Hotel María Angola

Lovely people, and the price was good.

The place feels neglected, and breakfast was poor.

Breakfast was decent enough, with Chilean breads, fruit, biscuits, cold cuts, yogurt, cereal, milk, and juice. The black coffee, though, was so weak and pale it looked more like tea. I ended up mixing in instant coffee just to make it drinkable. Since the hotel gets a lot of Brazilian guests, you’d think they’d know many of us prefer medium to strong coffee. It was that light every day. Breakfast ran from 7:30 to 10:30, which didn’t work for morning mountain trips with guides picking people up between 6 and 7. I went on three excursions without breakfast. The location is convenient for the metro, Sky Costanera, and Cerro San Cristóbal. The latter two are walkable, though Sky Costanera took around 25 minutes on foot. The hotel is very clean, from the shared spaces and halls to the rooms, and towels were changed daily. Even beside an avenue, it was quiet enough to sleep at night. A few things caught us off guard. Booking didn’t mention carpet throughout the rooms and hallways. My boyfriend and I both have rhinitis; the excellent cleaning meant it didn’t bother us much, though we felt it a little at first before getting used to it. Our room was smaller than the photos suggested, but reasonably comfortable, and the heater didn’t work. There still aren’t restaurants nearby with good value, even though public transport is easy to use.

It’s a comfortable hotel in a peaceful area, and I walked around until 11 p.m. without seeing police, beggars, homeless people, or vandalism. It’s close to supermarkets and Avenida Providencia, Santiago’s main avenue. I also walked around to see the local shops. The hotel is about 35 minutes on foot from Costaneira center, the tallest building in South America, and near sights including Cerro São Cristóbão, Cerro Santa Lúcia, and Palácio de Lá Moneda. I booked through Booking and everything went smoothly. I paid in US dollars to avoid the high Chilean tax. My reservation included a very simple but adequate breakfast. The hotel is about 800 meters from Salvador and Manoel Month metro stations. You need a Bip card for the metro; a single fare is 720 Chilean pesos, about 4 reais, and the card also works on buses, so you can load whatever amount you want. Communication was the hard part, since people speak Spanish very quickly. Rsrs.