You can visit the hotel's website at Posada Playa del Carmen Picalu or visit h Expedia.com for deals on accommodations in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. We actually booked through Expedia.com because the rate was quite a bit cheaper and the process much simpler than booking directly with the B&B.

Overall Comments:

We think that converting a condo unit in a condo-complex into a 3-bedroom bed and breakfast with a shared kitchen and living space is pretty smart, so we have to give the owner credit for having the smarts and courage to do this. Unfortunately, along with doing this are some small inconveniences such as requiring 6-keys to access our room and balcony (1 key for the gate, 2 keys for the doors to the condo unit, 1 to the bedroom and 1 for the gate to our balcony), sharing the swimming pool with other condo-tenants, location away from the tourist area, condo rules and so on. Although we felt REALLY secure with the amount of locks that were required, it also made us feel like we were imprisoned. The small rooms had little to offer in terms of entertainment on rainy days, but since we were lucky enough not to be sharing the condo unit with other visitors during part of our stay, we had the shared living room to ourselves. I was even able to catch the Pittsburgh Steelers versus Baltimore Ravens divisional playoff game on the tube, albeit in Spanish. If it wasn't for the nice owners and great breakfast, we probably would give this place a lower overall score. Unless the daily room costs are reduced by at least 25%, we probably wouldn't stay here again as there are are comparable or better places at the same price point, closer to the main walking street and beach area in Playa del Carmen. However, if you are traveling as a larger group where you could rent the entire condo, we would recommend staying here.

Location:

This bed and breakfast is located about 10 minutes by walk from the beach near famous Mamita Beach Club. There is a also a large grocery store a few blocks in the opposite direction of the beach from this B&B. Given the scale of Playa del Carman,  we felt that the location was a bit removed from the beach and the main "tourist" street, 5th Avenue, in Playa Del Carmen.

Room Comfort:

We booked the Estralla room and found it small with thin walls - another disadvantages of converting a condo unit into a B&B. However, the nicely decorated room contained a lot of nice touches, including a built in closet, air conditioning, ceiling fan, free wireless internet and so on. The bathroom was large enough and was also nicely designed and laid out. Our room also had a small balcony overlooking the pool. We initially booked the smaller Estralla room because we thought the rooms facing the pool would be quieter than the ones facing the street, but it backfired as many condo tenants enjoy the pool and their balconies throughout the night. We didn't see any cars drive on the street, so the bigger rooms facing the street are probably quiter.

Cleanliness:

The rooms and common areas were clean.

Service:

Daily maid service was provided and consisted of sweeping the floor and making the bed. Our garbage cans weren't emptied daily which we thought should have been, especially since you can't throw toilet paper in the toilets in most places in Mexico due to the insufficient sewer systems and small pipes.

The owners of this place were friendly and nice and spoke, Spanish, Italian and English. When we first arrived at this place, our room was in the process of being cleaned, so the owner waited with us and gave us a good overview of Playa del Carmen. Alberico explained which areas were safe and which weren't. This was really appreciated. We should add that we did explore all areas, include the ones that were deemed unsafe and as is usually the case, the areas were perfectly safe as long as you practice some common travel sense. Read our article, Avoid Being Ripped Off for more information.

Food:

The breakfast was really good and consisted of an assortment of freshly bought baked goods like chocolate or plain croissants, breads, jams, fruit and coffee and/or tea. The owners would also make us eggs when we asked for them.

Other Notes:

At the time of our stay, the owners were in the process of selling this B&B. Things could change considerably, for better or worse, once this place is sold and new owners start running it. Since the place was for sale, we also had unannounced potential buyers coming to our room to view the place during our stay (whether we were there or not). Although we understand this was necessary, we didn't appreciate it. Beware that our review might not be accurate if the place is sold by the time your visit or else you might have potential buyers visiting your room if you decide to stay here and the place hasn't been sold and is still for sale.

Photos:

Visit the hotel's website at Nadet Hotel and Suites or check out Hotels.com for great deals on accommodations in Tulum, Mexico.

Overall Comments:

We stumbled across this hotel when we decided to spend an additional and unplanned night in Tulum and couldn't find anything else that was within our budget, decent and available. When we got to the hotel, the staff was friendly and the room they showed us was good for 600 pesos per night, so we decided to spend the night here. Although the hotel isn't as nice as it appears on their website, it's not a bad option for the price. With little to no expectation, this hotel is a pleasant surprise in it's price range. Big rooms, lot's of amenities and free Internet to boot are just a few of the perks offered at this large and neglected place that is in desperate need of some love and attention to bring it up to it's former self and the visuals provided on their website. Despite the few negatives about this place, at 600 pesos/night, it's cheaper and better than other options in town, so we'd probably stay here again if we couldn't find anything better at lower prices.

Location:

Situated in the quaint town of Tulum Pueblo, this hotel is conveniently located only a few blocks from the ADO bus terminal and 1 block from the main avenue of Tulum Pueblo. There is also a great bakery nearby and the cheapest car rental in town is pretty much right across the main street.

