Riu Guanacaste: Riu Guanacaste

My experience with the Riu as a first time trip is WOW. From the arrival to the resort the experience was excellent.You are greeted by the staff who are friendly and knowledgeable with a welcoming drink. From check in to check out you have no worries as someone is there to assist. The resort is beautiful, the grounds with flowers, trees are well maintained, The pool area is large and you are able to relax and enjoy. The restaurants and bars are also very good. With four restaurants to choose fro [... read more]m you do not have to go hungry. Rooms are comfortable and clean. The amenities on the resort provide additional things to do. The gym, spa disco and casino are there for your use. All in all the stay was excellent. I would recommend the Rui to any one.

Allegro Papagayo by Occidental: very nice resort

clean and good customer service the rooms are adequate,the pool is very nice,the staff very helpful.Loved the monkeys,had two great side trips zip lining and river cruise.Cant say enough about the perfect weather,outstanding.

Allegro Papagayo by Occidental: Worth the money

Good views, nice staff, lots to do! Rooms could use a little updating, but all in all, I would go back over and over. It never gets old watching all the monkeys on the beach, histarical! Lots of great excursions as well!

Riu Guanacaste: Best resort ever

The hotel was extremely clean. The food was amazing from the am to the pm, the choices never seen anything like it, they must be preparing food 24/7 you will not be disappointed staff exceptional and extremely friendly. The only negative thing are the towels, not best quality could be softer, the beach towels were clean but had mildew stains on them. Will defiantly go back.

Riu Guanacaste: The Best Ever

We were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary so decide to go to a Riu resort because I had heard great thing about them. The resort was the best ever. For example one morning I walked into my room to see the cleaning staff had pulled out the bed and were washing the wall behind the bed along with headboard and under the bed.They did so with smiles on their faces and in no time at all.There is no question that cleanliness is top priority. The food was fabulous even the buffet felt like you at [... read more] a gourmet restaurant. The entertainment had many people settle at the end of the day with fun and giggles. The activities during the day especially around the pool left nobody bored. I tell everyone who's looking to vacation about the Riu because I know they will not be disappointed.

Allegro Papagayo by Occidental: This was a great place I enjoyed it there

It is not a five star hotel but is plenty of enjoyable time can be spent here .. Food was good staff was very nice . Felt safe all the time here . I would come back . Could use some more convenient ways to Coco or other places. It costs large to get off the resort .. Make sure you have your snacks and stuff packed not much to buy there. But it was a great place for a great deal.

Riu Palace Costa Rica: Perfect holiday lication

A beautiful resort with great weather and wonderful people. Never better. Food was great drinks were well done and served continually. Trips to the cloud forest were long but beautiful. Love Costa Rica. We will defiantly go back to the palace

Occidental Papagayo: 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.

Allegro Papagayo by Occidental: Loved it, would go back again

Happy staff made for happy guest. Christian, Marilyn, Christopher all made for great entertainment.the dancers etc took other jobs at the resort amazingly.Good food, drinks and service I would return there. The servers were attentive, friendly understood basic English that really helped.

Allegro Papagayo by Occidental: Great vacation with my daughters

Apart from the beach, everything else was excellent. The food was good, the rooms were clean, the pool was great and the weather was perfect. Thanks to every employees for making it a great vacation, especially to Marilyne & Christian for their entertainment and Jimmy & Johnny for their excellent service.

Occidental Papagayo: 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.

Riu Palace Costa Rica: Perfect (except for the wafts of raw sewage)!

The food, service, staff, beach, excursions and facility were all perfect. If it weren't for the frequent wafts of raw sewage on the north end of the building and grounds it would have been flawless! The hotel has ample lounge chairs and beach space. No need to put towels on lounge chairs on the beach at sunrise. We were told the hotel booked to 95% of capacity. It felt like 50%.m

Riu Guanacaste: Great place; excellent value for your money

While Guanacaste does not have the reputation of Sandals Resorts but in many ways comes pretty close in terms of service, food quality and general atmosphere of the resort. The beach is very pleasant with enough chairs and shade if needed. The pool is amazing. Evening entertainment is varied and family friendly. Quests can also participate and even my three year old grandson had a great time. The cost of the trips are reasonable and well organized. Staff is pleasant and attentive and quite profi [... read more]cient in English.

