Villa Condesa Del Mar

The easy beach access was a real plus, about 50 steps to a lovely beach, and the hotel provides shade tents. But every beach chair we saw was visibly broken and needs replacing. Internet is available around the property, though the speed and quality aren’t great, so working from here would be difficult. Nicky and Manolo were friendly and clearly tried hard to help, but seem new to managing the property and coordinating services. We’re frequent visitors to Isla Contadora, and this was our sixth trip. We’d stayed at Mar Y Oro and Four Elements before and were excited to try somewhere new with our family of four. We had a nice time on the island, but our first stay here had too many maintenance and service problems, and we wouldn’t return. We booked a Deluxe Suite with Sea View. The view was amazing, the beds were comfortable, and the A/C worked well through the night. Still, we had no warm water for our whole three-night stay, and no room service, not even fresh towels. The second sleeping area had no blackout curtains, so it got bright very early. The kitchen was okay, but a coffee machine and toaster would have helped. Other family members were in two separate rooms. One had warm water, the other didn’t, and one room had several obvious holes in the ceiling. We were lucky it didn’t rain, but that could be a problem in wet weather. The included continental breakfast was good and served from 8:30 to 11:00 am. Eggs and bacon cost extra. As an early riser, I wished there were a simple coffee station before 8:30, so guests could have coffee while watching the sunrise.

The beach and ocean are truly stunning, and the property manager was pleasant and tried to address the problems we reported. But the villa itself was not worth the money. It’s advertised as luxury, yet felt like three-star accommodation at best. To really fix it, they’d have to demolish it and rebuild from scratch. Not recommended. The place was old, dirty, and unlike the photos. There was no air conditioning in the kitchen or living room, an unpleasant smell, and hardly any dishes or cutlery in the poorly equipped kitchen. On the second day, there was no water in the bathrooms or kitchen, so we couldn’t use the toilet or even brush our teeth. We’d been told there would be minor pool repairs. Instead, the whole villa was under renovation. Workers were around almost constantly, with noise, dust, and tools from morning until late at night.

The view across Cacique Beach, the ocean, and nearby islands is excellent. You can take the stairs down to the beach, and the dock is about a block away, so walking with luggage is easy. There’s also a UTV (Mule) shuttle. Breakfast was included and good, and they let us check in early at 10AM. Still, this was poor value, even by Contadora’s expensive standards. The safety railings were rusted through, paint was peeling in the room, there were mold stains, and the door lock was broken, so we had to secure it with a chain and padlock. The bar seemed permanently closed and was a wreck, though staff could get me beer and water. There was no potable water in the room, not even for sale, and no restaurant. The pool was too low to use while I was there, though they said they were filling it. Some lounge cushions were too filthy to sit on, though others were okay. The view is nice, but there aren’t many decent spots to sit with friends, have a drink, and enjoy it. The beach shade had five chairs, enough when I visited.

The property is in terrible shape and feels abandoned. The showers are awful, the pool is half empty, the roofs aren’t maintained, there’s no central AC, and the beach chairs are broken. The property managers told us they’d take care of things and didn’t. Service from them was terrible, though not from the workers. They gave us a cooler of coke and beer and charged $150. Don’t trust the pictures. These high reviews are ridiculous, and I assume they’re paying for them.