Hostal El Tambo

The beach is quiet and the view is nice. This is much like other hostels on Playa Blanca, and getting there late at night isn’t a good idea unless you’ve spoken with the hostess first. We couldn’t reach the host beforehand, which made things a little difficult, but once we arrived, we had a very enjoyable time.

We didn’t stay at the hostel, just ate at the restaurant. The food was okay, but the man working there charged us 45.000 COP for rice with vegetables, which seemed wildly high. Other places charge around 20-25K, and later we saw a sign for a meat dish at 25K. It felt like he’d made up the price to scam us. Go somewhere else.

The nearby places played unpleasant music from 7 am until 2 am, so it was far from relaxing. The bed felt like bricks, the lounge chairs were terrible, and the owners were somewhat rude even though we tried hard to speak Spanish. This wasn’t about being unable to rough it, despite what Booking reviews say. I’d rather have slept in a tent on the sand. Try somewhere else down the beach.

The beach is beautiful, but watch out for street vendors and don’t let them scam you. My family and I had a terrible stay here. Someone who lived there stole our cell phone, and a foreigner broke in early one morning to rob us. We paid for everything, yet still had to pay to use the showers. The place was very dirty, we had to clean the second floor ourselves, and the linens weren’t changed. The staff were very rude. I can’t recommend the place or its service.