Occidental Tamarindo: Not 5 star maybe 3

. My husband and I took our grandkids age 11 and 4 for 10 days. I am not fussy and understand that everything is not going to be magical and I am OK with that . I am going to start with the positive. Grounds were beautiful,Tamarindo was 20 min walking distance (nice shops and food). The beach was a great mix of rock and sand, with shells everywhere. Great for surfing. The rooms were outdated but who spends there Vacation in the room? (nobody) They were also clean and the beds were not that [... read more] bad either.The fruit, smoothies,pancakes and omelet station were great! Negative..the food was not 5 star, the grill was fabulous but there was never any seafood served. No kid friendly meals. The snack bar served hamburgers, hotdogs and fries every day and they were not anything my grandkids were happy about eating.They did have pizza and it was good one day but horrible the next?? I was truly disappointed that the website mentions kid friendly there were no activities for kids and only had water exercise everyday at 1 or so. They did have a ping pong table and a warped ball for the pool volleyball net. The average age of people in this resort were 47-70.

Barcelo Solymar: Good resort

Nice and clean hotel food ok sometime no bread or eggs but over all there was always something to eat 5 elevator but sometimes all broken Staff were excellent good services hard and devoted worker Jorgue server on the beach 5 star he would run to serve you deerve an award

Occidental Caribe: Short and to the point

Older building ( not an issue for me ) Room is alright some stuff might be broken. Your toilet will not work . The pool and beach are stunning. You will have people harassing you but that's everywhere. The food was hit or miss and 1 of my friends got food poison 3 times within 8 days. The service is awful, they do not care what so ever about their jobs. The game room is a joke. Pool tables are on it's last legs. This is my 14th trip and by far this resort comes in last place. I'm per [... read more]sonally going back to punts cana next year but at the majestic.

Barcelo Maya Palace: Beautiful and relaxing resort!

The resort has everything you need to start your vacation: including great restaurants with an outstanding service, beautiful beaches, cool rooms and much more. We came here twice and we were very happy and pleased with the services, amazing crew and well maintained resort. Happy to come back again!

Barcelo Maya Colonial: Absolutely loved it!!

Barceló Colonial was excellent!!! The resort is super clean, loved all the pools and the beach. The employees are so helpful and friendly. The food in the buffets were great, something for everyone and the Ala Cartes were excellent. The theatres provided fun entertainment in the evenings. Our rooms were great and kept very nice!! Beautiful resort and so much to there. Will definitely be visiting again.

Barcelo Maya Tropical: Disappointed in Accomodation … I would return but to a different hotel in the resort!

This is my second visit to this resort, the last time being in 2002. Naturally it has grown ++. We thought we were in heaven then & we’re very excited to return! We were assigned rooms in what seemed to be the oldest hotel in the resort - Barcelo Beach Hotel. Our room smelled of mold (visible in the bathroom on the bath mat, shower walls & shower ceiling. The a/c unit was extremely loud as well. We asked daily x 3 days to be moved to a different room, while being told we were “on the list” t [... read more]hen finally that we would not be moved as the hotel was “full”. Upon speaking with a manager, we were assigned another room - on the same floor as my parents & with a King bed, as originally requested … we were moved to a different floor, with 2 queen beds! The food was not as good as in the other hotels in the resort. The pool was lovely, the serving staff were great, the beach was wonderful.

Royal Hideaway Playacar: Beautiful beach but some challenges

Beach was awesome however playing chair reserve every morning became tiresome. Hotel needs to invest in more chairs. Our concierge was never available and when he was he was very rude. Crowd was senior in ages and very snobby. A la carte restaurants were ok but not ideal for people with allergies or food sensitivities. Rooms are good but tired looking. Beds super comfortable. Not our cup of tea but made the most of it. Room service was great Check in was ridiculous. 2 hours. Total waste o [... read more]f time for no reason and when asked if we had been there before, to which we replied no, the failed to provide any information and merely stated, any questions??? Not a good first impression. Will not be returning.

Barcelo Maya Beach Resort: It all worked out in the end.

