To be perfectly honest, our stay at the Wyndham Rio Mar was a mixed bag. We are not resort people but knowing this we rented a car and therefore didn’t spend a lot of time at the actual hotel.

The only real hassle we had was with the views from our room(s). We arrived on Friday night around 9:30pm and they gave us room #1036 which is right outside the (squeaky) elevators with a balcony directly adjacent to the main pedestrian walkway out to the pools and beach. Additionally, the balconies aren’t staggered properly, so water was dripping right onto our chairs and table outside.  The worst part, however, was that we had paid extra for an ocean view room and while I generally like palm trees, as you can see below, this balcony does not have an ocean view.

view from room #1036

We complained right away and they promised to move us into a different room the next day, which finally happened following several delays at 8:30pm. Room #4130 was a lot quieter and had a better view, but I would still argue that this doesn’t really qualify as an ocean view room. Why this resort planted wind-breaking palm trees in front of all their ocean view rooms, I’ll never know. At least this balcony didn’t drip!

view from room #4130

The good stuff:

• Room was very large and cleaned well daily.
• Toiletries were Bath and Body Works in generous 2 oz containers: the standard shampoo, conditioner and body wash plus lotion and even a tube of  aloe (this came in handy).
• Grounds and beach are very nice and private.

The not so good stuff:

• Self-parking was $15 a day (valet was $20) and to leave, you have your ticket validated by the valet guy. Not a huge deal, but inconvenient, why not just issue a reusable card to hotel guests?
• Drinks and food prices were high, not necessarily outrageous, but we got around this by eating off property and picking up a bottle of rum and fruit juice at the supermarket to make our own drinks. The one set of drinks we had at the bar on the first night were good.
• Adult pool is right next to the kids pool, so you will still hear the yelling, crying, etc., and lounge chairs were three deep around the pool so you would be awfully familiar with the folks around you. (Renting your own cabana for more privacy would run you $150 per day!)
• No free internet, so the six available public computers were nearly always taken and running an old version of Internet Explorer, so it took a while to check email.
• Fridge was an additional $10 per day, but we just got ice down the hall to make our drinks.

I can’t say I wouldn’t recommend this hotel as we got a reasonable price and the location just north of El Yunque is fantastic. But definitely rent a car and see the island instead of spending your entire time (and budget) at the hotel.