We traveled the first two weeks of December and I am posting a few facts that might be useful.
I had been surprised a few months prior to find, on Google Flights, cheap round trip tickets to/from Puebla - usually the only economical tickets for my region involve either Cancun or Mexico City.
This turned out to not be as active a trip as I am used to, due to mobility issues on my wife's part, and the fact that I had a cold for a good part of the first half of the trip, and she caught it from me for the last half!
So a large part of what I have focused on in this report involves either hotels or the relative virtues of some different places from the point of view of the mobility-impaired, which is a topic I have asked about on this forum before.
First, the Puebla airport, which I had not experienced before: it is a surprisingly small regional airport for a city with presumably quite a few foreign business travellers. It only has four gates, believe it or not, and is probably smaller than CAPU. It is also unheated, which was not very nice when we were leaving, as the weather was quite cold. In fact, our flight was delayed because they had to de-ice the runways. Also, the gates do not allow the aircraft doors to be flush to the building - you have to walk across the concrete to and from the plane and use a large stepped ladder to enter or leave the plane - this in itself can be inconvenient for those with walking difficulties.
In Puebla, since we had a late flight to Puebla, and an early flight from, we decided to use the Hit Hoteles Aeropuerto. I can't say enough about the service ethic of everyone on the staff there, and how well-planned physically the hotel is. Just a couple of examples: when we spent our first night in the hotel, unfortunately because of my late reservation and not making a special request, there was no room available on the first floor, so we had to get one on the second, which involved a small flight of stairs. Upon our return before our departure back to the States, the manager had remembered that we wanted a room on the first floor, and had already made sure we got one. Since our departure was so early, the restaurant was not serving breakfast yet, but they insisted on making a box lunch for us that we consumed in the airport and on the plane. And there is a wonderful self-serve coffee machine in the lobby, a Nescafe Milano, that came in really handy for that early morning departure. At about $60 US, I consider this hotel very good value for the money for those with late arrivals or early departures.
The next night in Puebla, we stayed at Hotel Imperial, which I consider to have gone downhill in terms of value when you consider the worn rooms and the chaotic and rather spartan breakfast buffet. However, you still can drink the tap water due to the ozone purification system, which is pretty nice! We have done it many times and never gotten sick, so I think it works.
Wish I'd had a little more time in Puebla - I rather like it. But it was on to Veracruz via bus the next day.
We splurged big time for the first two nights and stayed at Hotel Emporio. This is a very fine hotel, no doubt, with a great view of the malecón, and three restaurants. The view is of the harbor - where the ships are, not out to sea. I consider this a good thing. The ocean is beautiful, but there's not really a whole lot going on there to the unaided eye, and it's fun to sea the ships go in and out. We also were right next to the naval facility, so one day we got to see the navy personnel parade right beside the restaurant we were in. The hotel swimming pool is amazing - probably Olympic sized. It also has a concierge service, which we used to help rent a car, which was delivered to and from the hotel. This saved me from having to pick it up and drop it off at the airport or some other location. However, I wish I had done just that, due to some delay in getting the car, and some inflexibility in terms of when I could return it. The breakfast buffet, which is not included in the price, was quite good. The one restaurant we ate at was quite good as well. I will not, however say that this hotel is terrific value for money - even heavily discounted you are going to shell out around $100 US per night, and I am not sure the staff is as organized and well trained as it might be. Also, amazingly, there is no way to enter or exit the hotel on the malecón side without using a flight of stairs rather than the elevator!
We took the car to Tlacotalpan and stayed a few nights at Doña Lala. Tlacotalpan is a great town for the walking-impaired, because it is flat as a board, and any hotel on the main drag like Doña Lala is very close to the two adjoining main squares. The town is uniformly made up of the original 19th century architecture of the region, which is beautiful and unique, making it a UNESCO heritage site. I found the people very warm and friendly. Doña Lala I consider good but not great value. There was only one room downstairs, which was one of the suites, at something over $60 US. The air conditioning did not actually work, which was an issue in the hot, humid climate of the town. However, a swimming pool with water that was quite cold was right outside our door, which was a very nice touch. The food at Doña Lala was quite good, maybe not as great as I have seen some reviewers suggest.
