On my recent Odyssey to Nuevo Laredo I followed the recommendation of the folks on the Nuevo Laredo Yahoo club and stayed at the Hotel Reforma. The Reforma is located on Guerrero, NL's main street, very much like Constitucion in TJ...lot of businesses, shops etc. Not nearly as many farmacia's however and almost no one trying to hustle you like they do on Revolucion in TJ.

The hotel itself is probably similiar to the Hotel Nelson, there's a large lobby with big glass doors to the street and a nice restaurant attached to it. The rates are about 40 bucks a night, the sheets are clean (white! Not that weird pallid gray color you find at Cascadas), you get a complementary bottle of water, two glasses that are wrapped in bags accompanied with a pitcher if you wanna get a larger amount of agua from the dispenser in the hall and the most important and reassuring feature of all....a paper strip across the toilet seat. HAH! The air conditioning worked well and you get a phone and a TV (no porno). The only negative was the water never really got hot so I had to resign myself to lukewarm showers for the two nights I stayed there, don't know if it was a temporary condition or if it's always like that.

The main advantage of course is that the hotel is pretty much in the center of the downtown area of NL, and allows you the ability to cruise the various clubs in the area. When I checked in, the clerk asked one or two and I replied "me and mucho hermanas" he laughed so I assumed bringing girls back would be no problem. It was no problem.

Not sure if I'd stay there again as I like hot water, but the beds were very clean and the pillows nice and big and fluffy. The size of the room was comparable to what we are used to in TJ, the window afforded me a view of the back of some sort of shop and the shower head sprayed water over the shower curtain and onto the bathroom walls.....I felt right at home!

Other incidentals, they do take credit cards, no talachero's ... instead nice friendly maids who didn't mind talking to this California weirdo and they'd even give me an extra bottle of water as a gift...w/o hassling you for a tip. And you do get a key.

The Reforma definitely serves its purpose for downtown talent scouting. However I was a little dismayed by the visiting chica fee. It was about seven bucks when I visited last Sept. This is not a big deal. Still it's much better to know up front when you check in. BTW... another FYI: you have to hit that Elevator door downstairs to get it open. Better figure this out earlier then in the middle of the night when you really need some sleep and don't want to bother the sleeping guard or take the stairs. ~ Muchas Suertos!