StevenH123

I'm here now. To answer some of the above:

7km east of airport on same road is a Walmart with a large grocery section. Google has lots and lots of photos of the contents.

The kids pool temp is cool. When mine first went in they said it was cold. 5 mins later they were happy.

Haven't seen any daytime mossies yet but we definitely had some last night on the balcony. Didn't want to put on spray before bed so we came inside. There weren't a ton but we didn't want the annoyance.

All car rentals are 1k east of LIR. There are desks in arrivals section with staff that will arrange shuttle. Friendly and hassle free process for us at National. Local required insurance is $12/day as expected.

Beautiful place with friendly staff but service is lacking. My son asked for a spoon 3 times before we gave up. 10+ mins for each coffee refill. Coffee is delicious. Juice was so so. Food ok at best so far.

If I only had a few days and wanted to relax I doubt a car would be worthwhile but everyone is different. Road from the airport is perfect except for 1 little (maybe 2 meter) section that is suddenly an unpaved shallow ditch.

StevenH123

$30 laundry bag and some items to show the size of it.. I'd consider it small because it doesn't open very wide.

kgkg

Thank you, Julie! I will bring wetsuits then.

StevenH123

End of the fountain

To add more to my prior two cents:

As a diamond using a DSU for a week I was put in water view, top floor, corner suite 739. For us, it was great. Living room offered expansive unblocked views of the bay. Corner bedroom with balcony & 2 lounge chairs + ottomans. Bedroom overlooks family pool with a lot of live bamboo blocking view, but not 100% private. Balcony has bay view obstructed by tree tops. If you want to wake up in the morning with a great bay view you'll be disappointed. I'm happier with the mix of trees & water. Ideal location - super short and easy walk to the family pool, breakfast, kids club & main lobby. Located here, we never needed to use a golf cart.

Buses to the new Beach Club don't start until 10am and you'd be wise to reserve spaces the night before if you want to go early. My kids are up at 6 so waiting until 10 was a drag. I asked about driving up and they said even if I did, there wouldn't be a golf cart to take us from the lot to the beach and it is too far to walk. The beach is beautiful with tons of lounge chairs and daybeds. Lots of shade and kids toys as well. Great place to spend an entire day.

We liked the dark beach at the hotel. We were the only people there most of the time. Occasionally another guest or two would wander over, take a selfie and stroll off. There are no chairs or staff but they do have a cart with water, sunscreen and towels. I found a comfortable horizontal tree to pad with towels and lounge in. There is decent snorkeling off to the sides and you can bring borrowed equipment from the light beach.

As everyone says, service is slow
really, really s...l....o....w
really, really, really, really s...l....o.................w
Order your second cup of coffee as soon as your first arrives or order two at a time. Order any off-the-menu breakfast items the instant your server appears. Don't wait, you'll regret it.

I reaffirm that the food is mediocre at best. Breakfast is good but lunch and dinner are not. On the other hand, the Dive Bar is great. It doesn't serve finely nuanced cuisine but it is great at what it does. Tacos, fajitas, pizza, steak, etc... I loved their salsa. By day 3 we stopped eating at the Andaz and mainly went to the Dive Bar instead. It is about half the cost of the Andaz too. Happy hour is 5-7pm and each day they have a dinner special and drinks on sale.

We drove to Del Coco beach at around 9am one morning. Awful. Awful. Awful. We couldn't decide what the worst part was: the garbage strewn beach, the barely dressed prostitute unsuccessfully trying to "get a date" from road repair crew, the drunks passed out or the junkies staggering around. Maybe it is nicer if you walk to the end but we didn't stick around to check. We stayed 5 minutes and left. On a positive note, parking was easy.

