The hotel we stayed at was Hotel Del Rio. It's on the North part of the island more up in the neighborhood region. This allowed our stay to be very quiet and relaxing, besides the random barking of geckos. The first time we heard one we thought there was some kind of crazy bird in our room and both my sister and I shot up out of our sleep to check it out.
We didn't get our cool cabana we wanted for some reason. Even though we were the only ones at the hotel for half the trip. But I almost didn't care afterwards. We ended up staying in Casa Blanca for $65 a night. It had AC, a life saving memory foam mattresses, a fridge, an awesome balcony, and it was always extremely clean. Some negatives were cold showers, the worst toilet I used on the whole island, the water pipes would get air in them and take a few minutes to turn on, no view of the ocean from room, it was kinda far from the main activity in town, and there were some slightly gross cats. But those were tiny problems that didn't even dent my excitement. I'd return for another stay.
Restaurants, well, there were hardly any. There was a place called Fidos that seemed to be owned by a couple of American Frat looking boys. The food was good but overpriced. For those budget travelers, it's not the best place. That and I didn't enjoy feeling like I was back in an American bar with annoying teeny boppers on Spring Break giggling at every word a local would say to them. And there were just too many tourist! It may have been voted one of the "Best Bars in the Caribbean" but I viewed it as a spot to go to for those who were too scared to venture out for the real deal. Some positives, the bar staff was very friendly and the music was great. Two other places that I thought were more worth while and in our price range were Pirate Pizza and Lily's Seafood (I believe that was the name).
The rest of our meals consisted of going to the grocery store and eating nothing but peanut butter sandwiches and washing it down with beer. I was perfectly happy with that.
Drink wise...I'd say stick with Belikin Beer. It's cheap and does the job. We even thought we would try the infamous Rum Punch. Lets just say we weren't pleased when the bartender put our cup under the spout of a smoothie machine, it then came out watery, it left us $5 poorer and without the slightest buzz. Boo. It left Andrea peeved and wishing she had another cigarette.
My last words of wisdom would be to rent bikes! Save yourself from walking days on end in flip flops on sand and later wishing you had someone to carry you everywhere. We rented ours from Joe's Bike Shop. And man, for some reason we had difficulties relearning how to ride a bike. We felt like drunk idiots peddling through town over rough cobblestone streets and weaving through thick traffic. Just make sure your seat is adjusted to the right height or you will be eating sand like us.
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