Very good

The hotel and grounds very well kept. Wish I was given a map of the resort or given instructions in my room to book the resort on line. The property was very big. I had the resort on line but not sure how to find things. Maybe the Sunwing rep should have help a class. Had to call the desk to help me set up my safe in room. No instructions. The food in the restaurants either didn’t have labels or some were wrong especially the salad dressing. No labels at all. The beef in buffet so tough I could [... read more]n’t even cut it. The restaurant tables were always clean immediately. Service at bars was excellent.

Pura Vida Amigo’s

Many of the reviews out there are generally accurate about this place. So I will keep mine short and sweet. The resort was simply wonderful. What a great getaway from the hustle and bustle of everyday life in a big urban centre. This resort is set within a carefully preserved natural environment. Large/old trees, wildlife (land and sea) and friendly locals whose motto is “pura vida” truly enhance the serenity of this beautiful property. The Costa Rican’s may have figured things out better tha [... read more]n most. Go here, you will not regret it.

Costa Rica vacation

Riu Guanacaste is a great all inclusive vacation resort Positives: Great food selection and varied choices, drink selection and portions are more than generous. Waiters and service staff are courteous and accommodating. Negatives: Pool is not big enough to accommodate the number of guests in the facility. Beach area could use a bit more TLC.

Costa Rica all-inclusive

Resort: Had a great time with my adult family. Weather was superb, resort is very clean inside, safe, staff with one exception were very friendly and responsive. Plenty of amenities, good food & drink offerings. The Gourmet ala carte was excellent, and our Waiter Daniel was superb in all aspects. The Italian ala carte not so much (average food and unfriendly Hostess). Room fridge was restocked with ample bottles of water daily. 2 of the 3 room toilets had to be repaired several times as the tank [... read more] flushing system was old and not reliable. Room decor was dated but the beds were comfortable. High energy around the central pool. Area washrooms were cleaned constantly and impeccable. Pool deck and deck lounge chairs were not cleaned daily and this was disappointing. Overall resort rating is a "B / B+". Sunwing: Both flights were delayed. We booked with Sunwing vacations which used a Swoop plane with WestJet crews. The extra leg room my son paid more for was not provided on the flight to Costa Rica. The duty free service on the Sunwing website was not offered by the WestJet crew on the return flight, with no explanation as to why, thus no duty free alcohol was purchased as intended by all 5 in our party (the airport duty free did not sell the products that the Sunwing website said would be available). The WestJet flight crew were friendly. The Sunwing staff in Costa Rica were excellent. The tripcentral travel agent Kevin D. was also excellent. Overall rating is a "C+".

Amazing vacation

Great hotel and staff was extremely friendly and helpful. The hotel rooms are a little dated but clean and all amenities you need, beside your not in the room often but if you are you’ll find a well stocked bar. The grounds ,pools and beach are amazing our family never had an issue getting chairs pool side or on the beach. There a lot of options for food from pool side bbq for lunch to a/c buffet or open air dinning . Flight was pretty good over all minor delays on both ends which were fe [... read more]ared from last years with Sunwing. The only issue this year was our bags took almost an hour from landing in Toronto. Customs was smooth. Would highly recommended this resort as well as trip central for your travel needs .

Great Resort

Rui hotel is very well laid out. With restaurants on one side and bars and entertainment on other. Beach is nice sand is hot on feet. No shade shelters on beach but some trees. Pool is good has plenty of shade spots. Food was very good, lots of variety. A la carte we’re very good, had to line up early to get in. Rooms were good, a little out dated old sink taps and leaky shower nozzle. Nice room darking blinds.

Amazing

Very very clean, we had an awesome maid that cleaned our room. Enjoy our trip very much. Sooooo much food Drinks were so good. We went to feed the moneys down by the monkey bar it was so much fun, they are very friendly.

