Azura Beach Resort Samara: disappointing and expensive for what they offer

At arrival they did not find our reservation, poor communication, we had to wait and were not told why. Procedure to get to our room took about half an hour after a long day travelling. The front desk is not welcoming at all. They have a number of unexperienced staff. there was no information about the resort amenities. Hotel and rooms are overall clean. Room cleaning was fine but very late in the day. Some days no room cleaning at all. Booking system of restaurants with Whatsapp is somewh [... read more]at cumbersome if you do not want to carry your phone at all times. Food quality overall was good. More local cuisine would be welcome rather hat an Italian and an Asian restaurant. Service staff is friendly but not really welcoming which may be due to lack of English skills and working 12 to 14 hour days with only one day off per week. For 72 rooms they only have 24 beach chairs available which were usually reserved all daylong after 6 am by people not even present for hours. They have no other infrastructure on the beach like paddle boards or kayaks for hotel guests. All had to be rented outside the hotel. No collaboration between front desk and separate desk for excursions. We would not recommend this hotel for people looking for a more active vacation. Main activity is focused on the pool bar. Overall the hotel is too expensive for what they offer.

Hotel Villas Playa Samara: Great little resort

Hotel is on the smaller side. But that was a good thing. Great place to relax. Pool had lots of sitting.pool bar was great. Beach had lots of room and seats. Great views. Rooms were always clean. Common areas well maintained. Bar was really great drinks were excellent. Staff were all friendly. Great service.

Planet Hollywood Costa Rica: Top 5 reasons to not choose Planet Hollywood Costa Rica

We are at Planet Hollywood, Costa Rica. We are in Costa Rica for the first time. I wanted a 5-star hotel in a new country for a week to avoid surprises. Costa Rica it is a beautiful country with fantastic weather, friendly people and cute monkeys :-) The review is not for them; it is for Planet Hollywood. When I say, "This hotel is unbelievably bad," it does not mean that you will starve; you cannot get drunk with the available buz at the bar ... it means that you don't have the service that  [... read more]you paid for; it means that you better go elsewhere. We had the Star Class, building 26. If, after you read this review, you still decided to visit the hotel, and you are a Star :-) Try to avoid Henry, the butler. That is my first tip. The second tip: don't book any trip with the hotel. You will find friendly people on the beach - better service, better prices, more fun and private. Top 5 reasons The service is terrible to average. It has a very different level of service compared to Planet Hollywood, Mexico. SPA PHM - for Star guests, unlimited access PHCR - for Star guests 1 hour per week Restaurant reservations - butler PHM - anytime PHCR - only at specific times - 6 pm, 7:30 pm and 9 pm The food is ordinary at most I am trying to remember the best dish I have and can't. The food selection was limited, with minimal variation. At noon at the buffet restaurant, the only restaurant available at that time, no fresh fruit at all ... in Costa Rica ... on a 5-star hotel ... unbelievable! At the Italian restaurant Gusto, we ordered a Margherita pizza. After 30 min, the pizza arrived uncooked. I've asked to do it again because it is raw. After 30 minutes, the pizza arrived uncooked again. We left for the buffet... The chef asked us to return the next day, promising we would have something special. I asked him to do his job and prepare something special for each Planet Hollywood client each day. The people Unprofessional and probably untrained for the job Examples: I have received Hennessy on a tequila shot glass ... Don't clean the table if we don't ask. You finish your bear, ask for another one. Don't expect someone to notice and ask/bring you another one. The events All the time, they have private events. It was noisy and uncomfortable for the regular guests. Part of the hotel is reserved for the event and is closed for regular guests. Planet Hollywood is a small hotel on the hill. The space is limited. Why are events like that limiting the space that we've paid for? I found this unacceptable. The rules They have rules and constraints for guests if you can imagine :-) Rules when you reserve a restaurant, rules when you take the table for breakfast, rules when you book the SPA :-) I'm not sure how you are :-) I don't need rules on vacation; I want to be able to reserve a restaurant at 6:12 pm if I want to. I want to be able to go to the SPA on the same day. I want to be able to give fresh fruit to my child anytime. At the end of the week :-) Do I recommend the Planet Hollywood? The answer is no. Overrated and overpriced for the quality the hotel provides. I'm totally for a high price if the service matches the quality, exclusivity, etc ... at Planet Hollywood Costa Rica, the only high thing is the price, nothing else.

Occidental Papagayo: OCCIDENTAL PAPAGAYO

I found Occidental PAPAGAYO very nice with beautiful view and very nice swimming pool and very nice beach. Some maintenance work is needed specially in rooms. Some of the points i need to mention are listed below. 1. Lights in our room 124 Building 1 is very poor and not at all good. 2. Safe was not working. 3.Kleenex were not provided for 10 days even after our requests. 4.Face towels and hand towels were not replaced or missed completely lots of days. 5. Room floor was not cleaned regul [... read more]arly. 6. In the main building in Men washroom one of urinal sign was under repair and was never repaired. 7. Food was generally cold in dining room. 8. On the positive note most of the staff was excellent and tried to help when requested. 9.There might be more points but you got the idea.

