Name: Hotel Santa Helena Plaza
Address: Galeana 304, Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Oaxaca, 68000, Mexico
Rating: 8

24-hour reception

Smoking areas

Ticket assistance

Television in lobby

Terrace

No elevators

General

Accessibility features

Wheelchair Accessible

Accessibility

Safe-deposit box

Luggage storage

Services and amenities

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Tour assistance

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Parking

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Location

At the hotel

Oaxaca International Airport

Hotel Santa Helena Plaza

The hotel has spacious rooms with balcony views of the pool. The pool was a fantastic addition, given the hot weather - we used it everyday. The room was quiet and had both aircon and a ceiling fan. There is also free offstreet parking onsite.

Great place to stay in central Oaxaca. The team there was great even with the language barrier they try to help one of the best places I stayed at. My room had no heat or ac and it didn't matter as I was next to the pool and it was cool

A lovely spot to explore Oaxaca - nice big bright rooms with private terrace and a pool

They are very clean. Also room is very big. Bed is old.

Really clean, quaint and convenient. Great value for money. 

Very attentive staff, providing us with an umbrella without prompt heading out in the storm (we thought we were prepared for that much rain! We really weren’t!). Always smiley, always welcoming. They don’t speak English, as expected. But you get by and they don’t mind helping you all be understood. Just google some key phrases. 

The room was spacious, comfortable and clean. Bottled drinking water was provided daily and there was a water cooler in reception. 

The pool was clean and pleasant, although not heated. We seemed to be the only ones who used it, but we used it often and enjoyed it. Once you acclimatise to the temperature, it’s lovely (this was in late October). 

Doesn’t look like the restaurant still exists, but just go out for Tacos Roy 5 mins away. Cafe Alex great for breakfast (international and huge variety of authentic dishes). 

Loses points only for extremely unreliable WiFi. 

Muchas Gracias!! 

Very clean property and cool location. Kids and I loved the pool...although it was not warm it was refreshing.

Great rooms with pool but in lousy neighborhood.  You have to walk 6-8 blocks over broken sidewalks to the plaza/cathedral, noisy, bus fumes in your face.  But the other side of town near Santo Domingo church is just charming and wonderful; lots of little charming colonial hotels in that area, wonderful cafes, shops, and restaurants (where I will stay on my next trip to Oaxaca).  I got cards and some of the hotels are La Noria, Abu (like a chic Italian hotel), Antigua, Oaxaca Real, for around $1500 per couple, under $100 american.  All the bldgs, streets, and sidewalks are kept in good repair in that area, 10 minute walk to the plaza/cathedral.  The poshest hotel in that area is the Quinta Real, fantastic place in an old convent, but pricey.

I took early retirement last year and decided to drive across Mexico and Central America for a year.  People will argue about taking a car on a journey like this and tell you there is a problem with finding safe parking for your auto, navigating the country, etc., and I will agree somewhat, but the benefits of having an auto to manage your own schedule and destinations far outweigh not having an auto in my opinion.   I can give you a long list of places I would have never seen without my car.   You need to know a little Spanish, like left, right, etc. but that is all.  But that’s almost way off subject.  

I discovered this place rather difficultly, as it was not in any of the guide books I had and it was hard to find hotels with parking in Oaxaca.   I was elated when I found it, tired and exhausted after 6 hours on the road.  It provided “park in front of the hotel” in a gated enclosed parking area, which was quite a relief even if I discounted the extremely nice and comfortable rooms.   I really enjoyed this place and will stay there any time I return to Oaxaca, automobile or not.   The pool was nice looking but I would like to know what month someone can swim in Oaxaca, as I visited there twice, on my trip driving to Nicaragua and back and both times the weather was just too cold for swimming.   Great hotel in my opinion and I stayed in a bunch along my route.

If you have a laptop, try to stay in a room near the office and your laptop will likely work, as wireless is only promised to function in the lobby.   

I found that in Mexico it seemed that more often than not, people seem to like to have conversations in the halls of hotels, being very discourteous to other patrons, and this hotel was no exception.   So outside of the occasional very rude tourist, this place was extremely quiet and had a courteous staff who was very helpful in using highlighters to draw on a map anywhere you wanted to visit, inside or outside the city.

P.S. When I returned to this hotel Nov, 2008, the whole place had a fresh coat of paint and looked brand new.   Beds were some of the most comfortable at any hotel I stayed in.   I think you will enjoy this place.  It’s not the 15th century city center hotel with balcony overlooking the Zocalo (central park) but it has none of the plumbing, parking, noise, security and other issues that come with that kind of experience.

Oaxaca

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4.5! Great value. Just what we needed. 