I’ll leave my hotel review for trip advisor and leave this space for Trip Central/Air Transat. Either the hotel, Transat or TC, tried to downgrade us to the Tropical section of the hotel. It took a lot of phone calls to all 3 entities, but I managed to get us back in to Maya Beach. Our rooms weren’t next to each other after the switchback, but that was a small comprise to get back to the section that we paid more for. It’s common in Trip Advisor reviews for people to get downgraded from Beach/Ca [... read more]ribe to Tropical/Colonial. This is my second time flying club class with Air Transat and it will be my last. Their seats have an odd, (and hard) curvature to them that are painful to sit for hours. And meal options are non-existant. Breakfast was a ham and cheese croissant or scrambled eggs. I tried to find a vegan option online and even called in advance to arrange a vegan meal but it’s just not possible. Air Canada will accommodate you. Coming home they offered a pasta dish stuffed with squash but no way to get it without cheese. Air Transat planes need a refurbish, and to update their meals. Considering the price of club class, it’s a bit of a joke.

Barcelo Maya Colonial: Good hotel

Overall great experience until after 1100 pm Became Noisey in hallways due to unruley guests. Room next to us was loud until 4:30 a.m. made 4 complaints to front desk and security. They did little to resolve noise issues. With noisey room, no offer to move them or us was made, only told us to call security. Security did show up 2 times, but as soon as they left it continued. In all years of travelling, including 2 previous trip to this resort have never had to sleep with earplugs and  [... read more]still awakened. Very disappointing. It was our last trip there.

Barcelo Maya Beach Resort: Fantastic Resort

Very nice resort. The food was delicious, rooms were clean and the staff were very friendly. The snorkeling was phenomenal, we seen stingrays, turtles and many other sea creatures. We will be going back for sure.

Barcelo Tambor: Nice resort

The resort was very clean, so were the rooms. The resort was very child friendly, food was pretty good. Service was pretty good in the restaurants and at the bars. The nighttime entertainment was alright.. 8pm til 9pm was a children's program. The info on day trips and help was ok.. unfortunately the resort is far away from the rainforest, volcanoes and a long ride from the airport. But it is overall a very nice place.

Barcelo Maya Palace: Barcelo Maya Palace

This resort was amazing and ticked off all our boxes. The food was amazing, wine was good, resort was very clean and staff were amazing and friendly. The beach was something to be seen. Our room was great and kept very clean, rain shower was nice. Looking forward to returning to this resort.

Barcelo Maya Riviera: Amazing

March 2024 we go back and it will be approximately our 18 or 20th time to the Barcelo. I all those trips we only had to refuse one room due to poor house keeping which is not the normal for this Resort. They immediately put us in a new room . Grounds great , restaurants booking the past few times we went poor as very little available even though is included in package, But restaurants themselves great if you get in to the ones you want . Pools great , staff excellent,beach very nice but care [... read more]ful some rocky areas, This is actually the only resort we recommend to friends.

Barcelo Maya Palace: A great place BUT

Firstly, I’d like to say, this place has great food, well manicured grounds, overall beautiful rooms, good beds, and good air-conditioning. The beach is a little rocky and compared to other beaches. I would give it a 7 out of 10. BUT my main complaint is the inability to get chairs or lounges to sit around the pool or the beach. The problem is there are signs that say “do not reserve seats” but no one enforces it. If you look across the pool you see lots of lounge chairs but NOBODY is sitting [... read more] in any of them. They were all occupied by a book, a shoe, a floaty, a towel etc. At the beach we saw chairs that were reserved and nobody showed up until after lunch. If they are going to have signs outlining a no reserving chair policy, someone has to be there in the morning to enforce it and stop people. My only other minor complaint was the drinks. The Margaritas and any of the mixed drinks were so sweet that you could barely drink them. The orange juice is not really orange juice, it’s Tang or some made up orange mixture. Make sure you ask or specify what alcohol brand or type you want in your drink or you get some generic type of alcohol instead

Barcelo Tambor: Costa rica

The outside and grounds were beautiful. Inside rooms need some housekeeping. The 4 hours on a bus after a 5 hour air was a bit much on terrible roads. Front staff are much to be desired. Stupid, ignorant an rude. First impression and first people you meet should be adult and professional. I would go back to Costa Rica, but not that resort.

