Hotel Andres Venero de Leyva — Hotel in Boyacá

Beautiful hotel only 4 blocks away from the main plaza. There is a parking lot next to the reception area, and a restaurant in a terrace that faces the inner courtyard. Beautiful views from the terrace and excellent service overall.||The ladies at the front desk (Marina and Magdalena) were very helpful and cordial. ||We got a room on the ground floor and we were glad because we didn't have to carry any bags up the stairs. ||The room was very pretty and quaint, with tile floors and rustic furniture. Not a lot of amenities, but for the price and place, it is expected. We read reviews about people having problems with the hot water, but we did not have problems. ||Breakfast is included - eggs, assorted bread/arepas, coffee, juice. The same guy who serves breakfast is also part of the rooms staff, but even so he managed to be quick and efficient. We were also only 4 people on the whole restaurant for breakfast, but even so the food came out REALLY quickly. By the second day, the guy already knew what we wanted for breakfast and I think he saw us coming because by the time we arrived, he was already pouring juice and coffee for us! Incredible service. ||The entrance to the hotel is a bit tricky, as it is on one of the unpaved side streets, not the main "Circunvalar" avenue. Yes, the street is unpaved, but only for a block - after that, the street has cobblestones all the way up to the main plaza (about 4 blocks away). My husband and I took a walk shortly after it rained, and the earth was only a bit wet, but not entirely muddy, and it was fine walking on the unpaved street- though not for someone with limited mobility (i.e. wheelchair). As far as it might look on a map, it really is not that far from the main plaza, only a 4-6 min. relaxed walk. Villa de Leyva is a pretty small town - don't take a cab, walk it. It's worth the view.||If I had to mention a negative thing... we had returned from a morning horse ride tour soaking wet from a surprise deluge (if you're going horseback riding, bring a poncho!!!), our room was chilly (at 2 pm!), and we were told the guy who could turn on the fireplace in our room would not be there until 3-4 pm. Needless to say, since there was no sun and the room was a bit chilly, our wet clothes did not get dry. After, we were told the hotel could have put them in a dryer for us (in all honesty, we didn't even ask when we needed it, but the clothes had dried by the next day (we hung them on the window). In any case, after a hot shower and a nice quiet dinner by the main plaza, everything was fine :)||We had three out of four meals at the restaurant VILLA CAMPESINA - it was SO good, service was so nice, excellent location, and it was so well-priced we and the friends with whom we were traveling kept coming back! I'm not sure why it's not listed on Trip Advisor... maybe this is just one of these hard-to-find jewels? ||It's on Calle 13, between Carrera 8 & 9, almost at the corner with the main plaza. This is how you get there: If you're facing the church in the main plaza, go up the street on the left, and it's like the second door on the right. You might miss it because it's not advertised. When you go in, there's a narrow tile-floor corridor with pictures of Villa de Leyva, you might think it's a tour company, but then it opens up to a beautiful inner courtyard, very typical Colombian, rustic tables, very colorful, with flowers. Pleasantly shaded during the afternoon and very romantic at night. The servers wear traditional Colombian outfits.||Make sure to try the hen/vegetable soup (comes with a piece of hen meat, rice, and avocado), a fruit juice (feijoa or mandarin), and the COMPLIMENTARY coffee of the house (prepared with panela water, delicious!!!). For dessert, try the 'tres leches' cake on a cookie with arequipe (dulce de leche) on top - from the "Van Gogh Express" counter also on...

Andres Venero is in a beautiful old colonial building, but desperately|needs to be cleaned. The supposedly fresh linen and towels were stained. The floor was littered with hair and the windows look like|they had never been washed. When we asked for extra pillows, also these were stained and covered in spider web. After the first night we upgraded to a suit, but although bigger it was not much better. The sorry looking jacuzzi was full of hair and other sorts of human remains, the origin of which I would rather not speculate. It was as if everything was run on the cheap. The breakfast consisted of one egg (cooked in various ways) and an orange juice spiked with water. The upside is that the outside of the building and the garden are very appealing and the hotel is situated only a short walk from the town centre. But if you are planning to visit Villa de Leyva, you'd probably be better off staying...

This hotel is nicely located about 4 blocks from the main plaza, away from all the noise and bustle of the town center. The rooms are spacious and immaculately clean. Staff goes out of their way to be as friendly as possible while respecting privacy. The hotel gets busy on weekends, but is very quiet during the week. This has its advantages and disadvantages; there is no room service or evening restaurant facilities during the week if you're the only guest staying there! However, there is an abundance of good local restaurants nearby. The receptionist very kindly called in a meal for me from a local restaurant when I arrived near midnight from Bogota. Overall, an excellent facility, and I would definitely stay there again when returning to...