Name: Hotel Arenas Familiar
Address: Calle Juan Enríquez No. 307, Centro, 93400 Papantla de Olarte, Mexico, Papantla de Olarte, Papantla de Olarte, Papantla de Olarte, 93400, Mexico
Rating: 5

24-hour reception

Terrace

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Family room

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Offsite parking reservations required

Parking

Beach/pool towels

Pool and beach

Family/Kid Friendly

Kids

Pets allowed

Pets

Location

At the hotel

Room amenities

El Tajin National Airport

Hotel Arenas Familiar

Papantla de Olarte

The hotel is located a good distance from the center of Papantla, the cost of the room was affordable, it is a rather quiet and familiar place. It has the basic services with good cleanliness. The employees were very friendly at all times.

Hotel Arenas  Hotel Arenas

The cheapest rooms at 250 pesos warn you, a real furnace in the evening, the mature ones returning the heat of the day (chamber 13 for example).They have air conditioned rooms at 380 pesos.

There's better.

It's a very old hotel, very unsuitable for family travel. The only good thing is that it has free WiFi. But outside of that it's like a hotel of passage. If you want to have a nice time, don't go.

PESIMO hotel is a hotel.

A long drawn out discussion regarding my booking they could not find and where they wanted to charge twice the price, that my booking was for- Got room 1 with dirty tissues on the floor-access via dirty kitchen with sink full of dishs with mouldy food and flies. Shower/wc under the stairs-poor quality. Saving grace was staff pleasant and near to Zocalo, I was also allowed into the room before 10am.
There are a few other budget options you will pass if coming from ADO bus station.

Cheap but dirty and rents by the hour

Good location, within a few blocks from the main square and just a block away from the supermarket. Very basic room, a bit rough on the edges, but bathroom was clean.

A bit noisy due to traffic; better have some earplugs.

Cheap, reasonably clean, but a little noisy

Arenas has at least 2 different venues; one is in the city center, the one we stayed at is up on a hill off the main highway.  

Pros:  
- they had the only vacant room left in the city (that you could find on-line) during the Cumbre equinox festival at El Tajin; 
- room was clean; 
- removed from the crazy traffic in town, so quiet except for animal sounds;
- the view from our wide window was wonderful: the hills, the blackbirds in the trees, the roosters and chickens below; 
- window in bathroom;
- bathroom and room were an OK size;
- when we arrived at the wrong venue, a man who worked there immediately led us up to the correct hotel
- free protected parking.  

Cons: 
- no elevator and our room was 3 floors up (no help provided); 
- toilet seat very stained; 
- broken window pane in bathroom; 
- no breakfast provided;
- a non-service attitude overall; 
- no ability to take a credit card but required payment before arrival.  

With a bit of money and a credit card terminal, this could be a good budget choice.  I would recommend it if they would care to fix up the small things.

I had wanted to stay at La Quinta de Los Leones but they were full.  I can't vouch for the rooms because they were occupied and could not be shown, but one of the workers there gave us a tour of what had originally been the home of Bishop Guizar, and our guide was very kind and welcoming.

Papantla is a madhouse of traffic on the steep narrow streets. Although it would have been nice to be able to walk into town, it was much better to be up on the hill. We left our car at the hotel and took a cab in and out of town (cost was about $2 and cab came right away to pick us up). 

Papantla's zocalo is ringed with food vendors and souvenir (think vanilla) kiosks and there are two markets across the street, so it's an extremely lively place at night.

Good view from the hill out of the fray

A couple blocks past the Che supermarket, this hotel is a very basic, no-frills place, and a good bargain for budget travellers. Close enough to the main plaza to be convenient to everything, but far-enough away to be quieter and cheaper. If you're coming or going from or to the bus station with heavy bags, you might want to take a taxi, because it's uphill both ways.

Some street noise in the street-facing room, but basically quiet. A little bit of dust, but basically clean. A wide variety of room options, from a tiny, interior single-bed room with shared bathroom, to a big, bright, airy room with balcony and three double beds and private bathroom. The first time I went on my own, I had the former for about US $12 per night, and the second time I went with family and we had the latter for about US $45 per night. There is a small common-use kitchenette on the ground floor, and a nice common sitting room upstairs. I have the impression that the building used to be the residence of one well-off family, yers ago before it was converted to a hotel.

The two ladies who run the place are quiet and pleasant, and seem to live on-site. Because it's just the two of them, it can take a few minutes for one of them to respond to the bell at the front door, but one of them will get to you if you ring again. The younger of the ladies, "Yaya", is a little shy at first, but friendly and very sweet-natured. We felt comfortable there.

Hotel Arenas Familiar

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