Although we attempted to jog from the hotel to the beach one morning, we didn't make it as the distance proved too great for a quick jog. By all accounts, the beach is only about 5km away, but it seemed much further as the road leading up to it is long and mundane. Since we had a rental car, we ended up driving the few minutes to the beach instead and jogged once we got there. Otherwise, Tulum has fixed rates for taxi service to all destinations. For example, the rate by taxi to Tulum ruins was 50 pesos at the time of our stay.

We preferred to stay in town as opposed to one of the beach-front places because it gave us more variety of restaurants and still felt a little more authentic compared to staying at one of the beach front establishments. After traveling through the lesser known areas of Mexico, Tulum felt a little more like America as all of a sudden some of the prices were in US dollars and everyone spoke English. Tulum and the rest of the Mayan Riviera is too Americanized to really feel, taste and experience authentic Mexico, so staying in town is a good option to get a feel for the real, beautiful Mexico and their kind and hospitable people, if that's what you're after.

Room Comfort:

The large rooms had all the features of a suite, including a large comfortable bed, soft and comfortable pillows and linens, separate living or dining room, fully equipped kitchen, stove, fridge, cable television, hot water, air conditioning and free wireless internet. Although there was ample free street parking, the hotel has a gated place where we could have parked our rental car in case the street wasn't good enough for us.

Unfortunately, despite and all the positive things the room had, it also had poor water pressure and a foul smell coming from the bathroom. The room was also a little neglected with a few broken tiles in the bathroom for example. Despite the potential of this hotel, it seems like the funds have run out to keep this hotel as well maintained as it should be which is really unfortunate because this is a good option to local B&Bs. As for getting a good night's sleep...the bed and linens were really comfortable and it was one of the better rests we had on our travels through Mexico.

Cleanliness:

The hotel and rooms were clean.

Service:

Staff was helpful and friendly. 

Photos:

Inquiries:

You can visit the hotel's website at Delores Alba Chichen Itza or check out Hotels.com for great deals on other accommodations in Chichen Itza, Mexico.

Overall Comments:

Although in North America we would call this surprisingly pleasant hotel a "motel", the rooms and service are far superior to that of any North American motel. The friendly staff are helpful, honest and nice; while the photos of the rooms on their site are exactly what the rooms look like so there weren't any surprises when we arrived. Booking through their website is cheaper than the rates they have for walk-in clients, and are a good value for the area. Although we wouldn't choose this place for our honeymoon, we were pleased with everything and wouldn't hesitate to stay here again.

Location:

The Delores Alba Chichen Itza is located a few kilometers before Piste and the Eco-Archeological Park Ikil - Chichen Itza, off the old highway 180. Other than the Cenote Ik Kil directly across the street, this area is pretty remote. Unless you have your own car, we wouldn't recommend staying here, despite the shuttle service that the hotel offers to Chichen Itza. The cenote across the street is a gateway stop for tour buses on their way to Chichen Itza. Unless you enter the cenote when they first open, don't expect to enjoy this overpriced cenote in peace. Although the hotel is located just off the small, old 2-laned highway, it wasn't noisy inside the rooms. There aren't that many cars that pass through the area. Laying by the pool isn't as visually attractive as it wouldn't be if the highway wasn't there, but the road isn't that problematic. Hey, at least it makes this place easy to find, even at night!

Room Comfort:

The simple rooms were surprisingly comfortable and pleasant. The Mexican decorations really helped give the room that homey, Mexican feel. Other than the decor, it was nice that the rooms had wireless internet, air conditioning, satellite television with HBO, fan, safe and so on. Our room was spacious enough to unpack for a few days. There was good water pressure and ample hot water, so we really didn't have much to complain about except perhaps the small bathroom. 

Cleanliness:

The place was clean, although the shower area could have been cleaner. There were also a couple of small ants in the room.

Service:

When we emailed the hotel, we received quick and accurate responses in English. When we arrived at the hotel, the staff was relaxed, nice and really friendly. They didn't try to sell us anything and pretty much left us alone to enjoy the hotel, pool and room as we pleased. This was nice. They even let us stay, free of charge, well beyond the posted check-out time.

Food:

The breakfast was really good and consisted of fresh, warm bread, tea or coffee, fruit plate, lemon cake and eggs with ham. Once again, the breakfast was better than we expected it to be. Although you can order meals at all times of the day, we only ate breakfast here as it was included in our room rate.

Other notes:

There are two swimming pools at the hotel. They use some kind of new technology to filter the water so they don't use chemicals to clean it. One of the pools was discovered while digging thus contains natural rock formations. When we laid our towels on the deck chairs by the pool, the staff automatically sent someone to collect the leaves from the pool. Since the hotel wasn't busy, it was nice of them to notice that people are using the pool and ensure that the pool was debris free. Great service!

Photos:

You can visit the B&B's website at Maison Tulum or book through Expedia.com, as we did, to receive discounted rates for this place (or any other place in Tulum or Mexico).

Overall Comments:

This perfect little B&B is located in a peaceful and quite area of Tulum Pueblo and was a good choice for us to feel the last little bit of authentic Mexico as we ventured into the overly Americanized Mayan Riviera. Our room was beautiful, spacious and contained everything we wanted and more. The tasty, freshly baked breakfast provided enough nutrition and calories to keep us going for a few hours. The price we paid through Expedia.com was less than the posted rate and was a good value for the area.

