Oaxaca Real Hotel: The Definitive Review [2024]

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Are you planning a trip and want to know if you should stay at Oaxaca Real Hotel?

Finding a hotel in Oaxaca is very difficult because there are hundreds and hundreds to choose from.

While there are some great options out there, it’s important to choose the perfect hotel to ensure that your trip is everything that you want it to be.

The last thing that you want to do is choose a bad hotel and return home disappointed and frustrated.

To make sure that doesn’t happen, I’ve set out a comprehensive guide to the Oaxaca Real Hotel so that you can find out everything that you need to know before making your decision.

Let’s dive right in.

*All images of Oaxaca Real Hotel in this article are credited to Expedia.com*

Oaxaca Real Hotel: The Definitive Review

Where is Oaxaca Real Hotel?

Oaxaca Real Hotel is a highly-rated boutique hotel brilliantly situated in the historic center of Oaxaca City in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico.

If you aren’t familiar with Oaxaca, it’s a vibrant city in southern Mexico that is known for its rich cultural heritage and colorful traditions.

Probably the most famous of these is the Day of the Dead festival, which is held in Oaxaca each year from 31 October to 2 November.

Other attractions of the city include its countless beautiful colonial-era buildings that date back to the time of Spanish rule in Mexico during the 16th century.

And if that isn’t impressive enough, just a short drive outside the city you’ll find Zapotec ruins that are literally thousands of years old.

Let’s take a look now at how to get you to Oaxaca Real Hotel.

Oaxaca Real Hotel: The Definitive Review

How Do I Get To Oaxaca Real Hotel?

Getting to Oaxaca Real Hotel is a simple two step process.

The first step is to fly into Oaxaca International Airport (OAX). The second step is to book a private transfer, get a taxi or rent a car to drive to the hotel.

I’ve set out the steps you’ll need to take to get to Oaxaca Real Hotel as simply and efficiently as possible.

Flying Into Oaxaca

To reach Oaxaca Real Hotel, you’ll need to first fly into Oaxaca International Airport (OAX), which is around 5 miles from the hotel.

In North America, you can get a direct international flight from Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston or Los Angeles.

From elsewhere in the world, you’ll need to fly into Mexico and take a connecting flight. There are regular flights to Oaxaca from Mexico City, Tijuana, Cancún, Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Mexicali.

Flights from Mexico City are by far the most frequent. Unless you’re planning on stopping over in one of the other cities listed above for a few days, I recommend you fly via Mexico City.

Oaxaca Airport to the Hotel

Once you arrive in Oaxaca airport, you’ve got a few options to get to Oaxaca Real Hotel. You can book a private transfer, take a taxi or rent a car.

I’ve gone through each of these below.

Rent a Car

If you’re staying for more than a day or two, you should consider renting a car at the airport.

Oaxaca does have public transportation, but a lot of the attractions are outside the city so having a rental car is the ideal way to get around.

Oaxaca Real Hotel offers free parking onsite at the hotel, so you won’t need to worry about where to park the car when you’re not using it.

Getting a car at the airport is very easy. You can book ahead and pick up your car in the arrivals hall of the terminal when you get off the plane.

I recommend using DiscoverCars to book the best deal available ahead of your arrival. You can expect to pay around US$30 per day plus gas for a basic rental car.

Book a Private Transfer

The simplest way to get to the hotel is by booking a private transfer on a platform like Viator. There are plenty of different providers for you to choose from, and prices start at around US$25 for a couple.

If you prefer to get a local recommendation, you can reach out to the staff at Oaxaca Real Hotel. Their contact details are below:

Take A Taxi

If you haven’t booked a car with the hotel, the simplest way to get from the airport to the hotel that requires absolutely no planning whatsoever is taking a taxi.

You’ll need to be able to tell the driver your destination and agree a price for the trip. The journey should cost you around US$15 – US$20 and you may need to haggle to get the driver down into that range.

You’ll also need to make sure that you have Mexican pesos with you, as the driver may not accept US dollars and won’t take credit cards.

Now that you know where it is that you’re going and all of the options that you have for getting there, let’s get into the review itself.

