Rincón del Este — Hotel in San Rafael - El Placer

This resort has lots of positives, but the same amount of negatives. ||||Overall, however, I would rate it on the negative side, because the units themselves, where you have to spend a whole week, are NOT good.||||Let’s begin with the positives:||- The location is great, at 22 and Brava, just 5 blocks from the beach||- The resort area is big, with lots of trees and green spaces||- The resort includes lots of buildings, all around a center garden. Most rooms have terraces, facing the central garden||- The resort has LOTS of great amenities, including an outdoor swimming pool with a Jacuzzi, an indoor swimming pool, a play room (with 2 ping pong and 1 pool table), a reading/stay room, a gym, a restaurant, free DVD service, free parking and tennis, volley ball and paddle courts. There is even a small golf court for kids||- The staff organizes events daily, mainly for children, which are advertised daily through daily newsletters in units. ||- The restaurant is OK and has reasonable prices. On Fridays, there is karaoke shows||In summary, if you are a parent with kids, you would love to stay at this resort and have your children fully entertained at all times.||||But if you are not a parent with children, you would focus on the resort’s many negatives, mainly related to the condition of the units. It is really surprising the contrast between good common areas and bad private areas: ||- The rooms are small and beyond dated, particularly the living and kitchen areas. We stayed at a 2 bedroom/2 bath unit (the biggest one), and the six of us were very crowded||- The units need LOTS of maintenance, including rusted appliances, shredded towels, mold in the bathrooms, cheap toilet seats, rusted and leaking faucets (some with unmatched handles), dated/cheap cabinets (some with no handles), very cheap furniture (cheapest plastic chairs), very little water pressure, etc.||- In the living room, there is no sofa-cama. Instead, there are two sofas with mattresses on top (and one of the mattresses did not even fit the sofa!)||- There was no air conditioning in the living room, but only in the bedrooms||- The 2nd bedroom had no TV, and there was no DVD player in the whole unit||- Worse of all, there were flies and cockroaches all over the unit||- The outdoor swimming pool is next to the restaurant in a crowded space, with little space for chairs. Guests are forced to put their chairs in the grass, which make the area look very un-classy||- The resort charges for daily towels, beach chairs and beach umbrellas (almost USD 1/towel/day and USD 3/chair or umbrella/day), which is usually free in most resorts||- The wifi (albeit free) is EXTREMELY & ANNOYINGLY slow, which was really a hassle||||Regarding the very low water pressure, we called several times to fix the issue in one of the bathrooms, first to no interest from management. After many tries, we were told the problem was not fixable, so we had to shower all in only one bathroom.||||The resort pictures are accurate, particularly for the outdoor areas. But the conditions of the units are very bad, and are not represented properly in the pictures. ||||I am really surprised that Interval categorizes this resort as a “Select” one. Compared to other Select resorts, such as those in Mexico, this one is really sub-par. ||||I guess the good reviews may come mainly from parents, who do not have many resorts to compare with. Punta del Este is very exclusive and there are not many full service resorts...

Even though units are a bit old, which is quite common in this kind of Resorts in Punta del Este, they are perfectly furbished, well equiped, and it is worth highlighting the cleanness and organization of the whole resort, including its units. Recommend units for up to 4 people as they are more private, located on the first and second stories. Good social activity, close to the Brava Beach at Parada 22, and very affordable. Excellent value for the money, worth visiting. Only negative thing: a bit noisy at night, as children play and scream in the central park till late hours despite the official time limit set at 11pm. Also, weak wifi connection, better to connect...

Muy bueno el entorno del lugar, los aptos. muy confortables, limpios, salvo la parrilla que es muy chica, todo perfecto...las actividades deportivas muy buenas, la piscina cerrada le falta confort, jacuzzi muy basico y piscina chica junto a la grande abandonada, podrian ponerla en funcionamiento o taparla (eso afecta un poco el ambiente), piscina abierta muy buena, limpia y reposeras agradables, lo unico que si no ibas temprano a reservar te quedabas sin lugar dado que es muy chico para la cantidad de gente que alberga el complejo! Hay una despensa pequeña para comprar cosas basicas (agua leche galletitas...etc) y un restaurante que nos parecio carisimooooooo para la calidad de la comida!!! La bebida es exageradamente cara!!!! No lo vale ni ahi pagar un agua salus saborizada $ 140 o un agua mineral de 600 cc $ 120...o una cerveza chica $ 250..no es un restaurante con vista al mar que pueda justificar esos precios, la verdad MUY CARO!!! La comida esta bien pero tambien un poco elevados los precios para la calidad de la misma! Es una lastima xq se hubiera aprovechado un poco mas...dado que cuando uno se va de vacaciones es para descansar no pasarse cocinando todos los dias! pero fuimos 3 veces al restaurante (2 con show y 1 pedimos al apto) el show estuvo divertido, muy bueno el bingo y karaoke...pero una lastima los precios! el lugar no lo amerita!! Algo que deberian mejorar y mucho!! Despues en gral. todo muy bien!! El servicio del complejo es muy bueno! Y volveriamos...