We went to Ponderosa Adventure Park in Liberia to go to the zoo and as it turns out it is a one-price place. I grumbled about having to pay $38 per person to go to the zoo but wasn't going to drive back to the Andaz having done nothing with my 5 and 8 year olds. While we were waiting for the next safari vehicle they ushered us off to go on the "The Canopy Tour". We soon found out that it is not a tour but actually zip lining. They said my 5 year old was good to go as long as he would follow the instructions on where & what to hold on to. Before we knew it we were sailing off the first platform. It was great. The guides were top notch, super helpful, polite, kind and funny. Wow. What an unexpected gem. One of them took my phone for the duration and shot beautiful pictures and videos of us. The "zoo" part on the other hand was eh. You're sold carrots and drive to see six groups of animals. Great fun feeding the giraffes and camels but I was hoping to see local wildlife. Ran out of time and didn't have a chance to do the horseback riding and whatever else they included. I would certainly return. The highlight of the trip for my 8 year old.

One afternoon we were waiting for 15 minutes for our car in the lobby. Of course my bored children were walking around the lobby and touching the fountains that line the entrance. The sides of the fountains spill over into stones. What I didn't realize is that the ends of the fountains don't have stones, just 10 inch wide gaps. My five year old 42 inch child fell into the 48+ inch deep hole at the end of the fountain. Gone. Completely out of sight. He, of course, whacked his head as he fell in and ended up soaking wet and hysterical. It was a Big Deal in the lobby, noticed by many. A manager said she often worries about it happening and will now try to get it changed. Staff members brought him a towel and we took him to the room to dry off and patch up. My complaint? ZERO follow up from the hotel. Zero. I don't expect them to comp my room or buy me dinner but I do expect management to check if my five year old is OK the next day. Maybe send a note or call? Or something?

SanDiego1K

I'm horrified. For the sake of all children, I hope you contact the GM. Take him to the place that it happened and describe the incident to him. If it happened to your child, it will happen to another, perhaps with more severe consequences. We see many service complaints in our hotel and air forums. This is well beyond that, this is a serious safety issue. The hotel needs to deal with it.

beachfan

StevenH, so glad your boy is ok.

surprised to hear that you found the food poor. I knew it was expensive, but most posters liked it. The wiki comparison to the dive bar is the opposite of your recent experience. Perhaps it has gone downhill?

SanDiego1K

I've just finished 3 nights here. I'm about to write a very positive review, not having experienced service problems detailed by a prior guest. We don't have children and perhaps we didn't use the same spaces of the hotel. I think it's probably like the blind men describing the elephant. It all depends on what they have touched.

I have been following the thread for the last year. Our experience was much better than anticipated.

Driving to hotel
We rented a car from Vamos, then drove to a different hotel for a few nights. The drive here from the Liberia area was extremely easy. Turns are very well marked for Andaz Papagayo, both in turning onto the side road off the hghway and again on arriving at the split to the Four Seasons and the Andaz. The road is well paved, two lanes, with reflector buttons on the sides and in the middle. As we drew nearer to the hotel, we saw beautiful landscaping. The entire Papagayo peninsula is being developed, for the two hotels mentioned, a golf course, private estate complexes, and a Rosewood hotel under construction. We saw the marina to the left as we approached Andaz and a stunning piece of sculpture outside the hotel gates. We were checked in at the gate and waved on. Our name was sent on to the front so they greeted us by name when we drove up.

Check in and initial impressions
The architecture is stunning, very fresh, very contemporary. Much is done with natural materials rather than granite and marble. The style of the property is reminescent of contemporary Park Hyatts. I am surprised that this is a level 4 property where credit card nights can be used. I can't imagine that remaining true, especially given their high occupancy rate. I had been concerned by prior reports about the number of steps to come down from properties on the higher level. There were also reports of slow responses to requests for carts. Given that, I asked for a suite on the main level. There are three buildings on this level and four buildings on the higher level. A suite had been prepared on the higher level but they graciously found one at the end of building 5, overlooking the adult pool and adjacent to the building that houses Ostra Restaurant. The view from our suite would benefit from the trees being thinned. We experienced very efficient cart service so in hindsight, I could have stuck with the upper level. Each building has 3 floors. Entry is on the second level. There are no elevators to the other floors.