Occidental Papagayo: Occidental Papagayo, Liberia

Resort is beautiful.......We really enjoyed ourselves except for few things.......Definitely need more lighting in the rooms.....Housekeeping was not good as there were no fix timings and always forgetting something to replace towels etc.......Same thing with refilling the mini bar.......There was no fix timing......Safe in the room was not easy to use.....Asked for help with safe, no one showed up during the whole stay....Language was problem with not understanding English.......Hardly any cho [... read more]ice for food for vegetarians

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.

Riu Guanacaste: Excellent, recommend

Great resort, great activities, adventures available.. Resort has a night life available for those that want it.. Bartenders are great, recommend Steven and Jeffrey.. Pool activities, David and Carlitos great at their job.. will go again

Riu Guanacaste: RIU Guanacaste

I fell in love with this resort. We have been to numerous RIU resorts in Mexico, Dominican , but never Costa Rica. The resort is getting a little dated but does not retract from the many lovely amenities there. 5 * for me.

Riu Guanacaste: Great resort!

Always Friendly faces, great food and service! Grounds kept really clean. Pools are going to start needing work soon as pieces breaking etc. Washrooms stuffy and need more ventilation and work as well.

JW Marriott Costa Elena Resort and Spa: Dreams Las Mareas was a hidden gem

Loved the whole experience: the staff was friendly, the food options were great, the grounds and the beach were lovely for walking, the suite was spacious and clean, the monkeys and the birds were all over the place at the resort and plenty of excursions were available off site to see even more. The sunrise hike coordinated by the resort was a nice opportunity to see the area, it was a good little trek but pretty steep! Good idea to wear proper footwear ?

Riu Palace Costa Rica: Riu Palace

The grounds and lobby were stunning.The rooms were very tired and need updating.It was musty smelling.All our clothes had that stale smell. Air conditioner needs cleaning as we felt that was where the meldew smell was from.

Riu Guanacaste: Riu Guanacaste

This was our 2nd time at this hotel. Staff and location are still awesome! However the hotel is looking old, and needs to be refreshed. Given the new hotel being built across the street I’m hoping this will happen. Food is decent, but no where as good as many other RIU locations.

Occidental Tamarindo: Wonderful people!

We did enjoy our stay, the staff were incredible. We could tell there is new management and slowly changes are happening to the resort. The kitchen exhaust fan was repaired so it was not so unbearably hot while eating at the buffet. The teppanyaki restaurant cooked a meal and that was my salt intake for the month. We did not try the Italian restaurant. We are hoping on their list of what to do is trim the trees. There were a few windy days which knocked down some large dead branches. Lucky n [... read more]o one was hit by them, but it was close. The staff was very kind and gracious. The Valentine’s Day meal was okay. The rating of 3.0 stars is what this place should be rated at.

Azura Beach Resort Samara: Nice resort .

If your looking for a quiet resort , not much of a night life , its the place for you. The staff was friendly , food for a resort is good , no venders on the beach trying to sell you junk , over all a nice place. They could have a bar and snack bar to stay open a bit longer than 10 , everything shuts down at 10 .

Occidental Papagayo: Wouldn’t Recommend

We spent the first week of Feb here. The resort is nice and rooms are everything you need but… Food is NOT good! We are not picky eaters and no one in our party of four was happy with the food There is a lot of walking up and down hills. They do have shuttles but they need to have them running constantly from the beach up to the rooms The beach is very beautiful and there is great snorkeling there as well. There really is no nightlife if you’re looking for that in the evening. The maid s [... read more]ervice was the worst that we’ve had in 20 years! I wouldn’t recommend this resort at all. My husband and I got sick the day before we left with stomach issues and two weeks later we are still battling them.

Riu Guanacaste: Awesome resort!

The Riu Guanacaste was an amazing resort with a great selection of restaurants with no limits on a la carte dinners. The buffet had a great variety of food at any time. Our room was clean and very spacious with a stocked mini fridge and bar! Our view from the balcony was beautiful. There were always lounge chairs available around the pool or beach. The service at the bars and restaurants was excellent. The nightly entertainment was great, especially the white party Friday night! We're certainly [... read more] planning on going back!

Occidental Tamarindo: Nice Resort

Staff was very friendly, they could speak pretty good english. I found the resort and rooms clean. Towels and stocking our fridge for our room was not consistant. I would say this is a good resort for the retired, there was not much happening around the pool or up beat music during the day. We had 3 17 year olds and a 15 year old and they were pretty bored. Food was very greasy but tasted good.

Riu Palace Costa Rica: Tired Resort

Took 4 room moves before we found one that would be suitable to stay in. Old tired beds and bedding along with TV’s not working or hanging off wall. Buffet was the best food offered as the unique restaurants were lacking in food quality during our stay. Torn canopies over loungers reduced opportunities to stay out of sun.

Riu Guanacaste: Great Resort

Extremely clean. Staff were cleaning everything all the time! Food was plentiful and great. Some items might have been overcooked but better than being undercooked. Staff very friendly and efficient. I would have liked to have had beverages available on the beach but that’s the only issue. Sunwing reps were terrific too-Always available. Lots of walking. It’s a large resort.

Riu Palace Costa Rica: Very nice resort

Grounds,restaurants, pools ,staff were all great. Love the bartenders at the swim up bar and pool areas. The entertainment was amazing around the pools and at night. Beautiful country would recommend frank the tank services great service