Casa de Isabella — Hotel in Santa Marta

My girlfriend and I stayed a total of 4 nights at Casa de Isabella, broken up by 2 nights in Tayrona at Villa Maria. After a few mediocre experiences at hostels in Cartagena and Playa Blanca, we decided to spend a little more money and stay somewhere nice in Santa Marta. We arrived to the city at 10:30pm without any reservations. We went to a few hotels, all of whom turned us away, before being welcomed into Casa de Isabella with open arms by Aldair at the front desk of Casa de Isabella. We were only going to stay in Santa Marta for 1 night. But because Aldair was so welcoming, helpful, and incredibly kind, we instantly decided to relax a bit and enjoy Santa Marta and the wonderful Casa de Isabella. We were surprised that all of the staff at Casa de Isabella was as wonderful as Aldair. Even the cleaning staff and waiters always had a smile on their face and seemed to be happy to have us there and to be working there.

The room was very clean, comfy bed, air-conditioning, and had a wonderful bathroom. The breakfast was delicious: plate of fresh fruit and juice, coffee, and multiple choice menu though I usually got the egg in a basket with bacon. The pool was also wonderful and we spent a few hours next to it throughout our stay.

Because the staff at Casa de Isabella was so wonderful, we decided to book a night at Villa Maria, another Kali Hotel. That hotel was unbelievable and so beautiful. The staff was equally as wonderful. We decided to stay there an additional night as well (2 nights total).

After our wonderful stay in Villa Maria, we headed back to Casa de Isabella and again decided to stay for 2 nights and used it as a jump off point to visit Minca for the day. The staff at Isabella was more than happy to get us taxis and even let us borrow bug spray.

I cannot recommend this place enough and I can’t...

It’s fine. Temper your expectations- it’s not as fancy as it looks on the site. The location is excellent, beds are comfortable, and the staff is very nice. My biggest complaint is that the hot water is f*ed, so if all you want is a hot shower after hiking all day in Tayrona, stay somewhere else. The toilet was leaking, that also wasn’t super appealing.

The pool featured prominently on the website is for suite guests only. Regular guests get a much smaller and… weirder one.

Breakfast is fine- about what you’d get at a Marriott or the like.

There’s no tub and lots of unenclosed stairs and relatively open railings on the second floor, so it’s not a good place to stay with small children- not the hotel’s fault, just something to be aware of if you’re traveling with kids.

Lastly I’ll note that if you read the other reviews, the hotel manager responds to every negative review as if it’s a personal attack and the guest is crazy. Having worked for many years in service I know that sometimes the guest is crazy, but it’s not a good way to respond to criticism.

Overall, it’s a decent hotel. The staff are helpful, it mostly does what hotels are supposed to do, and it’s very well located. Just don’t expect luxury and don’t bring your baby.

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I changed my service rating to 5 stars because the staff really is very nice. And despite it not being my first choice for little kids, the camita that they provided (with mosquito net et al) was comfortable and the baby slept quite well. For breakfast, get...

A very neat and nice hotel. We had two separate nights booked, so we had two different rooms, both of which were very nice and well thought through. I liked the art and the vibe of the rooms. The bathrooms were nice and clean. The only bad thing about the bathrooms was the occasional lack of hot water. Sometimes there was normal, nice, hot water and sometimes there was none and all you could get was lukewarm. But then, it's Colombia. Hot water is a bit of a luxury ;) ||||The breakfasts were nice (we highly recommend pancakes!) and there was no problem when we needed an earlier breakfast. There was also no problems with leaving our luggage with the hotel for multiple days. They are nice and helpful. ||||The only but and the main reason for the missing star was the staff's lack of knowledge. As I mentioned before they were very helpful with organising things, however they couldn't answer any of our questions/requests for recommendations. We asked about a place to eat, we were told there's a big square with lots of options (truth, but at least one precise restaurant name would be appreciated). We asked about a place to buy/see some art, nobody knew. We asked about a market for tourists (with souvenirs etc) and we were sent to a supermarket... ||||Generally nice, we'd recommend it, I think the value for money is good, especially with the nice...