Location:

Located in the quaint town of Tulum Pueblo, this bed & breakfast is conveniently located only 2 blocks from the ADO bus terminal in Tulum and 1 block from the main avenue of Tulum Pueblo. Although we attempted to jog to the beach one morning, we didn't make it as the distance proved too great for a quick jog. By all accounts, the beach is only about 5km away, but it seemed much further as the road leading up to it is long and mundane. Since we had a rental car, we ended up driving the few minutes to the beach instead and jogged once we got there.

Tulum town has fixed rates for taxi service to all destinations. The rate by taxi to Tulum ruins was 50 pesos at the time of our stay.

We preferred to stay in town as opposed to one of the beach-front places because it gave us more variety of restaurants and still felt more "Mexican" than staying at one of the beach front places. After traveling through the lesser known areas of Mexico, Tulum felt a little more like America as all of a sudden some of the prices were in US dollars and everyone spoke English. Tulum and the rest of the Mayan Riviera is too Americanized to really feel, taste and experience authentic Mexico, so staying in town is a good option to get a feel for the real, beautiful Mexico and their kind and hospitable people, if that's what you are after.

Room Comfort:

Our nicely-decorated, spacious room contained everything we needed, wanted and more. There was an in-room safe, cable television, air-conditioning, ceiling fan, hot water, good water pressure, security box, closets and good wireless internet just to name a few items. The small bathroom was decorated with local Mexican earthenware to give it a nice local feel.

Our shower had a problem draining, so even 5-minute showers resulted in water leakage into the room. Since we were only here for a night, we didn't bother discussing this with the owner.

Cleanliness:

The room was well-maintained and very clean.

Service:

The owner and staff were knowledgeable, helpful and friendly.

Food:

Breakfast consisted of a freshly baked croissant from their bakery adjacent to the hotel, bread, jam, coffee or tea. The breakfast was small but good.

Photos:

Visit our Deals page for hotel and deals on accommodations in the Palenque, Mexico and other areas, since this place did not have a site of it's own at the time of writing. For accommodations in El Panchan, it seems you have to show up and ask around for what's available as booking over the phone is a challenge and Internet an impossibility.

Overall Comments:

We ended up staying in the "Platano" room at this place for the day only because I was suffering from food poisoning and Margarita & Ed Cabañas wouldn't let us extend the room we had there, (read the details for that incident at our Margarita & Ed Cabañas review). Although we paid for the full night at Jungle Palace, we only stayed till about 6PM as we had a night bus to Tulum pre-booked. Unfortunately, we weren't able to explain to them that we only wanted the room till 6PM when we booked it because we didn't speak Spanish and they didn't speak English. We think they would have offered us a discount if they understood what we were asking, but that's an assumption we are making because of the confused look they gave us when we left at 6PM. Nevertheless, at 250 pesos/night for a semi-detached hut with private bathroom and hot water, it's not a bad value. There is a also a good chance that we overpaid for the room since we were desperate and were in no position to negotiate our room rate at the time of booking. This was the closest place to Margarita & Ed Cabañas and I really just needed to lie down. We can only compare this room to the one at Margarita & Ed Cabañas and it wasn't much worse. The basic room was spacious, the bathroom was big and the beds were comfortable enough for the time I spent lying on it while feeling weak and sick. If you aren't expecting a "jungle palace" than this place might just be good enough if you can get it at a good price, i.e., less than what we paid.

Location:

Jungle Palace is located in the isolated area of El Panchan, just outside of the Palenque park entrance. The cost for a taxi from Palanque town to El Panchan is 40 pesos, if you are good at negotiating. Otherwise, a collectivo to/from Palenque costs about 10 pesos per person, but  they stop driving to this area after about 6PM. Getting out of this area after about 5:30-6PM can be problematic, unless you arrive with your own car since taxis or collectivos typically aren't around.

This area is a bit isolated but despite it's isolation from town, it didn't really feel like being in the "jungle", especially since the small area of El Panchan has so many people in that area and the places play loud music. That was a bit disappointing. Maybe if you've never been to the Brazilian, Guatemalan, Thai, Costa Rican or any other  rainforest, this might feel like a jungle, but because we have stayed in real rainforests/jungles this certainly didn't measure up. Furthermore, the Palenque ruins are still 2km from this area which is a long walk in the heat. Palanque town isn't within walking distance but most visitors will want to visit it at some point during their stay in this area. Other than Don Muchos restaurant, there really isn't much else in El Panchan, so we'd probably stay at a place closer to the ruins or in town if we were to visit this area again.

The one positive was that the "Platano" room that we stayed in was a bit more isolated and felt more "natural" than our location at Margarita & Ed Cabañas because it was located by the river. It was also the furthest from the "main" street in El Panchan.

