Amazing Resort

The hotel is beautiful. Very well maintained. Food was good especially the buffet. Pool was great, the staff were wonderful. Lots to do around the resort. Many excursion options. Would definitely stay again.

Beautiful resort

The grounds are absolutely gorgeous and well maintained.Rooms are a little dated but spacious and clean. Fridge was filled every other day. Recommend the jungle side if you love waking up to birds and monkeys! Food was always good with lots of options.Buffet was just as good if not better than the other restaurants. Huge line ups for restaurants as well, get there early if you want to get in.Beach is amazing and if you get up early enough you will see monkeys on the beach. Please go see the turt [... read more]le tent, you will love it.

Beautiful and Clean Resort

The resort grounds were very well maintained and interior was always clean. The staff were all friendly. The food was excellent. Very much appreciated the vegetarian options. The only down side was if you required anything to be done for your room, the front desk were very slow at responding and had to be reminded. Otherwise we enjoyed our stay very much.

Amazing Resort!!!

1st time for us at a Riu establishment. Def a top choice for all future related holidays now!! Absolutely beautiful resort with all the amenities. Very clean, super friendly staff, large pools and ample sitting space around the pool area. The layout of the resort is so well planned, everything close by (restaurants, pools, conceirge) and yet it felt like a large complex. The excursions offered at the resort cater to every style - from short 4hr ones to full day 12hrs! 1st time for us at Cost [... read more]a Rica - def. not the last! Booking through Tripcentral was a breeze too. I made a tiny error with my booking and was quickly able to resolve it with friendly staff at Trip Central. Thanks guys - a very memorable vacation for the family. Already recommended this spot to a few people :)

It was a great resort

The resort us a bit older in its decor but it is kept very fresh and very clean. The setting was beautiful, beach was amazing and pools beautiful. The people, the food and the services were excellent. Everyone was so helpful and kind. I had a couple of issues with the room and they were addressed right away. As far a covid measures, there was nothing at all put into place to encourage covid public health measures.

Great Vacation

My family and I have just returned from our trip. We have been to CR several times and almost always stay at this hotel. We love the location and the staff. The food is great, the beach and pools are gorgeous and my kids LOVED the wildlife and the waterpark. Highly recommend it to anyone!

Expérience agréable

Première visite à cet hôtel. Wow! Nous avons passé une belle semaine au Riu Guanacaste!! Très grand hôtel avec bonne nourriture, les lits sont confortables, le personnel très agréable, les restos super bien, et les spectacles très bons. La vue de la plage avec les montagnes et les volcans au loin est à couper le souffle. Bémol: le sable n'est pas blanc. Il est brun avec un peu de noir car roches volcaniques. L'eau n'est pas claire comme à Cuba mais très désaltérante et pro [... read more]pre. Juste à coté, il y a le monkey bar où l'on peut voir plein de petits singes et on peut les nourrir. Ceci est gratuit. Bcp de belles attractions et excursions à faire. C'est moins commercial que le Mexique et Cuba, donc moins de touristes et meilleur service!! J'ai juste le goût de retourner mais plus longtemps la prochaine fois....

Great location, great service, all around good value

This is a five-star hotel that's well organized, with well-trained staff who are numerous and try to make everyone's life more pleasant. The food is plentiful and tasty. The location is a little remote, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, and there's no real incentive to leave the resort grounds. There are activities and a nightly show, and there are plentiful beach chairs on the clean, beautiful beach.

Riu Guanacaste Playa Matapalo

The hotel is older but in good condition. The lobby and restaurants have all been updated but the rooms leave a bit to be desired. However, if you only spend time in your to sleep it isn't a problem. The hotel is huge with over 700 rooms so expect 1,400 people in the pool each day. The restaurants do not open until 6:00 PM so if you want to eat early you must line up at 5:30 PM pm even earlier. The food was quite good with a huge selection each day. The staff are friendly. Overall Hotel rat [... read more]ed 6 out of 10; Food 7 out of 10. We don't drink much so maybe we are subsidizing those who do drink. The shows a night are less than spectacular 4 out of 10. The showers are darn right dangerous with the sloped tub/shower combination. I fell in the shower the second day. Make sure you request a rubber tub mat as the tubs are dangerous to stand in while showering. Cannot see the beach/ocean from any of the rooms, but how much time do you spend in the room. The beach is public, not private so expect to be approached by numerous vendors selling trinkets and trash. It was a very relaxing vacation and the weather was perfect. Overall a relaxing vacation but a large hotel with lots of guests.

Very nice hotel

We thought the hotel was very nice, workers kept it very clean. The Steakhouse was fantastic and the service was great. Wasn’t too impressed with the Italian restaurant. Waited a long time for our food,like we were forgotten. Can’t really judge the pool as we spent our time at the ocean and the water was beautiful. Drinks at the bar were good. My only complaint was that we asked for a 530am wake-up call on our last day and never got it.

