Tambo del Solar Hotel

The price was very good, and the rooms were spacious, clean, and quiet. The location is great, and the shower and bathroom were good too. One thing to watch for: depending on the booking site, if it doesn't collect any payment, the hotel may automatically email you asking for a deposit. That happened to us, so check your email. We replied to confirm we were coming, and they were very receptive.

We’d happily stay here again if we return to Arequipa. It’s a comfortable, quiet place to sleep, with good beds, great showers, and friendly staff. Over four nights we had no noise problems. The hotel is central, close to everything in Arequipa’s centre, but sits in the quiet historic hotel district. The apartment balcony has especially impressive volcano views. They also work with a well priced tour agency, which made it easy to join smaller bilingual group tours without spending time comparing travel agencies. There’s a large supermarket a block away for water and other supplies. Some neighborhood gates lock early, but we found the Bolognesi gate stayed open a little later and earlier, and the lower vehicle entrance was open all day and night. That’s where the tours picked us up.

Tucked into a beautiful cobblestone neighborhood, this small, quaint hotel is historic and made of white stones. Some rooms have cute balconies overlooking the area. It’s gated and felt safe, and the staff were awesome. They sorted out a room mix up for us and gave us plenty of tour advice. The hotel is in the heart of arequepa Peru, within walking distance of the center plaza, and the location is hard to beat. Definitely worth the price.

The neighborhood is pretty, the rooftop has a great view, and the location is decent for tourists. For the price, I think the hotel is fine, but there were several things that really got on my nerves. The internet is awful. Uploading a small 1 Mb image took 5-10 minutes, and holding your phone near the router doesn’t help. You won’t be using the WiFi, so get a SIM card with LOTS of data. It feels like it’s only there so they can claim to offer free internet. There’s no heater or heat insulation, so it can get cold depending on the season. Bring extra comfortable layers for sleeping. Wind comes through the slits in the balcony door, and thicker comforters should be the bare minimum. Sound insulation is poor too. The windows are always a little cracked, and there are gaps in the balcony door panel. Bring earplugs. A car in the neighborhood has an obnoxious alarm that goes off at the slightest sound, and the other cars seem to have no mufflers, so it’s a constant racket. On trash days, the garbage truck wakes you with Under the Sea blaring for some reason. A lot of the reception staff don’t speak English. That’s understandable in Peru, but most of my online interactions and transactions with them were in English, so it was annoying to find out I still needed a translator app. You have to be buzzed in, so getting inside depends on someone being at the front desk. Usually someone is there, but sometimes they step away and you have to wait on the bench. Maybe that’s normal here, since hotels with open doors have 4 or 5 guards standing around. The neighborhood gates lock at night, too. If you’re being picked up for a Colca Canyon tour, for example, you need to leave through a pedestrian gate. It took me a long time to figure that out, and only some of those gates are left unlocked.