I enjoyed a fantastic week at the Coralina Del Mar with a group of 14 family members, 4 kids 5 to 11 and 10 adults from 42 to 75. We came from Boston, MA, Hampden, ME, London, England, and Fort Lauderdale, FL. It is quite a drive from San Juan, but it is well worth it, and you can always explore flying to the Rafael Hernández Airport, which is only about 45 minutes away. For anyone that has not been to PR, the drive from San Juan in daylight provides a wonderful introduction to the island's rugged and spectacular geography.
Our first, and lasting impression of the property, is that the photographs online do not do it justice, it is even better in reality. Although we had the odd minor issue, each of which was responded to in a timely fashion, it did not detract from the fabulous time we all had. For example, we took a number of Christmas movies to watch, but there was no DVD player. We called to ask about this, and the very next day, a brand new DVD player was delivered. The bottom line is that if you keep in perspective where you are, and understand that a big selling point for visiting PR is that the pace of life is slower, and you embrace Island Time, you will have a most excellent and memorable experience.
Sandy Beach is awesome, although when the surf is up, which it was about all the time, it is not for the faint of heart, less confident swimmers, or for very young children. We enjoyed taking the kids to the Rincon Marina beach, which is much more sheltered and provided some good snorkling at the northern end.
The house has all the necessary equipment, and we did cook a number of meals. We enjoyed a Pig Roast, which was quite an event, although we would recommend inviting a bunch of people as we are sure it could feed 40 or more. Alternatively, there are plenty of leftovers, which we made good use of.
A huge selling point for us was the Gazebo which allowed us to have a number of meals all sitting together (we rented a couple of large tables and chairs - done through the caterer that we had provide a couple of excellent evening meals www.tastebudspr.com - which I would highly recommend).
Another big selling point was that even though the high temperature was consistently 80 to 86 degrees, there was a steady breeze of the ocean that meant it was never uncomfortable.
We made good use of the Tamboo bar and restaurant up the beach, which again I would recommend highly.
Our visit exceeded everyone's expectation