| Airlawgirl |
Feb 15th, 2003 06:41 PM |
I stayed a week at Paraiso, and spent THE ENTIRE TIME AT THE IBEROSTAR TUCAN/QUETZAL-In my opinion, there was absolutely no comparison. I had no idea that the Paraiso was on the airport road-in other words, on the way to NOWHERE. PDC is a some 20 minutes to a half hour away, with the town center, the hotel zone (which is quite nice) and all that PDC has to offer. There's NOTHING by the Paraiso. Yes, there is a shuttle, but who wants to keep to that shuttle schedule-particularly since the last one is around 10:00 pm or so? Otherwise, you're going to have to spend more than a few dollars on a taxi to get back to that isolated place! Not only that, I found the Paraiso staff unhelpful, the rooms far away from the restaurants (, you had to take a little golf cart from the farthest rooms-if you didn't want to walk 10 min.)-and I absolutely felt that I could have been in Las Vegas, Texas, or anywhere USA-the place did nothing for me. Now the Iberostar /Quetzal, on the other hand, was like heaven-it's one of the finest resorts I've ever been to, and I've been to some beautiful resorts, from Bali to Belize. I have recommended this resort repeatedly since spending my time there-the slice of tropical forest that runs through the resort was amazing-there were beautiful scarlot parrots, a family of monkeys, small Central American tapirs scampering about, and yes, a lovely Toucan in a huge cage-it was simply THE BEST. The food, ambience, and the wondrous beauty of the place made me feel truly like I was in another world. Guests at the other hotels in the PDC hotel zone would come over to the Tucan simply to check out the flora and fauna, which is all marked with signs so you learn what is what. The stone pathways leading down to the pool area-which is always busy, always has something going on for kids and adults-pottery painting, Spanish lessons, aerobics, whatever you need-the frozen marguaritas (way better than the Paraiso, by the way), it was all good. Everyone I talked to felt the same way-and I saw many of the people at Paraiso spending their days at the Tucan just as I did. One man got so angry when he pulled up to the Paraiso that he got his travel agt. on the line, demanding that she get him out of there, and into the Tucan. <BR><BR>I wish someone had made it clear to me before I booked that the Paraiso is really isolated, it was not fun, the food was in no way as good as the Tucan/Quetzal, and it had absolutely no ambience whatsoever-in a word dull and very disappointing. There's simply no contest between the 2 resorts-it's Tucan/Quetzal all the way-and I intend to go back just as soon as I can.
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