Acasi Rustic Beach

Our three nights stay at Acasi Rustic Beach was a lovely relaxing time of reading, swimming and snoozing. We had been told by our travel agent that this was a relatively new offering by the Casa San Agustin Hotel in Cartagena - a small resort on the beach, with just six cabins. There were also day visitors to the resort, only guests from the hotel allowed apparently. Access is only by boat, with an expensive speedboat trip from Cartagena. Once we arrived, the staff looked after us very well. Each night we were there, it was quiet with just two or three cabins occupied. And day visitors don’t come each day either. Our cabin was small but had enough space to lay out suitcases. There was no hanging space or shelves for clothes, and limited desk/table space for day to day items. The bathroom was fine, although fairly basic. No hanging rails for towels, only two hooks provided. The mosquito net around the bed was needed (we had a few bites) but that impeded the flow of air in the room. The cabins don’t have air conditioning, which made for warm nights under the mosquito nets. There was a ceiling fan as well as a standing fan but they did struggle with the warm humid weather. Each cabin has a deck with deck chairs, however there is no shade on the deck after 11am or so, which meant our deck chairs had little use. The fronts of the cabins are made of louvred doors and face the beach and sunset. Opening the louvres helped the flow of air into the room but impacted on privacy. And a rain storm on our last night meant that the floor just inside our room got quite wet, despite our louvres being closed. I believe a roof over the deck would help with storms and relaxing on the deck. The pool was very pleasant but with little shade until late in the day. It would help if there was a shaded area beside the pool, where you could lounge after swims in the pool. The beach was more fun to swim at although we were warned about going out too far into the channel where local boats sped back and forth. The pool is also a distance from the restaurant/bar so to get drinks you would have to walk over to place an order. The restaurant/bar is cooled by ceiling fans and is open to the elements. The menu is not extensive but everything was cooked fresh and was nicely presented. As a vegetarian, I found the menu limiting but the staff did the best they could. They had to wait until new supplies arrived each day with the boat. Overall we enjoyed our time at the resort but we were there to do nothing. Other guest might be disappointed.