We arrived at Hotel El Castillo in Matagalpa Tuesday evening. The hotel is a quaint structure built up the side of a mountain foothill. The footprint is small, but rises three stories. Up the first flight of outdoor stairs is a roomy patio and the front door of the hotel. Once inside there is another flight of stairs to a lounge and the hotel rooms. Another passage lead to another large part of the building currently being worked on. I presume they are expanding and building rooms. Which is a good idea because our room was very small. We barely tolerated one night there.
We requested a room with two beds and it was pretty obvious that they had moved a twin bed into this room which already contained a queen size bed taking most of the space. We had barely any space to move around. And only beds. No chairs. Or table. Not that there would have been any room for such things, anyway.
The bathroom was great, though and the view from the balcony was amazing. I enjoyed this view from the balcony a lot since I couldn’t fit in the room.
It was pretty clear by the next day that our was simply too small. It would have been nice for a solo traveler or a couple, but not a family with a five-year-old and a dog.
So they moved us downstairs to a “work in progress” room that we didn’t know existed right across from the first flight of stairs from ground level. Infamous Room Number 7.
This room was HUGE! It had a queen, a twin, and two bunk beds. It also had a very nice bathroom. But it was out of WiFi range, which is a 100% requirement for me since I work online and, given that this was Wednesday and I was not off it wasn’t really acceptable. I worked upstairs in the lounge while Roberta went hotel scouting for a new place. That being said, the staff were very accommodating and professional. The place simply didn’t fit our needs.
She found and booked us at Hostal Don Guillermo which is just about as awesome and nice as a place can possibly be. We’ve been too busy for me to take some pictures of it, but I recommend checking their TripAdvisor.com page via the link above.
It’s not really a hostel despite what the name alludes to. But a multi-star hotel / B&B. It’s within walking distance of all the good stuff and the staff (who live here) are all very polite and helpful. If you’re going to visit Matagalpa, stay here.
