This was our first stop after flying to Manta on the coast of Ecuador. It was right in the middle of the country's carnival which made the town very congested and noisy. When we arrived and asked for confirmation of the free breakfast, we were told it wasn't included. However, upon showing the written confirmation, the owner agreed. Although they do not appear to be well set up for providing breakfasts, the staff did put together a good breakfast for us. I think if we had purchased one of their larger rooms our experience might have been a lot better, but they were full on the night of arrival. The room we had was very small, and although it had all the features mentioned below, it did not meet our needs so we left after the first night even though we were paid for three nights. We drove to a different town with a nicer beach and stayed there for three nights. Even though the new place cost a bit more and had none of the features listed below under "...likes...", we found it much better than Cottages by the Sea because it was spacious, airy, well-lit, modern, very clean, had lots of hooks & hangers and places to put our bags and things, had two multi-speed fans in each room and had an immaculate, bright bathroom with high-end fixtures.