Looking for something different we chose Royal Decameron as this resort looked as though it was well worth the trip. And was it!!! We have previously been to Dominican (twice) and Cuba and this was near the best. The tours were great, we did three, and the pools, resort, drinks, food were all good. Full sun and 35 degrees for 4 straight days. We will return and highly recommend this resort. El Salvador is set to grow with 2 more resorts opening in the next 2 years.
Your Arrival: Booking was with Nolitours. Flight was 737 with Can Jet. Flight was 5 1/2 hours long. Food okay, got sparkling wine on way down. Plane flew right past the city (could see right out the right side of plane) and then flew over the Pacific, turned 90 degrees and came back in to land. Cool. Through customs, rep met us (one goes to get bags while one gets guest envelope). In envelope are tags for your bags with your room number. Water, Coke or beer upon boarding bus. Treats on seat for each passenger (nice touch). Bus ride was 2 hours long which seemed shorter as we enjoyed seeing the city and country along the way. At resort, you leave your bags, they get delivered to your room. (very nice) They direct you past the check in desk to the disco where there are tables set up that match a number on your envelope (ie. A-35-A40) You go to your assigned table, hand over envelope and they match it to yours with key and towel cards. You’re done. Pay for safety deposit key ($21) if you want, which we did. Then they direct you to your room. We were in our room with 7 minutes.
Rooms: Our room was in block 4 on the 3rd floor. King size room and very large. Beside bed it had 2 night stands, 2 day beds, 2 chairs, 2 coffee tables, a tea table, TV and stand, desk and a baggage stand. The room still had tonnes of space. A large balcony with 2 Adirondack chairs and table. Bathroom was okay. Needs a bit more sprucing up. 2 bottles of water every day. All rooms are ocean view, except those in block 5, they are set back a bit.
If you are not on ground floor, request block 3 or 4 (4 is closer to bar and breakfast buffet) as the 2nd and 3rd floor balconies on blocks 1, 2 and 5 are very tiny. We requested block 4 and got it.
Restaurants and Bars: 2 buffet for breakfast and lunch. 2 snack bars. 1 buffet for dinner. 5 al-la-cartes. We tried 4 and liked the Thai best. Pastafari was pretty good too. Buffets did not have a huge selection but provided more than enough. Uusually 5-10 buffet items then 2 or 3 stations for specialty items like pasta, meat or fish. Coffee was awesome. I like mine black and it was the best so far, EVER.
Bars were good. Beer is good, I drank that most. Wife like Coco Loco. Mixed drinks were hit and miss. They can’t make a Tom Collins. Damn. They use 7 year old Nicaraguan rum though, very nice. No swim up bar, but that was okay.
Beach/Pools/Grounds: Beach is okay. There is enough to walk on but is not wide flat and forever. It is mainly rocky in that area and they have built up a wall to protect what they have which creates a tidal pool. When tide is out most of the water is gone, but not all of it. The tide will be our depending on where the moon is when you visit. Pools are the best we have had. Better than the Riu we stayed at in Puerto Plata. Lots of them, nicely shaped, warm and clean. Also a huge salt water pool which is real sea water, which comes with fish, sand and the occasional weed. It was neat.
The grounds were very, very nice. Lush, and green, well taken care of. Lots of natural plants and very old that were left in place while they built the place.
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel: We chose to do 3 tours. Mayan route ($75ea), Culture & Crafts ($40ea), Climbing the Santa Ana Volcano ($75ea). Mayan Route was good and saw 4 sites and had a really nice lunch. The chicken was unbelievably good. 1 site was okay, the rest were good. Last stop you can get a number of crafts and gift items. Culture & Crafts was fun. We stopped at 3 villages for shopping and touring. Craft markets and such. A bit rushed in spots but we enjoyed it. $1 for a beer to enjoy streetside.
Santa Ana Volcano tour only opened back up in January 2010. A lot of work to get to top but well worth it. What a view. Tallest, oldest volcano in Central American. So glad we did this.
Other Comments: room number is listed on your tag you get from the airport. they deliver your luggage to your room. Morning after arrival book your al-la-cartes. can book 4 in a row at one time, hours are 8am-noon. Beach club can only be booked one day before. Times are 8am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm. Luggage was picked up from room at 7am day of departure. Main bar has some really cool big puffy chairs and couches to lounge on in the shade. Resort could be 5 star if; they had glassware at bars after pools closed. buffets had a bit more selection. there were more tables and chairs around the bars. bathroom were tiled more and had some artwork and were just a bit classier. bars would have more drinks like Bailey’s and such.
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39577487@N00/sets/72157623408919252/