Hotel berhampiran Galeria Santiago, La Paz

2-nights solo stay in April 2019. The hotel is located in the touristy part of old town, close to the Witches’ Market (Mercado de las Brujas). That might sound like a good thing, but it isn’t – the area reminded me of Old Delhi… dirty, busy and crowded. I was in a room overlooking the main road, and the windows just couldn’t keep the noise out. Note that despite the chaotic traffic and crowds, the area didn’t feel unsafe, even late at night. Plaza Major de San Francisco, Plaza Murillo and the Teleferico stations for cable cars to El Alto or Zona Sur aren’t very close, but walkable from the hotel (keep in mind that La Paz has steep hills). The hotel is in an old building with LOTS of staircases and open-air areas. Again, it sounds like a good idea until you have to run across an open terrace in pouring rain to get to your room. Also, access to many (most?) rooms requires climbing at least a few stairs. The walls are paper-thin and you can clearly hear conversations and other sounds from adjoining rooms. And that leads to my next gripe / observation – the room safe requires an advance science degree to operate. I read and re-read the instructions in full before being able to use it. Unfortunately, due to the paper-thin walls and the complexity of the room safe, I was woken up at 3am one night by the folks next door repeatedly failing to open their safe by entering wrong number combinations. I heard every beep of them keying in the numbers, the safe mechanism turning, and then beeping to indicate incorrect numbers. The room has an electric room heater, and extra blankets are available in the cupboard. The free WiFi had a good speed. I thought the buffet breakfast finished early for a hotel aimed at tourists. Food availability was an issue both mornings that I ate there, as popular items ran out and weren’t replaced. I was disappointed by the hotel’s service, particularly due to two incidents: • I got drenched in a sudden downpour one evening, and was told the hotel couldn’t provide an iron and ironing board when I asked, in order to dry my clothes. The person I spoke to didn’t offer any other ideas to help with the situation • I asked the receptionist while checking-out to mail postcards for me, and gave him BOB100 for stamps and his assistance. Those are the only postcards from my South America trip that didn’t arrive Free tea and hot water are available in the lobby area. I won’t stay again at the Hotel Rosario – the hotel, the service and the location just didn’t do it for me, especially for the price I paid. I plan to stay in the trendy Sopocachi area next time I’m in La Paz; or the vibrant San Miguel area in Zona Sur.

Habíamos reservado una habitación familiar que nos pareció muy incomoda por lo que cambiamos a una suite pagando la diferencia, el día 24 dic cuando mi hija se duchaba se rompe el vidrio de la ducha ocasionando varios cortes en su cuerpo el recepcionista nos ayudó muy diligentemente y de forma oportuna. Fue un gran susto y asumimos que estás cosas ,” pueden pasar” , pero los siguientes días el personal se encargo de arruinar las vacaciones, el hotel te da una hora para el desayuno pero después de media hora siguen sin estar las cosas listas. Te sirven ” pan viejo ” si haberlo cambiado tres días, te dicen ” no hay fruta ” . Pedí una plancha para una camisa, te dicen que hay solo el servicio de planchado en el hotel, tuvieron que planchar dos veces pues era impresentable su trabajo. Preguntas a la recepcionista lugares para conocer en la Paz o cercanos te dice solamente ” el valle de la luna ” no te da ninguna otra información, me pareció muy poco profesional y mediocre estando en un medio de turismo que son los llamados a promocionar su país. Regresamos al hotel porque teniamos otros días reservados y no respetaron el cambio de suite a cuenta que habíamos hecho ” mal uso” de la ducha y no les devolvimos como ellos nos entregaron... Me parecía increíble escuchar lo que nos decía ....que uso puede dar una niña de 11 años......desastroso. otra persona me dijo que desde Enero he sido la única persona en quejarme, minutos después llegaron otras personas locales que habían hecho reservas por cuatro ocasiones y seguía el hotel sin respetar lo ofrecido, haciendo un cruce de palabras,fueron quienes me recomendaron ir al ministerio de Turismo para levantar una queja formal !

We arrived at La Paz airport at 3 am local time so it was a great relief to reach the Hotel Europa about an hour after landing and to be immediately allocated a room. We managed to get up for breakfast around 8 which was a substantial buffet, well organised and managed. The hotel is 5 star by local standards, centrally situated just off the main road through the city and indeed the major road to and from the airport. Very convenient and a short walk in one direction takes you to the main square of the city and the Witches Market and in the opposite direction to Sopocachi with many bars and restaurants. The hotel was relatively quiet and, like many businesses, still recovering from the Covid lockdowns and disruption. So the spa and pool service were not operating and nor was one of the restaurants. The main restaurant, the Bistro, lacked character and atmosphere perhaps but was perfectly adequate and inexpensive. Staff at reception were always helpful and it was possible to change money there or access ATM's across the city. We found it difficult to locate good quality restaurants but could recommend the Pasona Hotel and we found a charming backpacker hotel called HowMe/Selina on Ave 20 Octubre. Very satisfying food and very inexpensive. All in all a very convenient and comfortable location. Visitors should definitely take a ride in the cable car system that surrounds La Paz. Thrilling and with great views.

