I have stayed in some bad hotels before in small towns but this is by far the worst - it feels so unsafe and is dirty and gross. If the Best Western 3 doors down had any rooms available we would have moved for any price.

We arrived off the train in the late afternoon and were picked up by the hotel shuttle. Or should I say delapidated old school bus? This should have given me some idea of what was to come. The lady that checked us in spoke no English, so we were lucky it was all prebooked and paid so we only had to get the key.

Our room was down the back, and on opening the door I thought 'hmmm ,maybe it's not so bad after all?' The furniture is old and outdated. The rug on the floor was gross, the bedspread had stains all over it. But I threw that on the floor and saw the sheets were at least clean.

On further inspection, the bathroom in this place is ferrill. The water was a funny colour so I opted out of showering for the one day. The free water bottles had their seals cracked and I wouldn't have trusted them at all. We could hear every noise from all around us all night. The locks seem very flimsy on the doors and there is no chain or anything. All night we could hear cars driving past our room and people talking loudly as they walked past. We had a knock at our door at 1am and I was so scared. We ignored it and they kept knocking and calling something out in Spanish until my boyfriend got up and answered the door. The person ran away when he did.

I was so glad to get out of here in the morning, we didn't even stay for the free breakfast. We went and had breakfast at the Best Western which was lovely. We also did a tour organised by Best Western for the day while we waited for the train again.

I wouldn't even bother with a stop in Creel if I did the Copper Canyon again. There is nothing in the town at all, and the available tours you can do similar things in Posada Barrancas or Divisadero Barrancas where the accommodation is really lovely.

I don't even have any photos to attach as I was so disappointed I forgot to take them!

By the way - I have stayed in backpackers and hostels before, and have never experienced anything so gross before...

Before giving my review of Hotel Parador de la Montaña I shall say that at time of my visit in March 2008 the hotel scene in Creel yet had to take off and, for international standard, the level of accomodation provided was definitely on the low-end side, suit to cater to backpackers and other low-demanding travelers that for long time have flown into town. As a matter of fact, the best hotel in the center was a Best Western, and, with all due respect for the always valuable Best Western chain, that says much about the hotel scene in town. Therefore, if planning to traveling to Creel, first and foremost you have to recast your expectation and realize you shall live with some discomfort.

Said that, I picked Hotel Parador de la Montaña because it was referenced by Lonely Planet as a quality Midrange hotel in the city center. Location is perfect indeed, right on Main Street, and you won't find any better. Quality of accomodation is comparable to the one provided by one-star motels in US or other low-end motels worldwide. The property itself has the structure of a motel with the rooms lined up on an internal yard with external access. The two rooms I checked out in my stay were both spare and each one had its own problems, but nothing that prevented me sleeping indeed. The heater in the room was noisy but working; bathroom was in urgent need of remodeling and a poor flow of hot water is all what I got. Service was limited to basic front-desk service. The owner speaks fluent English and can help you arranging excursion in the Canyon. My understanding is the hotel is a traditional pick of US Travel Agencies because if was packed with US travelers. I paid for a single room (with credit card) MXP 877 (US$ 85) including taxes and a decent Mexican-style breakfast.

In summary, you need to realize where you are and get ready to face some inconvenience. I spent my first night in town at a different hotel of the same range of quality and it was not any better at all, slightly worse indeed, so that when I returned to Creel after touring the Canyon for my third and last night in town I decided to stay again at the Parador de la Montaña. I suspect it is as good as it gets until the hotel scene in Creel will take off fueled by the increasing flow of international tourists.

We stayed here on Feb. 4, 2007. The tile floor had been mopped and the dirt marks were in circles all across the floor. There was black mold in the bathroom and the whole place stank; not just of sewage but of dirty bodies.
But it got worse! We spent most of the evening watching the super bowl in the bar, and didn't realise that the heat wasn't working in our room (#131). The whole hotel was full with a tour group and this was some Mexican holiday so there wasn't anywhere else to move....so I slept with my coat on and had a restless evening. It was cold! I was too grossed out to shower in the morning, and knew that I'd be at a nicer hotel the next evening.

I don't know what the deal was, because in the morning I felt the heater in the bathroom and it was slightly warm although the one in the room never worked. Maybe the heat fluctuates? Other people we were with didn't have hot water.

Thankfully we weren't by the street where there was a constant parade of trucks and cars stirring up a thick cloud of dust most of the night.

This hotel was the first stop in Mexico, on a Caravan Tour, which began in El Paso, TX on February 19, 2006. I arrived to see all of Creel's main street torn up due to street construction. After spending the whole day on a bus to arrive in this town all I wanted to do was to have a good meal and rest. The room I was assigned was 102. It was two doors from the bar / restaurant. My dinner consisted of weak margarita's and cold, substandard mexican food. (I live in California and love Mexican food). I decided to call it a day and go to my room. The hot air from the heater came blasting out of a 12" exhaust pipe, lined with raw fiberglass, causing fiberglass to blow into the room. There was not an individual thermostat so that I could turn the heater off. The telephone did not have instructions on how to reach the "front desk" and my tour director never gave any instructions as to what to do in case of a problem with our rooms. This was only the beginning of a very miserable night. The door did not have a safety peep hole in it. The room constantly smelled of raw sewage. But this was not the worst! When I finally settled in, and tried to sleep in this awful room, I was continually disturbed by the traffic in the parking lot to and from the bar. The traffic consisted of many trucks coming into parking lot, people talking, (the windows were single pane and the people, 99% men, could have been in the room with me,it was so loud). Every time someone would park their truck the horn would honk when they locked the doors of their vehicle. The band continued to play until 1AM and the patrons of the bar were there until the band stopped. Finally sleep....until 6AM when the restaurant employees began banging around in the kitchen. This hotel was awful. There are many problems with it. I would never reccommend it and would never stay there again. The next day I talked to our tour director about some of these problems and he did say that the proper procedure would have been to talk to the management of the hotel about my discomfort. Even if I had, the entire place was booked with our whole tour. I could not have been moved, unless it was to a different hotel. I do not like to make complaints without solutions. The suggestions are as follows:

Make a garden out of the parking lot and have the patrons of the bar and restaurant park elsewhere.

Put peep holes in the doors.

Replace the windows with double pane glass.

Stop the music at 11PM and warn the motel customers that here will be music until that time.

Repair the heater. That heater is a health hazard!