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thfarrell

Feb 9, 2003, 11:29 AM

Post #1 of 10 (1187 views)

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Merida in March - hotel suggestions?

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Hi...
We've already got airline tickets, now we need a hotel room.

We're a married couple - 50's - moderate/plain tastes, not fancy, not funky. We'll be in the Merida area for 10 days.

Any suggestions much appreciated.

tom

gino

Feb 10, 2003, 9:56 PM

Post #2 of 10 (1010 views)

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Re: [thfarrell] Merida in March - hotel suggestions?

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Hotel El Conquistador is one of my favorites... outstanding service, very clean, moderate prices, excellent food, ... It is also located on the most beautiful avenue of Mérida: Paseo de Montejo, and it's close to the historic downtown area. Other hotels on this area are great, but a lot more expensive: Fiesta Americana, Hyatt Regency, etc...

LeAnn in Merida

Feb 11, 2003, 11:27 AM

Post #3 of 10 (1011 views)

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Re: [thfarrell] Merida in March - hotel suggestions?

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Hi,

We live in Merida and just had relatives here visiting. We made reservations for them at Medio Mundo a beautiful bed and breakfast. It is in a restored building on Calle 55 within 3 blocks of Centro. I told my husband that I was ready to give up our house and move over there myself, it is so beautiful. They have a web site, but I'm not sure of the address....I think you would enjoy this special place. Enjoy your stay in our lovely Mexican city!

LeAnn

Uncle Jack

Feb 11, 2003, 1:04 PM

Post #4 of 10 (982 views)

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Medio Mundo

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Try this:

http://www.hotelmediomundo.com/main.htm

Harry

Feb 11, 2003, 3:34 PM

Post #5 of 10 (975 views)

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Re: [LeAnn in Merida] Merida in March - hotel suggestions?

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I agree with everything you say. My stay after the hurricane was very pleasant. There are a couple of caviats I might toss in. There is no parking except on the street. If you expect a resortlike swimming pool, you came to the wrong address. Finally, they don't include breakfast in their price, at least they did not in October.

Traveler

Feb 14, 2003, 3:18 PM

Post #6 of 10 (921 views)

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Re: [thfarrell] Merida in March - hotel suggestions?

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We do Merida sometimes 2 or 3 times per year from here in Cozumel, We like the Santa Lucia, San Juan and the Posada Toledo, also the Colon. I like the PT best as it is old and charming and several rooms are on the ground floor, and is near the plaza, also the coffee is ready a 7:00 AM everyday except Sunday, and good in house breakfast. The word is that even with higher rates posted, most hotels are giving good discounts for cash, check out "El Gran". You also may like Del Parque, also a good place to eat.
This map will help.....

http://www.isnh6mexico.org/accomodation.htm

jimex

Feb 20, 2003, 9:13 AM

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Re: [thfarrell] Merida in March - hotel suggestions?

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Tom,

We are anticipating a March trip to Merida as well. Maybe we can connect. Contatct me on my E-mail and let me know your schedule and where you are staying.

Jimex

maggi1023

Feb 25, 2003, 1:57 PM

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Merida

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We just got back from Merida last week after staying in Cancun for a week, overnight at Chichen Itza then just 3 days in Merida so I'm no expert. I would definely check out yucatantoday.com. It has tons of info for Merida. I would check out the map for the historical center of town. We're 46 and 51 so based on our experience there I would choose a hotel from those within that area. North of the Plaza Grande has most of the hotels and restaurants. We stayed a couple blocks away. It was great and just a really short walk from the action. Didn't waste money or energy being farther away.

If you do any siteseeing away from the city on the weekend make sure you do it during the day but NOT on Sunday. Many of the streets around the Plaza and the cathedral close down during the evening on the weekends and all day Sunday. It's like a street fair and the Plaza and parks have street vendors.

Seemed to be much cheaper than Cancun. I'm not sure what they were called but we loved these deepfried dough things. The food and drink was much less expensive than the local street fairs at home. Several areas have music and dancing too. They set up a stage in the street and there's music and dancing performances all day next to the Plaza Grande. If you get tired of walking, they have horse & buggy rides or these large three wheeled bicycles/carts. At night many restaurants set up outside in the street. It's so nice. You really need to be close to the action. Everything is lit up so pretty!

Make sure you check out the anthropology museum. We were just there just 3 days so we didn't go into all the other museums. Most if not all that are open are free on Sundays. We also walked a long way down Paseo Montejo because the architecture is so cool.

FYI Ruins-Uxmal is so much prettier than Chichen Itza but I wouldn't want to miss either one. We did the the sound and light shows for both. They were nice but the narrative is in Spanish. The guide at Uxmal said the headphones that you can buy for the English translation sometimes didn't work so we didn't bother. We were running late for the Chichen and didn't get them so I'm not sure how reliable they are.

Hope you enjoy your trip

PeggyS

Apr 11, 2003, 12:14 AM

Post #9 of 10 (776 views)

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Re: [thfarrell] Merida in March - hotel suggestions?

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Hi Tom,
Would you update us on your trip, where you stayed and what you enjoyed most? We were there too, we had chosen the Montejo Palace because we love being on the Paseo de Montejo. Found we couldn't walk everywhere like we used to do, was it the oppressive heat and humidity or are we just getting older? Never saw it so hot before. We had a great trip down to Chichen Itza, and while there were loads of joyous folks there for the equinox, it didn't seem like as many as in past years. Thanks, LeAnn, we're grateful to you for your private replies to our questions, it was a wonderful help. And now Tom and Mrs. Tom, your comments please. Hope you had a great visit.

thfarrell

Apr 19, 2003, 2:31 PM

Post #10 of 10 (764 views)

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Re: [PeggyS] Merida in March - hotel suggestions?

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Hi Peggy et al...
We spent 10 days in the Merida area, traveling a bit here and there nearby. Seemed a little hotter than perhaps is normal for mid-March - it was 103 f. the day we arrived. Soon got used to it. We live in Santa Fe, NM in the southern US, at an elevationi over 7000 ft, so the heat + humidy combination isn't what we're used to on a daily basis.

We stayed at Casa San Juan for several days while doing a bit of exploring in the city, visiting Dzibilchaltun and Progreso. Found Casa San Juan interesting rather than elegant - a bit funky but not at all in a bad way - I'd certainly stay there again.

We next visited Chichen Itza, staying overnight at the Hacienda Chichen. It's got the full quota of elegance, but is rather more expensive than normal for us - worth it for a night, for the experience, for the very easy access to the ruins at an early hour. Interestingly for such an upscale place (if not a bit "over the top"), they had difficulty with our "previously booked via the internet" reservations, but it eventually worked out ok (they had no record of it, we had their confirming email, etc, etc). We went a day after the equinox, so the crowd was minimal (40,000 the previous day) and we had a view of the snakey phenomenon (which the 40,000 missed due to overcast sky). Good all around.

Back to Merida, stayed at Medio Mundo. Good combination of small, simple, elegant and warm/charming host and hostess. Visited Izamal and Uxmal. Then on to a night at Celestun at Maria Carmens (or some such name - it was hard to pay attention to such mundane details in such a quiet, small and laid-back place. Boat tour, flamingos, swimming at the beach, seafood. We'd like to go back and stay put in a place like Celestun for weeks - have the sort of non-touring time that one too infrequently gets while being a tourist.

Back to Merida, stayed at the Hotel Caribe - a rather "generic" sort of place - standard city hotel, certainly nice enough, clean enough, quiet enough, etc, etc. Not special, but not a horrid stack of nylon carpeted rooms with non-openable windows, either.

All in all, we had a wonderful time. Not enough of it.

tom