[kari&jose]

HI!! OK, so, since we entered PGN dh has been stressing out about costs for travel, etc. I guess we need to start saving. MIL is giving us her airline miles for the flight, but we need to pay for hotel, etc.

Can anyone give me ideas about possible hotels and rates? What amount of spending money should we plan on taking?

I know that costs will be low, but of course, due to our weak American constitutions we will be eating at higher end places in the hopes of avoiding bacteria (HA! that's a joke - i know - considering our experiences in India and Mexico I am already planning on becoming sick - LOL)

Any thoughts and ideas would be greatly appreciated!!!!

[MarlaG]

My rate at the Marriott was $75.00 per night. Since I went alone, I ordered room service for dinner. I took poptarts, granola bars, chips and things like that for breakfast and snacks. Room service was very inexpensive. There is a McDonalds right next door to the Marriott that you can walk to, but you can't take the baby out of the hotel. So, one of you will have to go and bring it back. The restaurants in the Marriott are fabulous, but unfortunately I can't remember the prices! I didn't get sick at all eating there. Hope this helps a bit.

[mattecook]

Well I am going to be sick if I see people getting way better airline prices than we did. But we wanted to use American and fly with only 1 layover through DFW. We only have a regional airport that we are flying out of so our costs are often a bit higher than maybe for someone who can fly out of a big airport. But for Matt and I and a return lap ticket it was $1700. We are also flying on a holiday and who knows if that affects the cost. We are flying out on Monday. Our Marriot room was discounted at $90/night per agreement with ou agency. Last time we were there we found food to be around the same as it is here. If you stay at the Marriott we ate at all the restaurants and never got sick and the food was good. There is also a McDonalds next door and their food was great as well.

Hope this helps

Ami

[kari&jose]

OK - so, you can't take the baby out of the hotel? I mean, that's fine with us - we just as soon spend all our time bonding anyway - but this is news.

Anyway, so, average is about $75-100 per night? How long should we plan on being there?

[Bizzie]

When we went for our visit, we stayed at the marriott Wednesday - Saturday breakfast was included in our room fee, and then we took things to have for lunch cup of soups easy mac etc. then we had dinner downstairs they have nice buffets nightly I mean NICE Buffets, and I even took a couple of bottles of water out of the mini bar, our complete bill was $475.35

that was 3 nights, 4 days breakfast included
3 nights worth of dinners

it wasn't to bad price wise.

[mattecook]

You should plan on being there for pickup around 4 or 5 days depending on when your embassy appointment falls. For example
we are arriving late Monday night, get Elly on Tuesday, Embassy on Wednesday, Visa pickup on Thursday afternoon and fly out on Friday.

Now since you will be on pickup there isn't any reason (unless prohibited by agency) that you cannot leave the hotel. You are generally restricted to the hotel during a vist only trip but not during a pick up trip.

Ami

[ekmarshalls]

Hi Ami,

we stayed at La Casa Grande Hotel which is right next to the embassy. we loved it there. it is a small hotel with a resturant and little bar. what we liked about it was that the people that work there are so accommadating to families who are adopting. rooms are very clean, but nothing fancy. the hotel is fenced in so it is very safe. we meet many other adoptive families there because it is so small and quaint. there is a great steak house called La Estancia right next to the embassy that we ate at twice. we did not get sick at all! PM me if you want more info on this great hotel.

[ekmarshalls]

i forgot to mention the rooms were 60.00 per night! and everyone was so helpful...sterilzing bottles, etc!

[BriellesDad]

Originally Posted by mattecook

Now since you will be on pickup there isn't any reason (unless prohibited by agency) that you cannot leave the hotel. You are generally restricted to the hotel during a vist only trip but not during a pick up trip.

Ami

I agree with this...there should be no reason to leave the hotel on a pickup trip, but there have been cases that the locals (not the GOOD locals) have claimed that the baby is stolen, etc. There have also been cases where the Police have stopped people with Guatemalan babies when it was apparent that they were Americans...Not saying that it would happen to anyone here, but if you do leave with the baby, please make sure that you carry ALL of the paperwork with you for the adoption...it just isnt worth taking that chance to me.

[sespan]

To add clarity to whether you can take the baby outside the hotel, restrictions are typically placed on any visit trip, as you (the adopting parent) are not yet considered the full legal guardian. However, once your case exits PGN, your baby is now considered legally "yours", and there are no restrictions at all that your agency or the legal structure can place on you. You are free to take the baby from the hotel as you would like.

We stayed at the Marriott during both a visit trip and pick up and had a great experience. With a young baby, it's great having a large pool area and several in-house restaurants. We got a two-level suite for around $120/night about 6 months ago, but saw a discounted rate of $70/night on Marriott's website.