failed to take that into consideration in terms of arranging the cleaning of our room and making it available. We saw no one else check in that early or for the next few hours - yet they stuck to a 3 pm check-in (they let us in at 2:50 pm). (We know they knew because our travel agent told them in a three way email and I also emailed about an effort to book an excursion for that morning). Thus, we were on our own with no morning activity that we paid for. The food is mediocre and the same menu all week. The service in the restaurant is also mediocre. One evening my husband and I arrived in the restaurant and ordered cocktails before dinner. After 20 minutes of not being served, I went to the bar and noticed that there were no bartenders. We asked the server and she simply had no idea. The same thing happened with a coffee order the first morning we arrived (sans room). As mentioned in another review of mine, one of the hotels we stayed at packed us a boxed lunch when we left for a midday flight. Not only does the Singular not do that but after we checked out - our flight was delayed 4 1/2 hours. so we took a taxi back to the Singular and asked to store our luggage while we had lunch. The front desk and the restaurant host each told us we could eat there on our dime - even though we just checked out after paying a high all-inclusive rate for three days. That might be reasonable - but it is not 5-star service, particularly given the price.

This is an excellent hotel with exemplary service especially at dinner. I have to say however that breakfast needs improvement. There are very few staff on duty so that when a rush of clients enter staff tend to be overwhelmed. Fewer staff means that tables are not cleared quickly and arriving for breakfast to be met with a range of tables covered the remains of guests breakfasts is not a welcoming sight. In all other respects this hotel exceeds all expectations.