We spent four nights in Merida, which is a great city, at the Dolores Alba and thoroughly enjoyed it. The room was large and comfortable, very clean, with an in-room safe and a sliding door and balcony overlooking the pool and courtyard. The staff was very helpful and the tour they arranged to Celestun was excellent value. We thought the breakfast, eaten in a nice old courtyard now roofed with a high canopy, was fine, and since the price is not included in the very reasonable room rate, but is only paid if you want breakfast, you have the option of going elsewhere if you prefer. The location is convenient, 5-10 minutes walk east of the main plaza (the street is busy and crowded like most in central Merida, but because the rooms all face the interior courtyards there is no street noise once you're inside the entrance). It's also a short walk south of the Parque La Mejorada which has a couple nice restaurants and a great Popular Art museum.

I spent two nights in the hotel Dolores Alba in january of 2008. It is a nice hotel, with a swiming pool and a very good rooms with view to the pool. The woman who attended us was very kind and gave us some directions of the city. Reserving via internet gave us a 10% discount, so we pay less than 40 dolars per night. We took a great excursion to Uxmal ruins (recomended the night with light and sound show). I didn't love merida, but its a great place to use as a base to explore de area, especialy uxmal and chichen itza. We rented a car for 1 day (30 dols) and used it to go a lot of places near.

Our family with three fairly young kids stayed at the Dolores Alba for five nights. The hotel is very clean and quiet. Our kids liked the pool (even thought it was colder then we thought it would be!). It is a little walk to the main areas where most of the resturants are but only those with little kids would notice. It is close to the big market in Merida which is definately worth going to. For the sake of simplicity, we did use some of the tours they offered (to celestun and on the way back to cancun, to chichen). They were cheaper then the other options we saw and they worked out great for us. Families with older kids or w/o kids could do these day trips on their own for less, I imagine. The folks working there were quite nice and usually helpful.

On the downside, They don't have roll-aways or cribs and the beds literally sit on cement so your ability to cram families in the room is limited.

We stayed at Dolores Alba in Merida for a night this December. The room was clean and comfortable. The decor was nice and they had two super comfortable rocking chairs to relax on. The other plus points were the safe deposit box in the room and the breakfast (50 pesos) served. The Frida paintings and rocking chairs lining the hallways added to the charm of the place and the hotel staff were friendly and courteous. We enjoyed our stay at the Dolores Alba and would recommend it to anyone visiting Merida.