Room Comfort:

The basic rooms were large enough to spend a night or two. At 250 pesos/night, it's not a bad value but not great either. There was a hole in the ceiling in the shower that we can pretend was a small, unplanned sky-light. There was hot water, which was a bonus. The mosquito nets on the windows were good and kept bugs out of the room. The fan provided was as effective as the one at Margarita & Ed Cabañas in spreading hot, humid air around the room. We didn't spend the night so can't really say much else.

Cleanliness:

The sheets were a bit worn, but the room wasn't dirty.

Service:

We didn't really have much interaction with the owners, nor did we request much of them. We were happy to be able to book a room where I could recover from my food poisoning.

Food:

There aren't any meal options available at this place, but Don Muchos restaurant is nearby.

Other Notes:

Stay away from the chicken tacos at Mr. Taco in town. The reason we ate there was because we wanted something quick to eat so that we could attempt to catch a collectivo back to El Panchan and it backfired. Not only did we not get a collectivo, I also got food poisoning.  

Photos:

Visit our Deals page for hotel and deals on accommodations in the El Panchan or Palenque, Mexico and other areas, since this place did not have a website of it's own at the time of writing.

Overall Comments:

What can we say about a rustic place in the "jungle" of Palanque? Well, it's rustic and the "jungle" is as wild as my backyard in Toronto, Canada. Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration as we did see monkeys playing in the trees when I was puking my guts out from the food poisoning I was rewarded with by eating at Mr. Taco the night before. Hey, I wouldn't have seen the monkeys if it wasn't for the kind English-speaking owner, Margarita, who wouldn't let my wife extend the room because she knew I was sick. Thanks! Okay, maybe the sarcasm isn't required, but this place was a little overpriced at 280 pesos/night since in our opinion wasn't much better than cheaper options in El Panchan area of Palanque. Our room at the Jungle Palace was cheaper and almost as good.  Nevertheless, we really can't disagree with the comments in the 2011 Mexico Lonely Planet Travel Guide about this place. It really was "...bright, clean and cheerful..." and it did have good mosquito netting. However, as "full of local information" as Margarita was, we really wouldn't refer to this place as "homey", unless of course you come from a home where you get kicked out of when you feel ill. Did we mention that we wanted to rent the room for an additional day and not just extend it within the price we already paid? When we found out we couldn't extend our stay, we needed to store our bag somewhere for the day as we weren't leaving until that evening with a night bus to Tulum. Although I was weak, sick and had a high fever, I managed to carry my overweight backpack the 50-100 meters from our room to the main office so that she could store the bags for the day. She didn't offer to help. Furthermore, when she finally saw me, (as my wife went to see her about the request to extend the rent of the room because I was sick), and saw how pale I was, she decided to talk about how "dirty" the food in town can be. Her vivid description of the lack of hygiene of the food made me feel ill so I immediately ran outside to vomit for the first time that day. Although I wasn't vomiting before this, she still refused to rent us a room. Although I was visibly barely alive and in distress, she wasn't compassionate enough to offer any help in this situation.

Location:

Margarita & Ed Cabañas are located in the isolated area of El Panchan, just outside of the Palenque park entrance. The cost for a taxi from Palanque town to El Panchan is 40 pesos, if you are good at negotiating. Otherwise, a collectivo to/from Palenque costs about 10 pesos per person, but  they stop driving to this area after about 6PM. Getting out of this area after about 5:30-6PM can be problematic, unless you arrive with your own car since taxis or collectivos typically aren't around.

This area is a bit isolated but despite it's isolation from town, it didn't really feel like being in the "jungle", especially since the small area of El Panchan has so many people in that area and the places play loud music. That was a bit disappointing. Maybe if you've never been to the Brazilian, Guatemalan, Thai, Costa Rican or any other  rainforest, this might feel like a jungle, but because we have stayed in real rainforests/jungles this certainly didn't measure up.

Specifically, our room was just off the "main" street of El Panchan so it didn't have that jungle feel. Furthermore, the Palenque ruins are still 2km from this area which is a long walk in the heat. Palanque town isn't within walking distance but most visitors will want to visit it at some point during their stay in this area. Other than Don Muchos restaurant, there really isn't much else in El Panchan, so we'd probably stay at a place closer to the ruins or in town if we were to visit this area again.

Room Comfort:

Our room was spacious and had a spacious bathroom. Although a fresh coat of paint would do wonders for the solid walled basic rooms, they were surprisingly pretty well maintained. We didn't have A/C in our room so the fan provided just managed to blow the hot, humid air around the room. There was a good mosquito net on the windows to keep insects out of the room. Finally, there was ample hot water in the shower.

Cleanliness:

The room was clean, except for some ants and other wild "animals" we killed in the room.

Service:

Other than the unwillingness of the owner to rent us a room because I was sick, the service was good. Unfortunately, we can't get over how uncompassionate the owner was in this unfortunate circumstance to really be happy with the service we received.

There is also free drinking water available from the reception area, but you are technically limited to one 2L jug per day. With eyes on you every time you filled your jug, it felt like we were breaking the law every time we filled our water jug.

Food:

There are no meal options available at this place, but Don Muchos restaurant is nearby.

Other Notes:

Stay away from the chicken tacos at Mr. Taco in town. The reason we ate there was because we wanted something quick to eat so that we could attempt to catch a collectivo back to El Panchan and it backfired. Not only did we not get a collectivo, I also got food poisoning.  

Photos:

You can visit the hotel's website at Posada Carmelita or check out Hotels.com for deals on other accommodations in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico.

Comments:

Wow. This place was simply amazing. We loved everything about this posada. This place had charm, character, architecture, warmth, friendly staff, beautiful views, beautiful decor and everything else that we wanted. You won't hear us say this too often, but this place was perfect and probably one of the best values we've come across in the world. It's a shame that we didn't come here first when we arrived in San Cristóbal de las Casas because we would have loved to say here as long as we could. Sure we had the best room at the place at 350 pesos per night, but all the rooms provided equal character and charm. The views in the other rooms might not be as spectacular, but you can always get those on their rooftop patio that has amazing panoramic views of San Cristóbal de las Casas. One way or another, at this price, this is the best value in town. The only thing working against this posada is that it's not mentioned in the 2011 Mexico Lonely Planet Travel Guide. If it was mentioned, we don't think you would be able to get a room unless you reserved a room weeks in advance. Tip: When booking, ask for the corner room. It has the best views.

Location:

Located in the quiet colonial hill district of San Cristóbal de las Casas, this place is only a comfortable 5 block (slightly downhill) walk from Zocolo and historic center.

Room Comfort:

We were lucky enough to obtain the corner room for our stay and it had phenomenal views of San Cristóbal de las Casas. The large room was beautifully decorated and had large windows on two-sides of the room. There was also an additional window in the shower area of the bathroom. Even though there wasn't a heater in the room, the room stayed at a comfortable temperature at night when the outside temperature dropped close to freezing. The blankets provided in the room were warm and comfortable which also helped. There was a good supply of hot water 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This made showering with the window open in the cool mornings a joy! The rooms also had a television set, but we didn't even turn it on.

Everything about this room felt homey and comfortable. It's a place where we wish we could have stayed MUCH longer. There aren't enough good things we could say to really describe how amazing this place was, so we'll just let the pictures do the talking.

Cleanliness:

The hotel and room were exceptionally clean. Even my picky partner was satisfied with the cleanliness of the room. This is really rare even at the cleanest places.

Service:

This place lives up to our expectation of the quality of service that all B&Bs should aspire to. Although the relaxed and friendly, Spanish speaking front desk staff, Sergio, speaks very little English, his positive attitude, patience and willingness to  help was enough to communicate with us effectively, even though we couldn't speak or understand a word of Spanish. He is trusting and honest. Once again, nothing we say here would do justice to the exceptional service provided by Sergio and the rest of the staff at this posada.

Although there is free wireless internet in the main areas of this posada, we were able to connect to another free wireless network from our room. I guess the location on a hill has more advantages than just the view. Free drinking water was also provided.

We should mention that we did try to reserve a room through email and although the initial responses were quick and well received, we didn't hear back from them to our last email where we requested a change to our reservation dates because of a change in our travel plans.  Since we weren't sure if they received our email or if we had a reservation, we unfortunately ended up staying at Le Gite del Sol on our first night in San Cristóbal de las Casas.

Food:

Breakfast is not provided at this hotel. It seems like they are equipped with a kitchen, but don't offer any meal options. With so many great eateries around town, who cares anyway.

Other Notes:

We rented bicycles and rode them to San Juan Chamula which was a REALLY challenging 10km one-way ride from San Cristóbal de las Casas. A good portion of the ride is uphill, so if you are not up to the challenge, don't even bother attempting it. In San Juan Chamula, the locals tried to steal our locked bikes while we were buying the permits to La Iglesia Catolica, Church of San Juan, so we were a bit nervous leaving our bikes locked outside of the church while visiting the amazing church. If you are in San Cristóbal de las Casas, you really should find your way to San Juan Chamula so that you can visit this church as the traditions that you will witness are beyond description and beyond anything you will see anywhere else. We'll just leave it at that.

After San Juan Chamula, we biked to Zinacantan which was mainly downhill after the uphill climb leaving Sam Juan Chamula. Nevertheless, the 10 minute downhill ride was an exhausting 1-hour plus uphill walk back with our bikes. This town was less exciting than Chamula, but a great part of our experience.

Finally, despite being exhausted, we thought that biking to the Ecotourism park of Arcotete would be an easy flat 8km one-way bike ride, so we decided we had enough time to attempt to see it. When we passed San Cristóbal de las Casas, as this park was east of town, as opposed to west were Chamula and Zinacantan were, the road suddenly turned uphill again. Again, we thought that eventually the road would flatten out, but it never did. After the mental and physical challenge of not quitting, we did eventually make it to Arcotete. Not sure if the ride after what we went through that day was worth it, but the park did offer a nice cave, river and zip-lining. On the way there we were rewarded with some beautiful scenic views of the surrounding forest and an aerial view of San Cristóbal de las Casas.

Photos:

You can visit the hotel's website at: Le Gite Del Sol or check out Hotels.com for the best deals on accommodations in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico.

