I don’t know what the other hotels have to offer over and above the Santa Fe which warrants more expense, apart from maybe being a few minutes walk nearer the parks. What I can do is tell you all about what’s on offer at the Hotel Santa Fe and you can decide if it’s the one for you.

The Santa Fe Hotel, as I have already said, is the cheapest and furthest away of the main Disneyland Paris hotels. It consists of a main building – housing the reception, the restaurant/breakfast room, games room, and the left luggage storage area.

The bedrooms are in one, two, or three-storey blocks of between half-a-dozen and maybe fifty rooms. On our last visit we were on the second floor which had five bedrooms on that floor. There was no lift, so be warned! If you struggle with stairs, you will need to request a ground floor room.

Each standard room (sleeps four) has either two double beds, or a double and bunks. They do let you have a cot in the room too, but only one. The rooms have dividing doors, and you can have two next to each other if you are taking family with you, but you need to ask when you book. This isn’t guaranteed. 

There are bigger family rooms available for six people too. 

The rooms, and the whole hotel, are on a Cars theme. If you have fans of Lightning McQueen, Mater, and the gang, then the Hotel Santa Fe is for you. 

The bathroom in a standard Santa Fe room

A double bed complete with a very unromantic Cars themed bedspread

Decor includes a traffic-cone lamp

Bunk beds and Cars frieze!

In each room there is….

A TV with remote and limited channels
A ceiling fan
An electric heater
European sockets (don’t forget your adaptors)
One pillow each
A programmable safe
A hanging rail
A huge set of three drawers
A bin
A kettle (though this seems to be pot luck. Ask at reception if you need one and don’t get one).

A bathroom with bath and shower over
Towels
Soap
A bin
A wired-in hairdryer
Loo roll
Disposable plastic cups

Breakfast

Breakfast is available as an extra. You get a ticket for each day on check-in. You get an allocated time-slot from as early as 7am, to as late as 9.45am. You might need to queue on entry depending on how busy it is. 

Breakfast is continental buffet-style. There is a selection of cold meats, cheese, bread, natural yoghurt (all open in pots and you help yourself). Also there is sliced bread and a toaster, limited cereals, croissants, and hot and cold drinks. 

It can be a bit boisterous and noisy but the staff are pretty good at getting tables cleared to help speed things up. 

The bus

The shuttle bus leaves from the front of the hotel every fifteen minutes or so but it does get busy and we tried to walk as much as we could. It takes around fifteen to twenty minutes to walk to the Disneyland parks. It’s quite a nice walk along the Rio Grande (a canal which separates Hotel Santa Fe from Hotel Cheyenne), round the marina, and through Disney Village. 

Waiting for the shuttle bus out the front of the Santa Fe hotel

Left Luggage

On your day of departure you can leave your luggage for free in the ‘baggagerie’ so you can grab an extra few hours around the parks before you go home.

WiFi

Free WiFi is available in the reception area. You have to register and log-in but it is pretty good. 

The Characters

Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto are regular visitors to the hotel and they come either in their regular outfits or special Santa Fe ones. Saves a bit of time queuing in the park.

Verdict – 

We love the Santa Fe hotel. Yes, it’s busy, but the rooms are quiet and ample for us. To us, it’s like one of the nicer Travelodges on a Cars theme. We only use our room for sleeping in, so it’s not like we need anything more. We’ll be coming back to this one again no doubt.