Occidental Papagayo: Awesome resort!

The hotel and the whole experience were wonderful. The grounds are beautiful and well kept. We dined at the Italian and Oriental restaurants during our stay. The Italian was amazing and except for the mains that were a little bland, the Oriental was good too. We definitely frequented the main pool and swim up bar which were perfect. All of the staff went out of their way to make sure our visit was what we expected, especially the bartenders! We plan on going back to Occidental Papagayo soon!

Riu Guanacaste: One of the best resorts we have been to

Overall this resort is great , food was great , clean , entertainment was good and the best pool we have ever see . Just had a concern with the pillows , they need new pillows and the rooms are a bit dated .

Planet Hollywood Costa Rica: Great resort

Beautiful resort with very friendly and helpful staff. Lots of food choices to choose from. Was amazing to see monkeys running around freely on the beach. Only disappointment was our ice machine wasn’t working, we mentioned it on day one and it never got fixed.

Riu Palace Costa Rica: Average Resort

The resort is beautiful and very well kept. It was very clean and felt very safe. Pools and beach are excellent. Very clean and well kept. Rooms were oddly decorated and very run down with a very strong musty smell. Loved the shower though, it was a great set-up! Food was felt to be sub-par. It was “good” and there were no issues, but the buffets were very much the same every day and many times it felt as though the food had been sitting out for long periods of time. The a la ca [... read more]rte restaurants were nothing special and the food was just “okay” in comparison to other 4 or 5 star restaurants. Staff was excellent. Everyone was so friendly and helpful and went out of their way to get to know us well to provide excellent service. Evening entertainment was okay. Typical resort shows and very average. Day-time entertainment was lacking. The most active time felt to be around 4 or 5 pm, but this was the end of the day just before the pools closed for the day. It just felt to be odd timing, and was not properly spaced out during the day. For the price, star rating, resort chain reputation, and previous experience at a Riu Palace in another country, expectations were not fully met. We “may” return to this resort, but would be open to trying others in Costa Rica. We would likely still recommend the resort, however, as there are no real major complaints.

Beach Break Resort: Amazing family vacation

Small hotel with nice beach and lovely people. We wanted quiet time and enjoyed our time. The hotel rooms need to be re-designed, but the weather, sand, beach and ocean are perfect! Food is plenty and delicious and the touch of the Imperial beer is just perfect! Perfect family vacation!

Riu Guanacaste: Riu Guanacaste

I thought this resort had an amazing view of the ocean and the gardens were well kept all the time. Unfortunately, the food wasn’t all the best. Somewhat cold, undercooked and sometimes rubbery. Another thing would be there was always a sewage smell when we walked by the steakhouse which wasn’t all that pleasant. Overall the beach and pools were kept clean. The activities were also fun and the night show was very entertaining. The excursions around the resort were such a great experience asw [... read more]ell.

Riu Guanacaste: Beautiful region and fantastic staff

Staff were fantastic: friendly, helpful, and not overly solicitous. Grounds were beautiful and facilities were in adequate condition. Food was ok but nothing special. Would definitely come again as region was spectacular and struck the perfect balance between spending time at the resort and exploring the area.

Beach Break Resort: Perfect location

This hotel is a diamond in the rough. This hotel is located within walking distance of all the shops and restaurants but far enough away from the noise in the evenings. Food was fantastic which shocked me for the price. I absolutely hate buffet food so I was surprised that even though there was a small selection everything was really tasty and did not cater to American fast food.This place is great if you want an authentic Costa Rican experience with many Costa Ricans enjoying it with their fami [... read more]lies. Drinks were made fresh on the spot no sugary pina coloda machines. My faves were the Costa Rican coloda which used fresh bananas and the frozen mojito. The room was very clean but could do with some upgrades including new mattresses, a bathroom refresh and maybe a bar fridge. Even with saying that we were very comfortable with no complaints as if they did do that it would be a heck of a lot more expensive. Overall had a great experience. If you want luxury this is not your place.

