Casa Santiago is a lovely and tastefully modernized nineteenth century compound consisting of three homes and two pools located in the Santiago neighborhood of Merida’s historic central city, just two blocks away from the great church and square of Santiago and five blocks down the street from the Cathedral and Main Square.
Casa Santiago has seven very large bedrooms. Each has its own separate private bathroom, individually controlled air conditioning system and ceiling fan. We have wireless internet access. The ceilings throughout are 13 to 16 feet high and the antique pasta tile floors, a splendid Merida art form derived from the Romans, have been preserved. The bedrooms in Casa Santiago open into a wide 80 foot/24 meter common room lit by enormous Moorish windows looking out into the inner courtyard which is full of flowers and plants. All of our beds are extremely comfortable and have wildly expensive American-made pillow-top mattresses.
The fully equipped kitchens are modern and charming. You are welcome to use the kidtchen facilities so long as you clean up after yourself. The refrigerator automatically dispenses ice made from purified water. This purified water, which is chlorinated city water secondarily purified by our own reverse osmosis system, tastes great and is available on tap in the kitchen. There is also a purified water reservoir on the counter and puried water bottles in each room.
The walled gardens are amazing. There is a filtered 12’ x 18’ swimming pool at Casa Santiago bordered by a large purple bougainvillea-covered pergola sitting on Doric columns. For those who stay in rooms at Casa Feliz and Casa Navidad, the very large pool in that part of the property is available. There is no sense of claustrophobia here. The whole of the sky and its stars are yours to see. It is planted with flowers and different kinds of palms. There is even a lawn. Rocking chairs and a shaded glider provide perfect places to sit and enjoy the soft sounds of music and bells that drift in the air from nearby squares. Birds, butterflies and the occasional iguana enjoy the garden too. Smoking is permitted outdoors. The pool has no life guard and is 5 feet deep. For this reason children under age 14 cannot be accommodated at Casa Santiago. Be in touch with us if you think this rule should not be applicable to your family situation.
Our guests love this place. See what they have to say at Trip Advisor.
Supposing that your Spanish is a little rusty or non-existent, Casa Santiago is a great place for you to stay. The neighborhood is very walkable. Within a couple or so blocks, there are three pharmacies, a taxi stand, a large grocery store, an ATM, a 24-hour convenience store, a coffeehouse, a beautiful old movie house with two screens, an old covered market, an inexpensive and very good cocina economica "Tio Will" for breakfast or lunch, many restaurants for dinner and a park where you can sit in the shade and listen to the birds and watch life. A laundry is around the corner. Casa Santiago is three blocks from the first and second class bus stations and you can use our house as your base to take day trips to the great Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza or Uxmal or other ancient sites, or the beach which is about 16 miles away or the many charming colonial Yucatan towns clustered around enormous sixteenth century Franciscan churches. Even better, go to Celestun, a nature preserve, and see the flocks of flamingos fly over your head, a near religious experience. Taxis are plentiful and very reasonably priced.
Because everyone asks, you will be happy to hear that temperatures here are very pleasant in the morning and at night, somewhere around 75 degreesF/25 degreesC with a nice breeze from the ocean to the east. At about 11:00 AM the temperature begins to climb to about 92 degreesF/36degreesC. The high temperatures at the end of the dry season in late May go higher. It cools remarkably at sundown. In short, the afternoons are hot, but thus forewarned, you will be in the pool or the shade.
Check out time is noon. Check in time is 1:00 pm. Allowances are made if circumstances allow.
There is also an adjacent rental house Casa Feliz which can be rented by the week. It is luxurious, private and charming. Measured against hotel prices, it is relatively inexpensive. If you are thinking about an extended stay, you should visit the Casa Feliz section of this website. If the rental house is not taken for the week, the rooms in it, Africa, Buddha and Persia, are available for you even if you are not going to stay for a whole week.
We would be happy to welcome you into our Casa Santiago family. The only requirement is that you be nice. We make our friends without regard to your race, gender, sexual orientation, religion or lack of religion. We want you to have the best and most peaceful time of your life and come back.
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