Hotel Villas del Mar

I have traveled throughout the Dominican Republic for more than 20 years. This was my first time to the “deep south“ and my first time to Pedernales. We went to Pedernales specifically to take the trip to Bahia Las Aguilas. Other than doing that excursion, I am not sure why anyone would visit Pedernales, unless there was something that I was missing. This hotel is subpar at best but probably the biggest and nicest in that area. Pedernales beach is within a 5 min walking distance of the hotel and you can access the beach through the back gate of the hotel. The beach was not very nice while we were there but this was due to the weather. My friend said the beach was beautiful last year, so it is probably hit or miss. There were tons of bugs and mosquitoes and so you could not really stay outside for long periods of time. The property has many different types of fruit trees and we were able to walk through the property and eat guavas, ceresas, mangoes, pomegranates and sea grapes. We could not swim in the pool as it was not clear and filled with leaves. The free breakfast is absolutely amazing if you like typical Dominican breakfast! It is the best thing about this hotel! There is also a shared fridge and cold bottled water available for free. Each room at this hotel is very different. The bathrooms are totally different and the ACs work in some rooms and don’t work in others. Friends of mine stayed here one time before and raved about the AC. The AC in rooms 302 and 201 work great. The AC IN ROOM 301 and 203 did not work. The women that work at the front desk were as nice as you could possibly expect. They let us try to move to another room but the AC in that room was not working either so we just ended up staying in the room that we were in. If you do not care about AC and you do not mind that there is hot water, the value of this hotel is great, especially if you are traveling with three or four people that will stay in the same room. If our air-conditioning had worked, we probably would have stayed another night or two and explore the area more. Stay here for value and convenience to the area. Just be prepared for bad ac and no hot water(typical in many small local hotels in DR).