Riu Palace Costa Rica: Great Resort!

The feature that sticks out the most from our stay was the staff. Everyone was very friendly and eager to make your time there enjoyable. I have never been to a resort that was constantly cleaning...everywhere...all the time. There was never any issue getting drinks around the pool or at the beach. The staff was always very attentive and aware. The rooms are a bit dated but very clean. The only complaint is that the pillows are horrible. Not what you would expect of a hotel in this category. [... read more] Overall, the resort was excellent. I would go back in a heartbeat.

The Westin Reserva Conchal Golf Resort & Spa: Unbiased

Food and service was excellent. Room was comfortable and clean. Staff friendly and attentive. However, the hotel provides no beach chairs. No security on beach. Many pick pockets in Costa Rica. Few designated smoking areas which were poorly lit. Pool was poorly lit at night. Hard compact sand and murky waters. Bring lots of $$$ everything on resort is expensive.For example $16 USD for a small coffee cup. In addition, the hotel is under staffed. Long check in times. Bring your own steak knife. N [... read more]one of the restaurants provided me with a steak knife for my steak dinner.

Planet Hollywood Costa Rica: Best so far

We comeback from Planet Hollywood last week. It is an amazing resort. The staff is well trained in customer service and genuinely friendly. The grounds are beautifully located on the hill and very well kept. You must be prepared for very steep hills to walk down and up, they have golf carts running all the time but we actually were challanging ourself to keep in shape. There are 4 a la carte restaurants and buffet, coffee place (amazing) with ice cream bar. You do not need reservations for [... read more] any restaurants and there is no limit how many times you dine were. Our favourite was Japanese and steak house. Reservation is only required in tapenaki show dinner at Japanese restaurant, and that you have to do right at 8 am, on the day you want to go, it fills up rather quicly. Italian and Mexican were good as well. For lunches all restaurant are open as well as barbaque by the pool and also there is burger joint. (Very good burgers and chicken fingers). This was my very first Resort that I actually was not bored with food for breakfast. As long as you do not take every day everything at once. I had omelet only twice in nine days becouse there was a variety to choose from. Rooms are very modern and clean, very comfortable beds, only complain the air conditioner is blowing straight on your bed. I actually was cold at night. Finally we were turning it off for the night and sleeping with fan on low setting and actually we were perfect. This resort is very technologicaly advanced. Your room key is on you hand bracelet so you do not have to worry about it at all. Room service (included, no extra charge) you can order through your TV, and all the entertainment and activities are listed on your TV, very convenient. Safe in the room, coffee maker and mini fridge replanished daily. Nice swimming pool, not the nicest that ever have seen but nice. There are cabanas for rent (very expensive and I really do not understand why would you like to be there, but this is me). Beach. Lots of people did not like it becouse of dark sand. We loved it! It is dark, different then everywhere else but beautiful. It has big tides, with low tide water is shallow and perfect for kids, you can walk on the beach for an hour. When tide is high it becomes dip and the beach is much smaller. And the monkeys on the beach, we loved them and were waiting for them every day. Not for everyone but definitely for us it was huge attraction. White faced cappuccinos and occasionally howler monkeys. No excursion necessary to see them. This resort has lots of families with kids and also mature guests. At night the entertainment / parties were not very well attended (early sleepers). The sport bar was the most attended at nightS but younger crowd. We did not upgrade to star class, just regulars. They had few additional perks but not sure if it was worth. Summarizing, we loved the stay at Planet Hollywood in Costa Rica. Highly recommended. Would like to mention few stars from the staff: Cenene, you are genuine hospitality star, from day one you were filling my pink cup the way I like it, you run to other bar to bring me brandy when someone told you there is no more, you definitely deserve recognition, your customer service skills are shining. Diego and Victoria, you never were tired (maybe you were but did not show it)and was tirelessly coming to us on the beach to make sure we are OK, and alway got our order right (maybe becouse Cenene remembered our pink and blue cups ☺). Edwin, we loved your attitude when you served us. Barbara from Japanese restaurant, I feel like your friend not only a guest (Basia) There are many more people that we should mention, but not possible to remember. The young gentlemen in Fuel, he always made for me cappuccino with heart on it and served with big smile. Planet Hollywood you definitely have the right people working for you.

Riu Guanacaste: Wonderful resort - would return

This was a wonderful resort, surrounded by beautiful scenery and wildlife. The food was great, the staff were amazing and always happy to help. Rooms were comfortable and cleaned every day. We would certainly return.

JW Marriott Costa Elena Resort and Spa: Wonderful Week!

