What’s Good:
The Cause, Clean, Friendly Service, Breakfast, Showers, Price

What’s Bad:
Noisier Street, Walk to Plaza Des Armas

Hotel website: http://www.ninoshotel.com/

We were lucky to stay at Los Ninos for three nights of our visit to Peru. We had read about this place before we planned our trip and managed to get our reservations in early. It was well worth it. Los Ninos has become somewhat of a famed destination in Peru. Travelers, backpackers in particular, are starting to treat the hotel as a destination in and of itself.

Los Ninos was started in 1996 by a Dutch couple who wanted to help the street kids in Cusco. All proceeds from the hotel go to programs that the couple has designed for the street children of the city. The hotel has been such as success that they have recently opened a second hotel and other apartments nearby.

What’s Good:
Big Rooms, Clean, Cost, Balconies

What’s Bad:
Street Noise, Morning Showers

Hotel website: http://www.balconeshotel.com/

Email: losbalconeshotel@hotmail.com

We had the pleasure of staying at the Los Balcones hotel (hostal) for four nights during our recent trip to Peru (April-May 2005). Los Balcones, while called a hostal, is actually more like a hotel. It is centrally located just a few blocks from the Plaza Des Armas and offers many types of rooms (doubles, triples, quads, etc).

What you’ll first notice when you pull up to the hotel is that it doesn’t appear very big. There is a door that leads off the street and down into a very small lobby/front desk area. The lobby has a few very comfortable leather couches and that’s pretty much it. When you’re taken up to your room you’ll go up a set of stairs and to the left into a long hallway. Most rooms are off of this hallway on the left.

What’s Good:
Beautiful, Clean, Friendly Staff, Reasonably Priced

What’s Bad:
CRABS! (It’s not as bad as it sounds)

Hotel website: http://www.hotelparador.com/

Becky and I stayed at Hotel Parador for the tail end of our Honeymoon in Costa Rica (May 2004). The hotel is located a few minutes outside of the smaller fishing town of Quepos on the Pacific side of Costa Rica.

The hotel is set on a high rocky peninsula that is covered in lush green vegetation. Monkeys, iguanas, lizards, and countless types of birds make their home on or near the resort. This provides great natural entertainment.