BEST AQUATIKA PENTHOUSE: truly beachfront, 11 beds, 5 rooms, 10 person capacity.

Awesome to know that your group of friends had an amazing stay!

Thanks for the 5-star rating. You’re welcome to return in the future.

I’m pleased to hear my condo was one of the best stocked rentals you’ve ever stayed in, given how much you’ve traveled. You and your friends were great renters and are welcome back in the future. If potential visitors are reading this, I agree on people getting a rental car, whether you stay at Aquatika or anywhere else. PR has very little public transportation and most things in the eastern third of the country are between 10 and 60 minutes away from each other. For example, if you were to stay in Old San Juan for 7 days, you’d probably only do things there for two days and will need to travel 40 minutes to get to El Yunque rainforest, 60 minutes to get to the things in Fajardo, and 20 minutes to get to the Pinones beaches and the famous, unique eateries there. There are no beaches where the hotels and Airbnb rentals are in Old San Juan. Also, if you stay in Fajardo, you’ll need to drive 60 minutes to Old San Juan, 50 minutes to Pinones and 35 minutes to El Yunque. Fortunately, there are a massive number of attractions, sights and things to do in eastern PR and almost all of them are within an hour of each other. Aquatika is nicely situated about 30 minutes from the airport, 20 from El Yunque, 35 or 40 from Old San Juan and 15 from Pinones.

Thank you for the very positive review. You're very welcome back in the future.

Thanks for the great review. You were excellent renters and are welcome back in the future!

It’s wonderful to know you thought my place is awesome and great for families with all ages. Thanks!

Great to hear it was stocked with everything your family needed during your stay. Best wishes!

I’m over the moon that your family of 10 had ten great days there (and someone slept under the stars on the roof patio each night). It shows my condo really is loaded with enough things for 10 people. If anyone reading this has a group of 7 to 10 people and are thinking of renting, the condo has 10 dining table chairs, 10 roof patio dining chairs (and 8 others chairs: chaise and easy), 9 beach chairs, 9 snorkels, 40 plates, 35 bowls, 50 glasses and mugs, and so forth. It has about triple the amount of things that the typical rental condo has.

I'm glad you found it was awesome. My goal is to have it stocked with everything renters may need because vacations are a special time for family and friends to bond, relax and rejuvenate only once or twice a year. People should spend the maximum amount of time doing those things, and minimal time driving to stores to buy needed things or having to wash dishes by hand due to a rental not having a dishwasher, or not having other useful things. Nice to hear you watched a movie on the roof patio - when I bought the TV stand on wheels, that’s exactly what I bought it for. Anyway, thanks for being a great renter.

I’m glad your family found the condo to be perfect and a great experience. A reason I have about triple the quantity and variety of accessories for the pool/beach, and games and balls than the average condo is about 70% of renters at PR resorts are PR families taking vacations. They can bring their own stuff, or don’t want to spend more for a condo with them. So most owners I’ve spoken to say they don't want to put the time and money into buying and replacing a sizable quantity and variety of those things, as they sort of quickly wear out. So they get a little or sort of a small amount. But the first months I hosted, my renters (who are mostly in the US) appreciated having plenty and a variety. So I got far more. So much so that I’ve had to buy 3 extra cabinets, a ball rack and a few bins to store them. I’m glad I did since it really helps make vacations much more enjoyable, and saves renters time and money. Vacation time is rare and valuable. People don’t want to spend it in stores trying to find needed items.

I'm glad to hear I was the best host in all the years you've used VRBO. I try to make the place a great fit for families and also for others such as groups of friends. You were a great renter and are welcome in the future.

