We stayed 4 nights at this hotel after staying in another hotel a bit further down the coast. We didn't book for longer because we thought it looked like a very standard hotel. We now wish we had stayed longer at the Quinta del Mar El Frances mostly because of the relaxing atmosphere, the excellent service and the beautiful beach right outside the hotel. The beach is extremely clean with absolutely no litter, the water is calm and it's a very safe place to swim. It's literally 10 metres walk from the hotel to the beach. You can walk a very long way along the beach and it's beautiful all the way along. The locals are very friendly. One of the most enjoyable features of this hotel is that Juan and his wife really look after you. It's a very personal service and they are very efficient and very friendly. You can really tell that they want you to enjoy your stay. Other than the location, it's the attention provided by this couple that make the place special. In addition, the food was excellent. We ate all our meals at the hotel and everything we ate was delicious. The room was very comfortable and clean. It was the best stay of our recent trip around Colombia.

There was only one problem and that is that there are 2 holiday houses to the right of the hotel and at the weekend a large number of very noisy people were partying and playing loud music all night long. We really did not appreciate this as Quinta del Mar is clearly intended to be a quiet relaxing hotel and this was spoilt by the noisy neighbours. I hope the owners will be able to rectify this problem as its the only negative point, but its not the fault of the people running the hotel at all (that's why I still rate it so highly)

The facilities(swimming pool and "jacuzzi" style additional pool) The view The privacy (Santiago de Tolu was 15 mins away by car...in road/ off-road route) Food was ok

A/c was not working properly...and filters were dirty (we had to ask to fix it) Activities they offered were good( the tintipan pasadía), others not properly organized (the mangroves/fishing)