Secrets Papagayo Resort: A lovely tranquil spot.

The hotel is nice enough although showing signs of wear in the tropical bungalow we were in. The weather and food made up for it.The big disappointment was the fact that 4 of the teams from the Under 17 Girls World Cup Soccer were staying at this resort greatly reducing the number of guests around in the evening.The night life was virtually nothing. One of the teams was from North Korea and the security around them was so tight that no one was allowed on the property unless they were registered  [... read more]guests. This posed a huge problem for me because I was there to celebrate a milestone birthday and my son and daughter-in-law who were staying in Tamarindo were not allowed to come to be with us to celebrate.That was the whole point of the trip for me and if I had been informed of this beforehand I would most certainly have chosen a different resort. The beach is in a cove so nice and quiet and waters are calm but if you are one who wants to walk for miles on the beach this resort is not for you. Lots of hill walking to keep you in shape but there are great little shuttles you can hitch a ride on if you prefer. Best smoothies in the world at the spa pool. To lie at that adult only pool every morning looking out at the ocean and mountains while enjoying a papaya/mango smoothie and listening to nothing but calming music and ocean breezes was what I am hoping heaven to be.

Allegro Papagayo by Occidental: Average

This resort was just ok. Clean, the food was decent. The service was not great. The pool area was great and the drinks were yummy! The beach was different than we are used to with the black sand but not an issue for us. This resort is out in the middle of nowhere. You habe to take a boat or taxi to get to town. About $80 for both. You can also rent a car and split the cost with a few others to reduce costs. We went for two weeks to relax. All in all i would say mission accomplished. And again [... read more] this hotel was 'fine'. It is what you make of it.

Riu Guanacaste: Awesome view of ocean and outstanding resort

Small resort but the best place we have ever been. Can't wait to go back! Highly recrememt this place. Great pools beach food rooms and entertainment. The views are out of this world and short bus ride from the airport.

Riu Guanacaste: great time with friendly staff

The hotel was beautiful and the food delicious. Fresh fruit and scenery was something to see. Cant wait to go back. We went on the river boat tour, and saw crocodiles and monkeys in ther natural habitat

Riu Guanacaste: very nice

very nice..rooms clean...people friendly..meals were good and lots of selection..located in a nice area....beach was great...lots of tours to take..the riverboat tour was very nice...we had a room with a very nice view of the Ocean.

Riu Guanacaste: Winter Escape was Great!

The hotel grounds were immaculate and the rooms were very comfortable with great ocean views. There were many pools to cool down in but the ocean was the real draw for us (beautiful black beaches, lots of sun and shade). The staff and local people were very friendly!

Allegro Papagayo by Occidental: Excellent staff

With this being the first trip to Costa Rica to scope a wedding site it was all about location. We stumbled across this resort in magazine and came recommended by 2 coworkers. We arrived to be welcomed by the friendliest staff. Checkin was good and knowing from trip in that we were in for a treat with all the hills. A shuttle took us right to out floor as we call it because there is such a hill to the resort that all the buildings are built in levels so there is 3 levels. Room was a normal room  [... read more]with 2 beds. We had ground level so all the stairs were out for us. Now here's where everything got to the excellent part. We go to the buffet as we were hungry and was greeted by the hostess and sat basically anywhere as there wasn't more that 80 people in the resort. Our server (Jimmy) who in all my travels is the best server ever was very kind and spoke very good English. He stood tree and took our drink orders and never asked again. He made small talk and introduced us to Costa Rica culture. This man was by far a treasure well kept away from the world and is a gem that the rest of the world really needs to meet. Everyday we would come in and be sat in his area and he would bring us our drinks with out us asking. Great memory and great service. He recommended places to go and who we should see and took our enjoyment his personal priority. He definitely made the resort a special place to us. We did our excursions, 5 of them with some of them being the best things we have ever done. Very first thing we did was watch the leatherback turtles come to shore and lay eggs.. Total the most awesome feeling watching life start on its journey. We did ziplining, horseback riding, water sliding, rock climbing, hot tubbing, going to waterfall (on our own with car rental), bird watching and fishing out on papagayo bay. Excellent trip and are planning on returning at end of October again where we have arranged to spend a day with some of the staff in San José.