Hotel Villa Calakmul

Villa Calakmul is a simple/basic hotel with 8 clean rooms, spread over the ground floor and the first floor. We stayed in room 6 on the first floor. A large room with air conditioning and two excellent beds. We slept well there. Very good (clean) quality for what you pay. The good thing about this small hotel is that the 'back' of the hotel is to the main road. In contrast to other (mainly to be avoided) hotels that are located on the main road, this hotel was hardly affected by the traffic(noise) and the work on the (broken up) main road that runs through the town and especially the flow of trucks working on the construction of the Mayan Railway. We have the impression that it will take a few months before the noise along the main road and the mud in the town disappears. The hotel is a good location for visiting Calakmul. However, expect that it will take about an hour by car before you reach the side road that goes to Calakmul. Then it took about 2 hours (60 km) on a very potholed and under construction road with a speed limit of 30 km to reach the ruins. We were there at 9:40 am, well in time because entrance tickets are only sold until 11:30 am. Minus of the hotel: there was a sewage smell in the bathroom in the morning. No breakfast, but there are a number of restaurants along the (muddy) main road where you can have breakfast for a very reasonable price.

A decidedly no-frills hotel. I took points off because it failed to deliver on some of the amenities it claims on its website. It claims: coffee and tea in the lobby. Nope. Television (which I personally don't care about but which some travelers will want). Nonfunctional. When will it be repaired? Maybe next week. None of the staff speak English. The room door has gaps, allowing creepy crawlies in: 2 cockroaches during my stay. The good sides: the A/C worked well. There is a communal fridge in the lobby where you can stash drinks and food. And the location: it is off the main street on which heavy trucks pass day and night with noise and dust. Some of the street-front hotels issue ear plugs! Villa Calakmul is quiet. And there is off-street parking behind a not-locked gate that anyone could open. And hot water is inconsistent.

Find somewhere else First room had mold on the wall and the bathroom was dirty (we were informed someone else had changed out of that room an hour earlier due to plumbing issues and those issues were now fixed, but apparently they didn't clean the bathroom after). Second room was clean, but we dealt with noise all night as the construction of the hotel will ensure that you hear everything going on in the hotel, on the block, and in the neighborhood. This was supposed to be a quiet early night before driving out to Calakmul, but it ended up being a rough sleepless night.

Hotel Villa Calakmul was simple, clean, safe, comfortable -- a fine jumping-off place for a trip into Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. We arrived by bus, and the hotel was a walk of a few blocks from the bus station. Shops and the town's few restaurants were walking distance as well. The desk clerk spoke just enough English, and was very accommodating.

Very quiet area.