Round The World and other travel

This is: Mexico 2019

Hotels

Hotel 1: Courtyard, Mexico City Airport
Saturday 23 Feb to Sunday 24 Feb (1 night)
Room 535 (2 x Double, Deluxe)

The Courtyard by Marriott is a perfect choice for making a one-night break of journey at Mexico City Airport. While an airport shuttle service is available on request, we proved that walking (almost entirely under cover) is possible if you know what you're doing.

Hotel 2: InterContinental Presidente, Guadalajara
Sunday 24 Feb to Tuesday 26 Feb (2 nights)
Room 1406 (Club Suite, 2 x Double)

The InterContinental Presidente is located in an upscale neighbourhood, about a 25-minute cab ride from downtown Guadalajara. On-site parking is available for those with their own transport, but there are no convenient public transport options. Our club suite was impressive: I thought it looked great internally, with its bold, black-and-white based décor. It featured a commendably private bedroom and a huge bathroom. The only mildly negative note was that the view was of the hotel car park. The Club Lounge offering was limited, but nice enough, while wider catering options included a café and a French bistro. Given the local climate, we also made good use of the limited pool area. Overall, an enjoyable stay at a classy hotel.

Accommodation 3: Rented apartment, Puerto Vallarta
Tuesday 26 Feb to Saturday 02 Mar (4 nights)
Two-bedroom studio apartment with private balcony

For our visit to Puerto Vallarta we rented a spacious penthouse apartment consisting of a large, studio-style lounge / dining room / kitchen, two double bedrooms and two bathrooms. Best of all, it featured a large balcony with stunning views across the city and the bay. The price of this wonderful view, however, was that the apartment was situated at the top of an extraordinarily steep, San Francisco-style hill - but we knew that this would be the case. The property owner was in the tequila business and consequently our stay included a complimentary small bottle of the spirit and an invitation to a tequila-tasting event. The latter was great fun as participants, but it felt quite obtrusive when a second event was held for other local clients, the event space being on our roof.

Hotel 4: Holiday Inn Express, Oaxaca Centro Historico
Saturday 02 Mar to Tuesday 05 Mar (3 nights)
Room 149 (Junior Suite, 2 x Double)

This hotel enjoys a good location on the edge of Oaxaca city centre. It's a ten-minute walk to the Templo Santo Domingo and a further ten minutes or so to the cathedral. Having typically been out sightseeing for most of the day, we easily found decent local venues for drinks and dinner without having to go all the way back to the main part of the city centre. As a Holiday Inn Express, this hotel was clearly not in the same league as the InterContinental-branded properties that came either side of it in our plans, yet we found our stay quite satisfactory. This was helped by having a junior suite in a prime corner location, and by making good use of the pleasant swimming pool area in an internal courtyard.

Hotel 5: InterContinental Presidente, Mexico City
Tuesday 05 Mar to Saturday 09 Mar (4 nights)
Room 3518 (Club Room, 2 x Double)

To anyone familiar with Mexico City, it will come as no surprise to learn that the InterContinental is located in the astonishingly ritzy Polanco neighbourhood. It enjoys an excellent location, giving easy access on foot to the whole of Polanco, and to the museums and other attractions of the Bosque de Chapultepec. Even the Angel of Independence is walkable in around 45 minutes. For other objectives in this enormous city, such the cathedral or the Palace of Fine Arts, the Auditorio metro station is right outside the hotel. Having booked a standard twin room, we were given an excellent offer at check-in to upgrade to a Club room, which we accepted. This proved to be a sound move, considerably enhancing our stay - for a North American city, the lounge offering was unexpectedly excellent!