I’m glad you thought I was an awesome host. Though the region looks poor or “a little sketchy” by US standards, it is normal by overall PR standards, and is much safer than the US by most measures of crime. For your awareness, I’ve shared details and statistics about that below. I’m sorry the water slide pool was temporarily closed during your visit. It re-opened just after you left with some improvements including new paint. The reason why the main buildings of the resort were in need of updating (mostly painting and roof tiles) is that after a hurricane about six years ago, the insurance company didn’t reimburse our resort for most of the damage. So the resort had to spend a lot of its money to fix the damage, then for a few years only had enough remaining for doing maintenance and repairs, and not upgrades. This year the resort was awarded $4 million in a settlement, so it’s hired a contractor to paint all of the buildings and redo all the roofs. In the 7 weeks since you were there, they’ve already added 4 new pickle ball courts, renovated the tennis court, greatly improved the mini golf course, done several other upgrades and started re-painting and re-roofing the buildings. There are 200 condos so it’ll take some time to do all of them. Related to your note about the area being a little sketchy, for your information here are details about safety and crime in the area. As the FBI statistics below describe, crime in the US is far higher than in PR. And within PR, Loiza (the region my condo is located) is fortunately not in the top 10 regions of PR with the highest crime rates. The bulk of people in Loiza are very religious, hard-working and kind. Like in all places in the world, there are bad apples. So of course you should use common sense and, for example, not walk down dark unknown side streets at night. But there shouldn’t be any reason to walk down a dark street at night. It’s a rural region, so rental guests drive everywhere they want to go, then park next to the restaurant or attraction. Here is the crime rate data from the FBI. PR had 200.8 violent crimes per 100,000 people. The US rate is 90% higher at 380.6 per. The property crime rate in PR is 777.8 per 100,000. The US is a stunning 183% higher at 2,199.5 per. It’s not limited to cities in the US. 5 of the 10 US states with the highest percentages of rural people, and with no big or medium cities are Arkansas, Montana, Alabama, West Virginia and South Dakota. Their violent crime rates per 100,000 are higher than in PR respectively by 171%, 86%, 159%, 44% and 101%. Also, the most popular tourist destinations in the US have far higher rates than PR including Alaska (259% higher), Florida (103%), Arizona (110%), California (99%) and Nevada (203%). Super popular tourist places like LA, NY, Chicago, DC and Miami are much higher than their state averages, and 300% to 500% higher than PR. Also the police headquarters for the municipality of Loiza is 5 minutes from the resort, plus the state police headquarters for this region of PR is also 5 minutes away. Having 2 police headquarters helps deter crime. In my condo guide that I sent you, I give the phones for both. Plus PR uses the same 911 system that the rest of the US uses. Although a lot of the neighborhoods in PR look a little sketchy (as you wrote in your review), fortunately crime is much lower in PR. To be on the safe side, the resort normally has 3 guards on duty between 6am and 10pm with 1 or 2 in the front gate booth to handle the cars entering; and 1 or 2 roaming the grounds on bikes or scooters or on foot. Usually 2 to 3 are on duty from 10pm to 6am when there are less cars entering the front gate. I hope these details I've shared help you feel more comfortable during future visits.

I'm glad you found it was a perfect space and that you had a wonderful experience. I try hard to think of everything and provide plenty of things so that people can have excellent vacations. You and your group of 8 were great renters and you are welcome back in the future. All the best, Peter

I'm happy to hear it was like being home and had everything needed plus extras. I wish the views from the condo could be better captured in pictures. Your family were great renters and are welcome back in the future. Thanks for visiting.

I’m happy to hear the property exceeded expectations, and that the guides to Puerto Rico I wrote were extremely helpful, including my walking tour of Old San Juan. I love paying attention to details in the condo, and I’m glad it shows. Thanks for posting photos of the beach and views from my roof deck along with your review. You were a pleasure to host and are welcome back whenever you like.

I’m pleased that your family’s stay at my condo and the resort was wonderful and exceptional ... and that the resort was well-kept and my place had everything you needed. Your family were great renters and you’re welcome back in the future.

Thanks for the full review. One thing I'm going to add to the condo guide is that the left 1/4 of the beach seems to not have rocks in the water, so people should put their beach chairs and blanket there, and swim there. I don't think the other owners tell their renters this because I've never seen that 1/4 of the beach more crowded. I've only owned my condo since July, and I spent a month furnishing and decorating it with really no time to swim, then went home to Florida. This winter I went back for 5 weeks, and my sister visited for 5 days, and we figured out the best section of the beach for swimming because we didn’t see any rocks there during 4 trips to the beach and a lot of time in the water, and some of the time looking for rocks. It doesn’t hurt for people to toss a pair of water shoes in the suitcase for use at other beaches they go to, or just in case I’m mistaken about that 1/4, so thank you for the suggestion. On my next trip, I’m going to put on one of the full-face snorkel masks and search even more thoroughly in that 1/4 to see if I missed a rock. Anyway, you were an excellent renter and you're very welcome to return whenever you want.

Reading your review makes me wish I was there now. I’m happy to hear you found that every detail was thought of, because that was my goal. I tried to make everything feel very spacious and roomy, while also packing lots of amenities and useful things into the various cabinets I bought to store them. Like you, one of my favorite spots is the big recliners by the 2-story high windows that face the beach and ocean. Also the roof patio.

So glad it was the best rental experience you’ve ever had including better than luxury hotels etc. … and that it was an experience you’ll never forget. This condo is better than my regular home, so I know what you mean by “truly felt like home, only better.” Anyway, you were a great renter and you’re welcome back in the future.

Nice to know you and your kids had a wonderful vacation, and benefitted from the guides I wrote to the attractions and activities. You might be happy to know that while you already thought the beach gear was quite useful, I’ve increased the amount of beach gear since your stay. I expanded the number of snorkels/masks to 9, I increased the number of inflatables/floaties, and got other additonal gear for the beach and pool.

Nice to hear that my place was the most complete of all the VRBO’s you’ve rented. I put a big amount of time towards that and towards being organized, so thanks for noticing. It’s great you thought the resort was amazing. I truly love it and it’s getting better every month. Since you were there, they’ve added 4 pickle ball courts, significantly improved the mini-golf course and many other things. Thanks also for mentioning that I have a ton of recommendations, and that they can be trusted. When I say in the rental description that I provide a guide to Puerto Rico, I don’t think people realize it can save them 15 to 20 hours of time.

My goal is to provide the best rental in the Loiza region, but I'm glad it's also the best you've stayed at in 20 years of traveling regularly to many places. Some of the places you stayed were far more expensive than mine, so I think that means mine offers good value for everything that it offers.