Alko Hotel Cotona

The hotel looks fairly new and it’s located in the centre. There is a lovely restaurant on the right hand side worth visiting. I thing it was called Faustino. the room was huge and the bed even bigger, great bathroom with large walk in shower. There is a small pool on the top and bar. The staff are pleasant and helpful. Breakfast was a la carte but good.

This hotel would have received top marks had it not been for the breakfast. Beds comfortable, rooms lovely and clean, pool and pool area a delight - and you hear very little noise of the city so it is peaceful to sit up on the roof, and for a small hotel the pool was a reasonable size too. Perfect location for the town. Yes the road it is in is a little run down but we did not feel unsafe walking back to the hotel at night as others have mentioned (no different from London really - but it may feel a little intimidating if you are from a small town or rural area and not used to run down areas). As with all of Colombia though we did keep our wits about us where ever we were (also not different to London either) The only disappointment was the breakfast. Very limited. Nothing was self service - not even fruit or cereal - if you ordered fruit you got what they put in the bowl - like it or not. The fruit was also no where near as nice as our previous 4 hotels further south. The cereals tasted a bit stale - and again they put it in your bowl so you could not choose the quantity or mix it. My daughters are vegetarian and vegan so for them the breakfast was even worse. To be fair they really did try to see if they could help with the vege/vegan issue but it still was not nice despite their aims and efforts to please - and we did appreciate this effort. You could not fault them for trying to give you the best experience during the stay. You also have to rely on google translate to order as the waitresses do not speak English - but that is not a criticism, only mentioned this as helpful information for any one who does not speak Spanish. After 2 days though we just decided it was not big deal and went out for breakfast for the final 2 days of our stay as we were so close to town anyway - just 5 minute walk. Despite the breakfast I would certainly recommend this hotel as I could not fault anything else and would still return if I ever went back to Santa Marta as you can get food just around the corner.

We stayed here before and after our 4 day hike to La Ciudad Perdida and it was perfect. Located closely to several bars and restaurant, clean room, friendly staff, nice breakfast,.. They stored part of our luggage while we were on out hike without any charge. After the hike, they did our laundry and returned it within 24 hours.

We originally only had a reservation for dinner at the rooftop restaurant & bar, La Guacharcha. This turned into a 3 night stay because the whole atmosphere was so wonderful. The service was phenomenal and the receptionists were amazing and so helpful. Many of them also knew great English which made things very easy for us. We felt so safe and taken care of. Huge thanks to the staff, what a beautiful hotel.