A fabulous vacation

Occidental grand papagayo was one of the amazing redorts I had spent a week this year. The staff at the resort was exceptionally helpful. The tours I took is memorable. One of our guides to arenal valcano trip Mr.geovanni was very knowledgeable in every which way. I had several questions about the rain forests, the birds in Costa Rica and the reptiles where promptly answered. Zip lining and the vulcano and hot springs etc will stay in memories for years to come. I am heading to Cuba right now fo [... read more]r a week . I will be staying in Ocean VAradero Elpatriarca, which is my third trip to the same resort. Rest to follow

Occidental Papagayo, Costa Rica

A good hotel with very friendly staff, clean rooms and a good bar near the lobby. The buffet had very limited selections during our stay in June 5-12. There is a lot of room for improvement with better and large selections of food at the buffet.

Simply Brilliant!

This was a fantastic resort -the food was very good, lots of variety and plenty of fresh fruit and veggies every meal. The staff were always helpful and pleasant. The grounds are beautiful. Very clean!

Costa Rica is amazing!!!

This hotel is very nice, the food is great, you can actually drink the hotel water from the taps which is totally awesome!! :) The pool is a little crowded and there are not enough umbrellas, maybe 5 for the whole place, and it gets HOT, which is fabulous but a little shade is a must. We were a group of 4 ladies from work, and we had a blast. That being said, it was 99% couples but we weren't bothered by that at all. The beach is okay, not very large, and when the tide is out it's great, but th [... read more]e tide rolls in around 2:30pm each day, and then the beach is gone. lol... Hence the pool and lack of umbrellas... but that's ok, there is shade in the snack bar for snacks or drinks to cool off :) TONS of shells to collect every day, but be sure to put them in your checked luggage as mine were confiscated from my carry on. Very dissapointed... :( I spent hours each morning collecting them, as they are amazing. We did 2 excursions, one to zip line and that was just crazy fun!!!! And that included the tropical gardens, a volcanic mud bath and hot springs. Another one to the river for a boat ride to see crocodiles and white face monkeys... Loved it! We also took the sunset walk to watch the sun set over the ocean, that was incredible!!! And a must... The staff were so friendly and the atmosphere great. I would definitely go back to Costa Rica, and will do so for sure, but perhaps to another resort or city. Pura Vida baby!!

Nice 3 Star

Hotel was not up to our expectations for an Occidental; resort is old/tired and needs upgraded. Beach also fell short of our expectations - note: beaches are public so there will be vendors, locals sharing it with you - Also, no beach bar so take a drink or two down with you!. Lots of steps/walking but they do provide shuttles to take you around (on the 1/2 hour). No outside pool-side bar, so you either had to be served or if you went into the building where the bar was, you had to be dry, shoes [... read more] on, and I felt I had to throw a cover up on also. I have to mention that "Carlos" was an awesome Server and "Jen" was an awesome pool-side entertainment coordinator! Bar closed at 5, and to our disappointment, between 5 and 6:30 when the buffet opened, you can't get a drink unless you pay for room service/alcohol, or you walk all the way up to the main lobby bar! Our room was nice, clean, but nothing special. TV was old and only 2 channels in English (Not that this mattered much to us). Our King size bed was comfortable. Small fridge stocked with 2 beer, 2 pop and 2 water daily but no bar alcohol supplied. All the staff (except 1 guy who clearly didn't like his job), were great and very friendly. Nightly entertainment was lacking unless you like playing games like 'music trivia', local guy playing a guitar, etc. There is a disco that we didn't go to so can't comment on. Food buffet: was ok only. Italian restaurant was excellent! Suggestions for improvements: build an outdoor pool-side bar and expand the concrete around the pool by a few feet so there is more places/room for lounges, and provide more umbrellas; as it is now, people have to pull lounges on to worn away grass to have some space/shade - we did this and when my sandals were wet, they actually got mud on them from the worn ground where are lounge was sitting - I was not impressed! The lounges were also very worn, not clean looking, and also need to be replaced. We went on daytrips through Air Canada and Kudos to Emileyo! He was an awesome tour guide. If there's only one full tour/day you want to do, go to Monteverde - tour a coffee plantation (and lunch), let a hummingbird perch on your finger, and hike in the cloud forest and along the suspended bridges. All ages can do this one and it was an Awesome experience!

Wasnt amazing but wasn't horrible

This hotel was alright. The food could have been better, the rooms could have been better, but the staff was amazing! Too many stairs thow! The view out of the rooms was not nice, and when you walk out the scenery isn't nice eathier. They need grass or flowers. The shuttle service is awesome thow! To get around on the resort!

Nice resort

Lots of work needed at Asian rest. Poor food and lots of kitchen noise. The resort on a whole was well maintained and staff very friendly lots of stairs people should be made aware of this before booking

Nice Quiet Resort

This resort is quiet with very friendly staff. This is a great resort if you want some exercise (many stairs and buildings are spread-out). The beach is a good hike as well. As it is a smaller resort, the selection of food in the buffet is limited but very tasty (there is often a wait for the dinner buffet). You can not go wrong with the weather there, very hot. I would recommend this resort to those not afraid of walking and looking for a quiet, relaxing get away.

Fantastic experience

The whole resort was beautiful friendly would go back in a heart beat.We celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary and Roberto the general manager made our celebration the most wonderful event to have as a memory of our stay.The whole staff could not please us enough.Putt it this way,when you leave your family to go on your vacation, you get a second family that takes good care of you.The adventure tours we took were by far well worth the money and the experience.

Great spot!

Lots of restaurant choices and plenty of things to do. Although hilly, the cart was always available to pick up and drop off at the beach or where you needed to go. Only issue was that more bottled water would have been nice.

Great place

We stayed at the occidental for one week. I need wheelchair access and the people were very helpful and went out of their way to help. The only complaint I have is that the air Canada representative was not helpful when I put in for a lost back belt that the airline had lost when I was inflight.