Casa Canario Hostel in Guadalajara

My Russian girlfriend, her cat, and I arrived in GDL after living in San Felipe, Baja California for six months. In SFBC we were able to secure an apartment in two days, the first to search, the second to move in - probably as easy in GDL, right? Wrong. Took a week of hotel bouncing and we eventually ended up staying at this Casa Canario for four nights! It's a nice hostel with a fully equipped kitchen, pleasant sitting area next to the kitchen AND in the foyer, and the rooms are surprisingly cool despite the GDL heat. The location is PRIME and next to nearby parks, restaurants, downtown - you name it. The price isn't bad either given that you have access to a full kitchen and somewhere to relax other than sitting in your room. You can find cheaper place nearby (maybe $10 USD cheaper?) but they're big corporate-run entities with none of the "good" that this place puts out, and completely without the kitchen or other amenities. The hostess Mariana is pretty bilingual in Spanish and English and was able to help me communicate with the owner of the place in which I currently live. She was also knowledgeable about the area and able to direct me to points of interest and in general pleasant to talk with. My girl and I had to wait until 430 pm for the house we're renting to open up and Mariana had no problem letting us chill in the foyer-sitting area until we left around 4pm. The only two downsides were relatively minor and entirely incidental. The lower room we had initially secured had some ants, so we were moved to a room without ants. Easy fix and they sprayed for the ants in the meantime. The second was the upper room we stayed in for three nights had a shared bathroom with another upper room. The guest staying there had stomach issues and the doors are very thin so I advise that IF you use the upper bathroom, play some music or something when you're in there.

This was a great hostal to stay in with our medium-sized dog as there was a large outdoor space on the upper terrace with a nice sitting area and lots of plants. The room itself was simple, clean, and comfortable. The shared bathroom was very basic, but fine for our needs. The shared kitchen was clean and well-stocked. The staff and other guests were friendly and we enjoyed our stay very much. Well-situated in the hip La Americana neighbourhood with lots of great restaurants, bars, and cafés within walking distance (De La O Cantina was one of our favourites). Enjoy!