Overall Comments:

Although we enquired about another place called Posada Carmelita in San Cristóbal de las Casas before arriving, when we arrived at about 5AM with a night bus from Oaxaca, it somehow seemed like a good idea to check another place, Le Gite Del Sol, first. Perhaps it was that we weren't sure if our reservation was confirmed at Posada Carmelita or sleep deprivation or simply a lack of oxygen to our brains at the higher altitude -- whatever the reason was -- we walked to Le Gite Del Sol to see if they had availability first. After all, the summary about this accommodation in the 2011 Mexico Lonely Planet Travel Guide, didn't seem that bad:

“A bountiful breakfast complements simple rooms with floors of radiant sunflower yellow and bathrooms that look like a bit oversized shower stalls, or pleasant rooms with shared facilities in a new location across the street. The friendly owners, a Quebecois-Mexican couple, speak French and English. A full breakfast is included.”

When we arrived at the place, the friendly owner told us he had two rooms available, one with private bath and the other with shared bath, but both were currently occupied so he could not show us either one. The room with private bath was 320 pesos, 30 pesos cheaper than Posada Carmelita and it included breakfast whereas Posada Carmelita didn't. While we were deciding what to do at their breakfast "patio", we saw quite a few people coming and asking if they had rooms available, so in a moment of weakness and panic, we quickly reserved the room with private bath for 3 nights. I really didn't want to walk another 15 to 20-minutes with my over-sized and overweight Deuter backpack on my back with my wife's 20kg backpack on my front and she would carry the 10kg carry-on bags to a place where we weren't sure would be able to accommodate us anyway, so it seemed like a good idea at the time. Whether Le Gite Del Sol only actually had 2 rooms available is another story -- let's assume it was a true story and not a good sales tactic.

When we finally got our room at about noon, we were really disappointed. The tiny room was worn, the toilet would not flush, the hot water wasn't working and so on. Since we didn't want to waste the day looking for another place and because we already paid for the night, we decided to stay here only for that night. Needless to say, we wouldn't stay here again as there are far better places in town in the same price range. Luckily, we scoped out Posada Carmelita later that day and reserved a room for the rest of our stay in San Cristóbal de las Casas.

Location:

The location wasn't bad, but wasn't great either.  The tourist area of San Cristóbal de las Casas is fairly small and easy to navigate by foot. Although you can walk pretty much everywhere in San Cristóbal de las Casas, there are better places, closer to the main tourist areas, closer to the cluster of eateries and nightlife for the same price. The one positive about this location was that there was a place that does laundry at reasonable prices right across the street.

Room Comfort:

Our room was uncomfortably small with little to no room to unpack. The floors were worn and the bathroom window would not close. As the temperature dropped below 10 degrees Celsius at night, the ability to close the window was a problem. The shower head was also a problem as it awkwardly squirted water in all directions. With limited hot water supply at this place, the last thing we wanted first thing in the morning was to have the limited hot water going in all directions in a cold bathroom.

Cleanliness:

Hmmm...we did see a cockroach in the bathroom at night, so can the place be considered clean? They did have signs on the wall in the hallway with the date of the last time the place was fumigated (October 2010) and it seemed like we were there at the tail end of the fumigation period (January 2011) before the next one was due (March or April 2011). The nightly bathroom "visitors" might not be an issue if you happen to arrive after the place has been fumigated, but we don't know that for a fact so it's a chance you are taking. The shower curtain seemed dirty and was falling apart, but other than that, the place did seem clean.

Service:

The one positive aspect of this place is the French-Canadian owner and his Mexican partner. They speak English, French and Spanish and are really friendly and helpful. They are also a registered travel agency so booking tours through them is simple and convenient.

Wireless internet was included, but the security code was changed daily so it was a bit annoying having to ask for the code on 2 separate occasions on a 1-night stay. One computer was also available for people to share.

Food:

Breakfast was included in the rate of the room and was good, offering 3 or 4 choices of meals to choose from. Another positive was that if you book a tour that starts early in the morning, they will make an exception and prepare breakfast prior to the breakfast start time. Nevertheless, to be quite honest, there are many great places in town to get inexpensive breakfast, so the fact that this place offers breakfast isn't that much of an advantage.

There was also a common kitchen for guests to share till 9PM. We didn't use the kitchen but it looked pretty complete.

Other Notes:

We rented bicycles and rode them to San Juan Chamula which was a REALLY challenging 10km one-way ride from  San Cristóbal de las Casas. A good portion of the ride is uphill, so if you are not up to the challenge, don't even bother attempting it. In San Juan Chamula, the locals tried to steal our locked bikes while we were buying the permits to La Iglesia Catolica, Church of San Juan, so we were a bit nervous leaving our bikes locked outside of the church while visiting the amazing church. If you are in  San Cristóbal de las Casas, you really should find your way to San Juan Chamula so that you can visit this church as the traditions that you will witness are beyond description and beyond anything you will see anywhere else. We'll just leave it at that.

After San Juan Chamula, we biked to Zinacantan which was mainly downhill after the uphill climb leaving Sam Juan Chamula. Nevertheless, the 10 minute downhill ride was an exhausting 1-hour plus uphill walk back with our bikes. This town was less exciting than Chamula, but a great part of our experience.

