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| PRESIDENTE EPITACIO, BRAZIL Name: Hotel Itavera Address: rua Curitiba 6-22 Price: $28 Rating: Honorable Mention Reviewed: 1999 Review: Very good two star hotel located a short distance from the bus terminal by taxi ($3 - too high - can easily be walked!) and two blocks from the downtown area. Rooms are comfortable, spacious, clean and come with color tv, air conditioning and a well-stocked frigo bar. Amenities include such things as a volley ball court and a swimming pool. Clearly, the best hotel that this city of 35,000 has to offer. Extremely friendly and helpful staff. Warmly and enthusiastically recommended. Price includes breakfast. PRESIDENTE PRUDENTE, BRAZIL Name: Hotel Alves Address: Price: $4 Rating: Best Value Reviewed: 1993 Review: Adequate hotel located opposite from the bus terminal and several blocks from the downtown area. Rooms are basic (not too bad), clean and come with a sink. Not the friendliest hotel, for sure, but still recommended. Good value. PRESIDENTE VENCESLAU, BRAZIL Name: Pousada Hotel Address: Price: $7 Rating: Mediocre Reviewed: 1995 Review: Adequate hotel conveniently located a few short blocks to the bus terminal and in the downtown area. Rooms are basic, fairly clean (cigarette butts under one of the beds) and come with a ceiling fan (a welcome relief!). The communal bathroom is down the hall. Run by a friendly family. Recommended! PRIMAVERA DO LESTE, BRAZIL Name: Hotel Castelli Address: Price: $16 Rating: Honorable Mention Reviewed: 1995 Review: One of several reasonably priced hotels located within the vicinity of the bus terminal. This hotel, in fact, is conveniently located directly across from the bus terminal and a few blocks from the center of town. Rooms are comfortable, spotless, fairly spacious (which you don’t usually find in cheaper hotels) and come with a fan and color tv. Also, fairly spacious bathroom. Run by a friendly family. Highly recommended! Price includes breakfast. PRUDENTOPOLIS, BRAZIL Name: Hotel Lopes Address: av. Sao Joao 2595 Price: $11 Rating: Best Value Reviewed: 1995 Review: Good hotel (the best in the city) located a few short blocks from the bus terminal and in the downtown area. Rooms are simple but comfortable and come with a small table and chair. The communal bathroom is located down the hall. There are more expensive rooms available that are a bit more spacious that also come with a private bathroom. A good value and highly recommended. Price includes breakfast. PUERTO CABELLO, VENEZUELA Name: Hotel Suite Caribe Addres: Price: $55 Rating: Honorable Mention Reviewed: 1997 Review: One of the three best hotels in this bustling city of 137,250. Excellent three star hotel located 5 kms. from both the downtown area and the bus terminal. Rooms are clean, comfortable, spacious and come with color tv (cable), air conditioning and a small writing desk. There’s a very scenic painting of the mountains that hangs over the bed which adds a nice touch to the room. There’s a wonderful view from the window of the coast in the distance. Instead of a key, you’ll insert a card to unlock the door. Amenities include a swimming pool. Restaurant and nightclub attached. Friendly and attentive staff. Highly recommended! Advisary: Don’t be tempted to stay in the center even if you can save a few bucks. My travel sources (various guidebooks that I refer to frequently) explain that of the dozen or so budget hotels which operate in the downtown area, most double as sex hotels and some allow prostitutes as well. Puerto Cabello is definitely one city you won’t want to skimp on the price of accommodations because of all the questionable hotels. PUERTO COLOMBIA, VENEZUELA Name: Hotel Meson Xuchytian Address: Price: $83.50 Rating: Honorable Mention Reviewed: 1997 Review: I’ve come to the conclusion that Puerto Colombia is an expensive place to stay. After pricing another similar and simple hotel that wasn’t fancy by any means, I found it to be the same price as this one. However, this is a very quaint hotel located both a couple of blocks from the center of town and the bus stop. The hotel and rooms are done in colonial decor. Rooms are simple, small, spotless and come with air conditioning. English spoken by some of the hotel staff. This hotel is still recommended in spite of the outrageous price because of the very unique and authentic looking building. Price includes breakfast. PUERTO COLOMBIA, VENEZUELA Name: Posada Playa Grande Address: Price: $16.50 Rating: Worst Reviewed: 1997 Review: Puerto Colombia is a tiny village located two and a half hours from Maracay and hardly warrants taking one of Venezuela’s famous rundown buses (broke down twice) to get here. The village has a few cheap and basic (as well as very expensive) places to stay at. It pays to shop around as some are pretty shabby and this is one of them. This posada is located a few blocks from the bus stop and in the center of town. Rooms are basic, clean and come with a fan. The bathroom is a disgrace. The above mentioned price for this kind of room is outrageous. If it weren’t for the fact that Puerto Colombia is on the coast with a magnificent view of the ocean, I’d