El Conquistador
 

Hi
I am thinking about booking a trip to the El Conquistador Hotel, would love some feedback on the hotel, as well as the pricing for drinks and the food.
Thanks
Judy

Probably about 10 years since I've been but, in a nutshell: beautiful hotel, pain in the arse to get to the beach (Palomino Island) but beautiful and secluded when you do, in the middle of nowhere, expensive food/drinks.

Thanks for the info - so the only beach is at the island? I was told there was beach area at the hotel and then a separate beach area on the Palomino Island??

Judy, there is no beach at the El Con other than the one on Palomino to which you take a ferry. And when we went (2 years ago, in February), the hotel (900 rooms) was quite full, and the beach was quite crowded. As were the ferries, so some people didn't even get a ride on the first one that arrived. (If you can handle a Hobie, it's worth renting one at Palomino and zipping over to neighboring Palominito island, which has an almost empty beach.)

Food and drinks are pricey, given that you are a nearly captive audience. We actually found the fine dining restaurants to be priced comparably to big-city restaurants on the U.S. East Coast, but also found the quality to be quite good. It's the casual dining where we found the price/quality equation unbalanced -- too much money for mediocre food.

The hotel is spectacularly sited, but it can be a challenge to get around. It's your basic mega-resort, so if you want all the bells and whistles, you'll get them here. Can't say much about the rooms, since I understand a major overhaul was in the works.

Here's a link to my trip report: http://islandtime.homestead.com/PuertoRico.html

Stayed at conquistador 3 yrs ago and would never go back. poor service, horrible rooms & annoying to take boats to beach.

It's been several years since we have been there but are heading back in 2010. Was told they have upgraded the boats so the trip between the island and the "beach island" is a lot quicker. Thank heavens -- 1 time we stood in line for almost an hour waiting to go across. Another time we were stuck outside the harbor because manatees were playing in the harbor.

I can't remember what the rooms, prices, etc were like.
Main thing I did not like was that we did not feel comfortable renting a car and exploring Puerto Rico.