A Complete Guide to the Dann Carlton Hotel (Cali, Colombia)

Yesterday, Diana and I visited the Dann Carlton Hotel to taste the food that will be served at our reception, finalize the layout for the ballroom, and to check out accommodations in each of the various room styles. This was our first time seeing the hotel in person--prior to this, we'd only seen photos and web pages. All in all, we were quite impressed--and we think that you will be, too.

Lobby and Front Desk


The lobby area for the Dann Carlton is small, clean, and decorated for Christmas. When we came in, there were plenty of staff handy--three behind the check in counter, a few security guards, and the wait staff at the small cafe in the lobby. We forgot to check if they spoke good English, but they should.

Any of you who are still a bit nervous about the safety of Cali should be happy to note the uniformed officer standing outside the building with the bellhops at all times. Both the police officer and the in-house security are quite vigilant: they didn't even let us take photos without advance permission.

Rooms

We visited a single with a queen bed, a single with a king bed, and a room with two beds they call twin beds, but Americans would probably consider full beds. All of them were quite comfortable, clean, et cetera.


Here's the room with a single queen bed. The same room from the opposite corner:


The rooms with the single king bed are essentially identical, but with a bigger bed and therefore less free space. They still have the sofa.

The rooms with two beds are fairly similar as well: comfortable, clean, and relatively minimalistic.


Amenities

The Dann Carlton seemed to be pretty well set up in terms of amenities. There is a nice outdoor pool, located right next to a restaurant. There's a gym just off the lobby. There seems to be ubiquitous WiFi throughout the hotel (don't know if it is free or not). There's a money exchange at the front desk, although the rate is not very good, so we don't recommend you change your money there if you can avoid it. Finally, any of you who are nervous about the food (which you shouldn't be--the food here is delicious) may be glad to see that there is a Tony Roma's restaurant in the building, just in case you need a fix of gringo food.

Nearby

As most of you already know, Cali is in the middle of a giant festival--La Feria--that runs from Christmas Day through New Year's Eve. It includes decorations, parades, bullfights, and massive, world-famous salsa concerts. A big part of la Feria is a huge path that winds through the city, full of decorations, lights, music, vendors, and people. That path starts just a block or two away from the front door of the Dann. There are also several good restaurants and stores nearby, should you need anything. The closest CVS-type pharmacy (or drogueria) is about one block away.

Prices

After some confusion with the various different names for bed types, et cetera, we have final prices for the rooms at last. After a fair amount of haggling, we've worked it out so that all of the rooms will cost the same thing: ~$125 per night. The only rooms available are the ones shown / described above: rooms with a single bed (which can fit one person or a couple) and rooms with two full beds (which can fit two people). There are no rooms for 3 or more.

The hotel already has your names and your room types (based on the information you provided us on our survey, et cetera), so all you'll need to do is show up at the front desk with your passport and credit card.

Schedule Note

The meeting time for the festivities on Dec 28th--the first planned part of our wedding celebration--is 10am in the lobby of the Dann Carlton.

You should all receive an email from us soon (as soon as possible) with specific information about your transportation from the airport to the hotel--we've got everyone covered, we're just matching up names to timeslots et cetera to give you the most accurate and detailed information possible.

We can't wait to see you all! ¡Feliz Navidad, y hasta pronto!

Arriving in Colombia - A Complete Guide to the Cali Airport

Diana and I have made it safely to Colombia. We've actually arrived in the airport in Cali twice--first on our international flight from Miami, and second on a domestic flight from Bogotá as we returned from a quick family trip to the lovely beach city of Cartagena. We took advantage of these two trips to take some notes about what you can expect when you arrive in Cali

Arriving on an International flight

A quick note: neither Diana nor I have entered Colombia from any country except the USA--so there's some chance that those of you connecting through Panama or Guatemala may have a slightly different experience... but in any case, this should be pretty close.

First of all, expect to receive a customs form from your flight attendant while you are still in the air. It should look like this:


Everything should be relatively self explanatory. Note that you'll definitely want the address of the hotel, as this is requested on the form. To remind you, that address is

Hotel Dann Carlton
Carrera 2 No 1-60
Barrio El Peñón
Cali, Colombia
Phone: (57) (2) 8933000

They don't ask for the phone number on the form, but in our experience, they did ask this later--so keep it handy.

Once you exit the plane, you'll be directed towards customs. Cali's airport is pretty small, and the international terminal seems to consist of only one or two gates, so it should be very obvious which way to go. Just in case, you'll want to follow these signs.


You'll note that most people are standing to the right, while a few people walk forward on the left--diplomats, folks with kids aged 3 or younger, and the elderly get to skip the line. We ended up waiting in line about 40 minutes, so you probably want to wear comfortable shoes, and use the restroom on the plane before landing.

Eventually, you should make it up to the front of the line, where you'll need to speak to the immigration officer.