We used a suite upgrade and were thrilled with what we got. Suites are at the ends of buildings and are more than 1000 sq ft. We've stayed in many Hyatt suites and this was among the top. There's a large living room, large bedroom, 1 1/2 baths, and a walk in closet. Art was predominantly made from natural material, such as sticks or rocks. The floor was concrete and were benefit from scuffs being more carefully removed. Bathroom floors were pebble. There was a massive walk in shower at the end of a deep soaking tub.

Food
We were content with the food. Other than breakfast, we only ate one meal a day, so one meal in each outlet. Obviously our satisfaction was contingent on the choices we made. My ranking could well differ with different dishes.

1. Rio Bhongo - we enjoyed breakfast here each morning. Fresh orange juice was delicious. We discovered their strawberry smoothie and stuck to it on subsequent mornings. We had a ridiculously good sweet plantain with palmetto cheese off the menu. I'd almost return for that again. There was always fresh guacamole at breakfast along with a sweet corn bread. We had fried bananas one morning that we enjoyed but didn't see them again. We had one lunch here. We were given complimentary guacamole, pico de gallo, and plantain chips. My husband loved his sea bass. I had cheese stuffed eggplant that I thoroughly enjoyed.
2. Ostra - this is the hotel's high end restaurant. Bookings are required. We took their superb ceviche class and stayed on for dinner one night. The ceviche from the class was a large portion and we only needed a small dish after that. We enjoyed the intimate surroundings.
3. Chao Pescao - the restaurant offers Latin American tapas. I'm familiar with the size of Spanish tapas so we ordered two dishes each. One dish would have been plenty. We were adventuresome and chose dishes that were unfamiliar to us. It wasn't a win but perhaps other dishes would have been.
4. Dive Bar in Marina - off property, you need your own car - It was nice to sit by the water but we found the food pedestrian.

Service
Service was excellent. The staff is all enthusiastic young people. We did not experience service hiccups in the restaurants and got refills as requested. I can't say enough good things about the cart drivers. What wonderful ambassadors for the property. They were warm and outgoing, offering additional information about the property. Staff spoke highly about the treatment they receive from Andaz. Several had worked at other properties and prefer the family atmosphere at the Andaz.

Activities
We received a one week schedule on arrival of activities. There is a charge for each one.

1. Bicycling - my husband rides regularly and does not recommend this due to the poor quality of the bikes
2. Barista - my husband sang the praises of this 2 hour class. He learned how to make expresso 6 different ways and plans to buy some new equipment on returning home.
3. Ceviche -terrific class, highly recommended

Car Rental
We are glad we rented a car. Even if we had only stayed at the Andaz, we would have wanted a car. It made it easy to drive all over the peninsula, seeking out the marina and the beautiful drive to the Four Seasons. One day we drove to land on the other side of the bay which is rather shabby and very touristic. It was a meh outing, but made us glad we were staying at the Andaz.

azepine00

While the accident was unfortunate and i hope the kid is ok, one has to realize that this is (thankfully) not usa with all sorts of liability issues and just like in almost any place around the world doing a stupid thing may result in a rather painful outcome. I see those as a learning opportunities for my kids who tend to be way too sheltered here in us. I absolutely agree that hotel should have followed up to check if the boy was ok.

IMO marina food was very generic but a practical option for an easy snack with kids and a drink at sunset. Andaz food while in rather small portions was very good (slow service and mosquitoes during the wait was indeed a problem).

Andaz participates in a program to support local schools (and many employees volunteer to help) so if you have any space on the way out perhaps you can bring some school supplies with you. Or just make a small donation at checkout. I saw school buses driving across some crazy bumpy side roads and was very impressed by this commitment to education.

TommyboyCAN

@SanDiego1K - We stayed 2/17-2/21 and also had a suite in Building 5 (529). I would agree with all your comments. I had a fantastic time.

The only thing I would add is the food at the beach house was really good, especially for the mid-afternoon snack in the shade after breakfast wore off. Everything we had there was excellent and really tasty.

footastic

Here now got upgrade to a Andaz suite. Beach bags are no more - now unavailable was told this change has rolled out recently.

Beach house food is great. