After a long and winding 7hr drive from San Cristobal we arrived at Chan-Kah with our paid confirmation in hand only to be told that we did not have a room reserved or paid for. They proceeded to tell us that we had to contact their booking agent 'bestday' to sort it out ! My partner was extremely sick from the 7hr journey so the last thing we wanted to be doing was trying to get in touch with their travel agent...especially when the hotel was empty and so many rooms available.

We had booked a king suite only to be given 2 double beds but could not be bothered to try and explain to the staff there to get it sorted out. The room was musty and no remote for tv or aircon so we had to call reception to bring them to our room - saving electricity i guess??

The pool area was nice but they decided to empty the colder water area for cleaning on the day we were there. So we were left to swim in what felt like a spa in the Palenque heat.

If this service was not bad enough already they called us on the second day (we were only there for 2 nts) and told us we needed to change rooms - my reponse was 'is this a joke' and we did not hear another thing from them.

If eating from the restaurant only eat the hamburger as they actually do a pretty good job of it - forget the tacos unless you feel like getting sick.

Dont forget to hire a 4wd if you are driving from san cristobal to Palenque as the highway has speed bumps every 10mins or so !

It's not easy to get to, but the Mayan ruins at Palenque are worth the trip! And the place to stay when you finally get there is the Chan Kah. It consists of a collection of bungalows in a park-like setting, with a series of dreamy pools overlooked by the bar and dining room. The whole place is one big garden.

This was a lovely place, very atmospheric in its setting amongst lots of 'jungle', with well-appointed stone cottages which make it a bit different from the usual.

The cottages were kept clean, lots of insects around generally but that's just the jungle for you. No tv in ours, we didn't want one as we were trying to escape the outside world, but there should have been one there.

Food was generally good, though we were not on a buffet package and think the a la carte might have been a bit better. Staff generally good, though struggled to catch their attention in the bar sometimes, and had one receptionist who tried to make me pay on the spot for my cleaning, as I hadn't left a credit card when I checked in (would happily have done so if they'd asked), despite me already having charged numerous meals - but he was overruled by someone more experienced.

These were minor complaints, though, and overall we had a lovely time in our couple of days here.

I had read so much about Palenque and knew that the best place to stay was Chan Kah. How disappointed we were. On arrival we were shown a room that smelt damp but the staff assured us that as soon as we turned on the air con it would pass, I wish I had never beleived that. We lit candles, turned air con on, sprayed perfume but I did not get one minute of sleep - every inward breath smelt damp and fusty. The next morning we had to abandon our trip to the ruins as I was so tired - we spoke to Reception and they showed us a further 4 rooms - every one of them smelt. Not surprising as the floors are concrete and the cleaning staff hose them down with water and then lock the doors. Also, all the lights are white fluorescents!! The curtains and bedspreads were orange circa 1973! Chan Kah was probably very nice in its heydey but basically it needs a whole lot of updating. There are not many decent hotels in Palenque but we saw Villa Mercedes being built and we would advise that one. Meanwhile we stayed in the Best Western for the next 2 nights - sad really as we had wanted somewhere a little more atmospheric.