Forget your 5 star hotel experience and your youth hostel with separate rooms and ensuite. This is Dili. If you are cheap, this is your chance to stay in a shipping container. If you want a tropical room by the sea with bar service, you are limited. You should also note that most of the hotel accommodation is geared to longer term expats and few if any will provide the full array of services found in western hotels (eg business centre, hotel shop, phone in your room and in many cases, a bar).
For booking accommodation, we suggest using Jim at JJ Travel who can be contacted via the http://www.timorleste-hotels.com website.
Locations and phone numbers of many of the establishments mentioned here are in the monthly Guide Post magazine.
Some suggestions with in-depth analysis follows :
Backpackers
Dili Backpackers
Located at the same place as the Smokehouse Bar and Sun (Indian) Restaurant. Probably the most popular for the backpacker. Close to the centre of town with short walks to Indian, Thai and Japanese restaurants and the Colmera shopping centre. Plenty of beer here.
Hotels
Timor Lodge Hotel (now booked out)
Initially, this was recommended as the best option for large group bookings. The OZ and NZ Defence Forces also think the same way and have now block booked the place out, thus almost eliminating the last of the shipping container accommodation options. TLH has a variety of accommodation options form small apartment-like rooms to converted shipping containers but alas the OZ and NZ taxpayers have got them all now, plus the large swimming pool.
Venture Hotel
Now our 2nd preferred option. Reasonably close to most things - supermarket, bars, seashore, Tony's kebab joint, ANZ Bank and central Dili. Has a reasonable bar/restaurant with outdoor bar area and a small pool. Close to One More Bar if a change of bar scenery is required. Around US$30 to 35 for a room with ensuite.
Hotel Timor
Recognised as the number one (or two) hotel in the country and often used by visiting dignitaries. Probably 3.5 to 4 stars. Typical clientele are not hash types. Not really a place to hang out drinking beer but good coffee shop. Pasteis da nata (Portuguese-style custard tarts) a speciality. Go here for $1 coffee and pasteis de nata, tick your "I've been to the Hotel Timor" card and go somewhere else.
Discovery Inn
Along with Hotel Timor, sits in the top 2. Rooms are smart. Excellent restaurant but more for your finer dining experience. Upstairs bar but not near sea. Near to ANZ Bank, One More Bar, and a number of small restaurants. If you stay here, you are required to invite resident Dili hashers to your room for refreshment.
Esplanada Hotel
Hashers will fit in well here if there are available rooms. Has a small pool and pool area. Upstairs bar/restaurant overlooking the sea. Reasonably close to action although the bar/restaurant is more for your hasher requiring a quiet evening to chat up someone of the opposite sex with a view to intimacy.
Hotel Dili
Neat hotel on waterfront. Again, not a real hang-out for the beer drinker. Food good. Beer available. Hey, I have lived here and I liked it.
Hotel Turismo
For the history buffs, this appears in a number of historical moments as one of the last places vacated by foreigners in 1999 and the place used by journos over the years. MAkes an appearance in the film "Balibo" but not a typical hash hang-out. But near the Lita Supermarket.
Dili Beach Hotel
Possibly the most hash-friendly hotel - the owner is a hasher. Fine bar and excellent food. You will drink here if you come to the 500th. Good place to stay if you can't move after a hash night out. Has a pool which many resident Dili hashers have fallen into - I know I have !
Ocean View Hotel
The good rooms are taken by long-term tenants but if you want a place slightly more remote away from the Dili traffic and with easy access to the beach, this is the place. Can be difficult without your own transport. Great for afternoon wind-down sessions on the deck overlooking the beach. A hash retreat at sunset. This is the place for those wishing to swim in the sea rather than a hotel pool. Swimming in the sea is not recommended at any of the other hotels (think coral which hurts and excrement which comes out of Dili's drains).
One More Bar
One of the mainstay expat bars with large screen TV. Some rooms may be available but these are mostly for long-term residents. You will probably drink here if you are that way inclined.
Arbiru Beach Resort
Down near Ocean View. Mostly for long-term residents.
Other More Economic Hotels
Include Hotel Tropical, Hotel Vila Verde, Farol Hotel, Plaza Hotel and numerous others. These tend to not have bars attached and simple resturants if at all. Some may market themselves more to Indonesian or Chinese clientel and like most Dili hotels cater for longer term residents.
Rented Rooms
It may be feasible to find a rented room. Locals are often looking for foreigners to pay them some rent and this is a growing market. There are a number of accommodation compounds offering longer-term accommodation who may be interested but it depends on demand.
