Malecón House — Hotel in Isla de Vieques

My partner and I decided long ago to visit Vieques every June. The question for 2010 was which hotel would we choose now that the Martineu resort has become the overpriced W Retreat.

We decided to try a smaller hotel or bed and breakfast this time around. We looked at many establishments, including Hacienda Tamarindo, Hector’s By The Sea, Casa de Amistad, and even a few new houses for rent.

Our list of necessary amenities was short. We needed a parking lot for our rented Jeep plus a swimming pool. Everything else would be decided by price and location. We preferred a contemporary or recently renovated building. We knew going in that getting a room with real blinds or curtains was not likely, as the tradition in Vieques seems to be ‘wake up with the sun’ (which can be a good thing if you want to be on a sunny beach before noon). We also knew that while it would be nice to stay someplace close to the strip of bars and restaurants in Esperanza, nighttime noise could be an issue there. We simply wouldn't know until we slept there.

Malecon House won our business. Marsha and Robin Shepherd were faster and more detailed in their responses to our inquiries. The reviews at Trip Advisor were nearly all stellar. And the rooms at Malecon were contemporary and very good looking, most with terraces and varying amounts of privacy.

And we've returned to it year after year. Four years running now, and we won't stop. We have stayed in the following rooms: Tropico, Fantastico, Buena Vista, and Rey. But the room that has won us over for future visits is the Mar Azul. A big, bright room, with balcony, and room darkening curtains to maximize sleep. All the rooms are excellent, but we think Mar Azul is the best.

Malecon house, like many properties in Vieques, heats and stores its hot water on the roof using solar panels and steel water tanks. Hot water can take a few minutes to reach the shower, but it is quite plentiful and extremely hot. There is no tub in any room, however.

The pool is not large, but very well maintained. It has a deck with lounge chairs and a handy shower that we used to wash our feet and sandals after each visit to the beaches.

The Shepherds are outstanding. Their staff prepare a small breakfast (coffee, tea, cereal, milk, OJ, & either muffins or scones) from 07:00 to 09:00. They provide as many towels as you need for the room and the beach. They offer beach chairs for you to borrow as long as you like. And they can be your concierge, arranging restaurant and/or tour reservations for you. The front desk has a netbook which is free to use, as well as a small Wi-Fi hotspot that you can tap into in front of the property where breakfast is served. It's not broadband speed, but adequate for checking email or researching destinations on the island.

Malecon house is perfectly located on the quieter, west end of the strip of bars and restaurants in Esperanza. The Green Market is a short walk away, for snacks and beverages. Lazy Jack's Pub is just three doors down the street. The house has a gated parking lot, which prevents non guests from parking there. We couldn't be happier with the location. Noise from the bars can be heard from the street facing rooms on weekends, but generally, the property is away from the nosiest establishments, and all is usually quiet by 1am.

We won't stop staying here every June, and we continue to recommend Malecon House to every future Vieques visitor who finds our...

I’ll start off saying - my rating is based on the value for price. We paid a rate of $280 a night. For $280 a night, I do not recommend this hotel. And hotel is a loose terminology for Malecon House, I would say it’s more of an upper grade hostel. The main issue is that the room we received, and for reference it was room 14, did not look like the pictures whatsoever. While it’s located in the super fun area, it’s the last hotel on the road making it a bit of a stretch from the other places. The hotel has no restaurants either and while they offer a continental breakfast it sits outside in the heat and is limited.

I will say, the tiny pool is very cute. They provide a mini snack area in the lobby which is wonderful. Plus, they provide beach chairs and towels. I did like that we had a key code to enter the room instead of cards.

The hotel and staff felt disorganized, we called several times inquiring about transport around Vieques and received little to no help. For such an expensive hotel, I would expect the hotel to either pick us up at the airport/ferry or call the taxi to pick us up. No such option was provided. Our welcome emails came the day after we already checked in, obviously becoming unhelpful. Additionally, our fire alarm started beeping at 3am! Thankfully, I knew to press the hush button and removed the battery. Apparently they had changed it that day and knew there was a possibility of it going off. Baffling. When I mentioned it the next morning, I did not receive an apology at all! They instead told me what I should have done (at 3am) which was to come to the lobby in pitch black and call a number. Ridiculous. If they knew this could have happened they should have at least let us know beforehand and provided us the number to call so we didn’t need to traipse in the middle of the night. I found this completely unacceptable and any normal hotel or hostel or motel would have been sorry and profusely apologized.

The rooms smelled of mold and dampness. We had no bed frame for the bed and the mattress was very firm (I find this uncomfortable). The sheets also were a bit rough. Our room faced the pool area and as the only window we had faced the pool and anyone could look directly into our room, we had little to no privacy or natural light. As a side note- the lightning in the room were extremely fluorescent and bad. The floor also easily gets dirty with mud and sand. I’ve stayed in 100s of hotels, and half of them were in sandy areas - I’ve never seen a floor get this dirty for such an expensive of a room. Not sure it matters, but no carpet in the rooms either. Shampoo was awful too. There are cracks all over the walls and mold on the lamp near the bedside. It was gross.

While I loved everything about Vieques, I would not recommend this hotel. Now, if it was a normal price between $100-150 I would recommend. But when the pricing is that of a 4 star hotel, I expect...

I write this review for Malecon House after reluctantly packing up to ferry back to the mainland tomorrow :(

Malecon House has been our home away from home for the past five days. It has been wonderful!

The location is outstanding - the Caribbean is just across the street. You can stand in the parking lot or better yet, the rooftop and see the turquoise hues and little island outcroppings as far as the eye can see. Just over the sea wall, you can walk down some stairs and sit on a swing, suspended from a palm tree as waves ebb and flow beneath your feet.

One of my favorite aspects of Malecon House was the architecture of the place and surrounding horticulture. All around you are coconut palms, mango and papaya trees and red flamboyan. Little lizards scurry around and we even saw an iguana sunbathing atop a palm frond about 30 feet off the ground.

Malecon means esplanade, which means boardwalk. You can step out front of Malecon House and walk for a quarter mile along the malecon to visit beaches, restaurants and shops - to find virtually anything that you might want or need during your stay.

Malecon House amenities are impressive. The rooms are spacious and clean, they have a nice pool to splash around in after long days at the beach. They also provide beach chairs, towels and umbrellas, even little coolers to stash your food and drinks in during your explorations of Vieques. And they put on a nice continental breakfast every morning, which hits the spot.

If you have any questions or concerns whatsoever, Malecon House staff are always there to help you. They’re so friendly and accommodating.

We enthusiastically recommend Malecon House to anyone who is looking to get away to a tropical locale to decompress and recharge. We have absolutely loved every aspect of our time in Vieques, with Malecon House as our home base.

Until we...