Hotel Retiro 84 by MIJ — Hotel in Bogota, Capital District

My wife, adult son and I loved our 7-day stay at Retiro84. We rented a junior suite and adjoining standard room. The rooms were clean, comfortable, quiet and spacious. Retiro84 is in a nice residential neighborhood only about 3 blocks from the Zona Rosa area which has a huge variety of shops and restaurants. We tried a different restaurant every day and were never disappointed. ||||Few people in Bogota speak English, so practice your Spanish before you come and use a pocket dictionary or Google Translate on your cell phone. Our American T-Mobil phones generally worked well in Bogota. We purchased T-Mobil’s $35 International high-speed data pass for each of our phones and I think we got better connections because of that. Sometimes we still lost the connection to the local network and had to turn our phones on and off to reestablish the connection. That was not a problem at the hotel since they had reliable Wi-Fi.||||All of the staff at Retiro84 were attentive and helpful. Natalya, one of the 24-hour receptionists, was particularly helpful and fluent in English. She helped us with many arrangements including airport transfers. ||||Almost every morning at Retiro84, I went for a one-hour walk in the opposite direction from Zona Rosa. There is a nice east-west walking trail along a creek about 5 blocks north of the hotel. I walked along the creek trail about another 5 blocks to Parque el Virrey, a nice natural area with more walking and biking trails. I saw many good-looking people walking, jogging, dog-walking and exercising. I felt safe but a bit out of place with my camera.||||Retiro84 was a great location from which we took Ubers and arranged drivers for tours of Candelaria, Monserrate, bird-watching and theaters. Even though our Spanish is poor, we thoroughly enjoyed a comedy play at the Teatro Nacional.||||The price of the room included a delicious breakfast served by an attentive waiter. Breakfast began with local fruit, juice and coffee, followed by bread and eggs prepared to our order. ||||Retiro84 was just right for us – comfortable and well-managed, not a low-budget place like some of our motels in the US, but not a super fancy place either.||||Part of the reason for our visit was to reconnect with Bogota, the city where our adopted son was born 32 years ago. If you are in a similar situation, be aware that Colombia requires a Colombian passport to enter the country for anyone born in Colombia, regardless of current citizenship. There is one exception for US citizens naturalized before 1990. The Colombian immigration officer at the airport reminded us of this policy. Fortunately, our son had his US naturalization paper to prove that he was naturalized before 1990. It was our impression that they would not have allowed our son to enter the country with just his...

We stayed here for a week, at the start of a 6-week trip to South America. Our room (a junior suite) was quite spacious with a comfortable sitting area, plenty of storage, a large comfortable bed, a fridge and a safe which was easy to set. However the TV facing the bed, not the seating, seemed a strange arrangement. The shower was fine and the bed, with good quality bedding was quite comfy (although might be a bit too hard for some).||There was no coffee-making facilities in the room and no complimentary water provided.||Breakfasts were excellent including a variety of fruits, fruit juice and the best scrambled eggs we had during our whole trip! Other food in the restaurant was also good and reasonably priced. It's a shame the downstairs does not include a proper bar and getting a drink served there, was a bit of a hassle. ||It's well located, close to bars and restaurants but not so close as to be too noisy, and there's a well stocked supermarket just over the road. ||The staff were friendly, helpful and very attentive to our dietary needs. WiFi was good.||We felt this was a good choice and would recommend it for a...

I was recommended this hote by colleagues on account of its vicinity to the area where I needed to go to everyday. ||It is an unusually cold time in Bogota with 5-6 degree centigrade nights and rains. But there was no heating in the room. ||I had to out on several layers of clothing to stay warm. ||On rainy nights the ceiling of the room leaked with water from the roof. I asked them of they could fix it. ||I could have moved rooms but I had already unpacked mu stuff and did not have the energy to pack again to move for another night. ||While the staff seemed pleasant they did not seem terribly concerned or proactive regarding concerns. ||I will check other hotels in the area...