Travel Issue

Baja offers paradise at a reasonable price 

By Lauren Goodman
Daily Forty-Niner

If a tropical getaway to Hawaii or Tahiti is impossible because of the lack of time or money, Baja California, Mexico provides for an easy, affordable vacation.

In an approximate four-hour drive, one can be soaking up rays and pounding margaritas in Rosarito's Las Rocas Resort and Spa Hotel.

Not only is Las Rocas tropical, but it is close and affordable. Just six miles south of Rosarito Beach, a 45-minute drive south of San Diego, Las Rocas is located at Km.38 on the free road to Ensenada.

Rooms are priced from as low as $65 a night up to $289 for one of two bedroom penthouses. All rooms have private terraces with an ocean view.

Unlike any other hotel in Rosarito, Las Rocas is an all inclusive resort, complete with two pools, three jacuzzis, three bars, two restaurants, a fitness center, sand volleyball, a tennis court and a new full-service day spa.

With marble floors and huge windows overlooking the ocean, the spa offers a variety of relaxing massages, body wraps, mineral baths, facials, manicures, pedicures, waxing and a hair salon.

If interested in the crazy bar scene of Rosarito, a drive into town offers Mexico's signature bars like Papas and Beer.

There is plenty of shopping just outside the resort in the town of Rosarito, especially for inexpensive furniture and Mexican pottery. Another town, which is close by and is famous for its delicious lobster and seafood, is Puerto Nuevo. Here you can get a one-and-a-half lobster dinner complete with beans, rice, tortillas and guacamole for $15.

An estimated cost for two people at the Las Rocas Resort and spa Hotel would be some where around $400. That includes a two-night stay in a double occupancy room at $65 per night, $25 for gas, $5 for the toll roads in Mexico, $45 to $55 a day for food and drinks per person and breakfast on Sunday morning before the drive home.