My spouse and I
stayed at the Hotel Cabo de Hornos for two nights in late March 2017. We
reserved our room through American Express travel services, although we found
other online methods to reserve as well. (The room categories on the AmEx site
were more descriptive than on the hotel’s own website, and we wanted to ensure
that we had a king-size bed.) We spent time in Punta Arenas because it provided
a central base from which to view wildlife, including a day trip by air to
Porvenir to see king penguins, a condor excursion, and a trip to Magdalena and
Marta Islands to see Magellanic penguins and sea lions. (See our review of Far
South Expeditions for more information.) The hotel offered us a ground transfer
from the airport for approximately $30 USD one way, but we arranged our own transfer.
The hotel is located
on the main square in Punta Arenas across from a large park and near the Palacio
Sara Braun and Museo Regional de Magallanes. While this sounds like a good
thing, the noise from the park (teenagers, barking dogs) and from the busy
street in front of the hotel can be bothersome if your room faces the
park/street and if you need to open the window because it is hot in your room. The
park is attractive, though, as are the restored mansions that line the streets
around it. In addition, the hotel is close to nearby restaurants (we ate at
restaurants La Luna and Pizzeria Francesco; see our separate reviews) and
shops, including a large full-service grocery store a few blocks away near the
Dream casino. (We walked to the grocery daily to buy snacks and drinks for our
room; however, we had no method to keep anything cold.)
The lobby area (with
a long front desk and some seating areas) provides a barrier for the bar and
lounge seating behind it. The bellman can store your luggage if your room is
not ready. A small business center in the lobby contains two or three
computers, a printer, and a small glass-fronted refrigerator with drinks and
snacks for purchase (pantry). The street-level public spaces of the hotel are attractive
and modern, which makes the age and design of the rooms disappointing. The
dining room is large and spacious, and we ate breakfast there each morning
(included with our room rate). Two tables held cold items like fruit, yogurt,
pastries, and beverages, while a third small table held hot items like eggs.
Another side of the room offered hot drinks including coffee and tea.
Disappointingly, on both mornings, even though we ate at approximately 8:00 am,
staff still had not set up the made-to-order omelet station. In fact, although
the dining tables were set and the serving tables laden with food, staff was
conspicuously absent and unavailable during breakfast service.
Although the
elevator lobby area and the hallways on our floor looked modern, as did the
room numbers affixed to each door, the décor inside our room was tired-looking
and the design was old-fashioned. Guestrooms are not equipped with
air-conditioning, and the temperature in our room was much warmer than we like.
Although the room had a large window, it only tilted open slightly at the top
about two inches, which did not allow for much airflow. Our standard room with
a king-size bed was on the smaller side. A nightstand flanked each side of the
bed, and a long glass-topped dresser in front of it held the TV. This room had
no desk, nor could we move the TV to one side of the dresser in order to make
more surface space. An armchair with ottoman occupied one corner. A large
built-in shelving unit/closet occupied half of one wall. The cozy bathroom held
the bathtub/shower combination, vanity (with single sink), and toilet. One tiny
covered trashcan in the bathroom was the only garbage receptacle available in our
room. The hotel provides Patagonia toiletries (shampoo, conditioner, bath gel,
body lotion). The TV offered four or so English channels: two were news channels
(such as BBC and CNN), one broadcast American comedies (like “Big Bang Theory”)
at certain times of day, and the other channel offered some flavor of HBO.
(This hotel provided the best access to English-language programming that we
had during our entire two-week stay in Chile, including our stays in Santiago.)
Wi-Fi was complimentary, and it worked well. Our room did not have a minibar,
but it did offer an electronic safety box.
When we booked our
stay at Hotel Cabo de Hornos, we felt that it was the best lodging option in
Punta Arenas, but after seeing our outdated room, we will try another hotel next
time (such as the Dream, the Best Western Finis Terrae, or the Hotel José
Nogueira).
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