Best Things Nearby:
Shopping in Old Town; the beach; the restaurants in town.
Best Things About the Resort:
We found the hotel manager went above and beyond his duty to help us out when we had a problem with a local vendor who tried to rip us off and even paid off two policia to show up at the hotel to intimidate us. The hotel manager also sent an interpreter with us when we had to go deal with this vendor. It was scary and without the help of the hotel manager and staff, the experience would have been much worse.
Resort Experience:
ACCOMMODATIONS: We stayed in a two-bedroom unit (a one-bedroom unit with a door that connects to a studio unit). We stayed in rooms 420 and 421, which were on the top floor of the building that overlooks the pool nearest the lobby. A second pool is located in front of the last building that overlooks the ocean. Our view was nice, overlooking the pool and marina. The only building with an ocean view is located at the end of the property. That building is "integrated" with the second pool, which has waterfalls and caves and a very large jacuzzi. The water in that pool was too cold to swim in. The water in the pool nearest us was very warm.
The room was spacious, clean but spartan. The TVs were old and our son couldn't connect his Game Cube to any of them. We had to buy a special connector from town. TV reception was crummy and there were only eight stations, four of them local Mexican stations.
There is no oven in the kitchen, and only two burners on the stove. There is a half-sized microwave oven, and a small fridge. There was also a toaster, a coffee maker, blender, dishes, pots and pans, and silverware. Bring paper towels! The laundry facility is located at the end of the marina. It cost 15 pesos (about US$1.50) to wash/dry a load.
The beds and the couch were made of concrete with a mattress on top. We ordered another pad to put on top of the mattress, but it was still so hard that we never got a full night's rest. The air conditioners blow a lot of air (and humidity) into the rooms, but the air never gets cold. We ended up just keeping the doors/windows open all day/night to keep the room cool.
MARINA EL CID RESTAURANTS: The first night we had the buffet at the restaurant in the lobby area. It was horrible, and it was also overpriced. We also ate at the little restaurant that was near the pool. We ordered hamburgers, but received these things with what looked like meatloaf patties that were disgusting and undercooked. We ate at the restaurant one more time and had the breakfast buffet. That was actually quite good. Other than those three times, we ate in town.
TIMESHARE PRESENTATION: When did go through the presentation. However, we were grumpy from no sleep on the hard mattresses and had a terrible meal in the restaurant. So we weren't interested in buying there. They didn't give us a hard sell and they didn't bother us about it the rest of the trip.
OVERALL: We found the staff to be very friendly and helpful and, although the cost to rent the place was very affordable, overall, we just could not recommend it and we would not stay there again.
- Unit Type: 2 Bedroom
- Activities: Fair
- Amenities: Fair
- Unit Satisfaction: Poor
- Family Friendliness: Fair
- Service: Fair