The Meaning of Casita

You may be wondering about the title of my blog and thinking...okay, so what is a Casita? First let's take a look at the Dictionary's explaination

ca-si-ta
[kuh-see-tuh; Sp. kah-see-tah]
- noun, plural
1. a small crude dwelling forming part of a shantytown inhabited by Mexican laborers in the southwestern U.S.
2. a luxurious bungalow serving as private guest accommodations at a resort hotel, esp. in the southwestern U.S. or Mexico.

I'm not going to lie...#1 made me smirk. It's such a vast difference compared to #2, which is much more in line of what I was thinking the definition would be.

The room category we stayed in at our honeymoon resort, the El Dorado Casitas Royale, was officially called a Swim-Up Casita Suite. My straighforward explanation of a Casita is to compare it to an individual cottage. At the resort, it's much more than a basic hotel room - it's the size of a very large studio apartment. Here's a picture from the hotel's site, though it just doesn't do the Casita justice.

Casita Suite at the El Dorado Royale

It's open and airy and you notice that as soon as you walk in. It's a ridiculous amount of room for 2 people sharing for a week. The slightly off-white walls and simple dark-wood furnishings give a very clean and crisp feeling. I suppose it's a little authentic with the wooden beams that are placed at the top of the ceiling and along the outside wall of the bathroom, though they are definitely for decoration and not for structure purposes.

One of my favorite parts of the room is the bed...(close second is the open-air outdoor shower). Of course it's an oversized king and it's the kind you have to literally climb into because it's set up slightly higher than what we're used to at home. I took many afternoon naps there after mammoth-sized lunches at the pizza bar or the Japanese restaurant :) The netting surrounding the bed is understated and romantic.

Personal Picture

We were so completely relaxed the entire time of our honeymoon...the biggest worry we had that week was what restaurant we wanted to make reservations at for dinner. Or if we were going to get one of the real coconut drinks before they ran out of the bar. Thinking of our casita suite and our amazing re-coup week after the wedding is a memory I will cherish for a very long time, and I like to think that we are still living in our version of a Casita suite now.