We spent eight days in Costa Rica over spring break and had an amazing time enjoying both the more adventurous options in La Fortuna and the beaches in Guanacaste. For the last three days of our family trip to Costa Rica, we enjoyed the beach and pools at the Andaz Papagayo resort located in the Bay of Papagayo.
Here are a few of our thoughts after spending three nights here:
The Property: There is something pretty magical about the location of this resort because you truly feel like you are nestled into the side of a mountain. The pools are all infinity style with trees and the bay behind them and the views are STUNNING. We felt like it was so much more relaxing than being in a hotel zone with tons of other properties and people.
The pools truly are the best part of this property and we spent most of our time there! There is so much wildlife and the kids watched monkeys jump in the trees around them as they swam. It was magical to sit on lounge chairs and watch the monkeys leap from tree to tree and eat leaves or play while the bay sparkled in the distance.
The food was pretty good overall but definitely resort prices and expensive. We saved a ton on breakfast by being Globalist which helped but definitely budget more for food on property because it’s really your only option! We did dinner a Rio Bhongo, Ostra, and Chao Pescao and the tapas and region-based menu at Chao Pescao were definitely our favorite!
The Rooms: The room was fine but honestly the layout wasn’t great. It is a pretty small room with the closet/dresser/table somewhat awkwardly in the middle and we felt like we were constantly walking in circles around the middle to get anywhere. The bathroom is also basically just open to the room with clear frosted doors to the toilet/shower which wouldn’t be great if you value your privacy while doing just about anything.
The Beach: The Andaz has two beaches: one right on property and one about a five minute boat ride away. The beach by the property isn’t the best and is basically covered by trees with a few feet of hard sand leading up to the water. We jet ski’d from this beach for an hour but otherwise went to the beach club down the way! You can get there via the boat that leaves every 30 minutes or take a 10-15 minute shuttle ride.
The beach club has a bunch of water activities you can do, space for snorkeling, and a pool with a restaurant and pool services. It also has a poolside restaurant called Meso that serves Mediterranean fare for lunch and dinner. We spent almost a whole day here and it was a lovely area!
A few cons for us…
- The resort is basically the pools/beaches, rooms, and some restaurants. There aren’t really walking paths, open grassy areas, anywhere to just hang out or let the kids run around which we found a little tough as the parents of active kids. We spent six hours in the sun by the pool one day and then felt like there really wasn’t anything else for us to do except hang in the room or just go to the pool again (and by that point we were sunburned and tired). This is just the nature of the resort being built into a mountain and having limited space but it was a con for us!
- This property is STEEP! You take steps or very steep paths to get from one place to another and I could see this being very challenging for people with mobility issues. They do have golf carts available that you can message for but they didn’t always come quickly. The golf carts also take the same paths as people walk and it felt like we were constantly pulling our kids to the side of the road away from golf carts which made walking anywhere kind of stressful instead of a peaceful way to enjoy the grounds and views.
- The Andaz is far from any other Costa Rica excursions and other popular things to see so I definitely wouldn’t plan on it being your home base for a more adventurous Costa Rica trip where you want to really experience the country. It was perfect to end our trip!
Overall this really is such a beautiful resort but I think if you’re planning on visiting, you need to adjust your expectations and not expect it to have all the amenities or things to do that a bigger resort in Mexico might have.
It was calm and beautiful and the wildlife was truly incredible but I think my husband and I would prefer to come back without the kids so we could enjoy the quiet and the views without feeling like we had to find things to keep the kids entertained when they got tired of the pool after hours of swimming.
In short – this is a really beautiful, unique property with incredible wildlife and views but it definitely wouldn’t be a perfect fit for every family so make sure to think through what matters most to you in a resort stay and book accordingly!
One last thing: we booked this resort using points so our entire stay cost $0 instead of the normal $1,000/night cash price! You can see our favorite cards to earn points for stays like this here!