Oaxaca Real Hotel: The Definitive Review

Review Of Oaxaca Real Hotel

The Oaxaca Real Hotel is a down-to-earth Oaxacan hotel set in a beautifully restored colonial-era mansion dating back to 1909. It’s one of those buildings that you can just wander around for a while taking in the design and architecture.

The hotel prides itself on having a 100% Oaxacan atmosphere, and the staff do everything possible to make sure you experience the top-notch hospitality that Oaxaca is known for.

Essentially, it’s a beautiful traditional Oaxacan hotel that focuses on providing you with great service, great food, and a great place to stay during your trip to Oaxaca.

I’ve set out below a summary of the hotel, the rooms, hotel facilities, dining options and nearby attractions.

After that, I’ve given you a list of pros and cons of the hotel and given my personal view on whether you should book Oaxaca Real Hotel for your trip.

Let’s jump right in.

1. Location

Oaxaca Real Hotel has a great central location in the historic center of Oaxaca City in Oaxaca, Mexico.

You’ll find it on Calle de Manuel García Vigil between Calle de Manuel Bravo and Calle de Mariano Matamoros, just one block to the west of the pedestrian street known as the Andador Turístico.

The hotel is in a great location if you’re looking to stay within the historic center of Oaxaca City. From the hotel, you’re just a block to the south of the Templo de Santo Domingo, a beautiful example of neo-Spanish baroque architecture dating back to 1551.

In the other direction, you can take the Andador Turístico just two blocks south and you’ll reach the Zócalo, the heart of Oaxaca City. From there, you can reach all the attractions of Oaxaca City on foot.

Whatever you want to see, Oaxaca Real Hotel is the perfect base for you to explore the city.

2. Price

The price per room at Oaxaca Real Hotel starts at around US$135 per night for a couple. That price doesn’t include breakfast, which can be added to the package for an additional US$10 per person.

If you’re planning on doing tours outside of the city, you can also book a package through the hotel that includes accommodation in a Standard Room, two tours, and breakfast each day at the hotel.

Packages are US$300 for a two-day stay and US$470 for a three-day stay. You can book directly through the hotel’s website.

Other discounted offers may be available from time to time, so it is worth checking prices in advance of your travel dates to see if you can get yourself a deal.

Check out Booking.com for prices and availability on your travel dates, or use the search box below:

3. Rooms

There are 77 rooms at Oaxaca Real Hotel and they’re divided up into two categories.

You can choose from a Standard Room and a Superior Room. The Standard Rooms are on the ground floor and are wheelchair accessible.

I’ve set out more detail on rooms available at Oaxaca Real Hotel below.

Standard Room

The Standard Rooms are a cosy 215 sq. ft. and come with a double-bed and a private shower-only bathroom.

If you are travelling with a large group, you can also ask for a second double-bed to be added to the room. Up to two children under 12 can stay in the room, but any other guests will cost US$15 per person.

The rooms are air-conditioned and you’ll have access to clean linens, free WiFi, a flatscreen TV, cable channels, a desk, a wardrobe, an iron and a room safe.

In the private bathroom, you’ll find a hair-dryer, clean towels, and free toiletries.

You can also arrange for room service and a wake-up service with the concierge.

The Standard Rooms start at US$135 per night for up to two.

Superior Room

The Superior Rooms are a little bigger than the standard rooms at 226 sq. ft. and come with a king-sized bed and a small balcony with a view of the pool or the interior gardens.

You’ll also have access to all of the amenities available in the Standard Room.

The Superior Rooms start at around US$165 per night for up to two.

4. Hotel Facilities

Oaxaca Real Hotel does not have an extensive range of facilities, however, it does have free onsite parking, a small outdoor pool and a large event space that you can use.

Pool Area

Oaxaca Real Hotel has a small heated pool in an outdoor courtyard area that is great for a quick dip on a hot day, especially if you’re traveling with children.

There aren’t any sun loungers, so you’ll need to bring down a towel and then head back upstairs to dry off when you’re done.

