PASS ON PIA'S PLACE", OMOA HONDURAS
Written: Aug 25 '03 (Updated May 09 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: I didn't have to stay here.
Cons: Others do.
The Bottom Line: Omoa itself is a beautiful place, and well worth seeing. Just stay somewhere else.
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| JAMES23's Full Review: Pia’s Place Omoa Honduras |
It's a long walk in from the highway to the beach at Omoa on Honduras' Caribbean coast. It's especially gruelling if you're doing it in the hot sun of midday and carrying a large heavy and bulky rucksack. Add to that a massive hangover as a result of a late night cruising the sleazier bars of Puerto Barrios across the border in Guatemala and agony may set in. Oh yeah a couple of hours bouncing over dirt roads in the back of a pick up truck and a chicken bus can't hurt either.
Omoa was the first place I really wanted to see on my drunken wanderings through Central America. I'd read up on the laid back little fishing village with the great beach and decided it would be a great place to unwind for a couple of days before striking inland and the Mayan ruins in the mountains. To that end I'd pushed it coming down from Belize City.
Both Rough Guide and Lonely Planet said it was great little place. Both also listed the same budget accommodations available. The two they recommended were Roli's Place run by Roli a Swiss expat and the newer Pia's Place run by Pia a Dutch expat. As is often the case, both guidebooks had got it wrong.
Roli's was the first one I came across. It's in the town itself, about midway between the highway and the beach. It's also located right across from the swamp. I headed right past it and on to the second recommended choice.
Pia's Place was still in business. She actually has two "hotels" side by side on the south end of the beach. The first is Pia's Place a clapboard building that serves as a backpacker hostel. There are three double rooms for $7.00 US each per night and/or a dorm that costs $3.00 US.
Next door is her "upscale place" ,Bahia de Omoa. This is a converted house with three double rooms with hot water. Costs run about $25.00-30.00 US single, all prices as per the guides. And confirmed by me.
Pia actually goes out and meets potential guests at the main highway junction and drives them in. This is not so much a courtesy as she claims but to ensure she gets them before the competition. During the three days I was there I saw her continually driving back and forth, and no she never gave me a lift, not even that first day.
I cannot recommend either her or Roli's establishments. When I first arrived in Omoa I went to Pia's but she had no vacancies either in her backpacker hostel or in the "upscale" place. She did offer to let me sleep on the floor of the back packer dorm for $7.00 US.
When I declined her generous offer, she advised me that Roli's was also full (it wasn't) and the only place worth staying in was Hospedaje Julia ($14.00 US) run by a friend of hers down the road. She either stated that all the other places were either too expensive, dumps, or failed to mention them at all. Hospedaje Julia is a dump.
She never mentioned Restaruante Michellejust past it, run by a Canadian. There appears to be a feud going on between Pia and Roli and between Pia and the other expats mainly Americans and Canadians who live and have establishments at the other end of the beach from her.
She is also feuding with the owners of the new Hotel Flamingo directly across the street from her. They stole her view when they built their property. I eventually splurged and grabbed a room here because they took plastic. Besides I was getting tired of walking up and down the damn beach by this point.
Pia was actually upset at my choice of locations. When I'd been asking about a room from her earlier, I'd also asked about laundry and she said she would do mine. When I brought it over after I'd checked in and unpacked and she heard where I'd checked in she was upset.
I think she realised that I actually had money. She quickly told me she would have a vacancy the next day if I wanted to change. I declined; I'd got a deal next-door for two nights. Besides I was starting to catch on.
She charged me 90 Lempiras, $6.00, US for a load of laundry and told me it would be ready in two hours. When I returned later after almost three hours it still wasn't ready and I even had to fold it myself. She also forgot to give me the 10 Lempires change from the 100 Lempira note I handed her. I'm not sure if she overcharges everyone or was just mad at me for not staying at the place she'd sent me to.
From other back packers and expats I heard about the feud between her and Roli over guests. They've actually taken to removing each other's signs on the highway or so I was advised. Pia also took a good map of the area Roli made up with his place marked on it and superimposed her hotel's name and phone number on it and made copies to be passed around.
Roli's I can't recommend either. The quick look I took, and from what I heard from others staying there, is that the rooms are tiny, drab and cramped. Unlike the other places it is also not on or near the beach but in the middle of town and near the swamp like I noticed.
Roli advertises Internet service, and kayak and bike rentals, however he fails to point out this is for guests only. His Internet service also consists of allowing you to type out messages that he loads on a floppy and then sends when he logs on to the net once a day. You cannot really log onto your account, check messages or surf here.
I enjoyed myself in Omoa and found good places to stay and eat. Reviews of them will be forthcoming soon. I'm just ticked off that these two are pulling in the lions share of the naive back packer crowd and probably don't deserve to be. New editions of both LP and RG should (I hope) change their recommendations but in the interim someone had to get the word out.
NOTE: I originally wrote and posted this review on January 24, 2002 in the Honduras category. Later after much badgering of the CLs by moi, they managed to get this great crummy place added to the database. After waiting over 6 months and with more than one e-mail sent in, epinions has yet to transfer it over. I didn’t want to delete and repost it, but it appears that is the only option. As comments are the icing on the cake on a good review, or conversely one I’ve penned, for your retro amusement I have included all the original comments below.
The comment thread may seem like it’s missing something. The owner of Roli’s the other hostel I mentioned in the article joined Epinions for the sole purpose of writing a comment in which he complained about me slagging his place. Turns out at the time search engines were showing this review with a higher placement than his official web site. He of course accused me of never having been near the place. Now it’s a known fact that whenever I travel I have a large neo sign over my head that says undercover hotel reviewer. As can be seen after some of the site regulars (thank you) made a few suggestions he beat a hasty retreat, taking his comments with him.
