On Facebook, this picture would say, “If you remember hotel room doors like this, you are OLD.” Nope, this is present-day hardware at the Hotel Casa Balam in Mérida. That fob is hand carved.
Full Disclosure: When Linda and I travel, we don’t expect our standard of living to increase. We don’t take holidays to experience the “good life” with servants fulfilling our every wish. (Well, except restaurants, of course.) We’d rather invest our money in plane fare to go to interesting places. So, when our hotel room door handle resembles the picture above, we are not dismayed. Quite the opposite.
Last week in Mérida, on the Gulf Coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, we stayed in a little Mexican-style hotel, built in a quadrangle with a garden and fountain in the courtyard. Most of the staff didn’t speak much better English than I speak Spanish, so communication was an exercise in diplomacy. And all sorts of fun.
Transport
Mérida is a mere 300 kilometres from Cancun, but the cheapest plane fare we could find (if we went on the third Tuesday after the full moon) was $434 per person, one way. Plus taxi fares, airport security lineups etc. However, we could book a private car and driver for $350: any day, four hours, door-to-door. For an extra $75 we got an hour at Ek Balam, one of Yucatan’s medium-sized architectural sites, and now my favourite. I actually got to climb the pyramid! The only downside was uncertainty if the driver would speak English. We only batted .333 on that one, but all the drivers we hired were polite, pleasant, safe and punctual.
The Downside
When you book everything yourself, if you make a mistake, you are thrown on the mercies of the booking agent. In our case, we ran afoul of the absolute inflexibility of Booking.com. I reserved an airport taxi on the wrong date and didn’t find out about the error until the day before we flew. (Booking.com sends out their reminders after the 24 no-refund deadline has passed. It saves them a lot of hassle), When I contacted their chat line, the agent absolutely refused to change the booking. When I asked to speak to her supervisor, her answer was, “I am sorry, but I cannot escalate you to my supervisor since I have already provided the resolution. The same resolution will be provided by the supervisor.”
I’m really suspicious that I was talking to an Artificial Lack of Intelligence. Needless to say, I will be forced to arrange future trips without the benefit of Booking.com’s assistance.
Location, Location, Location
The Casa del Balam, where we spent most of the week, was in the centre of Mérida, within blocks of the Central Plaza, the Cathedral, and in the middle of over fifteen restaurants of all types and prices. The hotel had a rather expensive (similar to Canadian prices) bar/restaurant, where we had appetizers and drinks several times in lieu of supper. We weren’t so impressed with their breakfast menu, but a small place half a block away had a great “desayuno,” and the staff got to know us quickly, as happens often in Mexico. (Note: the restaurant ebilling machines all have a “10% tip” option, unlike their Canadian counterparts.)
Desayuno in the Jungle
Archeological Sites
I had intended to use a local agent in Mérida to book tours. However, Ek Balam came with the trip to Mérida, and the people at the hotel desk were happy to step in for other trips. Larger tours tend to march ahead and leave us behind, so we’re better off on our own. All-exclusive, remember? I’ll be covering Mayan ruins in next week’s post, but let’s put it this way; Chichen Itza may be the showpiece, but the other sites are varied and more interesting.
R & R Day
When you’re scheduling a holiday, it’s often a good idea to book in a day of rest. One day we had absolutely nothing to do, to charge the old batteries for further adventure. Mérida is about 30 kilometers from the Gulf of Mexico, and there’s a new town, Progresso, out on the coast. A nice place for a quiet lunch. We could have just hopped into the next taxi that came by, but the cost to come back tends to be much higher than the trip out for some reason. Maybe it’s the uphill climb. The hotel concierge was happy to book a private driver for us for a fairly stiff price. As we expected, it was a friend of his, but the driver’s professionalism was up to the usual standard. He took us out, dropped us off for lunch at a beachfront restaurant that he knew, and waited to take us back into the city. Nothing to organize, no hiking, not even a walk on the beach, which turned out to be hectares of beautiful (but soft) white sand. We were satisfied to have great seafood and sit and enjoy the view.
Shrimp Feast at the Beach
The Return
For our last day, we took another hired driver back to Cancun, to El Rey del Caribe, the quintessential Mexican hotel. We stayed there two years ago and really enjoyed it, so we had a flashback to the good old days before taking the plane home.
The Bottom Line: We Like It Our Way
In total, the all-inclusive was a nice way to relax and have everything done for you, and definitely the place to hang out with a large group. The all-inclusive charges you a lot of money to have a whole bunch of choices, most of which you will never use. Travelling on your own is cheaper, and we spend the extra for specific outings of our choice. So, no surprise. We are the type of people that prefer to do things our way, and we’re not likely to change.
Next week I’ll talk more about what we did and saw.