El Marques Palace by Intercorp Group

Positives first - apartments are clean. Close to multiple supermarkets. 1 nice swimming pool. Not far from really good restaurants and cafes. The rest - noisy as a heard of rampaging elephants. We are / were put beside the air duct outlet for the boiler used to keep the swimming pool heated. It’s very loud and is on throughout the night. Mentioned it to reception 3 times but no attempt to even pretend to care. It’s an issue if you are sensitive to low level noise. Very close to bars and restaurants that have resident average or lower “singers” playing nightly. You can hear them clearly even with doors shut. Accommodation as I mentioned before is clean but outdated. All equipment works though so you may just have to get over yourself if you’re used to finer things. The resorts website makes it look like they have a gym and tennis courts - they don’t. Their fancier competitor owns them - nothing to do with The Palace. Draw your own conclusions on why they do that. Location wise - lots of hills and tiny beaches with little by way of sand. The Arena beach is grand but small. You are at least 10 minutes downhill walk from the complex to the little harbour beach. If you know what to expect, this place is ok. I feel we got hoodwinked a bit though - our expectations were higher.

If booking this resort, ensure that you know exactly what kind of apartment you will get on arrival. Those thinking of booking through RCI should verify with RCI what apartments are available for their particular date range or they may end up in a shoe box that does not sleep 4. That said, although extremely small, the unit was very clean and all amenities offered, including free use of the safe.

We booked this through RCI, who pride themselves on having 5 star properties for their members. This is nowhere near a 5 star hotel. It is a 3 star as advertised practically everywhere except RCI. We did still have a nice stay at this hotel. Pros: very nice staff, clean, quiet, nice pool, large apartment with large balcony, ample storage space, AC worked well as did the WIFI, 2 grocery stores right next to the building, rental car available just a block away, nice restaurants within walking distance, clothes washer in the apartment but no laundry detergent provided (bring your own), nice rooftop solarium with ocean view but closes at 7, well before sunset. Cons: building is getting old; cheap quality appliances, cookware, towels and utensils; very little is provided for your week long stay: no paper towels or napkins, only a bit of coffee, 1 bottle of water, a few packets of shampoo, no oven mitts even though there is an oven, need to pay to use the safe in the room, narrow tub so shower curtain sticks to your legs and last but certainly not least, the hotel and basically the whole town is built on the side of a cliff so steep walking no matter where you go. Although our stay was good, we would not come back here mainly because of the steep walking required.