Marti Apart Hotel

Stylish gem tucked away on a quiet back street.

First there are the surface things. The lobby is stylish and the girls working at the front desk range from cute to gorgeous and let's not kid ourselves. This is always a good thing. My biggest complaint is that the baggage person didn't help me with my bags to the room. I had my guitar, a huge heavy bag, and the reception had loaded me up with three keys (front door, safe, and another that I couldn't find a use for) and two remote comtrols (one for the T.V. and one for the air conditioner). This guy sees that I'm having a hard time making it up the short flight of stairs to the elevator so he helps me by grabbing THE REMOTES. I told him to be careful not to throw his back out. I made up to the room with a sprained wrist and aching shoulder but the pain quickly disipated when I see that the room lives up to the pics on the website. Check the place out at http://www.puntatrouville.com.uy/index2.html. There is a nice kitchen with a full size fridge. The bathroom is not a closet and is clean with a bidet. The only problem is that there is no tub. It is a shower set up but with good water pressure. For those of you who have traveled extensively through Latin America this room is not your typical mid-level accomodation. It's a step up from that. The rate I was quoted was the high season rate of 48USD per night with breakfast included. Breakfast consisted of 4 choices of pastries, cake, 6 fruit juices, toast, coffee, and fresh fruit. The breakfast was so good that I really loaded up and usually skipped lunch. They have an Internet cafe with two computers. The connection is listed as high speed but is more like medium-slow by US standards. The plus side is that it is free and they have a connection avaliable for your laptop which seemed to be a little faster for some reason.

Unique Quality: A few tips for staying here would be to try and speak Spanish even if your Spanish is really sad. They can speak English but your attempts will be appreciated. Especially for an American realize that this is a time where many people in the world are not so happy with us. Also read the literature that they have in the room about Hotel policies. This is something that I neglected to do and as a result I kept leaving with my key when they would prefer that you leave it at the front desk. The purpose of this is so that the maid will know when you are out so that she can clean the room. This happens in most places down here but I think that I was just in such a hurry to get to that nice beach that I neglected to do it. Definately take the time for a nice stroll down the beach at night. The weather at this time is more perfect than you can imagine and people are out on the beach until about 1030 or 11PM most nights. They have a penthouse solarium with a great view of the city and I didn't discover it until my last 5 minutes of staying there. Lastly, Pocitos is an amazing neighborhood, and safe as well. Get a map and wander around. You may realize that in a lot of instances you don't need a cab. I walked from Pocitos to La Ciudad Viejo and back one day with no problem (warning - this will take you through some sketchy areas but it is an interesting walk).