Job Discussion Forums

[monkeylady]

Hi
I will be travelling to Mexico soon to start a job, but I need to break my journey and spend a night at Mexico City airport. As I will have a lot of baggage and be quite tired from the journey, I was hoping to find a hotel that is really easy to get to from the airport.

My budget is maximum about 40 UK pounds (about 80 US dollars), less if possible, but convenience is the key, and I'd like somewhere very safe and quite nice!

Could anyone help? I would really appreciate it!
Thanks!

[Ben Round de Bloc]

If you have lots of luggage, wouldn't it be more convenient to pack what you need in your carry-on for your overnight stay and have the rest of your luggage routed on through to your final destination instead of hauling it all to a hotel and back to the airport again?

[Guy Courchesne]

Once you are through the arriva gates, go to the nearest taxi ticket booth. They will be able to take you to a nearby, inexpensive hotel. The taxi will likely cost you about 150 pesos. Porters will be happy (too happy) to help you with your bags. Don't take the first hotel they mention...ask about prices and how far it is. If you have a lot of bags, they will offer you a Suburban or Explorer for a taxi...at a higher cost.

Otherwise, there are two hotels attached to the airport. They might be a little pricey though.

[lozwich]

If you're going straight to Ixtepec, why not stay in the city itself, and then in the morning get a taxi to TAPO (is that the name? I can't remember... Guy?? )? In the wedding dress district (again, Guy, what's that area called?) there are two hotels - one called Hotel Cuba and the other Hotel Havana. They're in the same street. I stayed in Hotel Cuba a couple of years ago and it was 250 pesos a night ($25 US) and it was perfectly nice, refurbished and everything, and close to the Zocalo, which made eating out easy too. It cost me about 100 pesos on the rip-off "autorizado" taxi to get a taxi from the hotel to TAPO.

The hotels are advertised in the Lonely Planet, if you have one of those.

Good luck!
Lozwich

[monkeylady]

Thanks for the advice. What is TAPO?
I only have a couple of bags (one large, laptop and rucksack) so wouldn't be worth sending them...but I do wanna go for convenience and safety more than anything...I'd also like to have something booked up before I arrive if poss...

[Guy Courchesne]

I'm not sure...El Tapo bus station takes you to points east...I thought Oaxaca was accessed from Taxquena.

(minutes later) My wife says La Tapo is to get to Oaxaca, you're right. The whole area is just east of the Historic Center. The area is a little dodgy, I think, so be careful at night, but there will be several cheaper hotels.

Edit: La Tapo is the eastern Mexico City bus station, to get to Oaxaca, Puebla, and the Guf Coast. I assume you would be getting a bus to Ixtepec...

You probably won't find a hotel there that takes reservations...unless they are in the Lonely Planet, then maybe they do.

Too many questions...it is the day after the Grito you know.

[lozwich]

To get to TAPO, you go to Tasquena metro station.. (at least I remember that bit! )

I wouldn't stay near TAPO, but the hotels I mentioned are the other side of the Zocalo, towards Bellas Artes, and then in the morning it would be about 20 minutes (give or take traffic) to TAPO.

Take a look at Ticketbus (www.ticketbus.com.mx) for bus tickets, and that will tell you if you have to go to TAPO or one of the other bus stations. I just had a look on the site, and it goes via Puebla to Ixtepec, from TAPO. So, you could also get the 2 hour bus from DF airport to Puebla, spend the night there and then go to Ixtepec from there.

Or does that just confuse the issue? (Sorry....)

[Guy Courchesne]

[lozwich]

[Guy Courchesne]

Those directions work fine if you were coming in from, say, Acapulco.

I was at the airport yesterday. There is a hotel across the street called Camino Real. I didn't get to check on prices, but my wife thought they would be higher than 80 us per night.

[MixtecaMike]

Monkeylady said she will have a lot of baggage so she 100% defintely won't be taking the metro anywhere. Isn't there a tourist desk in the airport that can point her in the direction of a suitable hotel? That would be much more reliable than Lozwich's hazy recollections.

I'm guessing that Monkeylady will be flying down to Oaxaca the next day judging from her post, which is why she wants somewhere near the hotel, which is why I recommend the tourist info desk (if it exists).

BTW lozzie, did you take note that the Sydney Swans are in the Grand Final?
A very nice surprise for me, I may go to Seoul next weekend if there's somewhere not too alcoholic there that is showing it.

[some waygug-in]

I don't recall seeing a tourist booth there, of course I could have just missed it.


This site might help you a bit: http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com/messagepost.cfm?postaction=reply&catid=17&threadid=103903&messid=839606&STARTPAGE=1&parentid=0&from=1

Especially, scroll down to #17.

You can also ask your question on that forum, if you still have time.

Suerte

[MELEE]

There are two or three tourist info/booking desks at the airport where you can book and pay for a hotel, they give you a voucher, supposidly gaurnteening that you won't be ripped off. (one of these desks is actually before going through customs, and there's another down on the "national" end of the airport. Of course only more expensive hotels use this service ($400 pesos and up), so in a way it might be a rip off playing on tourists fear of Mexico City. Don't be afraid of Mexico City. Yes, lots of bad things happen there, but hey its one of (if not the) largest cities in the world, lots of good things happen there as well, unfortuanately those don't make the international news.

I'm suprised you're not flying to Huatulco, a much easier way to get to Ixtepec.