This is our third trip to the Dorado area: one at the old Hyatt Dorado Beach (prior to children) and the last two at the Embassy Suites. As we have two your children (ages 30 months and 9 months), the Embassy Suites again lived up to our expectations. The family had a great time, as my sons loved the pool area and the abundance of other kids.

Transportation: As this location is 45 minutes from San Juan without traffic, I would highly recommend renting a car. Also, the restaurants in the hotel are somewhat limited so it allows freedom of choice for dining options. There are major roadways that resemble the US road and street system. The symbols are the same but the language is in Spanish. The speed limits are posted in Miles but everything else follows the metric system. If you can drive in NY, Boston, or Philadelphia rush hour traffic you will be ok on the roads.

Location: Dorado is a sleepy ocean town without much nightlife and no casinos at this time. The hotel is in a gated community in the middle of a golf course.

Hotel Facilities: Standard Embassy suites room with added bonus of balcony. We were thankfully upgraded to ocean front/view room on top room that had a great view of the small beach and medium sized pool area (pool side bar, restaurant, playground, baby pool, and numerous lounge chairs). The gym is outfitted with new Precor? equipment and does focus on the aerobic stuff with limited barbells. Also, there is a game room and coin laundry in lower level area. The beach is small but really hotel use only as access to the area is limited. The beach is protected but does get rocky about 10 or 15 ft out from shore.

Extras: Happy hour 5:30 to 7:30 and free breakfast is a great touch. The breakfast is a great bonus with youngsters. The

General Impressions: The staff was very friendly, welcoming and helpful. It is very family friendly resort (small kids). There are area restaurants and stores for food and supplies, as I will admit the restaurants are somewhat weak. As my son is very picky, we utilized the Applebee’s, Langhorne (Bayamon), and Chili’s (near Aricebo) as he seeks familiarity.

We stayed here because we were visiting friends in the area. The hotel is fine, but it is an Embassy Suites hotel. It is not going to be a 5 star establishment. We found the English speaking staff to be very friendly and the hotel offers a wonderful breakfast. The pool area is great for the kids. What we did not like about the hotel is that it was far from many of the activities that we wanted to do. Also the hotel does have a beach, but it is not that great. There are many other better beaches in the area that one should drive to.

My husband and I flew down to PR for a long weekend to escape the winter weather. We flew into San Juan, rented a car, and drove to the Embassy Suites Dorado. The property is beautiful and well maintained. The pool area is nice and they have drinks/food available at the bar until four. The staff is extra friendly, even though we were only there for four days they all remembered us and greeted us by name by the second day. The beach is small and there is not much "nightlife" in the area but if you are looking for a place to relax and unwind this is it.
We are going to make this trip an annual every January. You can't beat the weather and it is not too crowded.

Given the photos on the Hilton/Embassy website one might assume that the hotel you see is the hotel you get. It is NOT. The right portion of the photo is not the hotel at all -some said it was a timeshare property. The hotel extends behind the wing you see in the photo on the right. What you get on the back side is a view of dumpsters, parking lot and beyond the homes in the distance you will see the ocean. Upon arrival and immediately upon entering the room we were shocked and disappointed. I returned to the front desk and told the staff about my numerous calls and that this was not at all what they described or what they advertised on their website photos. I lodged numerous complaints because in planning I thought I was careful and had personally phoned the 800 number and the hotel itself making sure to clarify what it was that we were seeking. Ocean, ocean view -the beach- we live in a landlocked community and wanted the beach. I was reassured that the room would have at a minimum a partial ocean view and we would be accommodated. The first evening the manager more or less told me too bad, the next morning the am manager offered to move us to the other side. There we looked over a gated community and if you sat in the right corner of the patio the beach was visible. If we could have returned to the airport and gone home w/o $$ penalty- (5 travelers) we would have. We especially wanted to leave after the day we spent traveling on a "dry run" to the other side of the island to set up our snorkeling and night swim outings. A long trip from Dallas this was to be our big family "island" vacation. The "oceanfront" beach offered is a miniscule bay with moss/scum on the bottom of much of the area you can walk. Likely due to the lack of movement within the man made cove. That drive to the other side of the island to do any of the things one might want to do, snorkel, deep sea fishing, ferry to other island or swim in the evening with glowing fish - well the traffic is worse than metro DC, Dallas and any other city we have lived or traveled to and the drive took us 3.5 hours one way. We were advised at the hotel that it was worse during the week. The breakfast buffet was the highlight. The servers wonderful. I have not eaten eggs since returning though. The all inclusive happy hour in California included frozen non-alcoholic drinks for the kids, not here they charged 3.50 or more for them. This is a desolate area of the island and if you want to eat anywhere but this hotel - forget about it. A deli/bakery in town is delightful but that is it. Yes they have KFC, Burger King etc. not what we went to an island to eat and even there you better be bilingual. One of our best vacations was on family business but was at the Embassy Suites in Oxnard, CA. That hotel is beautiful; staff treats you like you are in a 5 star resort. Trust that all Embassy Suites are not equal and do your homework better than I did. Also, be prepared, Puerto Rico is quite dirty and the people are not particularly friendly. Quite a shame. Too many islands too many choices I recommend you make a different selection!