Stayed at the Hotel Alicante last week in room 22. Was visiting the city on a business trip and my hosts put me up here. The hotel seems like it used to be a house at some point in its history and was converted to a hotel with a wing of rooms added to it. Amenities include a pool and restaurant.
Overall, I had a very nice stay at the Alicante. The rooms were clean, tidy, well-kept and included a wardrobe and small safe for personal items. The bathroom was a good size and the housekeeping staff kept the room clean and replaced the soap and shampoo daily - though sometimes they didn't replace the hand towel but that's a minor issue.
It's pretty warm and humid in San Salvador this time of year and the air conditioning worked but wasn't always quite up to the task of keeping the room cold - personally speaking, I like my room to be nice and chilly. Many a night I would wake up early in the morning because the air conditioning just wasn't keeping up.
Another thing that I didn't enjoy were the beds. They were very firm. So, if you're the kind of person who enjoys firm to hard beds, this will be fantastic. I prefer softer, fluffier and down-filled, so I had fitful sleeps that were just uncomfortable. It's really the detail of the air conditioning and hard beds that...Stayed at the Hotel Alicante last week in room 22. Was visiting the city on a business trip and my hosts put me up here. The hotel seems like it used to be a house at some point in its history and was converted to a hotel with a wing of rooms added to it. Amenities include a pool and restaurant.
Overall, I had a very nice stay at the Alicante. The rooms were clean, tidy, well-kept and included a wardrobe and small safe for personal items. The bathroom was a good size and the housekeeping staff kept the room clean and replaced the soap and shampoo daily - though sometimes they didn't replace the hand towel but that's a minor issue.
It's pretty warm and humid in San Salvador this time of year and the air conditioning worked but wasn't always quite up to the task of keeping the room cold - personally speaking, I like my room to be nice and chilly. Many a night I would wake up early in the morning because the air conditioning just wasn't keeping up.
Another thing that I didn't enjoy were the beds. They were very firm. So, if you're the kind of person who enjoys firm to hard beds, this will be fantastic. I prefer softer, fluffier and down-filled, so I had fitful sleeps that were just uncomfortable. It's really the detail of the air conditioning and hard beds that keeps me from giving the Alicante an Excellent rating.
For the most part, the staff was very friendly and very accommodating. What I enjoyed most was that from the moment after we arrived, introduced ourselves and checked in, the staff never asked us again who we were or asked for our room number. They just knew who we were and we could order drinks and food or ask for irons and such and they would just appear and that was that. Everyone knew who we were from that point forward. That's something special that you don't find in many hotels anywhere in the world.
The restaurant had a wide assortment of food on their menu, from breakfast to spaghettis to meats and burgers. We only ate breakfast at the hotel and it was very affordable and quite nice. Over the course of the week, I had Huevos Divorciados, Pancakes, Bacon, Omlettes, French Toast, Huevos Montulenos and hash browns. Lots and lots of hash browns - all of which were quite good, though the curious thing was that they didn't always have both green and red salsas to make the divorciados. Did I mention the hash browns? Not fancy in the least but nice and crispy, just the way I like it.
Located in the neighborhood of Antiguo Cuscatlan, the hotel is nicely situated in-between a variety of restaurants, pupuserias and a nice cafe called 4 Monkeys.
The difficult part of San Salvador is getting around. Everyone cautions about street taxis and recommends having the hotel call you a taxi. The one time I was interested, someone offered to drive me for seven dollars. I realize that this doesn't sound like much but a US$14 round trip is pretty pricey for where I wanted to go. That said, the malls of Gran Via and Multicentro are rather close.
Overall, I enjoyed staying at the Alicante, the staff was very good. I just wish they had more comfortable beds and really cold air conditioning. There is limited parking outside, it you happen to have a car, and armed security outside the door.More
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