Finally FYI there were 62 member hits (all VH) and 344 total hits with a whopping 80 cents in income share earned at time of deletion.
COMMENTS:
Gee... by badkittyM Jan 24 '02 5:56 pm PST
Sounds like a real hoot...NOT!
I'd rather talk about Rangers. (Of course you can, dear, in answer to your question!)
Meow
Gosh - by Granniemose Jan 25 '02 8:03 am PST
No matter where you go there is someone whose greed and corruption spoils it for others. It is just human nature, I guess.
Virginia
What a deal! by mrkstvns, Jan 25 '02 11:04 am
I'm surprised you didn't take that woman up on her offer to let you sleep on the floor -- and here I thought you actually WERE cheaper than me
;-)
What a hoot! Mark
Re: What a deal! by JAMES23 jan 25'02 2:27 pm PST
ya think she'll invite me back?
Re: Gosh - by JAMES23 Jan 25'02 2:28 pm PST
Virginia, wait till you here about the place in Guatemala.
I'd Say... by LEDOMAINE Feb 02'02 9;36 pm PST
"get the word out", you did. And, very well said, at that. Just goes to show you that your new "hat" is more than well-deserved, my friend.
I'll never stay at either of Pia's Places, if ever I have occasion to be near. Thanks for the alert. Take care,
Rouchelle
(comment by Roli Feb 26'02 here, deleted)
Re: Sorry James by JAMES23 Feb 26 '02 9:31 pm PST
Roli, read the review. I never claimed I stayed at your place. Besides how do you know i never stayed there? Do you really think I come up and introduce myself as "hi I'm an undercover travel writer doing an unbiased review of your establishment. May I have a room?"
My information is based on what others told me about your place and is presented as such.
By the way I think it's a little more than 50 metres. I can walk that distance in about half a minute, and it takes considerably longer to get from your place to the beach.
Anyway thanks for dropping by. You have a lovely little town there.
James
WOW- by Granniemose Mar 02'02 5:33 pm PST
THIS IS AMAZING -
Who would ever imagine that the owner of Pia's Place would read your review in Epinions. That is so great..even though she didn't like what you said. It just goes to shows you that all of your non-member hits are read around the world. You deserve a raise in your epinion shares.
Virginia
Re: WOW- by JAMES23 Mar 03'02 10:44 am PST
Actually I'm sure it was the owner of Roli's place which is also mentioned and none too kindly. I shudder to think of what Pia's comments would be like. Mind she still owes me 200 Lempiras change for my laundry.
James
Re: Sorry James by badkittyM Mar 05 '02 4:27 pm PST
Yeesh. (May I, James?...thank you.)
Just because one has managed to fill one's place with hapless tourists, does NOT mean that one actually has a nice place.
Just ask all the customers of Wells Fargo.
In addition, I would say it is rather unwise to accuse a friend (my friend) of lying, based off a measurement. Not exactly firm ground to find oneself on, believe me. James has been a friend for quite a while, and I totally and completely trust his judgement in reviews.
You, however, I do not know...in addition, I find the owner's opinions of their own places to be uniformly biased; always in their own favor, of course.
I'm sure that according to you, the Taj Majal is second-rate compared to your own lovely banana shack.
I have always found James to be honest - I seriously doubt (can you hear the sarcasm rolling off my tongue?) you rank higher on the "honest business-owner" scale.
Meow
Re: Re: Re: Sorry James by JAMES23 Mar 05'02 4:33 pm PST
Hey Kitty Kat, you know now both of us are off of his Christmas Card list.
James
Re: Re: Re: Sorry James by badkittyM Mar 05'02 4:57 pm PST
(Gasp!)
We are???
F*ck, dude. And we got such nice things last year.
Meow
Omoa is an enjoyable place by praisebuddha Jan 26 '03
11:01 pm PST
The beach at Omoa isn't impressive, but it's a lovely stop either to or from Guatemala, up and down the coast.
I stayed at Roli's place and can totally recommend it. He no longer puts the emails on floppies - he actually offers internet time although it is slightly expensive.
Roli, the Swiss owner, also bakes break once per week on Saturday I believe. The dorm room on the property is sometimes plagued by mosquitoes, as it is near a swamp. These can be combatted with coils. The single rooms aren't anything special, but the property and communal feeling to the place are very special. There are kitchen facilities in the dorm room, and drinking water. There is a large courtyard with an old mango tree. Across from the dorm room is a hammock loft where you can go to chill and relax or to tie up your hammock for the night.
Roli also provides free bicycles and an environment where the most interesting people visiting Omoa regularly stay. Do check it out!
Praisebudha (a graduate of the Roli and Pia school of computer communications then proceeded to post this same comment 3 more times.
Re: Omoa is an enjoyable place by JAMES23 Jan 27'03 4:24 am PST
Nice to see Roli has made some improvements. That said and done there are still better places to stay in Omoa than here. You'll note that Roli himself dropped by earlier and put in his two cents on my article.
James
I did by marno_feten Jun 23 '03 5:47 am PST
Pia and mosquitos. Her husband is her tucán. She's the owner too of "Jardín del Paraíso", a little restaurant. It was rented to a very nice german woman. I dont't remember her name, but she's got a tucán too. Maybe she's not now in Omoa, because Pia's renting conditions. Otherwise, I admire her (Pia): she knows how to make us feel like home, 7,500 km abroad (and hidding away). Things change , I was there in 2002 sept.
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JAMES23
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Member: James Smith
Location: Toronto Ontario CANADA
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