Event Space

Oaxaca Real Hotel has a large event space that has capacity for up to 400 people. It can be used for weddings, birthdays, and also business events such as conferences or meetings.

You can reach out to the staff at the hotel if you are interested in using the space.

5. Dining Options

Oaxaca Real Hotel has a great onsite restaurant called La Terraza de Tita that serves Mexican cuisine and features a number of well-known Oaxacan dishes such as Mole Negro con Carne.

The restaurant is open from 7:00am until 10:45pm every day of the week, and you can come for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

If you love your coffee, Oaxaca Real Hotel also has its own brand of coffee called Café Oaxaca Real, which is grown and harvested in the Sierra Norte region of Oaxaca.

6. Reviews

Oaxaca Real Hotel has a rating of 8.6 out of 10 from over 800 reviews, which is quite high.

The story that the reviews tell is that most people love this hotel. Even though it is light on amenities, what the hotel does do, it does right.

7. Check-In and Check-Out

Check-in at the hotel is from 3:00pm, and check-out is before noon.

Late check-in and check-out can be provided subject to room availability.

8. Pet-Friendly?

No, Oaxaca Real Hotel is not pet-friendly.

Unfortunately, if you want to visit this hotel, you’ll need to find a pet-sitter.

9. Family-Friendly?

Yes, children of all ages are welcome at the Oaxaca Real Hotel.

Rollaway beds and cribs are not available. However, up to two children under 12 years of age can sleep in the same room as you in an additional double-bed.

10. Nearby Attractions

Oaxaca Real Hotel is very close to all of the attractions in Oaxaca City, and you’ll be able to reach everything within the city limits on foot.

Don’t forget your sunhat, suncream, and the bottles of water from the room in your hotel.

Attractions in Oaxaca City

If you’re planning to set off exploring the city on foot from the hotel, I recommend that you start by walking one block east to the Andador Turístico. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a pedestrian street running north and south through the center of the city.

From there you can walk one block north to the Templo de Santo Domingo, one of the primary landmarks in Oaxaca City. It’s a beautiful building designed in the neo-Spanish baroque architectural style dating back to 1551.

The Oaxaca Cultural Museum (Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca) is also next to the church and has lots of fascinating Oaxacan cultural exhibits.

After you’ve explored that area, you can take the Andador Turístico south towards the Zócalo, which is the heart of Oaxaca City.

From the Zócalo, you can head south to visit some of the city’s great markets like the Mercado 20 de Noviembre and Mercado Benito Juárez.

Oaxaca’s stunning cathedral (Nuestra Señora de la Asunción) is also right opposite the Zócalo, and the beautiful Teatro Macedonio Alcalá is just a few blocks to the east.

Attractions Outside Oaxaca City

If you have time to do a day-trip out of the city, there are also some fantastic places that I recommend you visit, and some of them are quite close by. I’ve described a few of the best of these below.

Monte Albán

The closest attraction outside the city limits is the ruined Zapotec city of Monte Albán. It’s only three miles away from Oaxaca City, so you can reach it easily and can even fit something else in after you’re done exploring.

Monte Albán is built on the top of a hill overlooking Oaxaca. It’s quite large at about four square miles and there’s lots to see. Among other buildings, there are two pyramids, a ball court, and around 170 tombs.

The simplest way to reach Monte Albán is by taxi. It will cost around US$5 – US$10. Make sure you bring Mexican pesos and agree the price before you depart. 

There are also lots of Monte Albán tours available if you’d rather have the trip planned for you. Viator offers lots of different options, and you can often combine it with other attractions.

Hierve El Agua

Hierve El Agua is a unique geological marvel created from two petrified waterfalls about 40 miles to the south-east of Oaxaca.  

The smaller waterfall is called “la cascada chica” and the bigger one is called “la cascada grande”. The waterfalls were formed over thousands of years as mineral-rich waters ran over the edge of the cliff and down the escarpment.  

The plateau above the falls is covered in large shallow pools separated by beautiful mineral formations that look like atolls in an ocean. It makes you think that you are walking on a shallow reef in the Caribbean.

You can also hike to the bottom of the waterfalls, where there some more pools that you can sit in. There are change-rooms and toilets nearby.