Barcelo Maya Tropical: Beautiful and amazing resort

Beach is absolutely gorgeous. Grounds are immaculate. Buffet food is varied and very good. Lots of free amenities. Friendly and helpful staff. Easy check in and check out. For the first time ever, this a resort I would definitely go back to and would recommend to others.

Barcelo Maya Tropical: Pleasant stay at Barceló Maya Tropical

We are two couples who stayed at the Barcelo Maya Tropical for two weeks in February. We enjoyed the variety and quality of the food at both the buffet restaurants and the a la cartes, although it was difficult getting reservations at the latter for the first few days. However some of the drinks at the pool bar were poor quality. The rooms we had were spacious and clean and the grounds very well maintained. We made extensive use of the massive fitness facility. The beach is nice although somewha [... read more]t rocky in spots. The pools are huge and for the little ones, the water parks looked well designed. Even though the resort is very large we found it easy to navigate and get around to the restaurants located throughout the complex. We found the staff very friendly overall. We found it good value for money and would return.

Barcelo Tambor: Amazing Resort

Disappointed at the female front desk staff.No welcome, made no eye contact and never spoke to anyone. When they were asked where our room were located they just pointed. When we checked out it was the same, never spoke, no goodbye or how was your stay Hope to see you again, nothing The bar tenders were all eager to serve, smile on their faces. The housekeeping staff were friendly. There was a wide variety of food at the buffet and was good. The resort was clean, well groomed lawns. My favou [... read more]rite was each morning was watching the parrots, listening to the hollering monkeys The massages that I had were amazing by each lady, excellent top notch service Also, the gentleman that booked our excursion was amazing, friendly and knowledgeable.

Barcelo Tambor: I would NOT recommend

I've never written a review but thought it was important to share. The trip from the airport was a 4 hour drive through extreme winding roads. I spoke with other guests and everyone complained about the drive. We booked a half hour flight from close by airport back to international Airport to avoid this drive again. $150 per ticket. The resort was exceptionally nice. Pool are was very comfortable and clean. The downfall was the bars. Minimum bars and bartenders. 20 minute line up everytime you  [... read more]wanted a drink. Under staffed but bartenders worked non stop trying to keep up with demand. Food was not good at all. Same thing every day. Buffet was large but exact same food every day. The "speciality" restaurants were fair at best. I guess they thing anything will taste good when you've been eating the same food day after day. We found out our last day that they didn't offer bacon for breakfast except in the "premium" speciality room. After paying over 2000 dollars per ticket bacon for breakfast should not be for premium guests only. Ridiculous. Brought new bottle of sunscreen . We ran out so went to gift shop. They were asking 72 dollars for small bottle. We took a cab to store and bought 3 times larger bottle for 24 dollars. Evenings. It was absolutely ridiculous. The pool closes at 7:00pm. Table tennis and mini golf, closes and ANY resort activity closes at 4:00pm. They have a nightly show on stage with dancers. They were entertaining for the first night or two but it got old after that. So after dinner there was no swimming, no entertainment and minimum bar service. The place has soooo much potential but with the drive to get there, the weak food and the lack of things to do, I would not go back as it's not worth it. I've been to Barcelo in Rivera Myan in Mexico. I would go there in a heart beat rather than return to Barcelo Costa Rica. Very disappointing. February 15-22 2024

Barcelo Maya Riviera: Perfect, as always.

This is not my first trip to Barcelo AO and it won't be my last. The food was delicious, the grounds were immaculate, and the rooms were welcoming and comfortable. But the best thing about Barcelo is the staff. I have to say, they are so friendly and warm, kind and helpful. Each night we looked forward to having drinks at the lobby bar/terrace and always tried to sit in Yazmin or Norma's section. They are exceptional servers who work hard and make all guests feel like family. A special shout out [... read more] to Maru Navarro. This caring young lady always goes above and beyond for Barcelo guests, making their stay perfect, and smooth. We loved walking by the Premium lobby, just to wave or stop in to say hello and she always had a big, warm smile on her face. We love how she always goes the extra mile, to make the trip extraordinary, positive and memorable. I'd like to always give a shout out to David Quiroga and Araceli Castro, in the French restaurant (La Comedie) at the AO. Always a smile on their faces and they went out of their way to make sure our dining experience was top notch. Barcelo you have hired some great people, who work very hard to give guests a positive experience. Well done. See you next year.