El Morro Eco Adventure Hotel

It’s a quiet, pleasant property, though you’ll need a car to get around. The dining area host is excellent and the staff are all helpful. The restaurant menu could use a rethink, with more fresh local dishes.

The setting is calm and unhurried, with a beach almost across the road and the entrance to El Morro park only a short walk away. Monte Cristi is remarkably tidy compared with nearly every other town on the island, especially with so little roadside trash. We’ve lived on the island for five years, stayed around it, and lived in or visited other countries, and the hotel’s price fits its service. We’re spending three nights here. After driving from Cabrera, we had a splendid lunch of goat and seafood, then enjoyed a comfortable, peaceful first night and omelettes at breakfast. There’s a varied, tasty food selection with generous portions, and the staff are gracious and very helpful. Excellent.

Monte Cristi deserves more attention, with its history, el morro National Park, natural pools in the mangroves, nearby beaches, and other restaurants. This place was a great base, and such a find for a very reasonable price. The layout feels like a small-scale all-inclusive, with lots of spots to sit and relax. There’s a restaurant on site with solid food, breakfast is included, and the staff were extremely friendly.

The breakfast, food, and drinks were genuinely good, and the prices were reasonable. But paying more than 100 USD a night for the room didn’t feel justified. The surroundings are beautiful, yet the hotel itself seems past its best. It could be really cute, but management is poor. The pool was green, WiFi didn’t work, and the A/C made a terrible noise on the first night. We had neither hot water nor much pressure. Broken furniture, abandoned buildings, messy corners, and white paint marks everywhere made the place feel worn and poorly maintained. The restaurant area wasn’t inviting, with unset tables and no decoration, and service wasn’t great. Even as the only guests staying, it was hard to get one extra hour for checkout while we ate lunch in the restaurant, since we didn’t want to leave our room while eating.