Riu Guanacaste: Good resort

Everything was well maintained and the staff were very professional. Restaurant, bar, servers and front desk staff were attentive and met all of our needs. I know a very small thing but we would have liked a coffee maker in our room for our 1st cup of the day. Since everything is close by, it wasn't too difficult to go to the restaurant for coffee.. The pool and beach were both great and there were always chairs to be had.

Riu Guanacaste: Management needs to be customer service friendly

Hotel and grounds are beautiful. Bathroom tubs are not easy to get in and out of. Actually quite dangerous as they are quite high and when you try to get out very slippery. People in general are very nice except for the management at the hotel. Management was very rude and unaccommodating in allowing not even one hour later in checking out especially when are plane arrived much later than expected and we checked in quite late. Management also said you did not need reservations for the resta [... read more]urants - however it was quite difficult to get in as they always had a waiting list of over 100 people in line waiting.

Riu Guanacaste: Wonderful Resort

The Resort was very well Landscaped and groomed and the proximity to the Beach was perfect. A couple of issues is the restaurant and reservation methods did not make sense, couldn't get into a couple of them need to re think the process. Secondly, the entertainment was great, however, needs to be a little more interactive in the later hours, example more dancing etc.... Overall it was a very nice resort, rooms were spacious and always cleaned and the food was terrific.

Riu Guanacaste: Few things need to be done at this resort before it looses guests

