Hotels in Mexico and Central America

[Rey & Vann]

Originally Posted by Sjoerd Bakker

Phew , after much wrangling with the computer and after a number of failed attempts I made it onto the ADVrider site.Then some more struggles and a few days later I managed to navigate this far. Now hoping it all doesn't evaporate before my eyes again!To the point.
I have been getting some feedback lately that my name and mention of my guide book has been coming from the ADVrider site.
In short it is much as Django Loco describes so I will just add some detail. I have been travelling around Mexico for 30 years and Central America after the civil wars ended in Nicaragua and El Salvador .All the while I have spent my nights in small , economical,tidy ,family owned inns in all manner of places in all corners of the countries. A number of years ago I decided to compile a list of many such inns in a planned guide and since then I have revisited those hotels I selected in an effort to bring pricing and details up to the latest date.I have also been checking hotels in intersting places just to collect such data. The list includes hotels in Mexico and all over Central America. Places which are regular small towns as well as the famous tourist destinations and famous archaeological sites. Hotels I choose are economically priced nice sevicable places with secure parking for a motorcycle or car, a fan, toilet and shower.In many cases they have air conditioning and TV, or it is available at a small added fee They are nothing to be ashamed of and in many cases they are quite fancy ,the equal of any chain motel in the US even at their low price.Ratings you might say range from 3 star to stardust to starlight. In some cases the motel was selected because I needed a place and it was the only place in town, or it was an irresistable location and price .Or it might in the odd case be an emergency choice to get off the road in bad weather or before nightfall ,which then proved to be a surprisingly good choice worthy of recommending.
I never travel with any detailed plan of route or overnights.Never make reservations. I Look for the least costly place if there are a number to pick from and then decide and I have never been disappointed .I also carry a tent and light sleeping bag for those cases where I might not find a hotel and I have only used it once as such an emergency measure in 30 years, although I do camp occasionally. If one is prepared to camp outdoors then what should prevent one from camping indoors? We are not all milionaires travelling with a chase vehicle to carry our fancy duds . If one must have fancy hotels with all manner of luxury this book is not of interest, you can find plenty of $70 to $700 per night hotels with no effort- but you can forget about the back corners of these countries.
My book is a simple affair, 14cm X 22cm, black and white on bond paper, a very easy fit in any tankbag .

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Since writing the above I have been costantly collecting more hotel locations on repeat trips and I have reworked al the data for a new 2012 version of my guide which is now ready and available.
The width X length size of book remains the same but it has grown in volume so much that I decided to split it into two parts , Part I dealing exclusively with Mexico and Part II contains all the essential introductory information and the hotels across all of Central America.Weight has gone up accordingly .
The number of pages has more than doubled to 292 and the number of hotels also has tripled.There are now listings with directions to 1028 hotels in 466 towns across Mexico and 431 hotels in 218 towns in the seven countries of Central America.. These hotels start in the border towns along the USA side and extend to Yaviza ,Panama at the end of the pavement and start of the Darien Gap.

The two will be sold together as a unit for $XX.XX to any address in Canada and the continental USA . This INCLUDES cost of postage and handling. .
Postage to other continents is considerably higher which makes sales there unattractive. However if you are planning a trip through Mexico and CA starting from the USA end it may be worthwhile to consider finding a contact address in the USA where you could have it sent so that you can pick it up after arriving in the USA. For instance a relative or a new friends's home, , a hotel or motorcycle shop where you have reservations for a room or bike service.



If you would like a copy you may send a US dollar or CDN dollar cashable cheque, postal money order is okay too but costs more than a bank cheque.
Moneygram ( available at many independent retail points, at WalMart,at Canada Post outlets ) or WESTERN UNION transfers are a third option but be warned , it was pointed out to me that these forms of payment are very secure but they are also very expensive relative to the small amount of money involved. A Moneygram from the USA will cost you $15 on top of what I charge to recover my costs !

