Hotel Playa Esmeralda Beach Resort
This year my wife and I were looking for an inexpensive Bed and Breakfast directly on the beach so we selected Playa Esmeralda Beach resort on Guayacanes beach in the Juan Dolio section of the Dominican Republic. We booked this resort directly through their email system
playa.esmeralda@codetel.net.do at a rate of $70.00 per night; bed and breakfast for 2 persons.
We arrived on Wednesday morning for 4 nights and Lino and his staff were waiting for us. At first the sight of the construction being done to the facade of the hotel was alarming but once we passed we entered into a lovely reception area and realized we were in for a charming stay. There are roughly 40 units in three buildings.
Prior to our arrival I had suggested an oceanfront room and was delivered to a first floor unit overlooking the ocean and pool area. The room was sparse, but functional but I must mention the bed. It was like 2 twin beds pushed together and covered with a king sheet. I was almost like my wife and I were on 2 levels. I will say that the daytimes were much better than the night times. Overall I didn’t care for the room so much.
The beach was lovely. There was a nice coconut grove where people sunbathed and relaxed. You had to walk about 20 meters to the right to bathe because there was coral rock directly in front of the hotel property, but that was OK. The beach was also crowded with locals, which added a lot of flavor as well.
The pool was nice as well. It looks just like that on the website and was refreshing after my long walks or sojourns.
There were activities during the day such as Volleyball, ping-pong, darts tourneys, aerobics etc. I was surprised that this little hotel actually did have an animation staff. They even put on a show at night, which wasn’t very good but they tried hard and seemed to have fun.
I was the only American at the hotel. There were some Dominicans, some Italians enjoying the company of their Dominican girlfriends, mostly Germans and some others. The people were friendly and nice and the ones we met helped make our stay enjoyable.
Guayacanes is known to be a fishing village and we ate fresh fish, conch, octopus, lobster etc. every day. We just walked up to the highway and sat in one of the comedors and ordered what we wanted. It wasn’t much atmosphere-wise, but the fish was excellent. I also enjoy putting a little $$ into the local economy. We ate at the hotel twice for dinner for a surcharge of $8.00 per person. For this we got a 5 course meal including soup, pasta, salad, entrée and dessert as well as drinks. The food was fresh at the hotel and didn’t cause a problem, unlike the stories you hear about all-inclusive food all over the island. This was a plus.
The hotel is also centrally located. Close to the Capital and ten minutes from Boca Chica and San Pedro in either direction. We made day trips to both places during our stay.
Overall we had a nice time. I would recommend it for the budget traveler.
(10)
Hotel Playa Esmeralda
