Highly recommended Value for Money Hotel in Downtown BA
My wife and I love comfortable travel, however given the trip to Argentina was very costly, we needed to select the hotels wisely and work within our budget and hence I had put in a lot of time and effort in choosing the perfect hotel to stay in Buenos Aires for 6 nights. After much research (on all review websites as well as a detailed cost benefit analysis) I zeroed in on Icaro Suites as the perfect place to stay for our vacation. The positive aspects of this hotel are given below.
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1. Located Downtown, walking distance from the Obelisk and the Metro station Callao. This is located in a crowded and safe neighbourhood on Montevideo Street and within a 8 minute walk to the Callao metro station. It also has many restaurants around with at least 10 from the hotel lobby to AV Corrientes. There is a Carrefour, Havanna, McDonalds and multiple ATMs (incl. Citibank) located very close to the hotel (within a 5 min walk at max). Even if you are returning relatively late at night (after sightseeing), the roads are fairly crowded and you should feel fairly safe walking down the road. There is a bakery opposite which serves freshly baked bread and other snacks. From a location perspective it was perfect, though a few other hotels in this location can boast of similar facilities within a 10 min walk. This is at least a 15 min drive from Recoleta and Retiro, however I gave much more weightage for the hotel being in a crowded and safe part of Buenos Aires rather than close to the touristy locations.
2.Facilities - The first thing I look for is Free Wifi and scan the review if the speed is adequate, and I was very satisfied with the Wifi Speed. They have router and booster combinations on every floor. Most of the rooms do not have a view and overlook other buildings, so the tip is to get a room on the backside of the hotel and on a higher floor if possible. My guess is that the rooms overlooking the street would be a bit noisy and you may want to specifically want to request for a room at the back. The hotel has a gym on the top floor with a single treadmill, and surprisingly I never found anyone using it. They have a self service washing machine on the top floor and this is important given that you may have a very long trip and may not be carrying those many clothes. Beds are comfortable and the toilets are very clean. I would rate it as a 4* Indian hotel. There are microwaves, plates, spoons, TV and dryer in the room and the room is very well equipped like any other Business Hotel.
3. Food - I was disappointed with the breakfast spread and given that we had 5 days here, it got very boring. The breakfast options are fairly limited with basic varieties of eggs and bread, however there are multiple eateries around which serve awesome food, so please do not waste your time in the hotel and enjoy all the great food joints there. The recommendation is to stock your mini bar with stuff from the grocery shop nearby or freshly baked bread and other snacks from the bakery opposite. The room has a microwave as well as cutlery and crockery - so this is a great option. If you can save some bucks taking the non breakfast option, it would be great as well.
4. Staff - The staff is very friendly and helpful, they speak broken English, but I did not face any problem communicating with them. They have maps available and mark out the key places to visit. Given that I had done a lot of research on the trip, I only needed help in booking a Tango Show which I did on the first night and they were happy to help. The staff willingly offered to store our luggage without charging us anything when we went to Mendoza and El Calafate for a couple of days. You will not need to interact much with the staff, and their English communications skills are sufficient to get you through your stay
Given the rates for the rooms, this is a very economical options for staying in downtown Buenos Aires. Some of my friends who visited a little after me stayed in Retiro, however I do not recommend this option as it is not very accessible to all the happening areas and you may need to take a cab ride here and there. Both recoleta cemetery and the Retiro bus stop are a bit away, but can be accessed by metro or by cab.
Because I had Premier Miles on my Citibank Credit Card, I booked on the Premier Miles site, but the prices are the same on almost any website.