Make your cheque payable to
Sjoerd Bakker
733161 Pick Line
RR 3 Norwich
Ontario N0J 1P0
Canada



The book is available only in this paper format. I have no computer nor computer skills beyond this style of posting, e-mail and web surfing.
No electronic on-line payment is possible (This may change in light of the recent knowledge gained about the cost of things like Moneygram ) .
Please do NOT send cash in the mail, risk of pilferage exists.
Send a cheque or MONEYGRAM or an international money order or WESTERN UNION (similar process to MONEYGRAM )transfer.
For MONEYGRAM you go to the place where they are sold and give them the name and address of the intended recipient(me ) and pay the $XX.XX plus a BIG service fee. They then isssue a file number for that payment. When you write your order letter for the books to me you MUST include that MONEYGRAM File number and your return address in clear unmistakable printing. The book will be mailed out the day after I receive your request and at te post office I just need to show the File number you provided and my identification to collect the payment.
I prefer such a paper book form over electronics because it is so transportable, no batteries required and it has immediate and random access when one is on the road.
In the book all towns with hotels are listed in alphabetic order per country .In the front of the Part I Mexico book I include a schematic index of towns listed in sequence as they appear along the highways and divided into various highway routes and regions. This makes it, I think, a fairly simple task to decide which routes one is interested in for a trip and then to highlight those potential hotel places on your map.
Obviously I make no claim to have every hotel in every location, but it will give a user the option of picking and choosing and at least of being sure there may be a hotel within range when heading to an unknown- to -him destination. It gives peace of mind , less stuff to worry about.This can be of particular importance to a first-time traveller to Mexico with limited Spanish language skill. As travel experience progresses and the Spanish improves the new traveller can apply the methods outlined in the book to strike out on his own to investigate other hotels. The hotels listed will in most cases place the traveller in the center of town and in the vicinity of a range of other hotels which can be investigated if you wish.
For each location I include the name of the town, the state(in Mexico) , the highway numbers which connect it, a brief description of any especially important facts about it or nearby sites and possible alerts as to unexpected local features,scarcity of gas situations, long or tedious distances ( i.e tedious really often means slow going wonderfully curvy ,steep,scenic,mountainous or all of these!) to next possible hotel site. Hotels are listed by name and an example of recent price, room appointments,food availability if needed, and its location in town with an address. In many cases a small basic sketch map provides more help in finding it.
I spent a few hundred dollars in printing fees and am not even tallying the countless hours of ,collecting, compiling and typing the data, so I am just aiming above the break-even point.
If you need more info just e-mail me at the hotmail address sjoerd47@hotmail.com
ADVrider contact file pm s are risky because I may not check them for weeks and weeks if I am away travelling..
And finally a word on leaving adequate time for mail delivery. It takes about a week to 10 days for regular mail to travel across Canada and the USA, Therefor if you want the handbooks please order well before the time that you want to start off. Please, avoid deciding you want one a week before departure date and then try to get a rush delivery by courier ( which gets way expensive if you get my attention in time and I am still around the homestead and not in Mexico that is)
Buen viaje.

Just so you all know, I'm the reason for the warning about MoneyGram and the fees... I spent a total of $37.50 USD for the 23.00 book (prices at the time of my purchase).

Sucker, you may think, but time is money, and the MoneyGram thing only took me about 10 minutes and saved me between 12 and 20 dollars in fuel, depending on what I drove, so still a good deal.

I don't have the book yet, but Sjoerd and I have been emailing back and forth quite a bit, and between discussions with him and the endorsement of his book by John Downs (JDowns) http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=831076 , I decided to order a second book for my bro in SoCal who is as excited to get it as I am.

It'll be until next year before I get to use my copy, but yeah, I'm the guy that will lay in bed, next to my hot wife and read the books...

I'll let you all know what I think of it!

Rey.

************************************************** ************************************************** ************************************************** **

I received my book in short order, I think it only too 6 days or so, and a couple of days later, received the second copy. And yes, I have laid in bed and read it, not so much the individual listings, but Sjoerd puts a ton of other useful info into the books about licensing, paperwork, insurance, border crossings, etc., that I'm finding incredibly useful.

If you intend on going South of the border into Mex and CA, I think this set of booklets would prove invaluable before you even set off on your trip. It's laid out really well, and with all the detail on locations, I don't think a person would have any difficulty finding a nice, reasonably priced and secure place to stay!

As for the effort Sjoerd made to put this booklet set together, what a job, and well done at that!

[McFoil]

Any suggestions on hotel/hostels in Torreon, MX? Has anybody stayed at Hotel Savoy?

[holiday]

Sjoerd Bakker is the real deal.
I sent him a personal check for his compendium of Hotels in "Mexico and Central America". This is not his preferred method of payment. I couldn't be bothered with the money order thing.
I decided to trust him and he trusted me, by sending out his two books the same day. Not knowing if my check would clear. In this Holiday season, they traveled from Canada to Southern Utah in 10 days.
Though I've only just begun my review, the two photo copied and stapled (with updated inserts) seem to be filled with suggestions for riding this route to Panama.
Lots of hotels referenced and their price, at the time of writing.
Appears to be worth the money. Certainly cheaper than discovering these places on your own.

