Hotel Santa Maria (Cancun, Mexico)

The tourist/traveller, expecting to find all the standard frills of an expensive hotel, will be a bit shell-shocked here. There's no attempt to glamourise what is basic and functional accommodation. The cost is a pleasant surprise though … and financial surprises continue to impress because this downtown hotel is outside the expensive Hotel Zone. Prices are geared to ‘locals' rather than visitors! Breakfast here is surprisingly good.

Depending upon the staff member's individual outlook, they are either very friendly and helpful - or unfriendly, unco-operative and clearly don't want to work here. The friendly ones, though, are great.

There's a great supermarket very nearby; Sorianna. The bus stop takes you to the ferry (*Isla Mujeres) and Wal-Mart. From the bus station, you can get to the airport and Playa del Carmen … but it's a bit of a journey. A real local treasure is the low-cost  restaurant, Loncheria 3 Reyes. It's in a side alley off the hotel street. Brilliant!

It's clear that massive investment is needed ... not to include tourist frills ... but to rectify basic problems. These include very dodgy plumbing which results in the toilet flooding not very nice stuff all over the floor and into personal luggage! *Paying that bit extra for a Hotel Zone base looks quite appealing now.

The area is very seedy with strange characters hanging around. Not a place where you'd want to stay if travelling alone. It's miles and miles away from the tourist haunts so the money you save by staying outside the Hotel Zone is gobbled up in transport costs.

There's mould in the bathroom, bedding is dirty and the mattress is rock-hard.