Finally, despite being exhausted, we thought that biking to the Ecotourism park of Arcotete would be an easy flat 8km one-way bike ride, so we decided we had enough time to attempt to see it. When we passed San Cristóbal de las Casas, as this park was east of town, as opposed to west were Chamula and Zinacantan were, the road suddenly turned uphill again. Again, we thought that eventually the road would flatten out, but it never did. After the mental and physical challenge of not quitting, we did eventually make it to Arcotete. Not sure if the ride after what we went through that day was worth it, but the park did offer a nice cave, river and zip-lining. On the way there we were rewarded with some beautiful scenic views of the surrounding forest and an aerial view of San Cristóbal de las Casas.

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You can visit the hotel's website at: Hostal Don Nino or check out Hotels.com for the deals on other accommodations in the Oaxaca, Mexico area.

Comments:

In all honesty, although there wasn't much wrong with this place, our stay wasn't memorable either. We booked a private room with private bathroom and although it had all the amenities and more that we expected for the price we paid, the room was lacking character. At 600 pesos per night, we would have liked to see more charm or at least be left with more of a lasting impression of staying at this family owned place in a town that's full of charm and character. Unfortunately, for some reason, it just wasn't to be.

The hostel does provide a ton of free items and has a nice shared space with a flat screen TV, computer and leather couches to complement the shared accommodations, but the private rooms aren't worth the price. 

Location:

The old town of Oaxaca is fairly small and easy to get around by foot, so any location in or near the old town would probably be decent. We preferred this location because it was a 5-minute walk from the First Class Bus Terminal and only about a 10-minute walk from Zocalo. For independent travelers like us who want to avoid tours as much as possible, this place was also within short walking distance to the Baseball stadium where you can get a shared taxi to Mitla and Hierve el Agua (see "Other" section below for details).

Room Comfort:

Despite containing all the comforts, amenities and features of a higher class hotel, such as flat screen television, wireless internet, hot water, great water pressure, phone, iron, hair dryer, shampoo, soap, hair conditioner, body wash, A/C, free filtered water, free breakfast and so on, we didn't find any comfort in staying here. We had room #103 which was the furthest from the restaurant and consequently the quietest; but unfortunately, as a result, we couldn't get the wireless internet signal because it wasn't strong enough to reach our room. Instead, we took our laptop to other areas of the hotel where it worked great.

The bed was uncomfortable and felt like it would fall apart every time we moved on it. The mattress was too soft, while the unattached headboard banged against the wall every time we moved. We actually wedged a hand towel between the wall and the headboard to prevent the banging but even that had temporary effectiveness as at some point of each night the towel would fall and the banging would start again. The comforters were also permanently stained.

On the positive side, the room was big enough and had enough space to unpack for a few days. The same cannot be said for the tiny bathroom. The bathroom came with a slew of minor annoying problems, such as the shower drain not draining properly, the soap dispenser not working properly and so on.

Cleanliness:

Except for the cockroach we saw in the bathroom on our last night, there weren't that many other "animals" roaming around. The place wasn't dirty by any means, but after seeing an "animal" we really can't describe it as sparkling clean either. The shared bathrooms and restaurant appeared to be clean.

Service:

Service at the restaurant was a little slow and started a bit late at 8:30AM to 11:30AM each morning. Despite many people waiting for breakfast before 8:30AM, no one would get served until 8:30AM (not a minute before, literally) or later. It also seemed that they were understaffed at breakfast and the service was slow as a result. Another annoying thing was that the waiter automatically brought coffee to every table despite people wanting tea. Why not ask what people want first?

The staff at the hotel was nice and friendly though.

Food:

Breakfast consisted of coffee (or tea if you asked for it), juice, beans, eggs and tortillas. It was pretty much the same everyday, except on our last day for some strange reason when they tossed the eggs inside the tortilla wrap. Breakfast wasn't bad, but wasn't great either. The other negative was that they automatically put ham in the eggs. There are many people, including us, that don't eat ham. Again, why not ask people if they want it before serving it?

Other than breakfast, we didn't eat at their restaurant so won't comment further on the food.

Other Notes:

You can get to Hierve el Agua or Monte Alban independently and spend as much time as you desire at either place.

To get to Monte Alban, there is a shuttle van service that leaves every few minutes depending on the time of year and time of day. Ask around and you'll be sure to find a schedule. Seeing Monte Alban independently gives you more flexibility to see this ruin. We required about 2 hours to see Monte Alban at our pace.

To get to Hierve el Agua independently take a shared taxi to Mitla from Avenida Ninos Heroes de Chapultepec, beside the baseball stadium in Oaxaca. It's about a 5-minute walk from the First class bus station. Tell the taxi driver that you want to go to Hierve el Agua so that they'll drop you off where the pick-up trucks depart to Hierve el Agua. The taxi ride costs 20 pesos and takes about 20 minutes. The pick-up trucks are easy to identify for Hierve El Agua as they will come to you, but won't leave until they have a minimum of 8 people. The 1-hour ride costs 25 Pesos each way to Hierve el Agua. The road is pretty bumpy and dusty so even though distance isn't significant the drive will take an hour. When you arrive at Hierve El Agua, you will have to pay the park fees. There is a beautiful hiking trail that passes below and around the calcium formations and eventually back up. The hike takes about an hour at a moderate pace. Since most people don't know about it, or don't do it, you'll have it to yourselves, especially after a certain point. This hike is definitely worth it as the views are phenomenal from the bottom. It's amazing how many people miss this when they are there. This is why we don't do these things on packaged tours. You won't see this with a packaged tour to Hierve el Agua.