forget about coming to this town altogether. Needless to say, this posada is not recommended. Drawback: Spiders. PUERTO LA CRUZ, VENEZUELA Name: Hotel Rasil Address: Paseo Colon 9 Price: $67.50 Rating: Best Reviewed: 1997 Review: The beautiful city of Puerto La Cruz (population: 220,000) is located on the Caribbean coast of Venenezuela with many hotels to suit most pocketbooks. Along the street of Paseo Colon, you’ll find the posh hotels (4 stars) as well as hotels of a lower quality. Also, in this area you’ll find the best restaurants, outdoor cafes as well as stores selling handicraft items. At night, vendors sell everything from paintings to wood carvings. Some bargains can be found but most tend to lean towards the expensive side since Puerto La Cruz is considered to be the “French Riviera of Venezuela”. The Hotel Rasil is one of the two best hotels that this city has to offer. Excellent four star hotel located a short distance from the bus terminal by taxi ($2 - good price!) and right across from the beach. Very nice, indeed! Luxury at its finest. With twenty-five stories, this hotel is the tallest one in the city. Rooms are extremely spacious, spotless and come with color tv (my “on” switch didn’t work very well), air conditioning, a mini refrigerator and a mini couch/sofa. It’s almost like having your own suite. Most rooms (mine included) have a balcony overlooking the beautiful city or beach. Pretty at night with the twinkling lights. Breathtaking! Amenities include a swimming pool, a discotheque, a sauna, a gymnasium, a barber shop and even a small mini shopping mall. There’s a pricey and pretty good restaurant located on the third floor. I had the Hawaiian Chicken and the chicken was a little too well done for my taste. However, the service was attentive. The hotel staff speaks English. For a special splurge, try staying at this excellent hotel. Highly recommended! Drawbacks: 1) The hotel has five elevators. However, most of the time only one elevator seems to be working since the other four are being repaired. That means only one working elevator at any given time for a twenty-five story hotel. 2) The service is definitely one of the hotel major shortcomings: a) My television set wasn’t working properly. I called down to the reception desk twice and got no response. Finally, I had to hunt down a maid to help me fix it. b) I called down to the reception desk for toilet paper. I got no response. Finally, I had to hunt down a maid to get me some. c) On the third day, the maid forgot to make my bed. d) The maid kept forgetting to pick up my clothes for the laundry Travel Tip: If you wish to take an upscale bus to Caracas (well worth it!), you’ll find it in the form of “Autoexpresos Ejecutivos”. They have their own terminal next to the ferry terminal. The price is roughly $14 and the ride takes approximately five and a half hours. This is a super deluxe bus and certainly one of the nicest that I’ve had the priviledge of riding on. It’s almost like an airplane on wheels. There’s a hostess aboard who will serve you coffee or juice and she even wears a flight attendent type of uniform. The seats are comfortable and plush. There’s also a TV/VCR where passengers can watch three movies during the trip. This bus company is certainly worth considering. PUERTO NUEVO, CHILE Name: Hotel Puerto Nuevo Address: Price: $47 Rating: Best Reviewed: 1990 Review: Excellent hotel located just outside this tiny town and next to a lake. Rooms are quaint, spacious and spotless. Service is excellent. An exceptionally good value since three meals a day is included in the price of the room. The hotel staff speaks English. Highly recommended! PUERTO OCTAY, CHILE Name: Posada Gubernatis Address: Price: $6.50 Rating: Best Value Reviewed: 1990 Review: Simple posada located on the edge of this tiny town and next to a lake. Rooms are basic but clean. Run by a friendly owner who speaks sporadic English. Breakfast included in the price of the room. Highly recommended! PUERTO SAAVEDRA, CHILE Name: Hosteria Turismo Address: Price: $6.50 Rating: Mediocre Reviewed: 1990 Review: Puerto Saavedra is an unspoiled tiny town located on the coast of the country. Good but basic posada located in the center (what very little center there is) of town. Rooms are basic, clean and fairly spacious. Run by a friendly family. Recommended! PUNTA DEL ESTE, URUGUAY Name: Hotel Cordoba Address: Price: $26 Rating: Honorable Mention Reviewed: 1991 Review: Punta del Este is the most famous resort in Uruguay. Ample hotels in all price ranges in this expensive city. Reasonably priced hotel located near the beach and the downtown area. Recommended! PUNTO FIJO, VENEZUELA Name: Hotel Caribe Address: Calle Comercio 21-112 Price: $18 Rating: Mediocre Reviewed: 1997 Review: Adequate two star hotel located only a couple of blocks from the immediate downtown area. Rooms are simple, clean, somewhat small and come with color tv and a ceiling fan (tends to be noisy). Recommended! Travel Tip: If coming by por puesto (shared cab for $2.22) from Coro (1 hour ride), get them to drop you off at the hotel of your choice in the center of town. |
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