Since my first trip to Montevideo in July 1991, I've been returning to this charming capital every year in spite of the cold weather (our summer is their winter!) because this city was one of the few places where you could have a thick 8 oz steak grilled in real wood fire for under $10. NO MORE!
On December 28, 2011, I paid the equivalent of $18.65 for one steak, one custard and a cup of so-so wine at El Esquinazo, in the "Mercado de la Abundancia", right across KLEE hotel and around the corner of the Sheraton Four Points Ejido. By comparison, in July 2007, only four years earlier, I paid the equivalent of... $8.05 (yes, eight US dollars and five cents!) to eat exactly the same thing in exactly the same restaurant.
After going to Montevideo once a year for a couple of weeks in July, when I was still teaching French to French natives in "Great Paris", I started going there three times a year ever since I moved to Miami Beach in December 2003. Now I know the city in all seasons.
José María Vargas Vila, born in Bogota, Colombia, who was the South American writer most read in the world during the first half of the XXth century, but is now totally forgotten, wrote: "Havana and Montevideo are the two most cultured and literate cities that I have ever found on my path". Since this guy lived most of his life between Paris (like me, who lived in the “City of Light” for over forty years), Madrid, Rome and Barcelona where he died in 1933, he knew what he was talking about! If you understand the language of Cervantes, you may read in the Internet the article that I wrote directly in Spanish about him for the University of Mexico's review "Humanidades" in Monterrey, No 11, “Otoño 2001”.
On the other hand, from 1991 to 2007, prices were steady and three years ago you could still find a decent room there for under $40 a day with breakfast. NO MORE!!!
Ever since Brazilians started invading Montevideo three years ago, hotels and restaurants have gone totally crazy. Therefore, instead of going a couple of weeks, I now go only a couple of days each time!
Judge by yourself.
In July 2005 (only six years ago), I got room 705 on the last floor (there is an eighth floor but it's reserved to "suites" only) of KLEE hotel for $20 (yes, TWENTY US dollars!) with a small breakfast: ham, cheese, orange juice, fruits and liquid yogurt but no cereals, no eggs, etc.
Three years later, in June 2008, it had increased from $20 to $38, almost double!
Another three years and I paid... $62 on December 27, 2011. In only six years, between 2005 and 2011, it jumped from twenty to sixty two dollars!!!
Here is another example. When I returned to KLEE hotel in July 2005, after spending a few days in Punta del Este, I rented their biggest corner "suite", 801 for $40 a day: a big room with a small division between a small bedroom and a small living room, nothing in common with a real suite like Sheraton's Four Points suite 901, around the corner. The same “suite” sells now for... $120 US. That's also three times more in six years!!!
Therefore, instead of paying $120 for a big room at the KLEE, I preferred to pay $165 at the Four Points Sheraton around the corner on my previous trip in November 2011 for a real big suite of 62 square meters (667.36 square feet) with two big rooms separated by two bathrooms, a huge breakfast, so big that I have never been able to try in all its components, plus the usual Sheraton service. But it’s true that I got a free upgrade.
In comparison with the KLEE, I paid $60 + tax at the Comfort Suites in Fort Pierce, Florida, on December 6 and 7, 2011, a couple of days before going to Paris, with a big breakfast buffet that included eggs, sausages and your own made waffles! A review will follow, before classes start back at FIU where I teach now.
I don't know if they did it on purpose, but they gave me the same room 705 when I returned for one day at the KLEE MONTEVIDEO on December 27, 2011, before moving to the Four Points the next day, where I got my favorite suite, 901, on the top floor.
Now, don't you think that I have an outstanding memory, for that's not the case at all! It simply happens that since I purchased my first PDA in 1988 (a PSION II LZ 64 that is still working), I note absolutely everything in it: when and where I slept, the rate, the room description, when, where and what I ate, and how much I paid, even for an espresso coffee in Santiago de Chile in 1990! Everything is detailed, especially with my current PDA, an outstanding HP 2415 that I bought in 2004, that is loaded with a 32 Go Compact Flash (for which I wrote a review in Amazon), and which is still working without a glitch.
