Puerto Escondido holiday

We rented this villa for 4 nights in May, 2009. The house is in a newish residential subdivision, situated right on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean and had amazing views. The pool was great and, as you can see from the photos, overlooked the ocean. The house was as described, with a king bed upstairs and two beds (one single, one double ) in the downstairs room. There is no air conditioning and it was very hot in May, even with the ceiling fans at full blast. The upstairs room gets an ocean breeze and, with the fan, was cool for sleeping. The downstairs room was stifling all night, so our children slept on mattresses on the floor in our upstairs bedroom. In cooler months, the lack of AC would not be a problem because there are lots of breezes. The house was clean, and the kitchen had everything we needed. However, there was no soap in the showers, and the soap by the sinks was a very watery mixture poured into plastic bottles that had obviously been reused many times. Not what I would expect from a "luxury" villa. To walk to the closest beach (Carazilillo) you walk up the street out of the subdivision, down another street a little bit, and then down some very long, very steep steps. The walk only took 7-8 minute, but it would be difficult with toddlers or for someone with mobility issue. Carazilillo beach is public, but fairly small and not too crowded, with adequte shade. Palapa restaurants line the small beach, and you can sit at their shaded chairs if you just buy the occasional drink. Waves are much smaller than at Zicatela, good for schoolage children to play in.You need a car or taxi to get around Puerto Escondido from here, as it's away from the action. We were very happy with the location -- it was beautiful and quiet, and just a 5-10 min. drive from restaurants along Zicatela beach.