Hotel Estefania Morelia: $3 USD a night?
Replies: 18 - Last Post: Feb 8, 2013 9:38 AM Last Post By: enroutesiglo
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Hotel Estefania Morelia: $3 USD a night?
There's an ad on one of these TTMB pages for the Hotel Estefania in Morelia at $2.85 a night. When I clicked through to the info page, it said $3.00 a night. Whatever. This, of course, must be a mistake. The Hotel Estefania, where we stayed for one night in 2004, is cheap, but not that cheap.Hotel Estefania page
Also, remember that you generally get what you pay for. We do not recommend this hotel. (admittedly, it's been over 8 years since we stayed there. But I'm not saying any more. Just take my word.)
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Learning the price the hotel actually charges is probably best determined not by consulting a hotel booking site, which the LP is in this instance, but by checking the hotel's own website (http://www.hotelestefania.com.mx/index.htm), or by using the telephone. ;-)When I checked the hotel website I learned that rooms start at MX$382. +/- the equivalent of US$30. Maybe the hotel website prices are up-to-date, maybe not. From what's represented in photos on that website, I don't know why someone be slamming the hotel (based on a LP misprint) as a "do not recommend." Looks to have clean rooms, cable tv, wi-fi, etc. Seemingly a typical Mexican 'tourist class" hotel I've seen and stayed-in in many parts of the country.
Maybe Anonimo knows something more about the place than he's saying. :-)
LW
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Anonimo, I'm getting hotel ads on the TT pages, too. Don't know how they sized me up, but none of them fit me. Most are like $200 a night, when normally in Mexico I spend maybe $20-40 depending. But every once in awhile an ad will appear with a lowball number. Neither the high nor the lowball is what I'm looking for. So I find it amusing what you came across with Estifania. My recollection is that your lodging of choice for Morelia is about 5-6 blocks SW of the zocalo? And you have spoken highly of a nearby bakery for some tasty breakfast sweets.Buen viaje!
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Maybe Anonimo knows something more about the place than he's saying. :-)
L_W, obviously, no modern Mexican hotel will be charging $3 a night. My point was that the LP ad was pure nonsense.
The room we stayed in at Estefania back in '04 was dark, tiny, poorly ventilated had a bad bed and I dimly recall a barely adequate bathroom. But maybe it's improved since then. The overall impression left was "sleazy", but I could be wrong since we got perhaps the cheapest room and stayed only one night. We got out of there as fast as possible and walked to hotel Posada de La Villa, on Calle Padre Lloreda, which is hardly deluxe, but is clean, roomy, and generally functional.
Since then, with advancing age, and an increased need for comfort, we stay in much better hotels.
Aloysius, our current favorite lodging in Morelia Centro is La Casona Rosa, which is operated by Rosa, a friend of ours, so anything nice I say about it may be held against me by some few here on TTMB.
The place you mentioned, I believe that it's Hotel Casa Galeana, across from whole grain Panadería Los Ángeles, on Calle Galeana, is inexpensive but tends to be uncomfortable and noisy, in our single experience.
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Wow, I'm seeing a ridiculous one right now:Hotels & Hostels
San Marino
Puerto Vallarta
(2 star Hotel)
From US$9.76 per night
Author Reviewed
San Marino
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Obviously when the hotels are filling their online profile, some enter rate in dollars ($) while the provider expects them to enter it in pesos ($). An expensive luxury hotel may honor such mistake if you can produce a reservation; I doubt the mentioned properties would.Observatorio/Poniente is closer to Morelia than Norte, therefore the time will be shorter. Norte may also experience worse local traffic jams. From Poniente there are two options, ETN and Herradura de Plata; I tried both about a year ago and Herradura was cheaper and much faster because ETN uses speed control. ETN is much more comfortable though.
I once stayed at Qualitel Morelia, not much charm, very basic, awful breakfast, but clean and good location and price.
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Just looked at the map, and the route exiting Mexico City on Mexico-Queretaro from the north is shorter than Mexico-Toluca from the West. Herradura which is now Autovias seems to get to Morelia about 10 minutes faster from the North than from the West, per schedules. ETN still schedules longer from the North though.10
(This should be a separate topic, but I'm happy to expand on it.)Yose01:
From Poniente there are two options, ETN and Herradura de Plata; I tried both about a year ago and Herradura was cheaper and much faster because ETN uses speed control. ETN is much more comfortable though.
We always use Poniente, because we are accustomed to arriving and departing from there, and because we almost always stay west of Centro.
ETN is fine, and has frequent departures towards Morelia but not, by the way, to Pátzcuaro. HdP is the group name for related bus line brands such as La Linea, VIA, and most notable, AutoVias. AutoVias is reasonably comfortable for a 4 hour trip from Poniente to Morelia, an hour more to Pátzcuaro. Many but not all the AutoVias buses are double deckers; about 8 seats on the lower deck; many more seats on the upper. Upper has, of course, better views, larger overhead storage shelves (the lower storage shelves are nearly useless), a little less leg room (except for the forward "panoramico" seats) but upper deck also tends to be much warmer, which can be either good or bad.
Rest rooms on the latest model AutoVias buses (we last used one in July 2012) are very compact and less comfortable, compared to the previous model which had sanitarios compartments opening to the side. Both ETN and most AutoVias buses have wifi of sorts which works sporadically.
The latest model buses of both lines have individual entertainment screens in the seat backs, so you can have a choice in whether to watch the movies or not. You just have to figure out the convoluted User Interface.)
For those of us who visit or live near Pátzcuaro, AutoVias is the best choice, as it provides direct service, with only a 15 minute stop in Morelia. When we take ETN Poniente- Morelia, we have to get another bus, usually on the 2nd class Purhépechas line, to get us on the final leg. It actually has some advantages, but they are very specific to our needs and I won't go into that here.