Hi, To whom it may concern, I would like to share some feedback to Riu Guanacaste. We went there from Dec. 19th to Dec. 26th, 2018 Very clean, Very beautiful, Amazing landscape! I love the respect everybody showed towards the spread and freely Iguanas every where. Entertainment: Very Boring!!! I travelled to many other resorts and night life is very important too. It felt more like a retirement home more than a Resort with is supposed to be full of life! shows and then everyb [... read more]ody to bed. We went to the Discoteca, and it was dead! no one goes to it. At 10:00 pm people was already leaving to bed. The choice of music was terrible. We managed to listen to two different musician bands on the 24th and 25th. They were playing romantic Latin songs (like I am dying for you), and they did not have any energy at all. Your crowd is American, why don't you combine big American rock hits, with spicy Latin music like the one they play at the Discoteca!? I also would use the Lobby area in order to attract more people. They did it only on the 24th with a saxophone musician dressed up as Santa. They had a fountain of Prosseco on the 24th of December. When I accepted the glass of Prosseco, I asked to be by itself, the lady said she wasn't allowed to serve it alone, but with a sweet juice in it. Why? I guess the resort was afraid it wouldn't be enough. Well, you might be surprised about it, not everybody likes Proseco neither Champaigne. They had soon many bottles that the following day they started to serve them bold with no juice inside. I had to leave the full glass in a corner unfortunately, because it was extremely sweet and took the real flavour to it. After paying so much money to spend our Christmas together as a family I was denied a single glass of Prosseco. Internet connection; It was failling few times, and my phone lasted for two complete days without Internet. I, by accident pressed the wrong button and unlock the airplane mode and now I have a big bill to pay due to the Hotel issue for those two days of not working. At the reception they told me that I wasn't the only one asking for it and that they were having issues with it. The Casino; We spent close to $300 American US dollars. Went two days consecutively. One after the next. We did not receive any of those coupons you have to attract customers to the Casino door. Only when we were leaving the place after spending that considerable amount. At the door on the second day, we got 4 tickets since we were 4 people. NO ONE mentioned it before, not the reception when arriving, not at the entrance of the Casino, neither the floor manager who was standing right beside us while playing. We were laughing laud. So loud pretending we were wining that the floor manager and other employees got very close to the machines we were using since we were putting so much enthusiasm for very little money. So everybody noticed out presence and during all that time NO ONE offered us the famous coupons, but when we were leaving the establishment. We managed to talk in person to the Manager of the Casino, we explained to him about the incident. He could have suggested at least something; what about if I give you $40 in cash to be used inside the casino, would you like to play them? and maybe through that it would have kept us for a much longer time! I said to him that in all the resorts we have gone in the past few years we have never seen such a thing. I told him we were extremely disappointed about it, but no results from your side. The Restaurant a la cart system was very questionable. I choose the resorts based on how many a la cart restaurants they offer. For the first 4 days we try to reserve a table but the answer was always the same. It is full and there are many reservations ahead of you. We saw many tables empty! we kept looking at those tables and they were empty for a long time! meaning that the people that was supposed to come and use it did not show at all in some cases. We managed to get into Tucan Restaurant, and we witness some real unfair situations after doing an entire one hour and 20 minutes to enter to the place. Reservations as soon as you get to the resort would be more civilized and respectful towards the customer. I had a very old couple making line infant of us. Who, that is pretty brutal! So as we all know Costa Rica is known for their eco tourism. We booked few trips. We were leaving at 7:30 am. Happened that your reservations for the Christmas day, were supposed to be done from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm. I went to reception and mentioned it to the person in charge at the moment, he said there was nothing to do since it was only 7:00 am and the people in charge were still not there. That is brutal too! So we bring money to the country. We follow every rule you imposed but there is not a way of having a simple list before the tourist goes in their trip to have their names written down before they live the resort for the entire day coming back at 6:30 pm. Pools: I did not go inside the pools since they were pretty dirty. Specially in the bar area. Not enough chairs under the inclement sun. It would be amazing to have more covered spaces even if it is away from the pool. In the beach, not enough chairs again and missing a bit more beach grape plants or palm trees for the shade. We noticed that there were turtles hatching days, no one was promoting it. Not enough activities to exploit within the same centre. Even talking and explaining about the active volcanos around, or the volcanic beaches, Iguanas or Turtles would be extremely exciting. Climbing coconuts and offering it to the crowd with a straw for $1! Costa Rican Music at the beach, set up an entire dinner stage by the beach could be another restaurant a la cart that you could offer. Food: A bit plain. Always the same. Repeatedly times in 8 days our eyes and paladar had to experience the same. We try the Asian fusion and it was very disappointing. We left the two plates full of food and had to leave. To be honest it was bad. Spa and Wellness centre: I tried to use the steam room, I couldn't because I had to reserve it. Shouldn't it be available all day long so it can be used? The fragrance was extremely strong. A lot of people get sick due to the strong smells. Riu Guanacaste is one of those. Please make it more natural and less strong. Other than that I was glad to see many machines available and they were all in use. So it is telling you that working out is getting popular for a significant crowd of people. Insisting through signs in cleaning the machines after using them would be important and necessary. From the rooms to the facilities, put signs with arrows to where it leads you to. The pool, the lobby, the hatching turtles, the climbing what ever... Our cleaning lady Xinia was lovely! I hope this suggestions will be helpful. It is definitely a beautiful resort. Other than that, Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Deborah Krzypow (49 years), Roy Cado (50 years), Elisa Mendez (21 years), Chelsie Ean (21 years).

Secrets Papagayo Resort: Slice of awesome

Secrets Papagayo was excellent, panoramic view room was beautiful. Jeffery at the pool bar was entertaining and accommodating, JJ and Julio the drivers were entertaining and very friendly they remember your names and room #. Restaurants and food were excellent also Altogether Secrets was awesome would highly recommend to anyone 5 Stars in our books

JW Marriott Costa Elena Resort and Spa: Stunning

The whole hotel experience was amazing.... The food was wonderful Nice that we wheren't being nickel and dimed for this extra and that....all included meant that... Although the 200.00 voucher thing is a bit misleading.... All the staff where great especially a few of the guys in the entertainment end... Jefffery was especially great...positive ... a lot of fun...was clearly having fun himself.. And two other guys...edwardo(sp?) ...marichhio all good guys we will probably see yo [... read more]u again....certainly if my wife has anything to do with it....she wanted me to leave her there for an extra week...she loved the yoga and all the activities thanks mac and diana

