# Staying at DRI's Villa's De Santa Fe. The improvements are noticable



## dougp26364 (May 18, 2011)

Judging from the online pictures of Villa's De Santa Fe, DRI needs to update their site. I was originally slightly concerned as the units on their website looked dated and not of the quality we prefer. That worry was unfounded. New ugraded bedding and linens, flat panal TV's in all the rooms, upgraded counter top appliances, new furniture that is comfortable to sit on, very strong internet connection, granit counter tops and tiled bathrooms with very good quality shower heads,. Overall this is an impressive resort considering that it is situated only a couple of blocks from Santa Fe's Plaza area. No, there are no views and the pool and hot tubs are small but, this is a timeshare built on a small footprint in an urban area.

So yes, DRI does have some pretty high MF's but, they are using those MF's to upgrade and maintain their resorts and employ quality staff. So long as that's the case, I'm happy with our DRI ownership and happy with our THE Club membership, which makes internal exchanges/reservations easy for DRI managed resorts.

You can view photo's of the 2 bedroom unit and the resort in general at http://dougp26364.smugmug.com/Trave...a-Fe-Santa/17053420_2c2PL6#1291371567_z9Nx8rQ The only area I know I don't have pictures of is the fitness room and that's because I haven't had my camera with me when there was no one there using it.


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## pgnewarkboy (May 20, 2011)

Great review.  We are going for our second time in September.  The last time we went was 10 years ago.  The location was great the rooms were so so.  Sounds like we have something to look forward to.  Any restaurant or activity recommendations?


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## dougp26364 (May 20, 2011)

pgnewarkboy said:


> Great review.  We are going for our second time in September.  The last time we went was 10 years ago.  The location was great the rooms were so so.  Sounds like we have something to look forward to.  Any restaurant or activity recommendations?



I can't say we found any restaurants that we enjoyed so much as to put them on a recommended list. We did enjoy our meal at the Santa Fe Bar and Grill in the shopping center that's almost next door to the resort. We enjoyed the lunch special at Roof Top Pizza and we enjoyed a couple of breakfasts at Burro Alley Cafe. While we'd eat at any of these places again, I also wouldn't go out of my way to recommend them.

Two restaurants we will avoid are the Ore House and Tia Sofia's. Both are on our list of never again for dining. 

Tia Sofia's appears to be a locals favorite judging by the crowd but, we found their breakfast overpriced for what we recieved, of small quanitity and not that great of quality. When we left Tia Sofia's, we walked a block or two down the street to Starbucks for coffee and one of their breakfast sandwhich's. But like I said, the locals seemed to love the place. It was packed from the time we arrived until the time we left. It might just have been us. Food is subjective 

The Ore House was just plain B.A.D. from the service to the meal. We arrived at 5:00 PM, they didn't start seating for dinner until 5:30. We sat at the bar for a couple of drinks. They were out of a couple different brands of beers and we got to listen to staff fight about who was doing their job and who wasn't. They were having issues with their computers and I had to leave my CC with the bar tender to be run later when it was fixed (watching that account closely now). I ordered the steak and cheese enchlada for $18, expecting a steak with an enchlada on the side but, it was an enchlada with a very small bite of steak on the side. My wife ordered the prime rib and was served the but cut first (did I mention we were among the first patrons in the restaurant). When they took that back she was served an overcoooked slice rather than medium rare. We learned, while sitting at the bar listening to the employee complaint session that ownership was changing next month. I feel for the new owners as they really need to clean house and start from scratch. There was nothing about this restaurant as it stands now that's worth keeping. I know I said that food is subjective but, with the Ore House, there are so many things wrong that I'd never recommend the place based on our experience.

The best meal we had is a sad statement IMHO. The best meal was at Outback Steakhouse. Outback has never been on our favorites list but, they were the safe bet for a decent steak at a reasonable price. Red Lobster came in second but, they mangaged to mess up my meal not once but twice. They brought out the wrong shrimp and served the crab legs ice cold, as in NOT cooked. 

One of the things I had looked forward to about Santa Fe was dining out. My biggest dissapointment about Santa Fe turned out to be dining out.

Af for activities we were essentially feeling around in the dark. We spent a lot of time on the Plaza shopping and checking out the sights. We enjoyed the brief self tour of Loretto Chapel with it's "miracle staircase". St. Francis Church is open to the public and is interesting to see. We really didn't go through any of the museums that I'd have liked to have seen (the wife just didn't have any interest). We drove up to Taos and, while it was a nice drive, I really didn't need to see any more art or pottery stores. We found Eagles Nest and Anglefire to be a waste of gas driving over to see them. We did enjoy the Puye Cliff Dwellings tour, which is a short drive out of town over by Los Alamos.


