Hotel Real Madero

"Only" '4 blocks' away from the Cathedral

I made a reservation at this hotel and was really looking forward to staying here as it looked pretty nice on the pictures on their website, claimed to be very close to the cathedral (and thus to the very downtown area) and had a discounted rate which made it pretty affordable even though it was a 4-star hotel. So I booked 2 rooms with a king size bed each as this time my man and I were travelling with his sister and her husband.

We drove past the cathedral and were quite disappointed when we realized that we were going farther and farther from the main square (towards the west) and the hotel was nowhere to be found. We FINALLY arrived there but it was too far away for what we needed – this was a shopping trip and we were planning to do all of our shopping in downtown or on the east side of the city, and besides my man's brother-in-law is an elderly man who would have been unable to walk those "4 blocks" back and forth to the downtown area everyday, twice a day or more.

So we told the people at the front desk that this wasn't what we expected and needed and that we needed to cancel the reservation. They were very kind and accomodating and said they would not make any charges to my credit card as this would not be considered a no-show... but then we found out that they didn't even have my reservation contemplated....!! Apparently their website isn't too reliable to make reservations, even though I thought this would be better than booking through a 3rd party. At least the rate was considerably lower this way (they had a special discount during September)... but there was no such reservation in my name anyway. Oh well...

Unique Quality: We did not stay here so I can't really describe what the hotel was like, I can only say it looked pretty clean and neat and it was a pity we didn't find it convenient to stay here. We even complained to the front desk about their merchandising because they weren't really "4 blocks away from the cathedral" as they advertised, but the guy showed us a map and claimed that they WERE 4 blocks away from downtown indeed. In the map it does look like it.... But the blocks are DAMN long and you have to walk a bit uphill to go to downtown. If this isn't a problem for you, great; if it is, you can always take a taxi or ride a bus which will take you to downtown in 5 minutes or so. This area doesn't seem to be too noisy either so this might be a plus too. They also have free parking on site in case you have a car. No meals are included in the price of the room (approx. USD $50 per standard room for 2 people, discounted price of Sept. 2009) but they do have a restaurant.

• Opinion of Price: about average
• Related to: Budget Travel

Hotel Real Madero Photo: Hotel building (taken from their website)

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