Planet Hollywood Costa Rica: Great Resort Very Modern

Resort is very modern all up to date technology, from lighting to bathrooms and great Wi-Fi though-out the resort. Our room was beautiful and very large, stunning ocean view, and the rain shower was great. Food is amazing we enjoyed every restaurant, ate twice at the Japanese, twice at the Italian, once at the steakhouse and once at the Mexican. Favorite was the Japanese, this is always our favorite wherever we go. Pools were a lot of fun lots of exersize activities, foam pool party twice  [... read more]a week was great. Weather was amazing, sunny and warm everyday. Beach was small, nice you could walk out a fair ways when the tied was out. The resort is built into a very steep hill, and no elevators (we were on the third floor) this was a little daunting the first day, but we got used to it very quickly, would not suggest going here if you have mobility issues, they do have carts to shuttle you up and down running all the time and phones located everywhere so you can call them to come and pick you up. Overall we had a great week and met lots of very friendly people.

The Westin Reserva Conchal Golf Resort & Spa: Beautiful Resort with Excellent Service and Food

This resort is absolutely beautiful with lots of plants/trees/foilage/wildlife (monkeys, iguanas, etc.) All staff were very pleasant and helpful. Awesome service at the pool bar. The pool itself is huge! The food is very good at the buffet and the specialty restaurants although we did not care for the Latin food (found it quite bland). Our favourite was the Mediterranian restaurant.......amazing Bruschetta! The only down sides are that the beach is public (I believe all beaches are publ [... read more]ic in Costa Rica) so there are no beach chairs. We just brought our towels and used those to lay on. The actual beach itself is quite nice. Also, I got bit a lot at this resort by various bugs (I seemed to be the only one out of our group of 4). Bring bug spray if you are sensitive to bug bites. There is a small town down the beach (about 1.5 km walk) called Brasilito where we went and had lunch at a nice little restaurant just off the beach and did some souvenir shopping. We found the prices were about half the price here as they were at the resort. All in all we loved this resort and Costa Rica itself!

Hotel Villas Playa Samara: Relaxing Small Resort

Great remote location to relax, If your looking for a place to unwind this is it. Beach was excellent , people were friendly, the gym and some rooms were tired and aging though. Monkey tours company had great excursions if you keep at them to get enough people for minimum tour size. Keep in mind its a 2+ hour drive from Liberia airport. ( Diego at the swim up bar is the best )

Riu Palace Costa Rica: Amazing place and resort!!!

Super clean, unbelievable food. Be prepared to be stuffed full your whole vacation. Beautiful country and location. The beach isn't the best but nicer at the Riu right next door which you have access too. You can take a short walk down the beach and hand feed monkeys in the wild near the small souvenir tents. My only recommendation would be a curtain around the bathtub for families or other than couple guests. Hope to return someday in the future I think I have been spoiled for other resor [... read more]ts.

JW Marriott Costa Elena Resort and Spa: December 2018 Stay

Beautiful resort, great service and wonderful amenities. My family enjoyed a fabulous vacation at this property and would definitely return for another stay. We absolutely loved Costa Rica. Pura Vida!

Hotel Villas Playa Samara: Great Little Resort

We traveled as a family of eight for a one week stay at this resort. Four adults and four children (ages 4-8). We thoroughly enjoyed our stay. The resort is about a 2 hour bus ride from the airport, so travel days are long. We stayed in a one bedroom bungalow. There was a queen bed and two single beds. Perfect for two adults and two kids. The room was nice and the service was good. The staff are very helpful and pleasant. They were very patient with the kids as they ordered their Shirley Te [... read more]mples. There is no kids program or evening entertainment. That was fine for us, but other travelers might miss it. Both the beach and the pool are great, lots of swimming, walking, and search for seashells and crabs. We went on two excursions, one was on a riverboat where we saw lizards, bats, monkeys, crocodiles, and lots of birds. It was a full day and lots of fun. The second excursion shouldn't be missed. It was an evening excursion (about 20 minutes from the resort) where we saw young sea turtles being released into the ocean, and witnessed a mature sea turtle laying her eggs. It was one of the highlights of the trip. We did not use the al a carte restaurant. The buffet was great, they change it up every day, and the food is high quality.