When planning our week-long visit to Puerto Rico, my wife and I wanted to spend time strolling through Old San Juan, sunbathing on the beach at Luquillo, and hiking through the El Yunque Rain Forest.

But we also wanted to spend at least one night in a place with a balcony where we could sip a glass of wine while looking over the ocean or up at the stars. We found just the place in Hotel Lucia Beach Villas!

Yabucoa, on the southeast coast, is much less developed than some of the other places we visited on Puerto Rico. This means that there is less to do (fewer restaurants, no casinos or upscale nightclubs). But if you want a place with space to relax, where you can fall asleep to the sounds of the waves landing on the beach below your bedroom window and the coqui frogs chirping their way through the dark night, definitely consider staying here!

The villas are fully equipped with a kitchenette (cups, pots & pans, plates, silverware, etc. all included) and a charming duplex set-up. On the ground floor there is a futon sofa (which I assume could be turned into an extra bed), the kitchenette, a TV, table & chairs and a half-bath. Upstairs you'll find the master bedroom with a full bathroom (with a standup shower) and a door opening onto a private balcony looking right out over the ocean. Everything was very new, very clean, and very comfortable!

Outside there is a great little pool area with chairs, etc. And, of course, you are just steps from a secluded beach that goes on for what must be a mile with only one other little hotel (located next door) to take away from the lush tropical beauty. Jeanette, one of the owners, says that she swims in the water, and we found it to be warm enough when we dipped our toes in, but the waves were heavy and churned up the sand so that we couldn't see the bottom. So we just swam in the pool. We did take a wonderful, romantic stroll up the beach...all the way to the end, where a canal has been built to allow tankers to deliver petroleum to the local refienery. Don't worry - if you didn't walk WAY down the beach, you'd never even know it was there!

We ventured out of the hotel a couple of times. There's a nice little local open air bar just up the hill where we enjoyed our cold beer and fried snacks. The restaurant at the hotel next door was okay, but we preferred the one that Jeanette and Gary recommended to us, just a short drive up the hill with a spectacular view of the ocean. A short drive into the center of Yabucoa takes you to a big supermarket with everything you need to stock up the kitchenette. We went for locally-baked bread, juice and coffee for breakfast, and Puerto Rican rum and a six-pack of Coca-Cola for our balcony and pool-side cocktails.

So, we loved it and would highly recommend it. And here's what's great about it. We found it to be a very romantic location, but we couldn't wait to go back next year - with our two young children! It seemed like the perfect place for a family vacation. Actually, it would be an even better place for a multi-family vacation. There's plenty of space for kids to play while you keep an eye on them, and once they're asleep, you and the other grownups can enjoy a cocktail by the pool while keeping the little ones in earshot.

At least that's how were planning for it to be when we visit Hotel Lucia Beach Villas again next year!