Hotel Estacion Gerona Bed & Breakfast

This is a tough review as I quite liked the hotel but my partner hated it and in thinking about it I am really not quite sure why I liked it, perhaps because I am not all that fussy or perhaps it reminded me of the hostels I stayed in during my youth, or maybe I'm just a sucker for nice people who try hard to make your stay enjoyable. I booked it as our final night in Guatemala because of its proximity to the airport and its economical cost, especially relative to its rating. Our reception was sooo nice. Very limited English which didn't bode well with our non-existant Spanish but we didn't encounter any problems and he even called to book a taxi for us in the morning. We were shown to our rooms and given a little tour. There was a common kitchen available, which was super, and a rooftop common area that we saw a spectacular display of fireworks from later in the evening (I have no idea what the occassion was). I had a bottle of wine I wished to enjoy for our last night but no corkscrew and the gentleman at reception was so kind in helping me open it was a screwdriver and screw (which didn't work well, but accomplish my goal).

We had had a hellish drive into the city from Rio Dulce so we were a lot later and crankier than I had hoped we would be. We decided not to stray far from the hotel because we wanted an early night and I have to say there wasn't much around. It could be that we walked in the wrong direction and would have done better if we could have communicated in Spanish, but that was our experience. Our room was not exceptionally clean, it was quite run down and was missing a pane of glass in the window. The view overlooking the street was nice but incredibly noisy at night. The honking horns was a huge problem in allowing us to get a restful sleep before our 4am wake-up call. The beds and pillows weren't particularly comfortable and I felt the need to wear flip flops in the shower for the first time in Guatemala. My biggest "problem" was the locked from door that we couldn't open from either side without a key, which was in the possession of the gentleman at reception. Which it certainly made the place secure, it make one wonder about the necessity and made me less likely to leave the hotel as I hated bothering him to open the door (perhaps that is a little of my Canadian side coming to the fore).