Puerto Rico (Colina Mar)

Member Name: broksababe

Product:	Colina Mar
Date:	28/11/00 (1617 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good weather

Disadvantages: crooks at large!!

Having just returned from here a week ago I thought I should warn you about a few things should you consider going on holiday there.
The place itself is fine, its situated in a volcanic area, with appartments built on the flat and into the sides of the volcanic rock.
There is one beach with fairly shallow water ideal for children or non swimmers, here you can also jet ski and other water sports.
There are two shopping centres one large one at the bottom near the beach and a smaller one at the top.At the top you ask? yes! our hotel was at the very top of a 2 mile hill! it was called Colina mar and although the hotel wasnt to bad if you like cats and cockraches!!, no we had a few sweet little cats who dropped into the appartment for tea but our friends next door had problems with extremely large roaches!!!YUKKKK!.
The food was good buffet style breakfast and evening meal, plus happy hour for 2 hours at night.The kids had their own day and nightime entertainment which my 8 year old enjoyed. There was then adult entertainment and bingo later. The hotel had 2 pools a larger one and a smaller that was less busy.You can also go on trips to camel safari's which we did but I only got a few feet on the thing and screamed to be let off(not pleasant).plus boat trips to visit the dolphins in glass bottomed boats or even the local market.Plus there is a big wild west town nearby by bus for the kiddies.
Here comes the downside, the large bottom shopping centre sells lots of electricals including camcorders which our friends wanted to buy, he though he was getting a bargain until he brought it back to the hotel and looked in an argos catalogue, he had paid £600 for a £279 Argos camcorder!!!
Needless to say he was not amused as it was not even the camcorder he was shown in the shop!!, it got worse, no receipt!, so he went to the rep and the rep got a legal person to go down with him to get his money back.The shop of course said they would have been happy
to refund or exchange without the legal involvement!!( I dont think so do you?).
So he actually got a top of the range one and saved around £300.The warning is here that the shops ask people how long they will be staying, so if you say "we Leave tomorrow", the chances are they would fiddle you , as you would'nt have time to use it or realise!!.Always make sure you ask for a receipt and be aware the police say they do it all the time. This shop in question was also a jewellers and called "metro electronics", so give them a waide berth!.
The other downer is time share are everywhere with scratchcards and you are told you have won a star prize worth £500, all you need to do is go to their resort have a look round and you will get it,A look round takes around 5 hours of your day!!, and at the resort you will see crowds of other poor holiday makers clutching winning tickets!, everyone receives a £500 voucher off a holiday booked through them and a crappy t.short and thats your lot,a day wasted , so if someone offers you a scratchcard do as the reps do and say "go frost your weetabix" !!!!
Should you survive the perils above you will actually find it quite pleasant here, temperatures last week were 93!!, and duty free ciggies and booze are cheap, arount £4 for 200 cigs and £3-4 for a bottle of spirits.Food is also reasonable , a three course meal be it english, chinese etc costs around£6!!Clothing and gifts are quite pricey too, so shop around and another plus is they are all open to offers so never pay the set price, particular bargains are thick hand embroidered table cloths and napkins.So if you are planning to go there I hope this helps!!.

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