Anyone been to Chen Rio lately?

[RocCruisers]

I fell in love with the east side of the island a few years ago.  The solitude, the waves, the beauty.  Rastas, Chen Rio and Coconuts are always a stop for us if we rent a car or hire a taxi for the day.  
 

So what’s it like in 2021? Anyone rent a car that’s reasonable?  How’s the food at Chen Rio?  I don’t want too many people traveling to the other side of paradise, but is it still worth it?

[c-leg5]

On 8/12/2021 at 7:53 AM, RocCruisers said:

I fell in love with the east side of the island a few years ago.  The solitude, the waves, the beauty.  Rastas, Chen Rio and Coconuts are always a stop for us if we rent a car or hire a taxi for the day.  
 

So what’s it like in 2021? Anyone rent a car that’s reasonable?  How’s the food at Chen Rio?  I don’t want too many people traveling to the other side of paradise, but is it still worth it?

We are also big fans of the east side.
 

Unfortunately 2021 has been another bad year for sargassum which affects that coast especially. We tried to make a circuit in June but due to sargassum and extreme heat we cut our tour short that day and only went to Mezcalitos and Ccocnuts. Mezcalitos was quiet but had sargassum. Coconuts was extremely busy and extremely hot, maybe because people wanted to be above the sargassum? Cannot report on Chen Rio (it is not one of our regular stops) and whether sargassum collects there but we have done Rastas previous years when sargo was bad and had to leave due to the smell.

I guess it depends how soon you plan to visit or if the season will be over? Some days are worse than others depending on currents, but generally speaking this year is bad. I would check with local TA forum or look at sargassum projection reports nearer the  time of  your visit.

 

I saw a recent review from someone doing the dune buggy tour a week or two after us that didn’t mention it being a problem, but they didn’t know which bar they stopped at!