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Hotel overview
Location
GuanacasteProperty information
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Hotel details
Hotel advisories
General policies & fine print
Check-in Policy - Deposits or credit/debit card hold authorizations are not requested at check-in. Minimum age of 18 is required for check-in, an ID/Passport will be requested upon arrival.
Convention Policy - Individuals attending a convention cannot book this property for their stay. If found attending a convention, guests may be subject to higher room rates upon arrival.
Hotel Spring Break Policy- Student Groups/Spring Breakers (either groups or individuals, regardless of age) are not allowed at any time during the year. Guests disturbing or generating complaints from other guests or hotel may be removed from the property, at their own expense. Parties in rooms are not permitted.
Transfer Policy - A price may display when children stay free, if your vacation includes transfer to your hotel.
General Information - Room taxes and service fees are included in vacation price.
Minimum night stay restrictions may apply.
Reservation changes may not be permitted unless authorized by the hotel.
- Early Departure Penalty: 1 Night Applies: Sunday - Saturday 04Jul24 - 23Dec26
- Early Departure Penalty: 2 Nights Applies: Sunday - Saturday 24Dec25 - 30Apr26
Ratings & reviews
TripAdvisor traveler rating
10348 reviews
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Jan 15, 2025Beware…
During the first 24 hours of our trip there was no AC in the entire resort, so difficulty sleeping. The resort shop is charging $46 for suntan lotion. Anything outside of the all inclusive offerings is way over priced. Has not been a great experience so far.
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Jan 15, 2025Great hotel
Superb hotel in a lovely spot. Hotel and grounds are spotless and the new block and pool are amazing. The new rooms are gorgeous, so spacious. Staff are so friendly and the bars well staffed and service is excellent even when the hotel was full. The service in the newer part of the hotel in bars and resraurants was exceptional. Plenty of sunbeds for everyone. Evening entertainment could be better. White party and Queen tribute night were good, but other entertainment was very hit and miss. The queueing system at the a la cartes is ridiculous - who wants to eat dinner at 6pm? They should be open later than 8.30pm, then there could be 2 sittings each night. One other gripe - they take your glasses away at the bars at 11pm and issue you with paper cups - horrid and ridiculous, especially as the bars are supposed to be open until midnight. A nightcap in a paper cup is rubbish. Overall though we had a fabulous time.
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Jan 14, 2025Beautiful Resort and Wonderful Stay - A Few Things to Know
MyCostaRica.com organized my trip. The resort was beautiful. Just two things I would add. First, there is no ATM on site. I wanted to get some cash to be able to pay tips but was told the nearest ATM was 30 minutes away by cab. Second, I didn't find out until the last day I was there that there is a water taxi available to take you to costal towns. I would definitely have made use of it, had I known. The resort staff could do a better job informing guests of amenities like this. Not everyone wants to stay at the resort 24/7. The music events also go on until 10:45 pm, so if you have any reason to get to bed early, you might have some difficulties with the loud music going on.
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Jan 14, 2025Vacation factory where you’re just a unit of throughput
Another great all-inclusive devolves into a “vacation factory” that focuses on maximizing its throughput of vacationers per day rather than making sure that you and I enjoy our precious time spent at the property. This means that everything including early loud grass cutting, breakfast timetables, quality of food and service, both of which are mediocre at best, are all optimized to maximize the factory’s efficiency rather than the quality and convenience of your leisure. Do you want to stay at a particular floor/side of the property that you asked about way in advance? Forget it! You will be lucky if you will be allowed to move to where you wanted to be later during your stay. Do you feel like taking a few extra hours of leisurely sleep on a Sunday, because you stayed up late? Beware that breakfast finishes at 10am. Oh, and do make sure to enjoy the 6:00am-6:30am sounds of the grass cutting equipment on Monday. The factory is open for business, so you better get up and smell the gasoline of those same grass cutting machines! The service stuff appears to have been all but completely replaced very recently. The friendly restaurant servers are all but gone—replaced by the clueless and confused new hires that must have been cheaper to recruit than retain the experienced loyal staff. This is the 5th and the last time I am coming to this property over the last 15 years and, based on this experience, I think I will give RIU chain a pause. We work very hard all year for a week of “unforgettable” vacation and this one definitely not it—not in a good sense anyway. P. S. this is a note to the dedicated social media reputation manager that the hotel retains to respond to critical posts like this. The very fact that your role exists is a testament of the management’s admission that they fail in their jobs. Otherwise, as one great CEO said, they would just need to periodically say “thank you!” for the many positive comments and do so themselves—as great leaders do.
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Jan 13, 2025
Happy we went.
We had the best trip! I was nervous after reading some reviews but it’s very easy to have a great time here. Room - we were in the new building. Farther from the beach, large pools and most restaurants. Closer to the ice cream shop, beautiful pools with built in loungers and swim up bar and the 2 water parks. room was very clean, no smell, very nicely equipped. The toilet was separate from the shower and sink and it was actually genius. Don’t mind the mess - that was all me. We didn’t have housekeeping come while we were there- it’s just a preference, I do this everywhere we go, not just here. We got new towels and that was it. The beds and pillows were comfortable- nothing crazy but I fell asleep right away. Nite- there was no desk and chair, so it was annoying to have to work there, but it is what it is. Bring a travel desk if you need one. The grounds- kept very clean, they have people constantly cleaning everything. The pools are great and there are a lot of them. The main pool bar area is adults only and has smaller jetted pools off of it. Beautiful. The only thing is the jacuzzis are not hot. They are “heated by the sun”. The beach is nice- it’s not blue like Cancun but it’s calm enough and a good temperature. The food- buffet is huge with a lot of options, not the best options but not the worst. You won’t go hungry but you won’t be craving it when you leave. Besides breakfast. Breakfast there is everything. We went to papagayo every morning- it was awesome. Their churros are so good, eggs every way. They only had bacon one day the other days were sausage. But they have so much good stuff! Restaurants- get there at 5:30 to be seated. The steakhouse was great. Chicken Caesar salad was so good! Mozz sticks, great. The ribeye was really good - by far the best beef we had there. The salmon was also great- cooked perfectly. Mixed grill was ehh. Italian restaurant was amazing. They have a huge appetizer bar with all sorts of hot and cold things - carpaccio, pizzas, salads, meats, seafood, breads and dips - the garlic balsamic bread dip is divine. The steak here wasn’t as good but the salmon and lasagna were great. The chicken Milanese was also decent. Excursions- We hired a private tour guide (PM for info) to take us to the rainforest and hot springs. It was amazing! We started in the rainforest - saw frogs, snakes, sloths, a lot of toucans. There also did a coffee and chocolate making tour. Then went for a local Costa Rican lunch - casadas - everyone was happy with their food and their soursop juice was heaven. Then went to a local waterfall - it was so beautiful Then went to the hot springs on the volcano. It was insane. I never experienced anything like that before. It was nature in its purest form. We rented jet skis on the beach at riu. We went to Diamante eco next door to do ATVs. If I was more into it I would have ziplined there- it looked amazing. If you’re going to do it anywhere that’s where to do it. The monkeys!!!!! 🐒 ok so walk to the left when you get on the beach and walk along the trail and see if you can spot the white faced monkeys. If you don’t see them on your way, check the monkey bar which is about 1/3 mile past riu palace. The monkeys are very friendly and will even come on you if you want them to. My kids loved it! All in all I’m happy we came here. The staff was soooo good to us. They really want you to have the best time. Everyone went out of their way to help us and be kind to us. It was great.