[acejones]

Well worth the money.

[mark883]

Just want to give a shout out to Sjoerd's book.

It is worth the price, summarizing a LOT of what you need to know if you're a noob heading south. Border crossing, traffic, driving tips, sign translations, etc. Reading the info sections will give you a lot of info that might be hard to find in the "Is Mexico Safe" thread, or require a lot of research around adv. He's compiled it all in two easy books.

What I think is also cool about the book is its old school. Layout and printing done old style with a word processor, hand drawn maps and a copy machine. It isn't slick and shiny, but its done with his research, time, money and sweat.

Hotel listings organized by town, with neat little FYIs about many of the little towns the hotels are found. A lot of the towns are little podunk towns (or just aren't known to gringos) that won't even get mentioned in Fodors, Lonely Planet etc. Buying this book, you are supporting Sjoerd's research as well. And opening up for yourself a wider horizon in Mexico.

AND... The book is a handy size to fit in a tank bag or sidecase. It requires no battery, no boot up time, no PDF, no cell or WiFi connection.

Great reading for scheming when its too cold to go out in the garage or out riding. Recommended for either the first timer, or one who's been there a few times.

[slowoldguy]

Just got mine and read it the first night (just the Mexico one) marking the towns along my preliminary route. Lots more than just hotels in there. Love it. It will be resident in my tankbag for making choices on the fly. Nothing fancy. Just honest first-hand data collection.

[tricepilot]

Sjoerd has more México knowledge in his pinky than everyone else put together

[acejones]

Originally Posted by tricepilot

Sjoerd has more México knowledge in his pinky than everyone else put together

++++about a million

[Sjoerd Bakker]

Blush ����
Thanks for the compliments

(Meantime Would Philip ,,,,,..... to contact me?
Post script: the problem has been solved , contact of sorts was made quite a while back.)


And thank you Rey for pasting in a copy of my original Page 7 post and then
taking the time to XXXX over certain numbers which may change from time to
time as I update things for changing conditions .
It is important for readers always
to go back to that original post and not rely on pasted in quotes which remain static
and fixed in the form of the day they were copied, maybe last year.

[tricepilot]

Originally Posted by Sjoerd Bakker

.....alert him that he needs to contact me.....

All Points Bulletin for Philip Niton of Greensburg:

Please contact Sjoerd with all possible haste.

He has an Amway presentation that he would like to give you

[Funky Monkey Hostel]

Hello everyone. I've been told by a few of you guys on road trips staying with us to put this info up for the rest of you so you can enjoy it too. The hostel is located in Mazatlan, Mexico which is the port city after the supper long ferry from La Paz, Baja California. Mazatlan is your start for the Devil's Backbone ride to Durango. I've been told it's the best ride in all of Mexico and maybe all of Central America too. So I hope this place help you on your journey. Send me a message on facebook if you have any questions.

1. State: Sinaloa
2. City: Mazatlan
3. Hotel Name: Funky Monkey Hostel
4. Address/directions/coordinates: 112 Cerro Boludo, Lomas de Mazatlan. It's on Google maps too
5. Rating: Up to you all but I've made it as amazing as I could :-)
6. Comments on Location: Located in the best area of Mazatlan, lots of close restaurants, bars, shopping and the beach
7. Rate: $12 for dorm beds and $35 for private rooms with kitchenettes
8. Secure Parking?: Yes but limited
9. Hot water: Yes
10. AC: When needed during the hot months
11. Fans: Always
12. Service/Language Spoken: English and some Spanish
13. Overall impression: I like it but you should read the reviews on tripadvisor and hostelworld. All 5 stars.
14. Date of Visit: I own it
15. Website of Hotel: https://www.facebook.com/FunkyMonkeyHostel & http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...fic_Coast.html

What We Offer:
2 private rooms with their own kitchens, bathrooms a couch and air conditioning for hot nights.*
5 spacious dorm rooms*that sleep from 4 to 8 people,*all with comfortable beds and pillows.
Rooftop terrace with hammocks, perfect for relaxing day or night, watching amazing sunsets and having some beers.
Swimming pool with waterfall, lounge chairs.
2 communal kitchens to help you save your travel money or to cook that hard to find favorite meal
Indoor chill areas / common rooms with TV
Air conditioning provided in rooms at night when needed
Free cable TV & DVD players
Free WiFi*
Hot showers*
Book exchange
Board games
Free drinking water
Free parking