Hotel Catalina

The neighborhood is not the greatest, in terms of looks, but we walked from Catalina night and day to the town center and never had problems, just day to day people and one busy street with lots of traffic. It's a 15 min walk to the main center (Zacola) Can't beat the budget for what you get. Although the Elevator, room and bathroom is small, it's very comfortable for two people, and I'm sure they offer bigger and better rooms. The nights are noisy outside, but all that stops about 11pm, then it's quiet. They offer a fan in each room also. We didn't see any prostitutes in the neighborhood like others mentioned in their review, we saw a young Japanese girl staying on her own, and an older mexican couple staying in the hotel, that's all. We liked the man at reception, with his quiet smile, he spoke a little english, enough for us to get what we needed. We had no problem with wifi. The shower was hot, no way of telling which dial was hot or cold, you just have to run it and see. Did I mention the hotel was very comfortable? We stayed there for the first 3 days and the last night of our trip, it's one of the least expensive offering cleanliness and comfort. Great to come back to after a full day of sightseeing. The outside building and foyer is nice. There's a street food vendor just around the corner offering great scrambled egg tacos in the mornings, only 14 pesos, ($2CAD). They don't speak very good English so point to what you want, or learn to say egg taco please! in spanish. it's on the way to The station Doctores which is on the dark green line, & closest to the hotel. It's about 20 min from the airport, if you take the subway from the airport, you have to take the brown line and switch at Chabacano to the dark green line to Doctores. It's .5 pesos, 35 cents per person the exit sign is called Salida, and if you have to transfer you look for the sign saying Correspondence, the last stop of the line is written underneath to let you know the direction the train is going, and you get off at the stop you need on the way. This is if you want to watch your pennies while your there because there's lots to do and see, not only that, it's faster than the bus and taxi with all the traffic in Mexico City. We took a taxi back from Catalina to the airport it cost 190 pesos which was $13CAD, we had enough of subways by the end of our trip, which was very safe by the way, and a good experience because you get to feel the people of Mexico city. They're like everywhere else, all kinds. Email me if you have any questions.