This was my first time in Guanajuato. I didn't realize I was going to visit during the Festival Cervantino. After looking at some hotels and reviews, I chose Balcon del Cielo because it seemed to have a nice view, good reviews, had parking, had breakfast included and people said hotels down in the center were very noisy.
It turned out to be a great decision. The parking the hotel uses is city parking, but our SUV rental was safe for two days. We didn't even touch the SUV rental during the two night stay. The parking was about $10 per day (24 hours).
We were greeted by Luis, who was very friendly. They allowed us to get into our room a bit earlier than the check-in time, and the rooms were spacious and clean with great views. One of our rooms had a balcony and the view was an unobstructed view of the entire GTO center, it was amazing. The Wi-Fi was fast in both rooms, we had no issues with water pressure or other bathroom related things, the beds were comfortable, and the safes were functinal and useful in both rooms.
A couple of great higlights from this hotel: one, an excellent breakfast is included in connection with Casa Valadez which is down in the city center in front of the garden and Teatro Juarez. The hotel gives you a breakfast pass per person in the reservation, and we had no issue with the restaurant honoring it. We just had to pay the restaurant a tip, and it was well-deserved since the food and service were excellent. We went to that restaurant twice for the breakfasts that were included, and even another time for dinner since it seemed to be one of the best places around, and at a good price.
The other great thing about this hotel apart from everything I've mentioned is that they give you free passes to the funicular, which is a small tram that transports you from the top of the hill where the hotel is located to the bottom where the city center is, right behind the Teatro Juarez. Each trip would otherwise cost about $3 dollars, so we saved a ton of money and it was very convenient to have access to the tram. The tram itself felt safe, and the people who work it were very nice. The only downside is that the tram stops running at about 9 or 10 pm, so if you party and are stuck down in the city, you'll need to Taxi it up on to the hill, or you can also make it a workout and take stairs. We took the stairs down once just for fun. We also had to take the taxi up once but it was affordable, about $5 US dollars per trip.
All in all, I would return to Balcon de Cielo. Great deal, great view, great amenities, great people and great service. Hopefully we'll be back in the future.
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