My wife and I spent a week at Dreams Las Mareas commencing April 8, 2019. We had conducted research on the resort prior to our visit and found the experience to be absolutely excellent. The staff were great, the food was excellent, the resort clean and tidy. The beach was also very clean and great for swimming. We found that there was plenty of things to do and therefore we had an active healthy vacation in spectacular weather. Special thanks go out to Gaby and Maria at Swiss Travel: Morela and [... read more] Nolan at Amstar, Mauricio at the Entertainment Centre and Dennys at the Oceana restaurant. All of these individuals excelled in customer service and made our visit that much more enjoyable. Improvement Opportunities: The hotel provides free Wi Fi. We found it to be very inconsistent. It is great that it is free, but it also needs to work. The hotel sales effort in regard to the Spa and also Wine. Guests do not desire a hard sale on this minutes after checking in. Please drop this practice. Neil and Jane Davidson.

Riu Guanacaste: Amazing resort!

This hotel is amazing all round. The pool is very big and never too crowded. It has a lot of different features including a large swim up bar with in-water seating. The food is absolutely amazing! There is a lot of variety and it's all fresh and delicious, plus there is always somewhere open to eat. The service staff are always happy and will do anything for you. The beach is huge and it is never crowded. There is shade under the trees. There's also an area off to the right where you can snorkel [... read more] among the rocks and see lots of great things. There are locals on the beach that sell things, but I actually find the tour operators on the beach to be awesome. They are trust-worthy and will give you great rates. The resort grounds are always clean and highly maintained. Gardeners are out all day long making sure everything is trimmed and the paths are clean of debris. Staff are friendly and helpful. The rooms are standard rooms you would get at any resort. My only negative comment would be that the beds are very hard, but I think most resorts have that issue. I recommend this resort to everyone. This is my second time going and I will go again.

JW Marriott Costa Elena Resort and Spa: Good resort

The hotel is set in a beautiful place but far away from airport and other attractions. We really liked the pools and beach activities. Food was amazing, had many many options!! Would go there again. Service was awesome as well!!

Planet Hollywood Costa Rica: Amazing resort

The staff was fantastic always ready to serve. Rooms were clean and updated. Food was the best I have had at any all inclusive resort. Definitely a 5star resort. Star class Guest services Francesco helped with all our need and extras.

Occidental Papagayo: Laidback vacation

We just came back from spending a week at this very quiet and relaxing resort. With being the dry season not a lot of green foliage but still the grounds were well kept. All the staff were very friendly and would go above and beyond to make are stay perfect. We booked a deluxe bay view room and we had the perfect view. We were in block 4 it was quiet and away from things. Definitely a lot of walking up and down hills to get around the resort so anyone with issues would have a difficult time. T [... read more]here are carts that you can call for pick ups or they will pick you up on their way. Top shelf alcohol just ask. We ate at all 3 restaurants and repeated the grill. The buffet was very small not a lot of choices same things every day this was probably the only disappointing thing. We enjoy seafood and there really wasn’t any. Other then that was fun watching the monkeys and again a great place to relax with a good book. If anyone is looking for night life don’t go here. The weather did not disappoint very very hot. Thanks to all the staff that made are stay very pleasant.

Riu Palace Costa Rica: Amazing resort,Amazing people

My wife and I just came back after a week at the Riu Palace........I will give you a honest review........the food is awesome,beef in all restaurants as good as the Keg if not better,and I normally don't think beef in the Caribbean is very good.....we did not have a bad meal the whole week...we are beach people and spent the whole week at the pools.....there are a few pools to choose from,relaxing pool,active pool with basketball nets,pool with volleyball net and the rowdier pool bar......beach  [... read more]is not great to swim in and not many people went in the water.....but great to walk and see the monkeys........the rooms are very nice and modern with a high end hotel quality bed that is comfy as heck....pillows need some help lol......coco beach is where you want to buy gifts to bring home.......our highlight of the trip was our excursion which we booked with Marco Polo Adventures.......We were able to customize a excursion to do everything we wanted to do in a day and it was awesome!!! Marco made this trip very special for us,he is very passionate about his country and is very knowledgable and speaks perfect English.....we had a private tour with Marco and his driver and learned a lot about Costa Rica while driving to our destination and felt like we knew him for years in how comfortable he made us feel......he is dedicated to being there for you and makes sure you are happy.......You can find most excursion people near the beach.......I would suggest you email Marco at Info@marcopoloadventurecr.com He will make this special for you also trust me......let him know Allan and Chris gave you this info and he will make sure you are treated like family.......Have a great Costa Rica vacation!!!

