Serena Hotel - Punta del Este - Unico Sobre la Playa

Impeccable cleanliness, well-maintained facilities, and delicious breakfast with ocean view. Exceptionally helpful and friendly staff. Excellent beachfront location with convenient parking. Spacious, comfortable rooms.

My husband and I recently spent four nights at the Serena hotel while on our honeymoon in November. We were unfortunately very disappointed with our stay. Based on our experience, the good: - The hotel is in a beautiful location on the beach - Several of the staff members are very friendly and helpful (special thanks to Francisco for helping us with our check-in ordeal) Then, the bad: - Both hotel restaurants were closed for the duration of our stay, with no advance warning or discount offered. - The night we checked in to the hotel, we had to switch rooms three times (first broken air conditioner, second the door to the room would not latch shut, third broken safe that wouldn't stop beeping). We were told that the hotel would extend "a courtesy" to us to compensate for the hour-long ordeal. This courtesy turned out to be 3 Ferrero Rochers. - The rooms themselves are cramped and poorly sound-proofed (no seal around the door), and our mattress was saggy. - Despite what their website says, the Serena is NOT an adults-only hotel (one of the reasons we picked this hotel for our honeymoon). During our stay, we encountered at least half a dozen children, including a fussy baby in the breakfast room and a young boy doing cannonballs in the pool while shouting up to his mother on her balcony. When we checked out, the receptionist asked if our stay was ok and we voiced our frustrations. He attempted to talk to the reception manager for us. They claimed that they could not offer a partial refund because the room was booked through a third party, and instead offered us a late checkout or sandwiches (both irrelevant as we were leaving to catch a bus), or a discount on a future stay (even if we didn't live 9,000 km away, we would not be staying at the Serena again). We asked if they could at least pay for our taxi to the bus station, and were told they "weren't comfortable" with that. Through all of this, the reception manager refused to come out of their office to speak to us, forcing the employee helping us to go back and forth from us to the office relaying messages. There are so many other beautiful hotels in Punta del Este - don't waste your time with the Serena.

A lovely, low-key setting on a wide sandy beach along Rio de la Plata west of downtown. Rooms are bright and cheery, bar fully stocked, full-on breakfast buffet with hot breakfast items prepared to order. Staff couldn’t be nicer. Be prepared for about a $200 taxi to/from the Montevideo international airport. I suspect bus service might be available, but I did not explore that option.