GREAT RESORT

AS WE WERE ALREADY IN RIU IN DIFFERENT COUNTRY, WE CAN TELL THAT WE DID LIKE IT ALL OF IT. ROOM FOR OUR 46 WEDDING ANNIVERSARY WAS GREAT, SERVICE IN THE ROOM, GROUNDS - "GARDENS" ARE SUPER NICE RESTAURANTS - FOOD - DRINKS - DESERTS.......................ALL SUPER POOLS AND SWIM UP BAR - SPECIAL WE ARE PLANNING TO VISIT "RIU" AGAIN AND AGAIN....?! WE DID RECOMMEND THIS "RIU" ALREADY TO OUR FRIENDS.....?! SEE YOU ALL SOON ....!

Book by yourself not with an agent

This is my first time booking with a travel agent. Never again. My travel agent was Cindy Callaghan, and she either provided poor advice, or didn't respond at all. Before I left for my trip, I asked her about excursions. I had seen a place 1 hour away that I wanted to visit and asked her advice on renting a car The only thing she said was to wait until I arrived on my first day and book through the resort. Very poor advice. I got way better advice from the Facebook group of Riu Guanacaste. I [... read more] did my research and I found many options for local tour companies. I ended up booking my excursions through "Frank the Tank" (a local tour company who lives in Costa Rica) and the guides were incredible, especially with my kids. They also provide full transportation. The resort was offering excursions for double the price as what local guides offer. Plus your paying into a big company instead of supporting the people living there. The resort also has very limited options for excursions. One of the excursions I did it through a local guide was La Leona water...an adventure of a lifetime! I bet my Trip Central travel agent hasn't heard of it. I definitely recommend looking at the Facebook group and viewing people's pictures and recommendations for excursions and local tour companies. Frank the Tank tours is the way to go though! There was a massive snowstorm that hit Toronto the night before I was supposed to arrive home. I emailed Cindy, my travel agent 2 days prior to the storm to ask about potential scenarios of what might happen. I'm a single mom travelling with my two kids, I wanted to be prepared. She never responded to my email. I will definitely be back to Costa Rica, doing the booking and planning myself. I will probably stay at the Riu Guanacaste again since there are very few all inclusives for families in Costa Rica. Do your own research, save money, support the locals who live there, and book things yourself.

Disappointing to say the least

The resort is showing its age. The food is poor. The buffets had very few options that were worth eating. The A La Cartes were just as bad. The only decent food was served in the Asian style a la cart. The steak house as crawling with raccoons. My wife and I were unwell for most of the trip due to the quality of the food. We were there for 7 days and by the 4th day we just wanted to go home. I would never recommend this resort to anyone. This resort is worth only a fraction of the amount that yo [... read more]u pay. We were more than disappointed in our trip that we were extremely excited for to celebrate our 10-year anniversary. The only positive was the stunning weather we had all week.

Absolutely amazing

Everything about it was fantastic. I loved that the rooms the pools buffets swim up bar are all close so you don't have to look for it . Very easy for people that can't do lots of walking. What a amazing trip. The only thing I would change would be softer bed but everyone has their own preference hard soft and firm etc.

Riu Guanacaste Nice

Hotel was really nice. Staff very pleasant. Loved the pool area. Did not like no coffee in the mornings except for vending coffee until after 7 at the sports bar - with line ups - did not like you could not book dining they said this was never a problem not true and all bars close at 10 with exception of Sports bar - which was very small and after 10pm line ups for a drink. Went to the disco - they charge for drinks? It was like a ghost town after 10 pm on both Friday and Saturday night due t [... read more]o no bar with exception of sports bar. I could understand closing bars at midnight but they closed as soon as the shows were over and the families cleared out. Overall is was okay.

Amazing Resort - Riu Gaunacaste

Resort was amazing, everything clean, and up to date. Food was amazing, lots of different choices. Staff was great, all polite. Jeffrey & Steven in theatre bar are amazing Highly recommend - resort

Great resort with everything nearby.

Found the food was very good and resort had a nice range of specialty restaurants .I liked that the pool and beach were nearby as well as the water park for my grandchildren.Staff were very friendly .Also like that the Diamente Adventure Park was very near to the hotel,

Amazing and excellent country and resort, very good and relaxed people

Resort in very good shape, with good installations and good rooms, swimming pool is big and great, maybe need a few renovations, but it is not bad. Good service and good food and everybody speak English. Wonderful beaches and excursions.

RUI GUANACASTE

Fabulous Resort, highly recommended! Employees extremely kind, the best food ever. Loved the ocean and plus plus could hear it from our lovely room at night. Love the fact all species are protected. I am definitely coming back asap, see you then!

Excellent Resort

Amazing beach, pools and waterpark- three great options which our family loved. The resort is clean and safe. The staff is friendly and kind. Rooms are good not great. The food is pretty good, plenty of options and selection. Breakfast was the best!