On the one hand, not a nice neighborhood, and most special requests (like for late check out or using a microwave for a moment) were answered with “no”. On the other, clean, bright, spacious rooms, high water pressure and plenty of hot water, nice pool and outdoor area. Closest great coffee is Caracol Purpura (7 min walk), 15 minute walk to the downtown centre (good if you’re obsessed with getting a lot of steps per day as I am), 10 min walk to best bakery in Mexico (Boulenc), 15 min walk to the Guelaguetza stadium if you’re adventurous and like climbing stairs.

Some pros, some cons

The hotel was very peaceful and the room was super clean. There aren’t many amenities but the room rates are quite inexpensive. The furnishings offer old world Mexican charm but bed linens and towels could use an upgrade. The location is a short walk to the big cathedral which is another few blocks to the Zocalo. The pool area is nice, There’s a pretty mural in the cantina area. The pool is not heated but probably very refreshing when it’s super hot. The staff was friendly and helpful when I needed to call a taxi. They are very hands off once you check in. I’d say this is a good value hotel and seemed to have mostly nationals as guests.

nice hotel, lousy neighborhood

Great place to stay for a day or a month

I lived in Oaxaca for 5 years and this was my choice for a getaway with friends and with my wife. It is very close to the main plaza in Oaxaca, but not on a street with bus traffic, so it is very quiet. The rooms are simple, but always clean. There are bungalow-type rooms and rooms with a balcony looking over the pool. Free parking is a plus here. Not many bells and whistles, but a very reasonable rate, especially given its location. There is a restaurant, but it may not be open during low season. No worry, there are good restaurants just blocks away.

Quaint, convenient and reasonably priced

My husband, son and I stayed in the Plaza Santa Helena in June 2004. I discovered the hotel on the internet but the reservations portion of their website doesn’t work ---.  I finally called the hotel using my rusty Spanish to get prices (very little English spoken by the staff). Our triple room was 600 pesos incl. tax. Be sure to bring plenty of cash because credit cards are not accepted.

The hotel is in a very Mexican part of town as opposed to the northern tourist part of town.  It’s an easy 3 blocks walk west of the zocalo – however the sidewalks are extremely congested.  The property sits back off the street with a small parking lot in front.  You walk through a nice lobby which opens to the pool patio/restaurant in the middle, with rooms around 3 sides on 2 floors.  Our room was on the ground floor and was very nice and new, with beautiful carved wooden furniture, TV in English and fan.  A nice bathroom with marble shower, but could have used a rug on the floor.  A second door opened to a small patio with an iron table and chairs overlooking the pool.  Really enjoyed the little patio, especially with 3 in the room.  Also the pool area was marvelously quiet for being in such a congested part of town where pools in budget hotels are hard to find.  We relaxed and cooled off there every afternoon.  

The best thing was the quiet.  When the hotel is full it may be noisier, but we really enjoyed the quiet (only 3 or 4 other rooms were occupied during our stay). Previous stays in 3 downtown hotels had been much noisier! 

The restaurant onsite was convenient but we only ate there once.  Next door is an internet café for only 25 pesos per hour!  A doctor is located less than a block away, which came in handy when my son got sick.  This location was very convenient for walking to the Juarez market, the artisans market, and the bus station for Ocotlan. Later in our trip we did move to a hotel in the northern part of town so we could explore that area more fully, and staying in two such different areas gave us a real feel for the beautiful city of Oaxaca.

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New Quiet Budget Hotel with a Pool

We were taken to the hotel by the taxi driver from the airport since we had not made any previous reservations for when we arrived. This is the last stop that he made and it was by far the most outstanding and better than I could have hoped for from all the online searches I had been conducting. 

The style was typical of Mexico, bright colors, all-wood furniture with beautiful hand carved designs and fresh flowers in the lobby every day. The rooms were very clean, nicely decorated, each having it's own private balcony. From what we were told this is one of the few hotels in Oaxaca that have pools, it was beautiful and nicely kept although we did not use it since it was a bit chilly while we were there.  

The staff was very helpful. The hotel was only four blocks away from the zocalo (downtown). There is a restaurant onsite that serves a delicious breakfast and lunch, but no dinner for a very reasonable price. 

Downsides:
- no a/c, but when we went (mid-Sept.) we did not need it; each room is provided with a plug in fan that was more than sufficient when we needed it
- No credit cards accepted

Upsides:
- Beautifully decorated with a warm feel that makes you feel like you are in old world Mexico; attention to aesthitic detail to create an illusion that you are not in the middle of the city.
- Quiet: you don't hear the roar of cars or much of anything once you are inside the hotel
- Clean
- Inexpensive: during the time we were there (low season) we paid $535 pesos a night for a room with two double beds
- They book tours with a local tour company (Tours del Sol) that picks you up directly at the hotel. I highly recommend the Sierra del Norte tour, it was fabulous! 

I cannot recommend this hotel highly enough, it was a real treasure find for us and cannot wait to retrun.  Unfortunately, I could not find a website for this hotel.


Hotel Santa Helena Plaza

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