La playa's only positives are is location, right on the water only steps to the beach, and its price. Rooms are good sized but furnishings are dated and basic. They are not cleaned very well and the sevice in the resturant is poor. I would not stay there again.

There really is only one reason you would pick to stay here - the price. It's extremely reasonable for it's location (which you should note, is not "on the beach"....it is across the street from the beach) If all you're looking for is a place close to the beach that has a Pina Colada bar, and you plan on spending very very little time in your room, then you might do okay here, because.....

You will not want to spend time in your room. So if you're staying here, plan on leaving early in the morning (the beach across the street really is quite fantastic) and having drinks at the bar at night (the bar is nice enough, though the staff is so laid back the service can be painfully slow). Don't stay in the rooms close to the lobby bathroom however, because you will be haunted by the odor of toilet cakes. Drapes on the windows are plastic, rooms are pretty dark and damp (sort of depressing) and the beds are low budget jobs.

Be careful taking advice from the wily old guy behind the counter. He advised me over the phone not to rent a car from the airport because of an airport tax. He advised me to take a cab from the airport and rent a car off site. He also suggested never taking a cab to old San Juan because the bus is so much cheaper and easier. I took his advice about the rental car which is one of the stupidest travel decisions I've made so far this century. The airport tax turned out to be minimal, especially after his secret car rental places turned out to be more expensive than my already cancelled travelocity reservation.

Cab from airport: $15.
Buses to/from old San Juan: $0 - (a waste of time, I never took the bus)
Cabs I took to/from San Juan: $90 (6 rides)
Rental Car rented after realizing how much cabs were: $120 (2 days)
Hotel in Old San Juan after cancelling last night stay at La Playa: $180
Cab back to airport: $20
My original car reservation from airport was $100 in total.

Puerto Rico is great though, but my advice is to stay somewhere else.

La Playa looks to be ideal, at the tip of a point in Isla Verde. Unfortunately, the property itself does not sit on beach, but on some rocks. At the same time, the distance to the beach is very short, so that is not really a problem.

Getting there, though, requires going through the street, which is isolated and tends to be well populated by collections of unsavory groups at night. If parking is not available (a lot for 5 cars, along with street parking), there is a lot, but it is two blocks away and not lit, and when we were there, it held three cars that had been trashed.

We had a completely event-free stay, so I cannot suggest that it is unsafe, but we never did feel comfortable. I doubt I would stay there again.

The continental breakfast consisted of a slice of white bread, juice and coffee. There was no internet availability.

We had a view of the ocean, it was great! The room was average, not fancy at all and the bathrooms needed to be updated. We thought a $100 for an ocean view was not bad at all and the resturant was fun. We would go down every night and watch the live music and listen to the ocean. The food and drinks were great. It also wasn't that busy, which was a plus for us. Your not going to find a ocean view this cheap. I do agree with the comment about the parking, they really didn't have too much parking.