FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - A family trip to Westin Playa Conchal (all inclusive), Liberia, Costa Rica
Old Oct 10, 2013, 8:46 pm
  #8  
worldtraveller73
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
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Playa Conchal Beach:

The beach that was attached to the resort, “Playa Conchal” is so named as it consisted of millions of tiny beach shells that have been crushed to a pulp to make a white / yellow sand beach. The beach was a public area, with a public road access both north and south. The hotel would bring down kayaks and beach chairs on request as included activities. It was made very clear by Westin through signage that the beach vendors were not associated with the hotel. The beach had several beach massage vendors – some there one day and gone the next.









There were several local vendors on the beach selling somewhat reduced prices for souvenirs. There was a small amount of bargaining (10-15%) off the initial asking prices but nothing like the 60% discounts you can get off merchandise in South East Asia.

I found that although there was the initial assault of “welcome, need a tour?” as you first stepped off the property, the experience was not any worse than any other beach in Colombia, Peru or Mexico.

We had brought our own snorkel gear with us but after 30 minutes of trying to find some fish, we were almost totally shut out. We did see a single tiny grey and black fish that took interest to us, but didn’t see any others of any quality. The visibility was terrible for snorkeling due to the waves churning against the shore, and despite trying on both the beach areas and near some tidal pools we completely struck out. I anecdotally heard from other couple that the sunset / snorkel cruise was not much different in terms of seeing fish.

While we out on the Playa Conchal beach, snorkeling and looking for fish, I did interrupt an attempted theft of our shoes. My wife was getting a beach massage ($10/$15/$20 per hour – price depending on weather and the time of day) and while we were snorkeling, an older Costa Rican man decided to root through our towels on the beach and take my son’s Lego Crocs and my Teva Flip Flops. I saw this from the water and charged after him. I asked him for the shoes which he pulled out of a bag he was carrying. He kept saying something like “Disculpe” which meant excuse me, but I didn’t really stick around to hear it or find out his reasons as he didn’t look like he spoke any English at all and my Spanish is limited at best. I chalked it up to him being a broke person looking to re-sell the stuff. It was quite obvious with the hotel towels and snorkel bags that the shoes were not abandoned. Nevertheless, I didn’t really feel in any danger, the beach was really populated. Worth mentioning as I was on a bit of edge for a few days, but nothing further ever happened the other 6 days we were on the beach so I’d say it was an isolated incident.








Playa Brasilito.


After the 5th day, we ventured off property again via the road on the Playa Conchal and walked up the beach to Playa Brasilito in search of the real Costa Rica. Being on the resort, we were pretty insulated as to the life in the surrounding towns and wanted to see a little bit of what Costa Rica was really like.

The walk was pretty easy and the beaches were no where near as nice as Playa Conchal. There were a lot of ATV tours that passed across the beach through the town.









We did find some souvenir shops but again, there was very limited bargaining and the prices were almost no different than the souvenir vendors outside of the hotel beach gate.








Last edited by worldtraveller73; Oct 12, 2013 at 12:45 pm
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