Hotel Samanapaq — Hotel in Ollantaytambo

The Hotel is located just outside of the mail Plaza, so the location is good. There are "Polloria" within steps of the hotel, and getting cheap eats was easy too. ||The Gates of the hotel are always closed! This is the first hotel I have seen, that has this unique characteristic. And there are no lighted signs either: so we missed it twice. My van driver had to bang on the closed doors of the hotel, when he found it on the third attempt and they opened. ||We checked in: paid for 2 nights, and were not given a receipt! The owner claimed that she was going to email it to us next day. We were given help with our luggage: we were gasping for breath being the first day in Peru and the altitude at Ollantaytambo being about 9000 feet. But there came the rider from the owner: she told us not give the guy too much luggage to haul! It was like listening to a hallway monitor in school!||We asked for heaters, and she (the owner) told us that we could run them 2 hours per night: as if we would get up in the middle of the night to switch them off!||The room was a spartan affair: with acceptable beds, open racks for storage and no work space. I got the impression that it was normally used by backpackers, and not families on vacation. But we tried to make the best of this opportunity. We were given extra pillows, and while the room was not luxurious, it was spacious for the 4 of us. The room was kept warm by the heater, and there was hot water on the taps and in the shower. But no sitting arrangement in the room and no work space. Wifi was weak at our room: the family room.||The breakfast was just as spartan, even though it was supposed to be a buffet, but the spread was thin and replenished only when it ran out. We had to ask for scrambled eggs and was once told no. There were a few slices of ham, cheese on offer, with plenty of bread and yogurt. There were cereal and juices. It was the cheese and ham that kept running out often.||There was a side door that served as the main entry, and it was closed all the time. The owner had to buzz us in every time we came back to the hotel from our trips. Free movement was not the priority here, apparently! When we asked the owner about it: she hinted security concerns. When I asked her if this area was safe: she said yes. So what was she on guard against with the closed gates and entrance, exactly?||There were tuk tuks at the main plaza and we used it for local hops. There were Uber on offer, surprisingly, but it was not that regular. It was available between 9 am to 5 pm, and we took Uber and made a deal with them by the hour for our local tours after our first trip. We paid about 25 soles per hour to go to local attractions, and they waited for us and we headed to the next one. ||The hotel night clerk did help: as he stored my wife's medications in the fridge and got them when we wanted. Thank you, Michael!||It was a very strange experience overall. Not a pleasant one. We...

The hotel was okay, but the hotel driver, Edgar, made this experience terrible. Not only was he a horrible driver, but he successfully scammed my family and friends.

Half of the time he only had one hand on the wheel because the other hand had his phone up to his ear talking to people. This caused his driving to be extremely dangerous at times. No matter how hot it was in the car, he refused to turn on the AC (he probably wanted to save money on gas). Instead, he lowered the windows. On dusty roads, this caused a lot of dust to enter the car to the point where we were had to hold clothes over mouths in order to not cough.

Now on to the part where he scammed my friends and family.

On our second day there he told us that he had gone out to clean the car earlier on the side of a road and left 480 soles on a rock, and these were soles he needed to give to the hotel. He guilted my friends and family to give him 480 soles. Three days later, not only was he was 30 minutes late picking us up, but this time he had a very nice watch on his wrist that he previously didn't have (probably from the money we gave him). My first thought was "I wonder what story he's got for us this time". One hour into the drive, he told us the reason why he was late. Why did it take him an hour to tell us? He had to come up with the story first. He said he was late because the previous people he was driving had left their Ipad in the car, so he went to return it to them at their hotel, in return they gave him a watch! (That way we wouldn't be suspicious about his new watch, and we would still tip him even though...

This hotel should be nicknamed The secret garden! From the outside it just looks like a wall and then you walk in to one of the most beautiful gardens in the area, literally a hidden gem 💎. The proprietor was so kind and knowledgeable about the area, restaurants, and things to do close to the hotel. Our room was great, big bed, a great bathroom, and a huge shower. Which was very needed after our hiking experiences. The breakfast in the morning was pretty traditional but they did have one thing that none of the rest of our hotels had which was chocolate powder to add to your morning coffee. My husband still talks about it. If you are trying to use the train just FYI it's about a 20 minute walk from the hotel to the train station. That wasn't a big deal to us because we enjoy walking but...