Christopher B
Google
This hotel was a big disappointment and poor value.||||On the positive side, there was good hot water and water pressure and the air conditioner worked well. The location is by the water and there are benches in a nearby park of sorts. The free Wi-Fi worked OK.|| ||On the negative side, where do I start… The hotel does not have a proper Reception area. You enter through the open-air bar where people are drinking and smoking while sitting on grimy plastic chairs. The shower had black mold, and the shower doors did not close completely. (The bathroom floor gets very wet.) The bed is too firm. The lighting is too dim. The halls have entrance doors that when closed create an echo chamber; you hear amplified noise from everyone who enters or leaves their room. There is no included breakfast. (There is no restaurant.) There was a big roach in my room one night.||||Despite noting “We speak your language!” on Booking.com, I met only one staff member in four days who was remotely conversant in English. This made asking even routine questions and requests a challenge. The biggest problem was when I needed a taxi to the airport on a Sunday. The staff member made some calls without success, and had clearly forgotten me when I came back two hours later. She called someone and a taxi arrived in 15 minutes.||||She had quoted me 15 euros to the airport. The driver protested and showed me a laminated list of “Tarifs” he carries, noting the (outrageous) rates on Sunday. It ultimately cost 63 euros on the meter. Had I been given accurate information on transport earlier—something that any hotel reasonably provides—I would have had time to attempt other arrangements, share a ride with others, etc. When I informed her of her error, she shrugged and took no responsibility for giving me incorrect information.||||I would never stay in this hotel again or, most likely, in Cayenne itself. In case it is helpful to other tourists, if you want to visit the Space Center and Devil’s Island (Iles des Salut), the center and the boats to the islands are actually about an hour away in the town of Kourou. (Note that you must book two days ahead for the Space Center tour, and it is closed on the weekends. Boats to the islands can sell out.) Basing yourself in Cayenne, you will need to use inconvenient shared taxis (which do not run on the weekends) or incredibly expensive private taxis (about 60 euros each way). You might well be better of renting a car and staying closer to what you actually want to see.
