San Juan Inn – Mexican Hat, Utah Review

I randomly booked this place as I needed a place to stay between Flagstaff and Moab. I have been through Mexican Hat before and I knew how tiny of a town this is – a small handful of lodging options and not much in terms of restaurants. So I wanted to book a hotel that had an on-site restaurant, with decent reviews and wasn’t too expensive.

And the San Juan Inn fit the bill. Here is my review of the San Juan Inn in Mexican Hat, Utah.

Location:

As I mentioned before, we stayed here as it was a good stopping point between Flagstaff Arizona and Moab, Utah. Now, obviously, you can make the drive between these two cities easily within a day, (it’s only about 5 1/2 hours) but we were taking our time, doing lots of sightseeing along the way (we visited Walnut Canyon National Monument, Wupatki National Monument, Sunset Crater and did a drive-by of Monument Valley.)

The location of the San Juan Inn is fantastic. Situated right along the San Juan river, you’ll have beautiful views of the red rock and river – all the rooms face the river, so you can’t go wrong!

Nearby attractions include Valley of the Gods, Goosenecks State Park, Natural Bridges National Monument, the Moki Dugway, Monument Valley and of course, the Mexican Hat rock itself. Lots of stuff to do here, so if you’re looking for a great spot for a base, the San Juan Inn works well for exploring this area. It’s also very close to the “Forest Gump Point” right outside of Monument Valley, making this a good spot to spend the night if you want sunrise photos of this famous landmark.

Amenities:

• Ice machine
• Restaurant
• Gift shop with small selection of groceries
• Outdoor patio seating area
• WiFi (but it is very weak)
• Walking path to the river
• Pet friendly

We absolutely loved the proximity to the San Juan River and enjoyed the beautiful red rock views. The outdoor patio was fantastic and offered plenty of seating for relaxing and enjoying the lovely weather.

Rooms:

We had a large, two-bedroom room for the two of us on the first floor. The San Juan Inn is a motel where you can park directly outside your room. The room was very basic, but clean and suitable and had a Navajo theme to the decor. What really impressed us was the bathroom! It was really nice – and quite luxurious with the beautiful tilework and rainfall showerhead. It’s absolutely not what I expected at a place like this.

All the rooms back up to the red rock cliffs – so if you look out the back window in your room, all you’ll see is a wall of rock, butted right against your window! The front windows, however, all face the river.

There is no elevator here, so if you have issues with stairs or just don’t want to haul your luggage up a flight of stairs, you’ll want to make sure you get a first floor room.

The only negative things I’d have to say is that the WiFi was really weak and spotty and I didn’t have much of a 4G connection on my phone (with Verizon). But frankly, we were too busy enjoying the scenery on the patio and scarfing down our meal in the restaurant to worry about the WiFi.

San Juan Cafe Restaurant

The San Juan Cafe was great – we hung out here for a while, enjoying the atmosphere and relaxing. We both ordered Indian tacos. If you’ve never tried an Indian taco, it’s a must if you’re in this area of the country. It’s essentially an open-face taco on fry bread (and if you’ve never had fry bread before, you’re in for a treat!). We only ate here for dinner, we did not eat breakfast here.

San Juan Trading Post Gift Shop

The gift shop was a decent size and had all kinds of Native American, locally-made handicrafts, such as rugs, jewelry, blankets as well as a small selection of groceries and sundries.

San Juan Inn – Mexican Hat, Utah – Final Thoughts

This was such a fun stay here and I would absolutely come back, no question about it. There’s a ton to do in this area that I haven’t personally done, and the San Juan Inn makes for a great base to explore this spot. It’s clear that the owners care and love this place and I can’t wait to come back!

Pros:

• Clean rooms
• Beautiful remodeled bathroom
• Delicious restaurant on-site
• Magical location right on the San Juan river, and plenty of outdoor seating to enjoy the views

Cons:

• WiFi is very spotty – this is not the place to come (not just this hotel but Mexican Hat in general, as it’s a remote small town) if you need to get a lot of work done. For that, I would go to Bluff, Utah.