Alko Hotel Cotona — Hotel in Santa Marta

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...

Personally, I would consider this more of a hostel than a hotel. It does not compare to its location in Cali. Their “best room” was full of mold, and had a leaking ceiling light that was right above the toilet. We had to change rooms because of this. Hotel staff was okay, there is a young guy that works in the mornings who’s very sweet and the restaurant staff was also cool. But the hotel had no idea how to help people get around, when we asked for a car rental recommendation they told us they in fact had absolutely no contacts, and all they could do was get us a cab to a car rental place. From the airport to the hotel, we paid 17k COP. From the hotel to the airport? 45k COP. Only difference is we asked the hotel to call us a cab. We would have been better off hailing a cab in the street. The tour guides they use will try to push you into paying a deposit whenever they feel they should receive it, and will lie about only having a few spots left in a tour and then say “you need to book now because someone else is trying to book too, we’re giving you priority because you messaged us first but you need to pay right now”. Needless to say, we purchased a tour somewhere else. Overall, I will not be coming back and I would not recommend this place to anyone. If anything, I’d tell people to...

I truly enjoyed my stay at Alko Cotona. The bed was suuuuper comfortable, the room immaculately clean, location is perfect (right by main drag for eating and drinking as well as only a few minutes from the beach!) — rooftop pool and restaurant/bar also great, with a view of the ocean/marina on one side and the mountains on the other. ||||Most importantly, the quality of service and hospitality at Alko Cotona hotel is truly outstanding. Every staff member I encountered went out of their way to make everything perfect for me — Damaris at the bar/restaurant, Oscar at reception, and particularly Carlos, who was the shining star of my stay. ||||Carlos helped me arrange everything I needed and went out of his way to make sure I was taken care of. He helped me arrange buses, taxis, and even checked with my hotel in Cartagena to make sure my booking there was in order. With his helpful attitude and impressive command of English, he is truly an asset to this entire operation. I am so grateful and highly recommend this hotel! Thank...