We stayed at Casa Tamara for a week in mid-March. Found the villa online, rented the top floor. The web images show the back balcony and porch, backyard and beach. The upstairs two bedrooms are on the street side (front), one is on the side that borders the owner’s second rental property.
The neighborhood street is densely populated with speed bumps in the road. Roosters, dogs and cats continually run around the street crowing, howling, barking and fighting day and night. Trucks and cars rumble and slam over the speed bumps all night long. A horseback riding neighbor clippety-clopped up and down the asphalt in the wee hours. Construction began at 6 am on several surrounding properties. Same with the large truck traffic. Vehicles with larger than life size, roof-mounted speakers troll the neighborhood blaring Spanish language advertisements from early morning throughout the day.
All the noise drowns out the sound of the surf. None of the six of us were able to get a solid night’s sleep. I attempted to sleep in the living room one night, but the couch was too small for me at 5’4”. The beds are all small. The men who are 5’8” and 6’1” found the beds too short. The indoor tile staircase is steep and long, not recommended for anyone with mobility issues.
The owner telephoned the house twice during our week. The first time was a nice, chatty check-in call. The second time she was abrupt and complained about different issues that were unrelated to our group. It was a confusing, disturbing conversation. I’m sure there are more private, quieter places to stay in Rincon.
The beach view and access is nice. Indeed the balcony was the best thing about the villa! The kitchen was well equipped if you want to cook. The closest grocery stocks a number of organic and natural food items.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
Feb 22, 2012
I am sorry that you did not enjoy your stay as much as I had hoped, but for future guests I want to clarify a few of the points you made. The beds in our home are standard size and have new, hotel quality mattresses. The couch is not meant for sleeping, we provide 6 beds for 6 guests.
I called once to welcome you and a second time to ask that you not throw bottles at the recycle bins, as it had been reported to me that there was a lot of broken glass from bottles around the bins and dangerous to other guests. Yes, Puerto Rico is known for stray dogs and cats and neighborhood roosters. As you can read on other reviews of very happy guests, this noise varies from night to night or week to week and most people just get used to it. It occurs all over Rincon and all over Puerto Rico and is not specific to our house. The sound trucks are political advertising and do come by periodically in the daytime, when there is an election, as they do all over Puerto Rico. Most people just take these things as part of the local culture. Most of our guests find that our location, our almost private beach and the comforts of our home far outweigh the downside of being in a typical Puerto Rican residential neighborhood. For other people, a hotel would be a better environment.
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC.