Garten Hotel

Wow! A hidden gem in El Zonte. We are so happy we stayed here for our first trip to El Salvador. The rooms are spacious and clean, very comfortable beds and pillows and the food..outstanding! The best part is the kind staff (Jaime, Larry, and everyone) who make you feel like old friends visiting their home. We were here for a week and thoroughly enjoyed the pool, delicious food, great drinks and the amazing sunsets and sunrises! Access to the beach is minutes for great swimming and surfing. Very safe and the staff will arrange transportation to local attractions, etc. We will be back!

My husband and I travel this area often. We LOVED this hotel. Great service, great food, great views. The typical Salvadoran hospitality. We will definitely return.

Short summary: The penthouse offers a beautiful view – great design and architecture – very nice and polite staff – good communication via WhatsApp – location and beach are great – food quality is okay to good – lots of rules – the price is disproportionately high, which makes it almost 3 instead of 4 stars – the hotel definitely needs a general overhaul, as the open sea takes its toll. Attention: The penthouse is the only one with a sea view! For detail lovers: We chose this arrangement as the crowning finale of our 2-week El Salvador round trip; we found nothing comparable about 9 months ago; we booked via Expedia – we wanted a sea view and all-round service, just to enjoy 3 nights; Everything looked great in the pictures, the description was also super; the hotel contacted us early on, asking for a 50% deposit, which was not mentioned in the Expedia description – strange for us too – when we arrived, we missed the service a bit, but were thoroughly welcomed by Denise – what was odd right away was the long list of rules at the beginning that had to be signed – our room was beautifully designed, generously sized with good amenities and a direct, unobstructed view of the open sea, the bathroom was wonderful, even with a bidet, and the water pressure in the shower felt like pure rain, nice with the tiles; unfortunately, there was no coffee machine, which is surprising in the land of coffee, but there was tea and water; what is immediately noticeable is that the room and hotel by the sea are urgently in need of a general overhaul in many places; the property is about 5 years old, but the salty sea air has already taken its toll; we were surprised that no one was doing daily repairs and that the condition is apparently just accepted, which should not be the case at this price level for a 5-star hotel in El Salvador, that was very disappointing and is a major drawback; The quality of the food did not excite us either, so we preferred to eat outside, even though the selection was okay; cappuccino was nothing special, and the dinner on the first day was not up to 5-star standards for either of us; A great thing was that you can walk directly down to the beautiful beach; it’s worth taking a walk there; The staff is always helpful and communicates quickly via WhatsApp, which we liked; We booked a massage, but it wasn’t really good and at 88 USD also too expensive; at our previous hotel, we had the same duration for 35 USD, even if it’s a 5-star hotel, it shouldn’t be 2.5 times as expensive; The other hotel complex looks quite well maintained, not so affected by the sea, and the gym really impressed us, good equipment with two air conditioners and fans; So why only 3 out of 5 stars in the rating? For a 5-star hotel, we miss the quality of the food and the feeling of overall quality, plus the price for the penthouse is way too high for our taste; we have visited many countries and seen many hotels, so we can judge this well, and for that reason, due to the price, it slipped from 4 to just 3 stars; Nevertheless we enjoyed our stay in the hotel and finished a beautiful vacation in El Salvador