The best way to visit Hierve El Agua is with a tour. There are some great tours from Oaxaca that combine Hierve El Agua with a visit to local mezcal producers or other attractions.

The hotel can recommend a tour operator, and Viator also has lots of them to choose from if you’d prefer to arrange a tour yourself.

Mitla

The ancient ruins of the Zapotec city of Mitla is about 30 miles to the south-east of Oaxaca, on the way to Hierve El Agua.  The name is derived from the Nahuatl word “Mictlán”, meaning “place of the dead”.

The ruins are situated in a valley nearly a mile above sea level and the site is thought to have been inhabited as far back as about 500 BC.  The city was a center of religious power in the region and was destroyed by the Spanish shortly after their arrival in the 16th century.

Mitla is perhaps best known for its intricate stone mosaics, which are sometimes called “Zapotec Greco”. You’ll recognize the striking pattern in lots of ancient friezes adorning walls and floors at the site, and it is often used in clothing and other artwork produced in Oaxaca.

My recommendation is to combine Mitla and Hierve El Agua together as a tour. They start at about US$50 per person on Viator, and you can speak to the concierge at Oaxaca Real Hotel if you’d prefer to organise it through the hotel.

If you prefer to guide yourself, you can reach Mitla with a taxi or the bus, and its about a 90 minute trip each way.

Entrance to Mitla costs US$5 so bring your Mexican pesos with you.

Oaxaca Real Hotel: The Definitive Review

Oaxaca Real Hotel: Pros and Cons

To try to pull all of the information above together for you, I’ve set out below the pros and cons of Oaxaca Real Hotel as I see them.

Pros

Pros are easy here, because there are some genuinely top-notch aspects of Oaxaca Real Hotel.

Top Location

The major selling point for Oaxaca Real Hotel is its amazing location in the middle of the historic center of Oaxaca, making it an ideal base to explore the city.

From the hotel, you’re just one block away from the Templo de Santo Domingo with its beautiful period architecture. You’re also only a few blocks north of the Zócalo, which is the heart of Oaxaca City.

As far as centrally-located hotels in Oaxaca City go, Oaxaca Real Hotel is about as a good as it gets.

Beautiful hotel Building

The beautiful early 1900s mansion in which the hotel is located is a lovely building and gives the hotel something of a classic atmosphere.

The building has a lot of character, and you really notice the difference between a new hotel and a hotel building that has some age and history about it.

I personally think a hotel with a bit of character is a much nicer place to stay.

Price

The price of the hotel starts at around US$135 per night per couple, which is lower than average for a hotel with Oaxaca Real’s rating and central location.

I think the value for a family travelling with young children is particularly good. If you have two children under 12, the hotel lets them stay free of charge in the same room with you in a separate double-bed. If you’re trying to travel as a family on a budget, that’s a great option.

It’s true that Oaxaca Real Hotel doesn’t offer the degree of luxury that you will find two blocks to the east at Quinta Real Oaxaca. But it does offer good quality rooms in a beautiful building in a similarly central location at about one third of the price.

That’s a major win in my book.

Cons

There are a few cons to Oaxaca Real Hotel, although I think a lot of these come with the style of the hotel and are factored into the overall price.

Old-Style Small Rooms

The rooms at Oaxaca Real Hotel are all on the small side. They’re also furnished in a very old-style way with older looking wooden furnishings and old-school earth-colored traditional Mexican floor tiles.

Put simply, they’re rooms for sleeping comfortably in and then waking up and going out to explore the city.

If you intend to use them that way, then I think that they do what they’re intended to do. You’ll also save money because you won’t need to pay for additional luxuries that you won’t use.

Just don’t expect a high level of luxury, because it isn’t part of the deal.

No Spa or Fitness Facilities

For a small hotel, Oaxaca Real Hotel actually has a reasonable number of amenities.

It has a great onsite restaurant and terrace area, a large event space, and a reasonable outdoor pool area. It also offers free onsite parking.

However, it doesn’t have any kind of spa facilities or any fitness center. If you weren’t planning on spending enough time in the hotel to use the amenities anyway, then you won’t even notice that they’re missing.