Riu Guanacaste

It was almost 80 minutes from the airport on a slow, very narrow winding road, bumpy at times on a very comfortable air conditioned coach bus. It is somewhat secluded from any commercial or residential development. Security at the gate controlling traffic in and out. Limited shopping next door. Its a very large resort. The grounds and public areas were clean and well maintained. Free Wi-Fi throughout allowed us to stay connected with home. New construction happening behind the tennis court. D [... read more]uring the day it feels like a very safe family type environment. We attended the start of a couple of events in the evening, however they were very crowded and dark, so we left. The pool area was clean and we had no difficulty finding lounge chairs but some were worn looking. There were lots of activities offered at the pool. The elevators are functioning, there are few of them for the size of the resort and they really could use some updating. The room was clean, air conditioned and comfortable. We had a standard room with a view of the Palace next door. We made use of the room safe and the mini bar. Staff responded to mini bar restocking, but the beverage choices are very limited. I wasn't too sure about adjusting the air conditioning it indicated 3 fan levels but was either on or off. At dinner we were disappointed in our food quality at the Ocotal and Tucan restaurants experiencing both over and under cooked food. At the Ocotal we experienced racoons running amongst the tables at night. The buffets offered lots of choices and the quality there was acceptable. The beach was okay for swimming, clean at the waters edge, an undertow when the waves were large. The upper area of the beach where the lounge chairs are was not as well kept. A number of the lounge chairs were not clean and in need of repair, and of course you will have to deal with the vendors. Our group totaled 16 adults of various ages, mainly couples. The general consensus was that people enjoyed their stay but would not likely return. Possibly due to the length of the flight and other similar options closer to home. We enjoyed the full day Vandara mega-excursion (zip line, horseback, waterslide, etc.) it was 90 minutes by mini-bus each way. For some it was the highlight of their trip. Some also enjoyed reasonably priced massages at the beach (about 1/3 of the price at the resort), returning more than once. We also booked a 1/2 day snorkeling / Coco Beach excursion at the Riu beach. Although the snorkeling was fun I can't say that there is anything worth seeing at Coco Beach.

Great stay

This resort is very clean, staff are friendly and the buffet quite good. We would like to see pickleball court nets be made available. We also asked several times for suitable chairs at the court as some were broken but staff never followed through.

Excellent Vacation!

We would definitely recommend this resort! Rooms were spacious and exceptionally clean, grounds were immaculate, pools and areas were great while beach chairs could use a bit of a good scrub. Restaurants offered good variety but we were hoping for more seafood. Dessert seemed to be geared to the kids with lots of different flavoured jellos but we would have enjoyed something else. Entertainment offered up something for kids and adults alike. Saturday night seemed to draw a different crowd, v [... read more]ery loud until 3AM which might have not been the usual group. Unsure why Management wouldn't have dealt with that since it was pretty quiet and low key after 11PM all the other nights. Staff were so friendly and helpful. Housekeeping was excellent. We are hoping to go back again sometime!

Amazing resort

Front desk staff some are very ruth and that need to be improved because it represents hotel itself. Beautiful pool and landscape are very beautiful. Bar tenders very good and fast. No good seafood and if you are seafood lover don't go there. Over all Riu Hotel are very good depending where you stay.

Average family resort.

I had higher expectations. Before booking our trip I've read lots of the reviews and they were mostly positive. Most of the reviewers mentioned the high food level. It turned out to be very average food quality, average service at the main restaurant. Sometimes they run out of bakery and didn't refill it ( there was still 1h before end of the dinner). Servers were never coming up to us suggesting wine for dinner or coffee for breakfast. My husband did everything himself as the coffee pots w [... read more]ere accessible. Also we didn't like the room key situation. It's an old style variation with a key on a Keychain with a room number written on it (this was inconvenient , not safe and cheap). Why not having a card like all other resorts have?! Next this which irritated was that you can't change your beach towels. It was a rainy season and our towels got wet while we were covering kids from rain. I came up to the towel booth to take dry towels and was refused. So you can get new towels only once a day. Also, there are 5 elevators (if I'm not mistaken), but only 2 operate. That caused line ups. Other than that the hotel was fine. Our room was cleaned daily, receptionists are helpful and nice. I really loved landscaping. Gardeners did great job taking care of all of the greenery. Neon party on Fridays was a hit, I loved that. Had no chance to attend any night shows because my little one was going to bed at that time. Beach was OK, but don't expect any turquoise waters and white sand, no. Its Was dark Grey sand (due to volcanic origin) and no palms. Lots of locals selling souvenirs, but they were not bothering a lot. The ocean was calm and welcoming. I will definitely return to Costa Rica to explore the country, but to this hotel. It was so so.

