When we reached Cordoba two things happened, first, there was a heatwave with over 100f / 40c temp, and second, the hostal where we had a confirmed booking refused to honour our reservation. This meant we had to find a double room with air-con in the middle of a heatwave -- not easy doing in Cordoba. This town does get hot every summer (usually 80f / 30c) but the locals don't think this is hot enough for air-con so pretty much no place offers it. We definitely did not find any availability in the budget range. As such we had too look higher, and that is what lead us to the Alex Hotel.

The Alex is a small botique hotel across from the bus terminal in Cordoba. It is on a busy street so the rooms up front are a bit noisy, but if you get one off the street they are perfectly quiet. The hotel is modern and has been decorated with taste and style -- not the norm for Argentina.

Our room was small but fine. We had a double (matrimonial) bed, two nightstands, a shelving system, TV with loads of channels in English, a shower room and of course, the all important, air-conditioning. Our window looked out on the back courtyard where there is normally a wee water fall feature thing and a jacuzzi, but due to contruction of a building next door all of that was closed when we were there. Bummer as I don't think they gave us a discount.

The lobby was alright and breakfast was served there. It was included in the price and was the basic -- coffee, juice & media lunas. The lobby was air-conditioned and you could get a good free wifi connection there. We could sometimes get the wifi in our room, but it would fade out.

We slept very well here in our quiet, cool and comfortable room. It was slightly over our budget (at 190 pesos / US$ 50 for a double - we are backpacking around the world) so we do wish it had been cheaper or perhaps had a little more perks to warrent the price. Still when you arrive during a heatwave you are lucky to find anything with air-conditioning so we were happy.

The location was also great as we could walk to all the sites, plus being across from the bus station there was always a line of taxis waiting to serve us. The staff did not speak any English, but we got by on our limited Spanish. They were helpful and friendly always greeting us with a smile and making us feel welcome.

The hotel is hard to find but it is worth giving it a try. Very clean, wifi, correct breakfast for a very low rate. You have to pay twice as much to get a better hotel in this city. Location is right in front of bus station, so not a nice neighborhood.