But if you were planning for a spa treatment or using the pool or the gym, you should be aware that Oaxaca Real Hotel isn’t that kind of hotel.

Noise From Within Hotel

Rooms that are near or look out onto the pool area, the terrace or the stairs leading up to the restaurant can be a bit loud.

From time to time, you might hear other hotel guests as they’re on their way back to their rooms or to other parts of the hotel.

The restaurant closes at 10:45pm of an evening, so the noise won’t be noticeable after that. If you’re planning on going to sleep early of an evening, though, you should also ask the reception staff to put you in one of the quieter rooms.

Oaxaca Real Hotel: The Definitive Review

My Personal Views

Personally, I think Oaxaca Real Hotel is a great boutique hotel and the perfect place to base yourself when you visit Oaxaca City.

I also think the hotel does a good job of providing you with value for money. There are hotels like the Casona Oaxaca that are a little cheaper per night, but the standard rooms offered are a little smaller and they have fewer amenities than the Oaxaca Real Hotel.

The hotel’s location is pretty close to unbeatable, which makes it great if you’re like me and tend to do a lot of your exploring on foot. The central location ends up saving you lots of money on taxis, because you can just walk everywhere.

If there’s one area that I think Oaxaca Real Hotel could improve, it would be their room quality. Cleanliness isn’t an issue, but I think if they freshen up and modernize the rooms a little they’ll push up their value for money a lot.

But in my opinion, the room quality is wrapped up in the price. Oaxaca Real Hotel offers you a great location and a decent room in a lovely building for a reasonable price, and that’s the deal.

If you want more, you’ll have to go somewhere else like Grand Fiesta Americana Oaxaca or Quinta Real Oaxaca, and obviously you can expect to pay a little more.

But if you’re looking for a simple room in a super central location, I think that the Oaxaca Real Hotel is one of the best hotels in Oaxaca for you.

Oaxaca Real Hotel: The Definitive Review

Frequently Asked Questions

Just in case you still have a few questions that I haven’t covered, I’ve set out some responses to a few frequently asked questions about Oaxaca Real Hotel below.

When Is The Best Time To Visit Oaxaca Real Hotel?

The best time to visit is during the high season (December to April) because the weather is cooler and there is little or no rain.

However, it’s also more expensive during the high season, so if you’re on a budget and can put up with a little rain, the low season is also a good option.

Is It Safe To Visit Oaxaca Real Hotel?

There is a 24-hour concierge service at Oaxaca Real Hotel, and you’ll have access to a room safe so that you can store your belongings when you’re not in the room.

You’ll also have no troubles when you explore Oaxaca provided you take basic precautions. You can read more about safety in Oaxaca here.

What’s The Closest Airport To Oaxaca Real Hotel?

Oaxaca International Airport (OAX) is the closest airport, and is about 5 miles away.

You can reach the hotel by booking a private transfer, taking a taxi or renting a car. If you want to book a private transfer, I recommend using Viator or reaching out to the staff at Oaxaca Real Hotel.

Why Is Oaxaca Real Hotel Special?

Oaxaca Real Hotel is a beautiful boutique hotel in an early 19th century mansion right in the historic center of Oaxaca City.

If you’re looking for a quality room in a great location at a great price, you’ll love Oaxaca Real Hotel.

Is Oaxaca City The Same As Oaxaca de Juárez?

Yes. The formal name for Oaxaca City is Oaxaca de Juárez, after its most famous citizen, Benito Juárez.

Confusingly, Oaxaca City is also usually just referred to as Oaxaca, so Oaxaca can mean both the Mexican state of Oaxaca or the city formally called Oaxaca de Juárez, depending on the context.

Oaxaca Real Hotel: The Definitive Review

Final Thoughts

Hopefully you now have all the information that you need to decide whether Oaxaca Real Hotel is the hotel for you.

If you’re interested in booking, you can get the latest current prices and availability on your dates at Booking.com.

If you want to check prices of car rentals at Oaxaca airport, you can find out at DiscoverCars.com.

Enjoy your stay!