Hotel Eurobuilding Express Review - Maiquetia, Venezuela
What’s Good:
Close to the airport, Clean, English speaking staff, Free Airport shuttle
What’s Bad:
Price, Surrounding Area
Hotel website: Hotel Eurobuilding Express

Due to the late night arrival of Air Canada’s flight from Toronto to Caracas, Venezuela, we found ourselves stuck looking for a place to stay near the Caracas (CCS) airport so we could catch a domestic flight to Margarita Island the following day. It is no longer practical to find a hotel in Caracas as the collapse of the main bridge between the airport (in Maiquetía, Venezuela) and Caracas has made the drive long and difficult. Luckily, Hotel Eurobuilding Express provides a nice stopover option.
While the Caracas airport can be slightly intimidating, the direct transfer from the airport makes things nice and simple. The transfer bus is located on the lower level of the international airport. To get there take a left when exiting customs and head down the escalator one level to the bottom floor. You’ll pass the Avis counter on your left and exit out of the building to where white vans with the Hotel Eurobuilding Express name and logo are located (sometimes they will have an unmarked van with a sign in the front window). This transfer takes you directly to the hotel and the cost is included in your room rate (although it is polite to tip).
Things to be cautious of: when you exit customs you will be met by a host of taxi drivers, airport employees, etc. They are looking for your business. You do not need their assistance to get to the shuttle. It is a simple walk there. Their assistance, if taken, will cost you a hefty tip. Do not be fooled by airport employees wearing blue shirts with name tags as they will also look for tips. When you reach the shuttle be sure to have the shuttle driver place your bags in the back. If not, a helpful tip-seeker will step forward and do it for you. In case you accidentally acquire the services of someone requiring a tip be sure to have a few American dollars in hand. Do not tip more than a few dollars.
The shuttle ride to the Hotel is no more than five minutes. Once we arrived we were immediately welcomed by the front-desk staff. All front-desk that we encountered spoke English very well. The check-in process was flawless. The only mishap was a slight mix-up in rooms which led to an awkward walk into someone else’s room. The staff had this corrected within minutes with great apologies.
The hotel was quite nice; what you would expect from a three star North American hotel with the exception of the remarkably spacious bathroom which would probably rate higher. The room was clean with the exception of a couple of cigarette burns in the carpet (despite the fact it was a non smoking room). We stayed in a large room with two double beds. It had a large TV with many English and Spanish channels as well as free in room high speed Internet to which we were able to hook up a wireless router. The Internet was fast enough for VoIP calls (i.e. Skype) to North America. There was also an electronic safe and in-room air conditioning.
While the price of the hotel was certainly more expensive than some of the options in the nearby port cities (Catia la Mar), its proximity to the airport, direct shuttle service and English speaking staff made it worth the one night splurge (we paid around $180 US for 4 people, this included breakfast).
With that said, Hotel Eurobuilding express is certainly a stopover hotel and we would not have enjoyed a longer stay here. The facilities are very nice; an excellent pool with a waterfall, a nice lobby and an extensive business center, restaurant, but, being in such proximity to the airport it is really in the middle of nowhere. It would not be a good place to base a vacation out of. When looking around from the pool deck it is obvious that the area surrounding the hotel is quite poor. Despite this, plenty of roaming security guards ensure the safety of the premises. The hotel looks out onto the airport runway, the ocean and the highway.
Breakfast was decent and included scrambled eggs, ham, cereals, fresh fruit, pastries and yogurt. As mentioned, the breakfast was included in the room price. Breakfast was served between 6:00 and 10:30 am.
Shuttles run from the hotel to the airport (international or national terminal) every 20 minutes.
To make our reservation we emailed info@hoteleuroexpress.com . Their staff responded in english within a few days. You can also make reservations through their website but being completely in Spanish it can be difficult for those who do not speak the language. It is advisable to book as far in advance as possible as this is a busy hotel.
Overall the hotel served its purpose: It gave us nice, clean, professional accommodations within minutes of the airport. Unfortunately Eurobuilding Express has a monopoly on this and is fairly expensive although we found the price worth the conveniences.
Telephone: (58+212) 700 07 00
Fax: (58+212) 331 58 03
e-mail: info@hoteleuroexpress.com
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Comments
Uk Traveler - July 19, 2006 8:39 am
Hi!
Thanks so much for this review. I was recently in Caracas on business and needed to stay close to the airport. Found this review whilst looking for hotels and it was really helpful and very detailed. Especially appreciated the (very very accurate) information about the shuttle and what to expect upon arrival at CCS. Second everything you said about the hotel.
Muchas Gracias!
Dan James - July 26, 2006 10:26 am
Uk Traveler: Thanks for your reply! It's nice to know that our review was helpful. We're in the midst of writing a seperate, more detailed, review of the Caracas airport (national & international). We'd love to get your feed back on that as well when it is posted. Thanks!
De Nada.