I've always loved traveling in Mexico. Part of it is the culture, the food, and the perpetual sunshine. But part of it is the way it appeals to my inner bargain-hunting soul. While Mexico has something of a reputation for being a backpacker's Mecca where guys like JAMES23 can still find their rooms for $10 a night, and all-you-can-eat lunches can still be had for $3, the real value to guys like me lies up the food chain a bit. I love the fact that I can find super-posh hotels that would rival the best luxury New York City or Paris could offer me, but at rates that are 1/5 what travelers to those august cities would pay!

Perfect case in point is my latest jaunt into central Mexico, where I finally got a chance to swing through San Luis Potosi. I snagged a suite at the very modern (only opened a couple years ago) and upscale Westin Hotel for less than $120! That's the kind of bang-for-the-buck value that a guy who calls himself The World's Cheapeast Traveler(tm) can appreciate!

Here's the kind of experience you'd get for those 120 bucks...

Room
Opulent -- that's the word I'm looking for!

This is a room that's furnished almost to excess. It looks like the way you find rooms decorated if you read magazines like Architectural Digest or Casa y Estilo. Heavy satin drapes with gilded fringe. A thick blue and gold floral-pattern bedspread. Heavy dark wood furniture.

I've got one of the corner junior suite rooms -- the cost to upgrade from a standard room was only US$10, so why the heck not! In reality, it's not what I'd really call a "suite", so don't get your hopes up too high. It is a nice room, but it's really just alarge hotel room and not a suite since it doesn't have a separate bedroom. (Don't you just love the way those corporate hotel marketing guys decieve you? Me neither...)

But okay, so it's not the imperial suite, it's still a decent sized room.

I've got a king size bed, a separate sitting area with a sofa and a small work desk -- complete with second phone. Each room has its own in-wall safe with a digital combination lock. Big color TV with several English language cable channels including the ubiquitous CNN and HBO. Pay-per-view movies available too.

One thing I like about this room, and which makes the upgrade worth the cost even if it isn't a genuine suite is the bathroom. One word reason I like it: jacuzzi.

Generally, the room is pretty well-equipped, but there is one critical thing missing, and if you know me, you know what it is -- yep, no coffee maker! Standard plea Number 5 to boneheaded hotel chain management the world over: Give us the friggin' Mr. Coffee machines in the room!!! Minus one star for that glaring omission (yeah, I'm in a cranky mood today -- I didn't get my coffee when I woke up today).

Hotel Amenities
San Luis may not be a resort destination, but the Westin sure as heck feels as nice as any resort hotel! I loved the lushly landscaped gardens, the traditional Spanish architecture with elegant arches and columns, and I loved the beautifully majestic entrance with its grand circular driveway and center water fountain.

Although the outdoor pool in the hotel's courtyard was smaller than you'd find in a real resort area, it was very nicely set in a quiet, attractively landscaped, garden setting. Sitting outside with a drink by the pool was just about the perfect way to spend a sunny 80 degree afternoon. The pool area also has a large hot tub for those wanting just a little more pampering...

One of the things that irritates me in some hotels is trying to eat in the hotel restaurant only to find that it closes at some ridiculously early hour (like a certain dastardly hotel that I will identify only as Hyatt Regency Dallas). I was worried when we didn't get back to the Westin until after 10pm -- afraid we'd be out of luck as far as food goes, but fortunately, guest service seems to matter to Westin.

We strolled into the beautiful Cantera restaurant and were seated immediately. I loved the rustic feel of the place with its rough-hewn wood tables and chairs, and its vaulted domed ceilings that made me feel like I was in the cellar of an old monastery or winery. It was a very cozy, comfortable restaurant and I felt at home immediately.

Although the prices were higher than restaurants in the area, they were still quite reasonable by U.S. travel standards. I paid about 150 pesos for an absolutely sublime smoked pork cutlet served with a green mole while my wife went for one of the house specialties, a whole fish stuffed with nopalito. That's another thing I liked about the restaurant -- the traditional high Mexican and nouveau Mexican cuisine. There were a lot of dishes that you don't find outside Mexico, but they were all Mexican dishes -- there was no pretense of trying to be haughty with french or italian cooking. The Westin evidently recognizes what most foodies already know, that Mexican food is one of the world's great cuisines and that it can be as complex and imaginitive as any dish anywhere. Top notch!

After dinner, my wife and I left our daughter in the care of grandma while we excused ourselves to check out the hotel's bar. Another good choice! Unlike some wimpy U.S. corporate hotels that close the hotel bar at 10pm (I will identify that villain only as Radisson Plaza Minneapolis), the Westin's bar rocks until 3am. Not only that, but they serve good drinks. I was very happy to see a tequila menu on our table, and even happier to be able to order a fine drink like Chinaco Anejo.

Location
I'm not crazy about the location of this hotel. I usually prefer downtown hotels, and the Westin is maybe 4 or 5 miles from where I'd really like to be. It's on the fringes of the city in what seems to be a very prosperous neighborhood. Maybe great for Mexican businessmen, lousy for gringo tourists.

San Luis Potosi
I'm going to deviate a little bit from the usual hotel review format, but I really feel that San Luis Potosi deserves some coverage, and while I'd dearly love to write a review about this wonderful old city, epinions management still hasn't seen fit to fix the well-known bug that blocks travel writers from submitting new content in the destinations categories, so I'll just append a few short notes here.

San Luis Potosi (or just S.L.P. in local shorthand) was a really a surprise to me. Because the town is so widely ignored by the folks who write travel guides to Mexico, I figured that maybe there wasn't much to see or do there. Boy, is that the wrong conclusion to reach!

The town turned out to be more like a city -- population-wise, it's almost exactly the same size as Baltimore. Not a small town at all!

Yet despite its size, the city retains a cozy, and dare I say it, a small town feel at times. Perhaps that's because it has so many parks, or maybe it's the fascinating old colonial-era buildings downtown.

We visited the Museo Nacional de Mascaras (Museum of Masks) which was an utterly fascinating trip through the myriad regional styles of folkart masks, which have been a part of both high and folk culture in Mexico for millenia -- some of the most fascinating exhibits where those on masks used in ancient Mayan and Aztec rituals.

We also loved walking around downtown (a very safe city to walk in) and strolling around the sprawling Palacio de Gobierno (the state capital) and through some of the old downtown churches and cathedrals.

The big downtown market area is called Mercado Hidalgo and it reminds me of similar market areas in downtown Guadalajara or Monterrey, with blocks of pedestrian-only streets filled with people and vendors of full of a festival-like atmosphere.

San Luis is one of those wonderful treats that you find by getting off the main tourist path. It's a bustling city, but one with tradition and authenticity. I loved that I didn't run into a single gringo while I was there (and no "gouge the tourist" prices either), and I loved that waiters and shopkeepers didn't try to speak english to me (heck, I don't think I ran into an English-speaker the whole time I was there -- it was great!)

Getting to S.L.P.: I drove to San Luis from Monterrey -- about a 6 hour trip. Frequent first-class buses run between S.L.P. and pretty much everywhere in Mexico -- or even into Texas for that matter. The airport is served by all Mexican flag carriers, though the only U.S. carrier with direct flights to S.L.P. is Continental.

Bottom Line:
The Westin San Luis Potosi is an excellent hotel with top-notch service and amenities. Definitely what I consider to be 5-star caliber, but as I mention, I'm dropping one star only for the sin of having no coffee maker in the room. Fix that and it's 5-star all the way, Baby!

Until nex time, see you on the road. Once again, I'll be the slow-moving gringo wearily seeking out a decent cuppa joe...



Recommended: Yes