Finding Hotels in Mexican Towns
3-10-2019
Finding hotel rooms in Mexico’s towns, including Pueblos Mágicos, can be easy –or challenging. Basically, finding a hotel room depends on desirability of the town for visiting (demand), whether for tourism, business or other purposes. (Many of the towns that I suggest are stunningly beautiful but are off-the-beaten-path and are recommended for artists and photographers because of their scenic quality, architecture and history). Demand is also influenced by accessibility: whether there is easy highway or road access to the town, which is often the case of rugged, mountainous Mexico. Despite a town’s attractions, you may not be able to find or book a hotel room before visiting. Let me explain why.
A large percentage of small hotels, many family-owned, cannot be found on the Internet because they do not list themselves. This is due to the fees charged by booking sites (such as booking.com, hotels.com, or even AirBnB.com). Booking sites generally charge around 18% for their fees.
Another reason is that small hotels minimize (or hide) tax exposure by not being electronically “visible” by being on-line, or accepting credit cards. Thus, booking a room is often simply a cash transaction.
Not being able to find such small hotels is a shame, because many are gorgeous, well-run hotels run mostly by families. I’ll give you a couple of examples…
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| San Joaquin, Pueblo Mágico |
Last year (2018) I visited a Pueblo Mágico in the Sierra Gorda Mountains in the State of Querétaro called San Joaquin. While planning my visit I searched for hotels on-line. I found none in San Joaquin, a town with roughly a population of 15,000. However, the searched showed hotels in other towns in the mountainous region, the closest on a 2-hour bus ride away. My reaction was one of disbelief, knowing that San Joaquin was an established Pueblo Mágico. Nevertheless, I went there anyway, having faith from experience that I would find a room.
Upon arriving in San Joaquin and asking at the tiny bus station in the town’s center, I found a nice, unlisted hotel a 5-minuite walk away. Within a few days of exploring and talking to the Director of Tourism, I found out that there were about a half-dozen hotels in town, many better and less expensive! When telling the Tourism Director that I almost did not visit because of what appeared to be a lack of lodging, the Director shrugged in defeat, knowing the economics of this small, relatively poor, rural town.
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| Dusk in Jala, Nayarit |
In a recent visit to the Pueblo Mágico of Jala in the State of Nayarit, I encountered the same situation while traveling with a travel-writer colleague, Barbara Shaw (2barbshaw.blogspot.com). A search showed no hotels in Jala, only a few in two nearby towns located along a regional highway. (Jala is a couple of miles from the main highway). Knowing this lodging dilemma, we went there anyway and promptly found a small hostel with four rooms clustered around an internal courtyard. It was a lovely place that Barb had found by simply asking a woman on the bus. The next day a Tourism Office Guide told us that there were some other unlisted hotels in town-unlisted for the same reasons of avoiding fees and taxes. This is economic reality in rural Mexico. Of course, if you did have the hotel’s telephone number or e-mail address, you could find and reserve a room beforehand.
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| A Vender in Jala |
This leads me to my recommended use of official “Pueblos Mágicos” for scenic travels: they are required to have a functioning Tourism Office, Oficina Turismo, with someone there, seven days a week. Knowing this, you can go directly to the pueblo’s Oficina Turismofor help in finding lodging. In my many years of traveling, I have never been without a room.
To purchase a “Painting Mexico” book from the publisher (less expensive):
http://www.blurb.com/b/8596527-painting-mexico-magical-pueblos-in-guanajuato
(This site is set to allow you to view all the pages in the book)
Please help me fund my art-travel books by purchasing prints on FineArtAmerica.com. (All expenses for the production and publishing of these books are self-funded by me. I consider much of my effort to promote scenic tourism to towns in Mexico to be charity).
To purchase prints of some of the paintings, drawings & maps in this book: www.fineartamerica.com“Jack Hannula”
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