Myself and boyfriend just returned from Puerta Del Sol in Margarita Island.

Im still sick today and suffering from food poisoning. I was not the only one on my resort. The food poisoning was just one of the many down falls of my vacation to this hotel.

The staff are horrible to deal with. They don't speak any English, they are rude and don't want to help you. When we first arrived it took awhile before we got over the shock of the state of this resort. As soon as I got to my room you could tell the place was not cleaned. The water in the shower sorta trickled out and we had no water pressure. I went downstairs to complain and ask for another room. After speaking to 3 different people I was finally told there were no other rooms and there would be no other rooms the hotel was full. We had to tuff it out for the week. The washroom by the pool was a state. One stall had no door and the other door fell off its hinges and on top of me while I was using the washroom. To top it off there is no soap to even wash your hands. The pool is falling apart. Every time I got out I ended up with chips of blue paint on my skin. There is no place to sit and relax. They only have enough seats for about 20/30 people in a full hotel to sit by the pool at night or during the day. I stood around most nights or just went to bed out of boredom.

There are pretty much no activities or no entertainment staff around during the day. I never saw them at the resort during the day. Sometimes you would see them on the beach for beach volleyball. At night you would see them. Mainly for the nightly bingo games boy that was fun! Not really. The Entertainment is a joke.

The food is horrible and no selection at the buffet. It was so busy there at night at times we could not even get a place to sit down and eat our supper. We just had to stand there til someone else was finished. The restaurants are ok and I enjoyed the Mexican and Thai. The hard part is actually booking the restaurants. The staff started taking reservations about 9am and you had to be sure to be there 20min to 1/2 hour early to book a spot. My friend was in line for 20 minutes with 8 people infront of Her. When she got to the front of the line it was all booked up. The bad part was there most of been 30 others behind in the line up. Most nights they only have 1-2 restaurants available and they dont fill them up. I would walk by the restaurants at night and they would be less than 1/2 full not understanding why I could not get a reservation. The snacks during the day where pretty much fried bread with no taste but grease.

The Bar, the one and only bar. I only saw the pool bar open for about an hour the 6 days We were there. The main bar on a good day had 2 people on staff. It was ok during the day but at night you had to line up forever just to get a drink. The beach bar was a little easier but don't expect friendly service and its pretty dirty. Spanish speaking customers faired much better and got drinks faster. BRING LARGE THERMAL MUGS! very important!

The beach and beaches in the area are really nice and thats where I spent time. Just get there early if you want a chair. Be careful the surf and the under tow is dangerous. I heard of a couple of people getting fished from the water and almost drowned. Keep a close eye on your children. Bring a folding cooler if you have one, its great for packing food and drinks for other beaches. Bring your own towel. The front desk will ask for a deposit and you don't want to deal with them more than you have too.

The Tours. We took a Jeep Safari and it was the High Lite of my trip to Margarita. We booked with a street vendor (Manolo) for 25$ US dollars and it was worth every penny. Don't book with your travel reps you will get a better deal on the street and its the same thing no matter what they tell you.

The Nightlife. I enjoyed the bar scene. Every night there was a happening place to go. The bars were filled with young people dancing up a storm til all hours. Its also cheap to get in and the beers are anywhere from 55 cents to 1$. Lots of restaurants and bars line the beach so lots to do during the day and night. The Markets also offer great shopping. Cloths are super cheap here. You can buy designer cloths in the cities for 70% less than what you would pay in Canada. If you like Pearls bring some extra cash. You can also buy pearls for next to nothing. I never knew that and bought some amazing things.

I have traveled to Dominican, Jamaica and Cuba and this resort is no place near up to par with other hotels. This hotel is in need of a major face lift to be rated a 3 star hotel.

If your already booked to go to this hotel just dont have great expectations. Get out and see the Island and the beautiful beaches and scenery Margarita has to offer. The Island is amazing. The shopping is great. The weather perfect. The beaches stunning. Try not to let this resort get you down. Im sure in time they will improve, my fingers are crossed.

We just got back from Margarita Island and we loved it (week before March break)..........we stayed at Puerto Del Sol........we were sceptical at first because it was rated a 3 star but the price was so good we decided to try it(because of the reviews we read). The start of our stay was not too good. We were given a room that was not very nice.......sliding doors did not lock......musty smell and the bathroom was clean but falling apart , shower, toilet(literally). We went to the front desk and asked to be moved to another room ......this took a bit of doing (you have to insist and eventually they do accommodate you) they kept saying that "tomorrow we will give you another room" . Eventually the head housekeeper had a look at our room and realized we should be given another room right away. This took a couple of hours, but once we were given another room (another building, third floor) we were thrilled. It was really nice, clean , everything worked etc, we were very happy with it. Great view of the mountains. The rest of the week was great.....no problems at all.

The pools (3 of them) were all nice , especially the main one. If you want some privacy (and shade in the aft) the pool by the Mexican restaurant is a great place to be.

The beach is across the road (not far at all) and is very nice but you have to be careful of the undertow. The bar at the beach is open at 11 and is open till 5. There are cabanas but you have to go early to the beach to get one....they belong to the resort. It is very hot there(but bearable, it grows on you)........take along sun screen .........you can burn within 15 minutes......I used sunscreen every day.........I never used to have to do that.

