Hotel Q

Surprisingly wonderful week-long stay. We selected Hotel Q only because we couldn't find at the last minute a centrally located hotel over the Xmas holidays, but were pleased with various unexpected extras, including, most importantly, free transportation around the city of Oaxaca and very reasonably priced chauffeured day trips in a Jeep Liberty (Monte Alban, Mitla, Ocotlan, Teotitlan, etc.) (The transportation services were critical, because Hertz did not honor our car rental reservation.) While we would have preferred walking, this new (late 2007) hotel in the Sabino/San Felipe del Agua neighborhood is only about 8-10 minutes from the center (40-50 pesos/ US $3-$4 by taxi if you don't use the free transport). Note that location indicated by the online mapping on most reservation sites is erroneous; the hotel is not east of downtown, but rather north. (2da Privada de Jacarandas is essentially a continuation of Avda de las Etnias, which runs parallel to the east of Avda de S. Felipe del Agua/Calzada del Panteon.) There are in-room minibar fridges (which we used more for our own water), in-room phones with free local calls, and free wireless. There's also a pool, which we didn't use, and on-site parking. The motel's architecture is modern, not colonial, with large bathrooms and comfortable king beds in the two large rooms we chose. The price we obtained calling (950 pesos/night) was half that listed on-line. The staff was uniformly pleasant and helpful. Breakfast is not included, but we had one tasty large breakfast at the on-site restaurant. P.S. the Hotel Q name is short for El Quijote, although other than the stylized shield logo (kinda in the shape of a Q) and a bust of Quijote behind the reception desk, there's not much evidence of the namesake.