Hostería Ketty — Hotel in Puerto San Julián

16-17/1/19||We three British middle aged guys were trying to get as far south as possible in our month in Argentina but were delayed by a dental emergency (not helped by wholly sweet breakfasts everywhere) and strained back for one of us unfortunately.||The lack of car hire (one company cancelled our reservation), bookable coaches and reasonably priced accommodation meant that we had to plan (taking almost whole days out of relaxing and sightseeing) almost a day ahead both accommodation and transport almost simultaneously, which restricted options. As a result in Comodoro Rivadavia (on Tuesday) we booked a six hour coach from there for Wednesday 16/1 (planning to arrive at PSJ at 12:07) and immediately book this HCDK which had increased suddenly from 2000 (on Monday) to 2546 for the Tuesday and 3500 for the Wednesday nights! We had no option as it was the only Tuesday night accommodation available (other more expensive places seen on Monday had filled up). Our budget was being stretched and timetable limited.||On Tuesday we arrived at the CR bus station as advised at 17:40. The coach eventually arrived (from far away) at 18:40 and left at 18:50 (fifty minutes late). We had let this hotel know we would be late anyway (but not that late!)||We eventually arrived at PSJ at 00:45 (no food or drink provided as they were in our last trip of 2007), hurried out and walked a brisk 10 minutes in the (relative to CR) cold night to the hotel. The proprietress was waiting patiently in the reception (probably used to late arrivals) and showed us straight to our room which turned out to be a very warm apartment at the back so this was a motel in effect as there were plenty of parking spaces.||We entered the warm sitting room with a kitchenette. This was THE BEST place we had stayed at so far, but were due to check out ten hours later after sleep and breakfast! I was rather annoyed as to our having landed in this situation at great expense (the whole holiday was turning out to be draining our budget fast with two weeks left!).||In general the apartment was perfect as it was clean, large and had a fully equipped kitchen including a 5l water dispenser, coffee (instant), hot chocolate, varieties of tea and mate, powdered milk, sugar (of course) and sweeteners provided with an electric kettle, toaster, fridge, combi microwave, lots of cutlery, glasses and crockery. A gas wall mounted heater was on full so I turned it off. There was also a battery powered fresh smell dispenser thingy high up over the sink that puffed freshness into the room; this was not our style and it actually caught me by surprise as I was washing up and stung my eyes.||The large lounge/dining room had sofas, dining table with chairs, breakfast bar strip, a 36 inch wall mounted LED TV (all Argentinian, mostly digital channels), lots of lighting, cupboard and drawers. Two electric sockets were at the rear of the main kitchen surface, none others were found.||The bedroom had a double and single bed with three pairs of towels. A gas wall mounted heater was blazing away which I turned down (it was nice the management had made us feel warm and welcome), a 17inch wall mounted LED (not tested but presumably the same as the lounge), a wardrobe with eight hangers (hurrah hurrah as the most ever provided with so far!), bedside tables between and beside the bed with independent switchable bedside lamps. There were just about enough sockets to keep our devices active and charged overnight, with one socket hidden behind the wardrobe which I had to move to access, revealing a dusty corner, so not as immaculate as some visitors have suggested.||The bathroom had a short bath with shower/foot washer/bath filler combi tap, central lamp, two switchable bright lamps over the mirror with toiletries and spare loo paper). The glass shelf got in the way of rinsing my face after shaving and the water pressure/tap was not good for jetting out razors. I did both in the kitchen sink. A shower curtain, hair drier and switchable extraction fan were present. Two sockets were available, one by the sink, another by the door light switch.||The wifi in the room was not working (endless mozzarella pizza of doom whirling) on all our devices so we reverted to our 3G SIMs for net access (bought for situations like these). At breakfast the wifi in the dining room/reception also did not work, the staff had no idea of how to reboot the hubs or routers so we reverted to 3G again.||At 01:45 we heard what sounded like a motorbike revving aggressively very close. I ventured out in my bare feet into the drive to see (presumably) boy with his toy car burning front wheel rubber on the speed bump at the junction. Clouds of smoke covered the road and eventually he noisily sped off toward the main road. Later on his friends in less noisy but significant toys were cruising around town. Oh well. As we went to sleep some local dogs were barking (we had had encounters with three sets of guard dogs on our way there at night) so in went the ear plugs! ||After typing up TA reviews and planning and booking ahead we finally got to sleep at 02:45 having taken advantage of making up a basic soup with our own ketchup sachets and spices and their hot chocolate as a nightcap. An alcohol free evening for once in fact! ||We had breakfast between 09:40 and 10:40 (whilst logging onto 3G to book ahead) and the Spanish only staff were very friendly and offered us more (instant not fresh) coffee, medialunas etc. Toasted brioche, small wagon wheels and homemade jam were offered. Nothing savoury for our poor teeth though so breakfast (at that price but included) was a disappointment.||After hastily packing we actually checked out five minutes late at 11:05 to walkto the bus station to book our way put again before transferring to Drake (which we booked two days ago as the cheapest available on this Wednesday night). I am finishing writing this review on the main road kerbside in the shade of Hotel Sada watching the occasional bored boys with their sawn-off-exhaust toys 'racing' past noisily. The only thing to brighten up the scene was a Santa in Coca Cola colours, his sled and reindeers at the dual carriageway road crossroads.||As transport and accommodation was limited and difficult to arrange we gave up on our expectations of heading to Tierra Del Fuego and El Cam, despite our having a month in Argentina (ubiquitous sweet medialunas at breakfast causing dental problem slowed us down admittedly). This was the furthest south we would get, 49deg south, (not even comparable with London's 52deg north, oh well.||This hotel/motel would have been 5/5 except that the last minute hike in prices, basic breakfast (no fresh coffee) and inflexible checkout time (to enjoy more of the luxury we had paid for after arriving...

The place is fine, clean And what I would expect of a Patagonian hotel. Our issue was that when we arrived the place was empty and the owner wasn't there. We had told them what time we arrived. We asked at the local shop and told to come back a few hours later and the owner might be around. We had to leave early next morning..again we told the owner that we needed to leave at 7.30am..... Nobody turned up till 8.30am so we wasted another hour...

ample parking right outside unit. spotlessly clean with good hot water pressure and fast wifi. ketty is wonderful. quiet and charming little town and good place to break up long drive. will head out to see justicia island and its large penguin colony...