A few other observations
 

1. The beach at the hotel is so-so. The water is crystal clear, there are almost no waves, and there are tons of fish. But it is rather small, and there is some debris in the water (leaves, twigs, etc...not trash). They have stand-up paddle boards and snorkel equipment for free. They also have peddle boats for rent. There are also lounge chairs and bar service on the beach. Note that at high tide, there is no beach at all.

2. The Prieta Beach Club is very nice. The pool is as nice as the hotel's, but the beach is much nicer and bigger. Nice shady trees and comfortable lounges. They rent boogie boards for $3 per hour and stand-up paddle boards for $25/hr. The pool & beachside menu is available and is sort of expensive. Smoothies are $9 for kids and $12 with alcohol. Sandwiches, buegers, etc are about $15. We brought snacks from the room! The hotel has free transportation to the beach club from 6-6.

3. You have to try the grilled pineapple desert at Rhio Bongo. Delicious, and enough for 4 or 5. (we ordered 2 for 5 of us and took an entire one back to the room!

4. The Dive Bar (need a car to get thereor use hotel transportation from 6-6) has a happy hour from 5-7 every day. Drinks are 50% off (margaritas are $4, beer is $3), and food specials. Tuesday is Taco night. Tacos (chicken, grilled fish, carne asada) are $2 each. Sundays (I have heard) is steak night. 8 oz steak for $10.

We are leaving in a few hours...it has been a wonderful fewdays, and I would recommend this hotel to anyone!

I am there in 2 weeks from July 15-19. What is best transportation to book in advance from/to airport and how much does it cost?
Also, anything I can expect as a Platinum member? Any way of trying to get better room?

Do you know if this is the standard suite for use of the diamond suite upgrade certificate? There was some mention earlier in this thread about the Andaz Large Suite, so I'm curious how they were able to get those.

There's no fee for child care like at the Camp Hyatt for other hyatt resorts?

NO, but you used to be able to book the large suite on points. Yes - this has been mentioned in this thread.

I stayed here early july with family, some things to note,

transportation- I wouldnt recomend paying for a service because you could rent a vehicle for much less If I recall rates were 200 each way from the San Jose airport . I paid 450 +- for 5 days in a nice car at national with the special insurance. If you have a cc with that has a primary and cdw/ ldw you technically dont need insurance but would need some proof because costa rican law mandates you have it.

if you plan on staying at the andaz papagayo DO NOT have a flight to SJO airport which is san jose thinking it is close, We had a 4-5 hour drive but me and my family enjoyed every minute of it. If you prefer a shorter drive go to the liberia airport although AA doesnt fly there to my knowledge.

We used my tmobile phone as a basic gps due to the free world wide data, it was a life saver although I frequently got edge/ slow 3g speeds. I strongly recommend having a form of gps, And the streets aren't marked like usa.

The property was beautiful and the employees overall were very nice, I sugggest going down to the beach and enjoying the complimentary kayaks/ stand up paddleboards on the water below the property.

Food can be very expensive ! And your in a very remote part of the country so your practically held captive to the prices and I recommend bringing non perishables. It came as a surprise to me that costa rica had a 10 % sales tax and a 13 % mandatory tip for food so already there you have a 23 % surcharge in addition to whatever you order.

I dont recomend staying at this property at the cash rate due to the resort fee & exorbitant taxes But is a great value on points !, And if you request a roll away I think theres a additional 75 dollar charge on cash reservations, but my stay was on points. Overall this is a great property with some small negatives to be taken into consideration.

I will traveling here in late August and I booked transportation for 2 people to and from the airport in Liberia for $59 each way total. This is direct to/from the airport and the Andaz. Here is the link http://www.liberiacostaricaairport.net/

As far as AA flying into Liberia, they better, because I am booked from MIA on AA direct to LIR.

Looking forward to our trip.

Bill

Yes that's from Liberia which is 30 mins to papagayo. SJO is 4 plus hours and it'd still recommend renting your own car as there's various things to do on that side of the country. And I guess just avios flights can't go into Liberia

Avios flights do go into LIR, they just don't show up on BA.com. I called in and had no problem booking the flight from MIA to LIR

We just returned from 3 nights at Andaz Papagayo... it was AMAZING!!

We rented a car in SJO and drove... while it was a LONG 5 hour drive... it did allow us to see some of the country.

I used P+C and a diamond upgrade... got a lovely suite (which is huge)... but, it wasn't a "large" suite... not sure that would get us anything other than the plunge pool on our terrace.

The 2 pool areas are fantastic. We spent most time at the adult pool, to avoid the children (yes, many people brought kids, despite the property not having much else to do).

We went to the beach club one day for a bit... it was a much nicer beach than the Andaz... but, frankly, we prefer pools anyway. So, we were happy staying at Andaz and relaxing at the pool.

The staff was very friendly and always greeted us.

We were celebrating a special event... and the concierge arranged a lovely, romantic dinner on our balcony. They went above and beyond what I was expecting!

Back to reality now... but, this is one of the top vacations I have had!!

Hey all, thanks for the great reviews. In laws took the kids and we're lucky enough to have booked a last minute 5 night stay for next week. As a Diamond I booked an Andaz King for 15k points per night. I wanted to book cash and points then use a Diamond Suite Upgrade but the PC option was not given, in fact when I went back to the site to check there were only Andaz Twins available for points.

Any Diamonds have experience being upgraded when traveling on point stays? Guessing it would be from the standard to a "relax" or "view" room. Or does anyone know if Andaz would allow a paid upgrade to a suite from a king? My elite rate was $260/nt but with tax and the resort fee would be $323---so a paid upgrade could be worth it (there is a $100/nt cost diff between a suite and a king when booking a revenue stay).

Anyone have an email address for a reservations manager that they can share via forum or PM.

As always thanks so much for your help. I'll post on our stay after we come home!

Following up to my own post, I made a call to the Diamond line (aside: have to say of all hotel chains, the Diamond reps are far and away the BEST to deal with IMO) and they found the following offers which did not show up online for me. Hope this helps others who may be planning:

$100+7500pts/nt+1DSU for a suite (really $125/day after tax and 10% resort fee)
24,000 Pts/nt for a suite
15,000 Pts/nt for a King room

I am long on points so I used the additional 45k points and booked an Andaz Suite all on points. 120,000 pts total. Value after tax and resort fee roughly $2765. That's a bit more than .02/point. Really happy with that---LOVE Hyatt.

It used to be when we were getting $0.03+/point we thought we had received quite a good value, now with the elite rate if we get $0.02+/point we're doing okay.

Looks like the 33,000pt--$1000/night Park Hyatt NY will be the only .03 game for a while---until they start offering Elite Rates :)

Off topic, but in Europe you have Milan, Paris, Zurich etc all in this price range. Of course Maldives is 25K for high $, but then it costs a lot to get there (and stay there). Some of the cheaper properties also offer .03 e.g. HR Kota Kinabalu or HR Incheon.

It's completely sold out now, but at one point it was $1300/nt ($1430 with resort fee) and available for points over Christmas, making it almost .10/point!

I love this place! Will be returning next Spring break with my sister's family, so 4 kids in all. FWIW I preferred the beach at the beach club, but did not care for their pools since the Andaz's is so much newer.