El Blok Hotel — Hotel in Isla de Vieques

I usually don’t write reviews but in this case I stayed at el block for a full 8 days so I felt I could maybe share my experience.

Let me start by saying that vieques is absolutely amazing, unfortunately el Blok is not.

Looking back I probably should have paid a bit more attention to some of the more negative reviews and while I personally don’t care if the coffee is not all too great or there’s a tiny bit of mold in the bathroom, here my personal three biggest issues with el Blok.

1. Noise The hotel is build around an open, hollow core that goes through all floors from the rooftop to the ground floor which means that you hear every sound in the hallway on all of the floors.

Since all the hard surfaces in the center reflect sound very effective and no sound absorbing material seems to have been used, you can hear any door that is closed (and, the doors slam shut quite loudly) reverberating throughout the whole hotel.

The doors to the rooms are also not particularly sound proof so you might be able to follow conversations in the hallway word by word.

In my case the wall to the adjacent room had a door as well so I was able to literally hear my neighbors sneeze.

2. Vibe & atmosphere Since the restaurant opens only a few days a week the hotel generally feels pretty dead and deserted, particularly in the morning and during the day there is no way to even get a coffee in the hotel.

Despite its great view the rooftop is not particularly inviting as well and, except a couple hanging chairs, has very little space that is not exposed to direct sunlight during the day so its a bit tricky to spend a day just relaxing there. The bar on the roof top is only open once a week so overall, there is not really any space in the hotel that one would want to spend more time than you’d necessarily have to at.

3. Rooms & View El Blok seems to be a good example of a building that is designed to mainly look cool, hip and edgy from the outside with little regards to how it feels to live on the inside.

While the perforated concrete panels may look somewhat interesting on the website picture, it is very hard to understand why you would cover the rooms view to the most breath taking nature and scenery though concrete panels that only allow you to peak through tiny holes at it.

This is the part that I couldn’t quite get over it that, instead of having unobstructed full view to nature (which would have been possible and with the location of el Blok could have been amazing), you are blok’d (pun intended) from it by concrete panels with small holes which also make the room feel quite dark and isolated from its surroundings. (e.g. the hicks house does an amazing job of incorporating concrete and nature but in this case it feels like slightly not thought through)

Also, before staying there, I was under the assumption that you could turn all of the panels but at least in the case of my room, there was only one panel that was able to turn which again, didn’t really wanted you to spend more time than you necessarily had to in the room.

Anyways, this is just my personal opinion and might not apply to everyone but as mentioned above, with that location el Blok could have been a great place to stay but in its current form, it just seems not the place I’d want to spend time at when staying on one of the most amazing islands that I’ve...

I really wanted to like this hotel: the staff during my very short stay were great, from front desk to security; the octopus and veg tacos at El Placita were delicious; the rooftop view was breathtaking; and finally the location —the beach is across the street and I saw a family of wild horses walking across the front door when I walk out at 5:30am to catch the sunrise.

The not-so-great: lack of amenities like coffees and teas in room or common areas (had to wait until 7am) or in the afternoon (no service before El Placita opens at 5pm); after telling us we can take drinks from the restaurant to the rooftop after the bar upstairs closed, the restaurant bar closed slightly before 10pm (we got downstairs right at 10pm and it was already dark); the bar upstairs was always closed when we went (afternoon and evening).

Now the bad: I'm a great traveler who always leave hotel rooms/Airbnb clean and follow rules. I even called the hotel to change the number of guest to 2 instead of 1 when I realized I made a mistake when booking. I did not receive any text messages from the hotel besides emails with rules and recommendations. When I checked in, front desk asked if I got the text, which I was confused as to what they were referring to. They then printed a copy each for me and my friend to sign quickly which they explained is for the hotel deposit. Did I read every single line carefully like it is a leasing agreement or real estate contract? Admittedly no, because I assume it was a typical hotel security deposit: don't break anything, don't take anything you don't want to pay for, don't do if sign say don't do it, etc. And we were not provided with a printed copy. We checked in around 2pm and checked out at 8am the following morning. Did we use the small balcony in the room? Only to dry our bathing suit, which was not successful as it rained hard in early morning hours. So to my surprise, I found that there is a $100 difference on my final bill (security deposit return). When I called the hotel, I was told it was because I left the balcony door open — apparently it was in the "contract" that I signed. I might've left a crack open — I doubt it because it rained hard and I woke from deep sleep to grab my bathing suit and brought it inside. And she said, "why would you sign anything you did not read carefully?" First: the tone, OK? Second: because no other hotel ever asked balcony doors to be closed at all times to prevent moisture from ruining the interior. Why build one with if that's a problem? And don't speak to me like I'm an idiot who doesn't read what I signed because normal hotels don't charge for balcony door potential moisture damage. If it is that important, you should've recited the rules back to me (like non-smoking room used to be reiterated to guests). I left the branded bottle in the room with the top open just like instructed, which is printed and left on the table. You could've printed the balcony door rule and tape it to the door by the handle/lock if moisture damage is that important, just like flushing toilet paper and everything else that's printed in the bathroom.

This left a bad taste in my mouth after what I thought was a beautiful visit to Vieques. So check your final bill, which is your security deposit return. Will I return? Maybe...

We just returned from a four night stay at El Blok - our first time in Vieques and not our last. The hotel is great. We were upgraded from the standard room to the esquina room and I am so happy about it. The room was fabulous. Clean and cool with lots of room to spread out and a huge balcony overlooking the water. The bed and chairs were super comfortable. It would have been nice to have an electrical plug on either side for cell phone charging, but nbd.

The bathroom was super funky and modern and we joked when emerging from the bathroom surrounded by steam that we we just coming to earth from our space craft. The bathroom is stocked with Aesop body products which I had never heard of, but seriously make the whole room smell like a luxury spa.

We were surprised to learn that May was the off season, and with that and Covid and the continuously fluctuating Covid restrictions, the hotel seemed nearly empty for much of our stay, but got busy on the weekend right before we left. We seriously had the fabulous rooftop with 365 degree island views and the tiny splash pool to ourself every night. It was amazing. I didn’t expect much from the pool, but soaking in there while soaking in the view was just an incredible experience.

The hotel provides complimentary beach chairs, towels, ice and a water cooler for refilling water bottles. All very much appreciated. You’ll want a car, keep or golf cart to get around. Parking is easy and free across the street.

The hotel manager, Laine, was lovely. She helped rearrange reservations for us when the hotel restaurant La Placita closed the night we had reserved due to ever changing Covid curfews, etc. She made a reservation for us at El Quenepo and rescheduled us for La Placita later in the week. Both dining experiences were great. Don’t miss them.

Laine also made us lovely complimentary double espressos one morning to get our day started before we went out to breakfast. Laine also seemed very protective of her staff and guests and masks were required indoors everywhere in compliance with government restrictions. It in no way impeded our enjoyment of the island or the hotel.

I have only one complaint for our whole stay and it would be something that could be easily resolved. There are no coffee machines in the room and no morning coffee station although front desk staff can and will make you a coffee for about $3.50.

Also there is currently nowhere in town to get breakfast. You need to drive up to Isabel for breakfast. I’m normally an early riser and a big coffee drinker so this kind of stunk. So if you are a coffee lover, be aware. It would be a huge improvement for the hotel to consider providing simple complimentary coffee service to its guests.

I loved watching the horses playing from the balcony in the morning and soaking in the sea breezes. It was truly a wonderful stay....