Residencia San Cristobal, Marbella

Advantages: Vivid colours & incredible architecture.
Disadvantages: Crowded with touts, aggressive beggars and worse.

...If you are travelling anywhere through southern Mexico or northern Guatemala, San Cristobal is almost certain to be on your itinerary. Having lived in Comitán (just an hour and a half down the Pan-American highway towards Guatemala from San Cristobal) I would like to share my opinions of this at once stimulating and maddening city. I hope people who read this will be better placed to make informed decisions about how to spend their holiday in southern Mexico, and will hopefully be able to ensure the goods outway the bads. My relationship with San Cristobal is very my one of extreme love and heart-felt loathing. Here is why. First a little about the town. San Cristobal, the tourist heart at least, is actually pretty small. You can walk about the main sights in two hours even taking in a few shops and markets, at a leisurely pace... Read review

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Advantages: beautiful city
Disadvantages: not as lairy at night as other mexican towns

...San Cristobal de las Casas is a real oasis in southern Mexico. After travelling through some mediocre places to get there, we were very pleasantly surprised by this breathtaking town. San Cristobal is very lively and vibrant - full of colour and activity. The brightly-coloured colonial architecture is beautiful and makes the whole town very appealing. There are various nice, friendly hostels to stay in and we also found good restaurants and bars, often playing local music. There is also an excellent market which sells reasonably-priced arts & crafts. One of the good things about San Cristobal is that it is far more Mexican and less touristy in feel than places such as Cancun. There is a lot of native Indian influence which seems to account for the colourful vibrancy of the town. We went on a day tour to some surrounding Indian... Read review

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Advantages: Can get a good price on good quality
Disadvantages: probably not a five star hotel

...I would suggest that if you need a quick dash to somewhere hot then you could do far worse than Marbella Hotel Corfu. Marbella proudly displays five stars at the end of the drive way, and whilst the rooms and facilities are good I would suggest five stars is a little generous. It is really the rooms which let the place down as they are similar in feel to a good Travel Lodge albeit with air conditioning. We opted for half board which seemed to work out well as there is plenty of food for all tastes - it's buffet style so a large serving area displays the dishes, and guests help themselves to whatever they want. There are lots to choose from, and I'm pleased to say that all of it is good. If you worry about noise at night from clubs / drunk folk having a laugh, then you don't need to worry about it here as the place is very tranquil... Read review

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