They'll probably ask you a few questions. For us, they asked us both what we do, how long we would stay in Colombia, and where else we would be traveling within Colombia. They will probably look at your customs form, but they will return it to you when you are done; keep it handy, you'll need it in a moment.

After you make it past the immigration officer, walk down the stairs right in front of you (or follow the signs to the elevator--ascensor--if you need that). Once again, there shouldn't really be any confusion here; there's pretty much only one way to go.


At the bottom of the stairs, there will be a single luggage carousel. In all likelihood, by the time you have cleared immigration, your bags will already be out. Collect your bags, and head towards the exit.


There will be people there to help you with your bags, if you want, like the three gentlemen in light blue shirts in that photo (you should probably tip them somewhere in the neighborhood of 5000 pesos--$2.50). You'll hand your customs form to the customs officer (who may not be wearing a uniform), who will also check your bags against the luggage tags / receipts you received when you checked in for your flight at your point of origin. Next, walk through the vaguely-metal-detectorish thing, and out into the main customs area. There will be a few officers there randomly selecting folks for a more thorough search. Statistics are on your side, but even if you get selected, it shouldn't be too painful. The good news is, you are basically out of the airport now! You'll exit now, and will be funneled out into an outdoor patio area where you'll see a big crowd of people waiting to collect their guests and loved ones. Skip down past the "domestic flight" section to see the last bit of info: what you should do once you are outside.

Arriving on a Domestic flight
The Domestic terminal of the Cali airport is slightly larger than the international, but still pretty small. It's also well marked, with signs in English and in Spanish.



Just follow those signs and should be fine. They'll take you right to Baggage Claim.


Baggage Claim is very small--you shouldn't have any problems finding your bag. Once you've got your bag, you should walk outside--they will funnel you through one door. At that door, an airport employee will check your bags against the baggage tags / receipts you received at your point of origin, so be sure to keep those handy.

Once you've cleared that check, you'll be outside of the airport!

Outside of the Airport - Getting to the Hotel

Once you've exited baggage claim (and customs, if you are arriving on an international flight), you'll find yourself outside, in a covered area where passengers meet their friends and loved ones. There should be some fencing that separates the passengers from the waiting crowd, which should also serve to funnel you in one direction.


That photo is taken from just inside of the domestic terminal's Baggage Claim -- you can see the fencing and the crowds towards the background of the photo. The view from the international terminal is pretty much the same.

Step outside, appreciate the lovely weather in Cali (it's currently projected to be about 79 degrees Fahrenheit on the days most of you will arrive), and start looking for us. A note: the ride from the airport to the hotel is about 45 minutes or so (potentially more, if you hit traffic), so you may want to hit the restrooms before leaving.

You should be looking for one of the following:

Diana and I will be picking up some guests directly. By now, you should have a good idea of what we look like.

Diana's brother will be picking up others. Here's a photo:


From left to right, that's Shäiel (Diana's sister, pronounced like "Child" without the d), Lucho (Diana's brother, pronounced "Lewch-o"), Diana, Pipe (Diana's brother, pronounced "Pee-pay"), and Eduardo (Diana's father).

The others will be picked up either by an employee of Diana's father or by a driver we've arranged through the Dann Carlton. In either case, they'll be carrying a sign that says something like "Pomerantz Trujillo Wedding". If possible, we'll post a photo of the sign(s) here soon.

Please keep an eye out an email from us soon telling us who will pick you up. We've been able to arrange transportation for all of you who requested it, with minimum wait times, so we should be pretty much good to go!

With this information, you should be all set--entering Colombia will be a breeze! We can't wait to see you!

Information FROM our Guests

Hello friends!

By now, wedding invitations should have arrived, at least to all of our guests in the US. Given the location, we weren't able to invite everyone we would have liked to--and we also know that traveling to attend our wedding will be a bit demanding. Still, we're hopeful that many of you will be able to join us in Colombia this December, and we are very grateful to those of you who have already completed and returned your RSVP cards.

For those of you who will be joining us, we ask you to please fill out the brief survey we've created to solicit information from our guests. This shouldn't take long (it's only 10 questions), but it will provide us with critical information that lets us help you book a hotel room, arrange for transportation to and from the airport, et cetera.

We've also made some minor updates to the Wedding FAQ we posted a few months ago.

If you have any questions about the survey, or any difficulty with the forms, please feel free to email us!

Buffalo 2009

As most of you already know, I was born in Buffalo, NY. My family and I left our Williamsville home just before my eighth birthday, and I've only been back once or twice since.

This Labor Day weekend, I had a chance to go back--and to bring Diana along. We were invited to attend the wedding of a friend and former colleague in Buffalo, and we were excited for the chance.

It was a short trip, but an eventful one. In addition to the wedding itself, we went to the 2009 Buffalo Wing Festival, Niagara Falls, my childhood home, and the home of a key comfort food from my youth.

Here's our trip in pictures: