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3700 reviews
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Mar 30, 2025Best Family Vacation Ever
One of the most ideal spots in Costa Rica with every activity you need for an incredible vacation. The concierge app is fantastic and I loved the activities with Explorers (Christian and Irene were so wonderful!!) The resort has everything you could need either on property or has access to on the peninsula. Our kids loved kayaking, snorkeling and monkey watching. It was the vacation of a lifetime.
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Mar 30, 2025Nice stay but experience fell short
We, family of 5, had a very nice stay at the Andaz for 8 nights in March. We were traveling with three kids, two teens and one pre-teen. The best part of our stay was the daily immersion in nature. We saw howler monkeys daily; packs of white face monkeys would show up and cause a ruckus and were so much fun to watch. There were deer in the mornings and evenings on the property. You’d also see tons of lizards/iguanas everywhere. The design is very much nature themed, with infinity pools that are not blue, but green to blend with the surroundings. We stayed in a three-bedroom villa. These are a part of their new residences. Our villa was absolutely stunning! They would bring a themed cocktail/snack everyday around 4; those were fun to make and enjoy. The view of the bay was incredible from our villa! It was hot while we were there. You can call for a golf cart ride to easily move you around the property. They use WhatsApp to communicate. The staff were always friendly and helpful and I give them all five stars. The resort was nice but there are some areas that need to be improved and I’m not sure it’s the best fit for all. Would we stay here again and the answer is "maybe". Getting a spot at the pool was difficult many days of our stay. During peak times, it’s wake up at 7:30 and go grab your spot, unfortunately. The pools do not have a lot of seating since they’re infinity and chaise lounges can only go on one side of them. There are only 18-20 chairs or less by each pool area. This is tough! Our family would take up a fourth of one of the pool areas. They advertise they have three beaches and two are a stretch, in our opinion. You can’t do much at them except stand there and look at the bay or toss a ball. You can rent wave runners from two of them, which we highly recommend. Bring cash as they charge more for using your credit card for the rental. The bay is an absolute dream for all water sports! The beach club, Casa De Playo, is the main beach of the resort. This beach was just ok in our opinion when comparing to other beach resorts we’ve stayed at. It felt similar to a lake. The service at the beach club was not great. This was frustrating. They don’t have enough servers there and we would want a drink, then go to the bar, only to be told to go back to our seats and a server arrived quite some time later. It was work to get a drink, which no one wants on vacation. They take care of those eating in the restaurant there as well as by the pool area at the club and it is not efficient. It felt understaffed. Their beach club needs to be enhanced. A five-star resort isn’t rickety beach furniture. Wooden chaise lounges would significantly improve the scene so much and give it more of an upscale feel. Also, on a few occasions, we noticed there are not enough chaise lounges at the beach club. There is so much space there, adding an additional 24 lounges would solve the problem. You also have to take a boat shuttle or van shuttle to get to it. Sometimes we’d have to wait 30 minutes to take the boat. It only holds 18 people. This was very frustrating at times. Run two boats for what people pay to stay at the resort. Also, the boat break from 12:30-2:00 is inconvenient. It’s much quicker to get back via boat than van shuttle. The boat shuttle also doesn’t leave until 9:30 or 10:00am. The sun is up so early. It feels hours have gone by before the first boat leaves. Running two boats seems like a must; a long wait on vacation is less than desirable. Also, a boat should be running from 12:30-2:00. It’s silly not to have that available to guests during that time. This resort is also challenging for teens. If traveling with teenagers, I would think twice about staying here. It’s great for 12 and under. There is no teen center or pool table. Please get a pool table. We went to the four seasons two times for dinner and our kids were welcomed into their teen center, what a dream it was for older kids. It’s tough at the Andaz for older kids. There is also no gift shop and that I do not understand. It’s a resort but no gift shop…odd. Plenty of space exists at the resort to make one. And, plenty of space to make a teen center. Another thing we missed at this resort is a lobby bar. I haven’t stayed at a resort that didn’t have a vibrant lobby bar. We missed not having one at the Andaz. It also feels there is plenty of space to make this as well. You only have views of the sunrise and no view of sunset. The sky is still beautiful but if you’re searching for that perfect sunset, you’ll need to go to the Four Seasons or the Prieta Beach club. The Manglar restaurant at Prieta Beach club was excellent and our favorite beach scene of all on the peninsula. Overall, we had a lovely stay and our villa was exceptional as well as the staff at the Andaz. I cannot give this resort five stars. It is not the price of the Four Seasons but there are certainly improvements that could be made to place it into a 5-star resort.
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Mar 30, 2025
Love Costa Rica, Great outdoor Tours!!
We stayed for three nights with kids aged four and seven. The rooms, pool, and beach are spread out along easy walking trails, with some stairs and inclines. Golf carts are always available if you prefer not to walk. The staff is very friendly. Dinner at the tapas restaurant was excellent, and breakfast was also very good. The pool area is spectacular, featuring three different pools, a restaurant, and a bar. Every day at 3 p.m., there were free snow cones for the kids. The hotel has two beaches. I stayed at the Four Seasons and other hotels in the Papagayo Peninsula, and the experience at each one was amazing. We booked a couple of tours and airport transportation with nomadtourscr, and everything was perfect! Both tours were great, with excellent guides who made sure we experienced the best of the area rainforest, zip-lining, sloths, waterfalls,private boat ride. Everything felt safe, well-organized, and reasonably priced. The resort and overall experience were fantastic—relaxing yet full of adventure. If you're looking for outdoor excursions, I highly recommend it. This area, the resort, and the tours are all worth it. Pura vida!
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Mar 29, 2025
A pretty, well run hotel on a bland, isolated peninsula
This is a tough review to write because taken just as an upscale hotel, Andaz does pretty well. Let's start with the positives: 1. First and foremost is the staff and service. Every staff interaction we had was overwhelmingly positive; everyone was kind, friendly, and helpful. Being able to text requests via whatsapp is a massive convenience that everywhere should copy. Yes the resort is hilly, but being able to text for a golf cart ride that shows up within 5 minutes takes care of that. 2. The quality of the room itself was excellent; our two bedroom suite was well designed, felt new, and felt decidedly upscale and premium. My family had plenty of space in the two bedroom plunge pool suite (which is a plunge pool suite with an adjoining studio added on to one side). 3. While food in the "default restaurant" (Rio Bhongo) was decent, our meals at the other two restaurants were very good, albeit pricey. 4. We spotted a good amount of wildlife; howler monkeys, iguanas, and pretty birds. OK so if the staff and the room were great and the food was solid, why only four starts? This is where it gets a bit more philosophical. What is the Andaz Papagayo? Is it a tropical beach resort? If so, it's not a very good one; the on-premises beach is muddy and small. There is a better beach on offer, but to get to it requires either a boat ride (which runs on a fairly limited schedule) or a van ride. Even this better beach doesn't hold a candle to a garden variety beach in Mexico or the Caribbean. Is it a Costa Rican destination? No; Papagayo Peninsula on which the Andaz (and Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton) sit is a glorified gated community for rich tourists. Literally there's a gatehouse just to get onto the peninsula, and all the hotels are additionally gated behind it. Once you're in there, you may as well be at any warm destination hotel; you're completely divorced from any shred of actual Costa Rica. Is it an upscale jungle/rain forest resort? No, that's Nayara, which not only does all the resort parts exceptionally well, but actually feels like you went to Costa Rica. So yeah. Andaz Papagayo is a very nice hotel with an outstanding staff, which from a functional and operational standpoint earns it a solid four stars. The fact that it's isolated and lacks a great beach prevents a fifth.
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Mar 29, 2025
Spring Break in Andaz Papagayo Peninsula
Beautiful resort. Hyatt Andaz at its finest. Monkey's everywhere, it felt like we were in the jungle. The pools were fantastic, and the Beach resort was nice. We did the cabana experience one day and well worth it. Food and drinks were good, in particular dinner at Ostra. Mostly seems like a family resort. Tons of walking and steps, so not ideal for challenged individuals.