On the first night I was in a 4 bed dorm and I was woken up at 4 am by the receptionist and a security guard. They got me out of bed and made me show my room key and guest card, as apparently in their system the room should be empty. Well, I was in the right room and I was taken out of bed without any need, apparently the receptionist registered me on room 307 and gave me the keys of 407. It was very unpleasant and I had a terrible sleep after that. I wonder why they couldn't wait until later to settle the matter. So I went to the reception to negotiate some kind of compensation for the unpleasant situation they had put me through, I suggested a complimentary breakfast (it costs about U$4.50). But they basically replied that they didn't care about the situation and that I could complain wherever I wanted. Selina is not a cheap hostel, so you're expected to at least be treated well, which was not the case. Before this happened, I would easily give it five stars, as it is comfortable, safe, clean. But the way they treated me wasn't fair, they treated me like I was doing something wrong, when in fact it was their mistake. Second night the private room smelled cigarette, I also let reception know but nothing was made. There were some dishes from a previous guest at the door and they stayed there until my check out. Both nights were very noisy. During check out I had to request the refund of the 35bs key deposit they charged me when checking in, but they said it wasn't registered on the system (again another ”system” mistake), so I had to insist I paid, very uncomfortable situation once more. It seems Selina La Paz needs to improve its management. The whole situation will definitely make me think twice about staying at another Selina.

I cannot speak highly enough of the Ritz or its staff. Communications were good in advance as I requested an early check in due to my early flight, and they accommodated this. The arranged for a taxi to collect me from the airport. My room was huge, with massive opening windows (I hate aircon and the feeling of being sealed into a room), there was no aircon in the room but with the windows open I got a lovely breeze. I was at the front, overlooking the road and square, with my windows open, it was very noisy and La Paz is a very full on city, but this did not bother me at all. I would say that if you may want fresh air and you need silence, then maybe request a room not at the front ! An observation is that there was no dish cloths or any linens in the kitchen which I would expect when you have a working kitchen, I did have to give plates a wipe over with a bathroom towel when I washed them. I was able to run a ”tab” of a couple of taxis and also some food and drink from the coffee bar downstairs which I paid in one go as I left, this was helpful too. I cannot praise this hotel highly enough - stay here if you go to La Paz !!

My wife, son and I spent 17 wonderful days in Bolivia but only had a poor experience at the Casa Grande. We booked a family room so we could all stay in 1 room but when we checked in we were separated and my son was down the hall. He is a young adult so he was not concerned but this was inconvenient since he was down the hall and not next door or in the room we booked. We had several issues with our keys not working during our stay. You need a key to use the elevator and had to go back to the front desk multiple times as the key did not work in elevator and at times for the room door. However more concerning was that we realized after several days that our room door did not lock! Yes the door could be opened without a key. We did not realize this earlier in our stay because we had so many key issues that we did not realize until New Years morning when the key did not work and I just turned the handle and the door opened. When we informed the staff, we were told that the maintenance person was off because of the holiday and offered another room but we were leaving the next night so it was too much to pack to unpack for the night and we dead bolted the door when inside. On top of this our safe did not work. The staff attempted to fix a few times but could not get it to work. We had to go to my son's room down the hall every time to lock up our valuables which is an inconvenience especially if you're trying to enjoy a vacation! But given the door not locking and the safe not working we were more than surprised. Staying in a hotel without a locked door is a major Security issue - crazy. The staff was always helpful and tried to assist. We asked to speak to the owner: Don Carlos but was told he was away. The manager was not on-site New Years Day. But the housekeeper & young man on staff that day were very surprised and understanding of our dilemma to NO fault of their own. When we brought this to the managers attention upon check out the next day: ”Nothing” was mentioned about our issues, except for we are so sorry about your experience. I spend 100 plus nights out a year in Marriott in the US for work and this has never happened, and when issues occur they are prompt to address. We had a wonderful experience at the Marriott Santa Cruz the prior week followed by a wonderful stay at the Camino Real in La Paz. Camino Real in La Paz. We were expecting a much better experience at the 5 star Casa Grande , but disappointed with the outcome especially given we paid more than $250 a night. We stayed at the Casa Grande from 12/27/23 through 1/2/24. Still never heard back from hotel manager regarding our concerns and still waiting for ANY response back. Hotel food is good and staff is friendly and warm and because of this reason only dd not lower to 1 star.

This is overall a great hotel in a quiet neighborhood of La Paz, Bolivia, known as zona azul. Blue zone a great place to enjoy our visit. The Atix offers a great gourmet restaurant with an experimental food wit wine pairing and a wonderful roof top for snacks and drinks by the pool. We enjoyed at in two evening of a quiet and excellent service. The really low quality item was the not friendly architecture design of the bathroom: only half of the shower is closed causing too much water on the slippery floor; and the support for soap and shampoo extremely too small,

Serviço terrível. Fizemos a reserva para um grupo de 24 pessoas, e eles cancelaram nossos quartos porque meu cartão não funciona, segundo eles. Entrei em contato com eles para confirmar minha reserva e efetuar o pagamento no hotel na chegada. Primeiro me dizem que não há espaço na suíte porque eu já tinha a reserva, e ainda por cima cancelam minha reserva sem motivo. Que péssimo serviço e atenção, eles não deveriam colocar à venda quartos que não os tenham. NÃO RECOMENDO, PÉSSIMA ATENÇÃO E PÉSSIMO ESTABELECIMENTO