jbean1016

This forum has been so helpful on my other trips - now my husband and I are off to Cuernavaca June 27th to July 6th. My daughter is an au pair there. Thoughts on places to stay (after a trip to Thailand last year - not too expensive. Possibly a B&B? Things to see in the city and outlying areas? Is it possible to get a tour guide like we had in Chaing Mai. (Sgt Kai was our man there!) We don't speak much Spanish. Thanks in advance!

Fra_Diavolo

Here's something I posted a few months back:

We stayed at the Casa Colonial. It's a charming, friendly place with a pool and courtyard. You want one of the rooms at the back because there is a noisy bus depot down the street.

In town the Palace of Cortes has a small museum with a collection of Indian and early European artifacts, concluding in a hall with an excellent Diego Rivera mural of the region's history.

The Cathedral compound -- there are two other churches -- is worth exploring. The day we were there a town First Communion was going on, the churches all bedecked with flowers, the kids in their finest, tamales, corn-on-the-cob and cake for sale.

Robert Brady museum -- an over the top collection of folk art from around the world, some great, some pure kitsch. Frida Kahlo painting in the living room. Said to be an artist himself. From what I could make out, he was a rich dilettante with charm and (usually) good taste whose brother took care of the banking. A bachelor for most of his life, he undertook a marriage of convenience with Josephine Baker. Lot's of photos of him with his famous friends. A glimpse into a rather bizarre world.

The zocalo is very lively and full of people eating corn-on-the-cob, which seems to be the local delicacy, and cones of flavored ice, scraped from a block while you wait. (I stay away from street food in Mexico, but you may be braver.) In the evening Los Arcos, off to one side, sometimes has live music and is a good place to have a drink after dinner.

If you are at all interested in the ancient Indian cultures a visit to Xochicalco, as mentioned, is a must. You can learn a bit about in the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. On the outskirts of Cuernavaca itself is a small ruin where work stopped as the Aztecs were enclosing an earlier temple with one larger, just as the Spanish arrived.

If you admire Malcolm Lowry's great novel Under the Volcano there are a number of sites to see. The Borda Gardens, certain squares, Jacques Laruelle's house, etc.

Try to get a hotel with a garden and pool. The city is a series of secret gardens, so you should have one of your own. You get into the swing of things with a place to hang out in the afternoon.

At the restaurant 1521 across from Cortes' Palace try a metate. It's a stone bowl they heat in the oven, then fill with meats and veggies and sauce, tortillas on the side. Goes great with a bottle of Montejo beer.

Hope you enjoy your trip.

Dude

I would do a day trip to Tepotzlan and an overnight to Taxco (Los Arcos is inexpensive and a really nice place to stay there). All the information above is good. I really am impressed with the art in the Robert Brady house by the cathedral. Make sure to see the Rivera murals in Cortez's palace as well. Cuernavaca is a hard place to find a reasonably priced nice hotel. Why do you enlist the help of your daughter and the family she works for to come up with a good place for you?

Kennedy3

I highly recommend staying at the Villa Blanca Suites. I stayed there a few years ago and found the property and staff to be absolutely superb in every way. The suites were huge, the bed comfy and the price (at the time) extremely reasonable at around $90/night. It's not a B and B, but there is a nice restaurant on the property.

I personally wasn't too impressed with Cuernavaca. To me, it was just a weird, busy city. There are several museums worthy of a visit, however, such as the Robert Brady Museum and the Palacio Cortez, as I recall.

When I was there I took a bus to the nearby city of Taxco, the silver capital of the world. It's mostly all about shopping, if you're into that sort of thing. Mildly interesting for me due to the fascinating local architecture.

I speak intermediate Spanish so I was able to communicate when necessary. Since you do not speak Spanish, make sure to have a business card from your hotel to present to the taxi driver so you don't end up in the wrong place.

Have a fun trip. And, enjoy your visit with your daughter.

Katie2Travel

Casa del Sol Bed and Breakfast is a reasonable price and a nice place to stay. I have booked accommodations through the CuernavacaInfo website and I see they have a new place listed called Casa Poezia that I might try next. It looks really nice from the photos and the price is really good.

Katie2Travel

For something new I tried Casa Poezia for a couple of nights in June before going to Instituto Chac-Mool for my Spanish classes. It was a very small, friendly and comfortable hotel with an excellent international style restaurant. The price was really good for the accommodations they offered but it is located a little outside of the downtown area. But with so many taxis the location wasn't a problem.

Travelers checks are sometimes hard to cash in Cuernavaca and Mexico City in my experience on this last trip. ATMs are the way to go for having spending money since many places don't even take credit cards.

My Spanish classes again were excellent at Chac-Mool and I'd like to recommend them too. I love Cuernavaca and I'll be back again soon I'm sure. It is fun to try new hotels when I go so let me know if you have any recommendations.

sweetannie

We stay at Las Mananitas, but it might not be in your budget. If you have a chance, at least have a meal there, it's quite beautiful. We took the local bus to Taxco and had a ball.

Katie2Travel

I do love visiting Las Mananitas. I can think of no better place to practice Spanish while sipping Las Mananitas Margaritas on the fabulous patio. My Spanish teachers organized some regular outings there, I'd never miss them.

JoyceL

Cuernavaca is a small town. It has a few interesting sights, but not enough to occupy more than a full day. I visited there as a daytrip from Mexico City, and felt that a single day was more than adequate for seeing all the main sights (Cathedral, Brady house, palace). Maybe you can spread this into two days, but after then you will probably want to start taking day trips into other towns.

The most obvious daytrip for tourism is to Mexico City. If you take an express bus, the ride takes about an hour. There is a huge number of things to do and see in Mexico City, so if you have never been there before, I suggest you plan this as an overnight (or maybe several nights).