Altavista Casahotel

The grounds are beautiful but there are negatives too...

✓ The property is kept exceptionally clean with beautiful gardens. Very spacious. The breakfast was excellent, although basically the same thing every morning. Always bread, a fruit plate, coffee (French pressed), and eggs - your choice of style. You can eat other meals there as well. I liked that you could walk to town easily if you wanted to (maybe a 15-20 min walk) or stay on the outskirts where this hotel is; there were trails you could take nearby to the river. I also like that they had a locking gate on the entry of the hotel which the receptionist needed to open. This made me feel more secure. The shower was great - nice pressure and hot water. The soap was good quality and not those cheapie bars. The wifi was so-so. It was really nice having the pool there too. After a hot day of hiking or just a hot day, it was so refreshing to jump in the pool and go for a swim. I was always the only one in the pool. They have a racketball court as well; beautiful views behind the hotel of the the river Mayo and surrounding mountains.

✗ For me, the one thing that was a negative was no offering of purified water. As a tourist, it is important to me to drink purified water and for a hotel this size and for the price I paid, I expected this courtesy. Every other hotel I stayed at offered this. Personally, I felt the bed was hard. That is my judgment and others may not agree. I also did not care for the location of the room I was given. I stayed 5 nights and there were maybe 25-30 available rooms? and maybe under a handful of guests staying there during this time. Why I was given a room closest to the street and not in a quieter area of the hotel is puzzling. I didn't like that you can never close up the room as the windows are only bars with screens on the other side. So any noise outside comes straight into the room (no sound barrier for the motos and roosters crowing in the morning). The curtains DID block out the light - which is rare and was welcomed. At checkout, I waited an hour for my credit card to be charged in dollars and it never was accomplished. I ended up paying in soles just to get on with my day and the exchange rate given me was higher than it should have been, so I ended up paying $3 more per night than the rate I was quoted. I also asked about laundry service and was told it was 10 soles PER ITEM. That is so outrageous that I washed my clothes myself. So, little things like that irritated me.

Exceptional