Riu Guanacaste: Very Disappointed

This hotel has obvious management problems. It took 3 trips to the front desk to get someone to come and fix the lights. Bathroom light did not work, bedroom light did not work, after 2 days they fixed the lights. Due to the noise from the live entertainment below our suite we moved to the other side of the hotel. Quiet room, however, the toilet did not work. I opened the lid to find that the chain connecting the flapper was broken and only had a 4 inch piece of chain left which they had used [... read more] thread to tie to the plunger. They came and fixed it with guess what...thread. Obviously maintenance has no spare parts. Restaurants with seating for about 100 persons would only let in 25 at a time. We were told to come back in 2 hours. All the restaurants on site did the same - only sat limited number of diners and quite obviously were understaffed. No bell boy service. Somebody needs to initiate some better management procedures and policies.

Riu Guanacaste: Never again!

First, the flight was delayed. The wings needed to be deiced and this was reasonable then they said we needed to refuel due to weight and head winds and that we would have to fly to Windsor from Montreal to do this. We did not arrive till supper time instead of lunch time and we lost the first day of our vacation. The Sunwing air plane did not carry sufficient food for the entire plane and ran out about 2/3 of the way back. With Elite Plus we were supposed to have separate boarding and luggage [... read more] drop off, although there was a elite plus baggage counter it was never staffed both in Canada and in Costa Rica. We flew out of Montreal and that was a mistake. If I were a Francophone I would be suing Sunwing. The stewards spoke French and if you asked for something in English you were either ignored or answered in French. Again on the way home the plane was delayed due to ice rain, (not Sunwings' fault) but their staff at our hotel in Costa Rica were unable to tell us when the plane was expected to arrive in Canada and were condescending when asked, answering they had no idea 'sweetheart' and they were not responsible 'My dear". To add insult to injury, they flight was long Sunwing sales pitch, food, duty free, Sunwing destinations, blankets, and ear phones. The inflight movie was reruns of Big Bang Theory, Sheldon and other TV sitcoms. If I wanted to watch reruns I could have stayed home. This Riu Guanacaste is the worst hotel I have ever stayed in. First room was located directly above the stage area for the nightly entertainment and the lights in the bathroom and on one side of the bed did not work. Took two days to have the lights fixed which meant showering in near darkness. We also requested a move to a different room which also took two days to accomplish. We were told to come to the desk between 11am and noon to exchange keys and a bell boy with a cart would help us move. This is a huge hotel and requires help to move. We went down to the desk as ask and were told to come back in at 12:30. Again we went down to the desk and we told that the room should be ready at 1:30. After 3 trips to the front desk, a 10 minute journey from our 5th floor room to the front desk in 100+ temperature, we decided to call the front desk to ask if it was ready and were told they would not tell us on the phone but that we would have to come down in person to find out. Still the room was not ready and a final trip to the front desk at 3pm got us the keys to the new room. There was no help with the move, we were expected to move all our luggage from on side of the "U" shaped building to the other ourselves. The new room was quiet but the toilet would not flush. The chain for the flush was tied together with thread and the thread had broken. They did fix this the same day with more thread and the only way to flush the toilet for the remainder of the trip was to lift the back of the toilet lid that the chain was connected to. Dinner was another problem. You could not make a reservation but again had to line up in 100 degree, not air conditioned, temperatures at 5:30 p.m. and wait for the restaurant to open at 6:15 p.m. They only let 25 people into the restaurant even if the restaurant held 200 people. We asked why we could not be seated at the empty tables and were told company policy was that only 25 people could be seated, the rest left empty for the next twenty five and were told that the soonest we could get a table way 7:45 p.m. and would be given a beeper. The hostess was rude and told us that if we wanted dinner that we would just have to come back. I asked about a buffet and she said that there was none. I went to main desk who told us there was a buffet and gave us directions to it. The second night we decided to wait it out and when to the Steak House, waited until 7:30 when our beeper went off and went to dinner. The menu if preset in all restaurants, the only choice in the main course, in the Steak house it is fish, chicken or steak. We ordered the rib eye but what we got was a sandwich steak that was 3/4 fat and grizzle. We never lined up for dinner again. We ate at the buffet every night. The food was terrible, fatty meat, over done fish and underdone chicken and turkey. We lived on pasta and french fries. I would not go back there if it was free.

