I stayed at Agua for 4 nights during New Year's and experienced the same problems that some other reviewers have expressed. Yes, the food was awful. Yes, there were water shortages. And yes, there were things not working at the spa. However, if you are upset about the remote location, lack of nightlife and lack of English-speaking personnel, then you clearly need to either do better research on your next destination and/or reconsider international travel altogether. I've never heard of Japanese tourists complaining that hotel employees in the U.S. do not speak Japenese. Additionally & coincidentally enough though, I do recall certain guest's girlfriends not too upset with the hotel's liquor supply as she was drinking herslef into oblivion nightly, making a scene and causing embarrassment & discomfort for the rest of us.

I have close to 7 years in the travel & hospitality industry and can recognize a good product when I see one. The remote location (away from the drunk Spring Breaker-types), the romantic ambiance, beautiful property design, high-end ammenities & linens, extremely friendly staff and gogeous spa is what I am sure will make Agua survive in the long run.

Management made it clear to me that they are both welcoming of all the criticism they have received and extremely eager to improve on the growing pains they are experiencing. Will this happen? I do not know. What I do know is that once they bring in a new chef (something I am sure will happen quite soon as a result of all of our complaints) and once they are sure enough of having gotten to the level they are striving for to contact all of us and invite us back, I intend to do so and give them another chance. I promise to share my second visit to Agua (good or bad) with the rest of the tripadvisor community. But like I said, even Rome wasn't built in a day.

I strongly urge anyone considering this resort to go somewhere else. The best things that i can say about this resort is that the staff were very friendly and outgoing. I enjoyed my trip solely because of my girlfriend. If she was not with me, I would have changed my flight and returned home early.

Besides my girlfriend, the things that I liked best about this resort was that the sun was shining and warm, and they had alcohol.

The problems:

The resort is at least 55 minutes from the airport and any sign of civilization. However, the civilization 55 minutes away is not one worth the travel. This would be ok, or even romantic, if the resort were a different resort.

The biggest problem by far is the fact that the food is unedible. The menu is miniscule, which would be ok, if it was gourmet as they contend. Breakfast is fine, but not good. It is fine because they have a lot of fruit and finger sandwiches. The lunch is served at the bar near the beach. The food here is horrendous. If you are looking for a hamburger with grayish-white meat, this is your place. If you want soggy french fries that taste nothing like french fries, they've got them. We ate next door at Sivory over and over again because we simply couldn't find anything worth getting sick over.

Our bathroom smelled faintly of sewer. I inquired with managment about this and was told that once construction company built half the resort and a different one who knew less about plumbing did the other half. This explanation, while satisfying, did not help with the smell everytime you went to the bathroom.

There was no nightlife unless you want to go to Excellence for the night.

Over the entire week, I believe I only saw 4 people total in the pool. They did not use chlorine, and openly welcomed dead insects and worms to hang out in the pool since no humans wanted to go in it.

All in all, the resort is beautiful, but not worth it unless they pay the airfare and charge 150 per night.

Although I have traveled extensively, I'm sorry to say, this is the first time that I have taken the time to write a review. I love trip advisor and have counted on the reviews to guide me in the right direction. After visiting Auga Resort (Christmas week) I felt I had no choice but to share my experience. The resort was beautiful. Our suite (garden view junior suite) was up there with high end boutique hotels I have stayed in in the past. The service was great...the staff was very friendly, but the fact that the staff barely understood English was a problem. I have to say that my generally positive feeling took a sharp turn south when we ate lunch and went directly to the south pole when we tried to eat dinner. The resort prides itself on having hired a top chef from Spain. All I can say is that the food (aside from Breakfast) was uneatable. If you are looking for a quick weight loss program then this is the place for you. If having the option of good food is one criteria to a great vacation, then Agua is not for you!

We visited Agua the last week of November 07, and had a very enjoyable time. Here's a quick summary. First, the good: beautiful hotel and grounds, gorgeous beachfront rooms, great water circuit, good food if you ask for what you want, great horseback riding. The not-so-good: lack of menu variety, language difficulty, staff not well-trained, some equipment issues (spa).

We stayed in the beachfront room, which was spacious, beautifully designed and very comfortable. It's right on the beach with a plunge pool and gorgeous view, although the plunge pool isn't heated and so we didn't spend much time in it. The only complaint about the room is that each night the hotel nicely left a small plate of sweets for us after dinner (nice touch), but we couldn't eat it because small black ants were all over the plate each night. We informed the manager but it was never rectified - we felt badly that they went to the trouble and we couldn't appreciate it. To be clear, we only found ants on the dessert plate, never on the bed or our belongings. The bed was comfortable and water pressure was good.

The spa was nicely laid out, but you have to ask for the fitness room, steamroom, sauna and water circuit to be turned on before use. The water circuit is imaginative and unique - I've never seen anything like it before - but the temperature is inconsistent. Sometimes the water was jacuzzi-temperature, sometimes just slightly warm.

As for the food, the regular menu items are only okay and limited, but the specials and special requests are far better - you need to ask if they have specials each night as they don't offer them up. We highly recommend scampi-style prawns with butter and garlic - they were fantastic, and we ate them several nights. One night, we ordered a seafood special, and received lobsters (full lobsters), the prawns, mussels, and two kinds of fish - fantastic, and so much food! The staff tries to please but the language issue often comes into play when ordering food - we ordered BLTs and received sliced pork sandwiches. Another couple at the hotel, however, ordered pizza and chicken nuggets (not on the menu) and the staff bent over backwards to make it happen. Breakfasts were served on our patio each morning and were delicious - eggs, french toast, pancakes, beautiful fresh fruit platters.

Activities were limited while we were there. Because of the muddy water and large waves when we were there, we couldn't swim, snorkel or kayak, so we mainly hung out by the pool. It was very quiet and relaxing, but there were a couple of other fun couples there that livened things up. I agree with others that some kind of entertainment or beach BBQ would be great in the evenings.

The horseback riding is a must - the horses were in good shape, and if you've never ridden on the beach, it is an experience you shouldn't miss. Our ride was at sunset, and we went up and down the beach and then on a back road where we could watch the sun set behind the mountains - beautiful.

The vacation overall would have been better if the weather had been better, but that's not anything the hotel can control. However, one thing guests should know is that the hotel is close to a river and the beach/water gets dirty during/after a storm. When we were there, there had just been a storm, and it took at least 5 days for the water to get close to resembling blue Caribbean water.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable time, but the hotel is definitely not up to the 6-star level that I read about online, and in a few areas not 5-star either. If you are flexible, patient and speak some Spanish, Agua is a fantastic place. On the other hand, if you are an extremely discriminating and demanding traveler, and expect service with no hiccups, Agua is not the place for you.