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## pgnewarkboy (May 20, 2011)

dougp26364 said:


> I can't say we found any restaurants that we enjoyed so much as to put them on a recommended list. We did enjoy our meal at the Santa Fe Bar and Grill in the shopping center that's almost next door to the resort. We enjoyed the lunch special at Roof Top Pizza and we enjoyed a couple of breakfasts at Burro Alley Cafe. While we'd eat at any of these places again, I also wouldn't go out of my way to recommend them.
> 
> Two restaurants we will avoid are the Ore House and Tia Sofia's. Both are on our list of never again for dining.
> 
> ...



What in the world happened to Santa Fe?!  When we went there was a thriving independent restaurant scene.  Apparently things can change and 10 years is enough time for much to happen.  Thanks for the info.  We will not waste our time on the places you give a dishonorable mention. As for breakfast, there once was a great bagel place not to far from the resort that served an excellent breakfast.  I hope its still there and you just missed it.


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## unavailable55 (Jun 11, 2011)

The Santa Fe area is 7 hours from my home.  Is this a resort that I should consider ownership at?


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## Luanne (Jun 11, 2011)

We got back about a week ago from this same resort.  We were there for two weeks.  We were very happy with it (loved being able to get a cup of coffee or tea in the lobby at night).  The only complaint we had was with the charge for in-room wireless.  So, we didn't use it.  We used the free computers in the lobby instead.

Our restaurant experiences were very different.  We did not have one bad meal while we were there.  We had one bad experience with a waiter at Louie's Corner Cafe (basically we were ignored, waited at least 30 minutes after we placed our order, and never got our food).  We ended up leaving.  But, we had eaten a very good lunch there a few days before.  So, I'd give them another chance.

The restaurants we ate at (again, never a bad meal):

Breakfast:
- Burro St. Cafe
- Tia Sofia's (dh said the eggs were the best he'd tasted at a restaurant)

Lunch:
- Blue Corn Tortilla (ate here twice)
- Louie's Corner Cafe
- Flying Star
- Cayote Cafe Cantina (ate here twice)
- New York Deli (ate here twice)
- Atomic Cafe

Dinner:
- Piccolino's
- Il Vincenzo (pizza)
- Zia Diner
- Bumblebee's
- Harry's Roadhouse
- Cafe Cafe
- Chocolate Maven
- The Shed


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## unavailable55 (Jun 11, 2011)

Thanks for the info!


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## dougp26364 (Jun 12, 2011)

Luanne said:


> We got back about a week ago from this same resort.  We were there for two weeks.  We were very happy with it (loved being able to get a cup of coffee or tea in the lobby at night).  The only complaint we had was with the charge for in-room wireless.  So, we didn't use it.  We used the free computers in the lobby instead.
> 
> Our restaurant experiences were very different.  We did not have one bad meal while we were there.  We had one bad experience with a waiter at Louie's Corner Cafe (basically we were ignored, waited at least 30 minutes after we placed our order, and never got our food).  We ended up leaving.  But, we had eaten a very good lunch there a few days before.  So, I'd give them another chance.
> 
> ...



You probably choose better than we did.

Who knows, maybe we hit Tia Sofia's on a bad day. I'm still not going back. My wife ordered ham and eggs with hashbrowns. The hashbrowns were burnt and bitter, the ham was two thin slices and, like the hashbrowns, burnt. After that I don't think my wife bothered to notice the eggs. Mine came with scrambled eggs. All I can say is scrambled eggs are scrambled eggs. Mine wasn't bad but it was overpriced for what I recieved.


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## dougp26364 (Jun 12, 2011)

unavailable55 said:


> The Santa Fe area is 7 hours from my home.  Is this a resort that I should consider ownership at?



If you like Santa Fe, sure. It's a nice resort with what I considered a very good location. Santa Fe and the surrounding area offer a lot to see and do. I'm sure we'll be back as there's a lot there we still want to see. Overall we enjoyed the area and the resort very much.

Now if you're wanting to own strictly to exchange, I don't have an answer for you. I have no idea how well this resort exchanges.

I will say that DRI typically has good quality resorts and amenities but, they also charge for them. DRI does not have inexpensive maintenance fee's at their resorts. The two weeks we own at Polo Towers are costing me around $1,000 each. By the same token we own two resorts in Branson, MO who's total MF's are less than $1,000.


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## unavailable55 (Jun 12, 2011)

I'm thinking of renting something in the fall, since that's the first chance I will have to go west.  There are a couple of other resorts in Santa Fe that look good on the web.  Can you go on the DRI website and get instructions about renting?

Thanks for all the information!


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## Luanne (Jun 12, 2011)

dougp26364 said:


> You probably choose better than we did.



We had some help in choosing.     We got ahold of a really good restaurant magazine.  It had some great descriptions of places.  Also, my sister in law and brother in law live in Santa Fe and they gave us some recommendations on places.


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## JohnPaul (Jun 15, 2011)

*VI Units Updated Also*

Vacation Internationale has units at this property as well.  It's managed by DRI and I don't know how VI's ownership works.

Curious to know if the updates in the original post apply to all units in the complex or are the VI units on a separate plan?

Anyone know?


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