This $62 AC SMOKING ROOM 705 at the KLEE has a small entrance with a closet on the left, then a room the size of a double room at the Econo Lodge on Virginia Ave. (Atlanta airport). It has a queen bed with reasonable space around, two night stands, one round table where you can eat, one chair with armrests, softer than the Spartan club chair without armrests that I had at the Quality "Suites" in Paris-Tolbiac on December 10 and 11, 2011 (you may read my comment about it in Trip Advisor if you are planning to go to Paris). Last but not least, it has a mini frig where you will find a mini ice cubes tray that you will reach after falling on your knees, as if you were praying this thing to give you half a dozen mini ice cubes…
There is only one chair in room 705, so if you are traveling with your wife, she will have to sit on your laps... There is also an old big 20 inches TV on a big furniture with drawers, on which you may put your carry on (NO luggage rack). A small bathroom has a toilet, a bidet and a sink, with a big shower, huge by comparison with the mini shower of my usual LUX HOTEL: the best value for money in Paris, for which I also wrote a review for Trip Advisor.
Unlike the Paris-Tolbiac Choice hotel, there is no shelf over this sink but you may put your amenity kit and your transistor on the big flat top of the toilet tank. I found a nice radio station in Montevideo offering old American traditional songs on 99.5 FM. Classical music is on 94.7 FM.
This is one of the very few hotels that I’ve ever seen smart enough to offer at least one AC outlet taking both, European/Uruguayan and US plugs. Here you have two: one in the room and another one in the bathroom. But remember that AC here, like in Europe, is 220 Volts! Only the outlets are US but NOT the voltage!
Finally, since the building across the street is the low "Mercado de la Abundancia" with a rusted roof, this room 705 has a wide open view all the way to the "Rio de la Plata" and the Atlantic Ocean beyond.
Besides offering a good value for money at $62 for an AC room with private toilet, shower and a small breakfast, (and let’s not forget the half dozen mini ice cubes…) KLEE hotel has two great advantages:
1) It is right in the center of the city, just two blocks from "Ejido" and "18 de Julio" (the main street) where you can have a good espresso at La Pasiva for 40 pesos ($2) on a big smoking terrace; it is four blocks from Plaza Cagancha and about ten to twelve blocks from American Airlines ticket office right after Plaza Liberación.
2) It offers FREE Wi-Fi in your room, while the Four Points Sheraton around the corner makes you pay an outrageous fee by the hour! It is true that it offers several computers in the lobby with free timed access to the Internet (only two computers at Klee hotel), but it's outrageous to think that all hotels where I go, from the cheapest LUX in Paris to all of Choice Hotels (my favorite chain), offer free Wi-Fi except the Sheraton, which is by far the most expensive one of all!
If you refuse to pay $55 FOR A TAXI (twice as much as in Miami, where the minimum wage is three times that of Uruguay!) and you travel light, you can take any CITY BUS that says "Montevideo" right at the door of the airport (in Buenos Aires you must walk longer to take bus number 8 – ex-86) for only 32 pesos (about $1.50).
It will take you between 40 and 55 minutes depending on the bus to go downtown from Carrasco airport. Numbers 700, 710 and 711 are the fastest but they are often full. I prefer bus 704 that makes a small detour but is always almost empty, at least by the time I take it. On my last trip I took it at 12:20 pm (AA flight from Miami landed at 11 am but it took me 45 minutes to clear immigration, which had never happened before in twenty years: the proof that Montevideo is now invaded by tourists!). Forty minutes later, I got off at the corner of URUGUAY & YAGUARON (one block after Ejido). Then you cross the street and walk five blocks towards the south and you arrive to Hotel KLEE on 1303 SAN JOSÉ, at the corner of YAGUARÓN. Most sidewalks in Montevideo are in rather bad shape, so watch where you put the wheels of your carry on!
If you travel heavy, there is an intermediate solution that started only a couple of years ago: a white shuttle that will take you to your hotel for $10 per person (a/o December 2011) that you also take right at the door of the terminal, a few steps in front of the city bus stop.
One last tip: every time I go to Montevideo, whether going from Miami or from Buenos Aires, the plane makes a loop over the water, south of downtown, to go east. Therefore, if you sit on the left hand side (my favorite seat is 2A on the first row of AA’s horrendous 767s) you will have a very nice view of the city and the south coast before landing in Carrasco.
Please note that they will hold you (without handcuffs) at the reception of Hotel KLEE when you check out until the maid has called to confirm that you are not borrowing their twenty years old TV for example... So if you are flying, plan a good extra ten minutes to check out!
TO CONCLUDE, at $62 (whether cash or MC, same rate), KLEE HOTEL MOTEVIDEO is still one of the best values for money in spite of the craziness that has touched all hotel and restaurants since the invasion of Brazilians started in the past few years.
Room Tip: Ask for a room on a high floor facing Calle San José in order to have a wide open view
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