The food is good, there is a good variety. They have 3 other restaurants(which you have to book in the morning ) plus the main buffet. There are different themes they use.......Arabian.........Italian........Thai etc........they try and it makes it interesting. Always use bottled water....there is plenty there. Take along a few small bottles from home and you can fill them up as many times as you like. I did experience a few days of upset intestinal problems.......but nothing severe.........it was bearable.......take along imodium and gravol just in case.

We also went into Porlamar by taxi........lots of shopping , but you have to be careful (always remember your exchange of the U.S. dollar and then into the Canadian dollar) it is not always cheaper then what you can get back at home . There are some good buys out there. Make sure you change your money into Bolivar's as it does make a big difference.......you save by using Bolivar's over against the U.S dollar. This is very true for the departure tax.........use Bolivar's..........it was 94,000 Bolivar's per person or 46 U.S. dollars. The exchange rate for us was between 2,400 -2,500 for one U.S. dollar. It does make a difference by quite a bit. We also went on the Jeep Safari........cost was $40.00 U.S. per person if you paid the first day (at the meeting with your rep). Otherwise it is $50.00 per person. You can also book it at the beach , which is even cheaper yet.........they are the same tour people (jeeps).

Just returned from our trip to Margarita Island Feb 16-23. We were booked to go to Hotel Flamboyant but Sunquest overbooked and moved us to this 2* resort. At first we were very nervous about a 2* but when we got there we were pleasantly surprised.

This is a no frills type of resort but the food, the pools and for the majority the service was very good. We had several problems with the front desk staff, checking in was terrible (took over an hour and a half to get our room key and we were one of the first to get our key out of 3 bus loads!) the towel service and booking reservations---all very disorganized. The service at the Italian restaurant too was not good. The other restaurants, bars and other service areas were excellent!!

Our room was ok, beds were comfortable and we were happy with the fridge, TV and the A.C. The bathroom wasn't ideal, the shower had little to no water pressure and the door couldn't open past the toilet---very small, not good for large or disabled people. Also of note there are no elevators at this resort we were on the 4th floor)--not a big deal for us but again if you are disabled or have difficulty with stairs, this wouldn't be the best place for you. The buffet was also on the second floor.

The food was great---we had no complaints. The buffet had a large selection and there was always a person cooking on a grill for a fresh dish.

The beach was very nice--quite busy in front of our hotel. The beach is also full of vendors selling their crafts, it was neat to purchase stuff from your beach chair. The beach has some rough water--and an strong under tow, even if you are a great swimmer you have to be very careful.

This resort did not have a lot of activities--which for us is good (we like to relax) but not good if you are planning to bring mid-age kids/teens--they will get very bored!

We just returned from Margarita having spent a week at the Puerto Del Sol complex. We were there from the 9th to the 16th. We couldn't find out much about this hotel before going except that it was a 3 star by some and a 2 1/2 star by others. Well we would go back in a minute. We are not the most extensively traveled people by any measure, but we do get away 2 or three times a year. To us while this is truly not a 4 star we would rate it a strong 3 or 3 1/2.

Rooms:
The rooms (we had 2) are large and clean with fully ceramic bathrooms. There were two comfortable queen size beds, a bar fridge (not stocked), cable tv (3 or 4 english channels), ample closet space, a safe, and a good blow dryer in the washroom. We only changed rooms do to the safe not working in our first room. By the way, the charge for the safe is only 2 bucks a day, although there is a $40.00 deposit.

Food: There is an excellent buffet with lots of choices at every meal, several juices, beer, wine etc. The food quality is better than acceptable, in fact it was very good with the exception of the desserts. There was not much selection and it was usually some type of little cake squares. There are theme nights at the buffet, such as mediterannean etc. The service is pretty good we found particularly if you tip just a little.

There are also 3 a la cartes there and they are also pretty god , but most agreed that the Mexican was the run away favourite. It featured a seafood salad to die for and a beef fajitas entre that was just terrific. We are fairly sociable people and we spoke with lots of our co travellers, we never heard an unhappy word about the food quality.

Beach & Pools: The beach, well it's Playa el Agua, fantastic. Great beach, no rocks, excellent rolling waves for body surfing or boogie boards. Several sand bars so you can go out quite a ways and still be only chest deep. Volley ball games ongoing, lots of cabannas and lounges. If you come late you may not get a cabanna for a while, but you will certainly get lounges. There is also a beach bar which is also all in the inclusive but no snacks there.

The main pool is fine, and has a small shallow play area for kids at one end. It has a swim up bar and a separate section that is used for water vollyball.

There are two other smaller pools set off a ways, that are more private and seem to be not for kids but, we're not sure about that as we never used them. They looked nice enough, we just preferred the beach.

Money: You might want to do your shopping etc. in bolivars as you will no doubt save money. We found that changing US dollars would get us 2400 boilvars to the dollar unless we changed denominations of $20.00 or more, then we would get 2450 bolivars to the dollar. But you have to shop and BARGAIN! That was at that time, it changes. The official rate was 1920 B's to the dollar we were told.

Things are quite inexpensive there really. If you wanted to go out for dinner for example you would expect to pay between 15,000 to 25,000 B's for a full meal (garlic shimps for example) and that's like 7 to 10 dollars. Oh yes, and cocktails are about a buck. The beer is 2 for about 1000 B's, and that's about a quarter each. They are small bottles but they are really good. Just DON'T DRINK THE WATER!!

Oh yes, the weather was upper 80's to 90's every day except one that went over 100, it was bright sunny days and it rained a few times overnight, never in the daytime.