I just finished up my 4 night stay during Easter week. Booked a standard king with points, the rates were going for $500+ / night because of the holiday. An amazing redemption but I would never pay to stay at the resort.
Like others have said there can be a lot of walking but not a big deal to me. We stayed in room 434 which is in the furthest building from the main lobby. Great access to the adult pool and beaches which was great as it was just me and my girlfriend. A lot of reviews I read complained about the beaches onsite but they beat my expectations. Just note that they change sizes significantly with the tides. So if you want to see the whole sand of the beach go down during low tide. During checkin they provided a schedule for the week which includes in the tide chart. Also the free paddleboarding and snorkeling was great. We saw a sea turtle off to the right of the main beach.
My favorite part was actually the Prieta Beach Club an incredible beach that faces the Pacific Ocean. I think the shuttle runs there until 6 pm but we had our own car and drove ourselves there a couple days to stay later and used their free valet. The beach there was a lot bigger, had waves, but was still clear. My suggestion is to hike out to the rocky point, you get a really nice view of the coastline.
The worst part of the stay was definitely the service like others noted. Rio Bhongo was extremely slow and the menu very limited. The food was good their but not worth the price or wait. After dealing with that for lunch and dinner a couple times we picked up more supplies in Liberia and Playas del Coco. From the airport I suggest picking up drinks and foods before coming to the hotel. We didn't eat at Oestra but went Chao Pescao and that was worth it. Food was great and the drinks amazing. Also helped that the service was pretty good too.
Overall it was a great stay but I would never stay here at a paid rate. If you have a rental car try to eat offsite as much as you can to save money and for more choices.If you want to read more about my experience at the Andaz Papagayo or my other Costa Rica adventures read my blog post.
https://mytraveltools.com/2015/04/co...agayo-beaches/