RIU Costa Rica

The hotel did not change much same as about 10 years ago. The fight was good going down thanks too you and others that work with you . We had to take a bus from terminal 3 so we could get to the plane that was the worst set up .There was no ramps for people in wheel chairs or walkers too get on the bus or off .Was very hard to board the bus and to get off with lots of help from other passengers . Your team did every thing right and I thank you for that . We get to the hotel and check in we we [... read more]re the last to do so .After we checked in got the keys we were sent to the 5 floor at the far end . This was very hard with a lot of extra walking and waiting for the elevators to come up and were small .Got to the room No water in the bar fridge was not worried about beer or pop just the water for Lorinda my wife .So off I go to the front desk to complain .It took 4 times to the front desk before we got the water. It was the help of the staff at buffet and manager there before we got results .I was ready after 48 hours to leave the hotel that is when we got help .Other wise we made lots of friends with staff and sum of the managers there they were very good and friendly . We found that the food was not the same as back in 2016 June when we first visit not as nice .We found that there was about 80% of the people were locals which was ok with us just a bit more a bit loud at times . We might go back in the new year but will do things difrent , We would fly West jet and stay at our time sharing apartment for a few days and book a stay at the RiU from the apartment at Coco Beach . Reason for this is that the locals pay about 35.00 US a night to stay there with all the trimmings that we enjoy . Any ways all good we made back home safe and thank you again Susan Danny & Lorinda Chin .

Good place

The rooms are a bit outdated. the food isn't fancy but eatable, variety is not bad. the service is pretty good, everyone was very friendly. the beach is good we had no issues finding a place but the grounds are really great!

Beautiful resort!

Resort is spotless and grounds are lush and very well kept. Resort is huge so there’s a lot of walking - not a resort for people with mobility issues. Pictures don’t do this resort justice. Staff is friendly and issues are resolved promptly. Rooms are very clean but dated. Pool is massive and has lots of seats in it and there are lots of pool chairs. It takes a few minutes to walk to the beach but there is no beach bar or washrooms - you have to walk back to the pool area. Main buff [... read more]et restaurant had a huge selection for breakfast and dinner and so did the lunch buffet which was near the pool. Great to have a sports bar which was open 24hr to get an early coffee or snack. We were there during the rainy season (late September) and it usually rained in the late afternoon for about an hour. By then you were more than likely in your room getting ready for dinner. We would definitely go back as it’s a beautiful resort.

Great Experience!

The resort is wonderful. Food was fantastic at dinner. Mediocre at breakfast and lunch. The Asian A la carte was very good. Rooms were My least favourite part. The beds weren't comfy and the bathrooms weren't I'm great working order. Very dated. Our air didn't work great but It was comfortable enough. Service was not the best I've received at a resort. Often times I had to get My own drinks and dirty plates remained on the table for awhile. The lobby is very nice and has a nice breez [... read more]e. The theater is big and had great shows and music. The lobby bar makes excellent cocktails. Lots of seating. Front desk staff very friendly and helpful. Pools were amazing. Never crowded. Never had an issue getting a pool chair. No service around the pool. The swim up bar was good but if you have kids with you you can't really take advantage of it as it's 18 plus in that area. Grounds at the resort were beautiful! Stunning views. Beach was not what I am used to but I quickly fell in love with it. Water was clear and clean. Sand is darker. Not a lot of seating at the beach so I advise going early. Lots of vendors. Everyone very friendly and we did not find anyone to be pushy. Massages on the beach were great! Monkeys on the beach about ten minutes to the left. Very cool experience to see them in their natural habitat. Wifi wasn't the best but manageable. Overall I really enjoyed this resort. Our trip was made extra special with lots of off site excursions which I highly recommend. The country is beautiful! Look for Alan on the beach. Very friendly friendly and reasonably priced.

Beautiful resort

Resort is very picturesque and clean. It’s large but has everything you could possibly want. We loved the Italian a ls carte the best. Enjoyed both the beach and pool and all the bars. The night time shows were fantastic. Staff are so polite, hardworking and pleasant. Some favourite staff were Dyana, Cruz from the pool and Gonzalo, Danny, Leslie, Yenory from Italian restaurant and Randall and Moses from Sports Bar

Family resort

Generally speaking it was good but if you are looking for improvement the hotel lobby and the common areas need to be properly ventilated it was very hot specially when the ceasing fan either didn’t work or was not on high to make a difference. Food and service was great staff were polite and helpful landscape was well maintained and very beautiful

Wonderful Resort!!

Our first visit to Costa Rica has been absolutely amazing. Hotel was beautiful and very clean. Food was great at the buffet and the staff was super friendly. a short walk on the beach to see the white face monkeys. Highly recommend!!

The Best Resort

Our first impression was how clean everything was. There was no garbage anywhere. There were people cleaning all the time which was comforting after a pandemic. All the staff were polite and respectful. Their was a huge variety of food and drink options. Our boys loved the sports bar mainly for the pool table and table tennis but aLso because it was a really hot week and that bar had air conditioning. We would return to this resort.