Riu Palace Costa Rica: Great Resort

Super quick checking in process. Clean rooms and the grounds were well kept. Staff friendly and helpful. The Entertainment Crew were amazing and they did a super job interacting and entertaining everyone. No problem with the food, you could always find something that you liked. The beef, was top notch and very tasty at the Steakhouse and the Krystal restaurants.

Azura Beach Resort Samara: azura beech resort samara

Bien que tout n est pas fini l hôtel est d une construction impeccable le service service est au rythme du su sud la température est fantastique il ne manque dés endroit où on peut soi exercice ou yoga et danse pour des couples qu ils veulent se reposer c est un endroit merveilleux.

Riu Guanacaste: Amazing Country .

We just returned from an amazing one week stay at the Rui Guanacaste !! The check in was uneventful and smooth. Certains areas reminded me of the Casablanca Movie with it's unique style and its ceiling fans .. I think it was beautiful ! Lobby at night with its fountains and lights were gorgeous! The hotel rooms are bit dated but we were not in the room alot, it was clean and maid was very attentive to needs, more pillows and more towels, there is little to no English speaking TV s [... read more]tations unless you watch CNN all day. No coffee pot in room and refrigator was stocked frequently. Food was excellant has a bit of everything pork, chicken, vegan beef etc. for all types of palate . Desert was amazing ! The staff was quite pleasant and kept up with influx of people . The beach is dark salt and pepper type of sand the activies were around the pool , the barbenders keep up the pace of the spring break with flair The enternainment was not the best but dont let let this deter you from this place. I would like to say if you have mobility issues this may be a a little difficult resort but one can manage The monkeys in the trees near our room and and extensive wild life in Costa Rica were amazing . Sunwing's representive Kim her smile and laughter was contagious and they were extremely helpful in booking our trips off the resort. No hesitation to return on both my self and husband and strongly recommend this resort and country !!!!!

Riu Palace Costa Rica: Great resort

Resort was clean, food was excellent and pleased that there wasn’t any difficulty in finding shaded pool chairs. Service was good at this resort. Had no difficulty in reserving any of the a la carte restaurants.

Occidental Tamarindo: Costa Rica All Inclusive

This was our second trip to Costa Rica. The hotel is nice, not too busy, clean with some really nice hardworking people. The rooms are nice enough and kept tidy, we had a broken air conditioner so moved rooms once we realized it wasn’t a quick fix. The buffet is typical all inclusive, so gets a bit boring after awhile. The a la carte was quite good with fresh fish options. We went out for some dinners to get more variety. We never had trouble getting chairs by the pool if we got there before 9 [... read more]ish, the beach is lovely if you go swim over to the left of the hotel, especially at low tide. The sunset on the beach is unparalleled! It’s worth tipping the right people early, Carlos works like a mad man by the pool. It always pays to know Spanish in Costa Rica, and this hotel isn’t any different. It was nice to have a real international mix of guests. Overall we prefer smaller boutique hotels but this is a good option if you want to mostly set it and forget it on vacation.

Occidental Papagayo: Great vacation

The hotel is a little dated but the attentive staff more than make up for it. The ocean view premium upgrade is worth every penny. Loved The Grill, the Italian and Japanese restaurants. The buffet had a different theme every night. Alex in first Club went above and beyond to make our vacation perfect. Manuel at the swim up bar makes incredible drinks. Thanks for everything ! We will be back.

Azura Beach Resort Samara: terrific resort march 5-12 2019

We have just returned March 12th 2019 .When I read the reviews we were uncertain about this resort .If the previous reviews were true .First Costa Rico is amazing . The Azuza beach resort is new , beautiful and there are appx 20 rooms not complete. We found no construction going on to disturb the tranquility we found in this property..The rooms not finished would be complete once the power blackout blinds were up and the interiors complete. This is a non smoking resort on the beach only. The  [... read more]staff all speak excellent english and made us feels so welcome. The most people were 40 years and upward. Monkey tours offer excursions as well as Air Canada bur I would recommend the monkey tours . Eric and Nickson and Coco can make you all the local drinks but they have international as well. Samara is 20 min walk on beach to markets shops and restaurants .Room cleaned every day and fridge was restocked daily . Three floors but there is an elevator. Food was good buffet breakfast and lunch. Chill and grill lunch and dinner . Italian a la carte . There is currently 2 hours of music from 7-9 and music playing at the swim up bar and that is it. This was fine with us . We truley enjoyed our first time to Costa Rico and The Arura beach resort D&S

Riu Guanacaste: Beautiful resort!

We absolutely loved this resort...very clean, spacious, loved the buffets. Wonderful, helpful staff. The only negative for us was the room. We are a family of five and the room did not accommodate us well...