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Inquiries:

You can visit their site at Zicatela Beach House or check out Hotels.com for great deals on other accommodations in the Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico area.

Summary:

Wow, it's hard for us to write a review about a place that we'd like to keep to ourselves in a town called Puerto Escondido which in English means hidden port and for good reason. As much as we'd like for Puerto Escondido to remain hidden from North American travelers, our professional duty requires that we write about all places we stayed at, good or bad, as we experienced them. So with that said, if you are the kind of person that does NOT like clean, quiet, big, beautiful airy apartments with 360 degree views of the surroundings, a short walk to the beach, free drinking water, friendly owners, your own private palapa, a view of the sunset over the ocean, beautiful local decor, falling asleep to the sound of the ocean, in an area that should remain a secret, than this place is not for you. Otherwise, don't book a ticket out of this Puerto because you might just want to live here for months at a time.

Location:

Located a little more than half-way from Playa Principal towards La Punta on Zicatela beach, this amazing place is literally a minute walk from the surfer's beach Playa Zicatela. If you know where Guadua restaurant is than this place is about a minute or two away. In jogging terms, it takes about 10-15 minutes to jog to the center of Playa Principal and about 6 minutes to jog to La Punta. After crossing La Punta, an additional 30-minute jog got me to a beautiful lagoon where I watch some amazing birdlife in peace. The active individual can walk virtually everywhere from this place, including the relatively small town of Puerto Escondido and surrounding beaches. For the less active, it's less than a 10-minute ride by taxi, collectivo or bus from town. A collective or bus to/from town cost us 4 pesos, while a taxi cost us between 25-30 pesos. All options are a really good and economical way to travel in this area.

We made this our home base and even ventured as far as the the nude beach of Zipolite by public transport on a day trip. It took us about 2 hours to get from Zicatela Beach House to Zipolite, including waiting for public transport and cost us only 45 pesos per person. First, we took a bus to Pochutla (about 1 hour) and then a shared taxi to Zipolite (about 30 minutes). If you are unsure about how to do this, ask the friendly locals in the area. It's really easy.

After exploring the Puerto Escondido area over several days, we agree that the location of Zicatela Beach House is ideal, and in fact preferred it to the other choices for the following reasons:

• La Punta is too rocky and too far from town.
• Playa Marinero has too many boats and we assume the water is a bit more polluted and less ideal for swimming. We're not scientists so we can't actually back this claim.
• Playa Principal is a good second option, but the beach itself is generally too busy. Also, the lifeguards won't let you play in the water most of the time due to the strong waves.
• Playa Carrizalillo is too small and isolated.
• Playa Manzanillo is overcrowded and too small to spread out.

Overall, the location of this place was ideal for us because it was close enough to La Punta where you can learn to surf, close enough to the busier area and nightlife of Playa Principal with a quick cab ride or a longer walk, but the best part was that we had most of the beach in this area to ourselves. The waves are aggressive in this area, or any other at this Playa or Zipolite, which made them more fun.

Room Comfort:

We stayed in the penthouse of this 3-floor house which was big, beautiful, open, airy, with a bedroom that contained a huge bed with a clean mosquito net--we'll talk about the importance of this later--, living room with a sofa looking out to the patio, large kitchen, spacious bathroom, lot's of shelving and storage space to unpack comfortably, patio, private palapa with hammocks and so on. The kitchen has full sized appliances and everything we needed to make our fruit/avocado/protein smoothies and scrambled eggs. Rather than going on and on about how amazing this place was and how the custom built house was beautifully  furnished, we'll just provide more pictures than we would usually provide so that you can see for yourself.

The only negative was that there were mosquitoes in the evenings so the mosquito net over the large bed was VERY useful.

Cleanliness:

No complaints from us. The place was clean.

Service:

Much to our surprise, the owners have maid service for their self-catering apartments at least 2-3 per week. They also provided clean towels, toilet paper, jugs of drinking water and so on. On arrival, they set up a welcome basket with a variety of fruits and vegetables from the local area. Hey, they even let us use their washer!

Food:

This is a self-catering place. There are good local and foreign places to grab all kinds of food in and out of town if you are allergic to cooking like us. The closest place, Guadua, has some good meals, but they are a bit overpriced for the area. The best place to grab large, good and cheap burritos is (oddly enough) from a Yoga place on the east end of Playa Principal called Jugueria “El Tropical”. A huge and delicious chicken burrito will only cost you 30 pesos at this place.

Other Notes:

Again, we can't say enough good things about the Canadian/Mexican owners. They are nice, friendly and honest. Lovely people. If you need house-sitters, CALL US! We love your place.

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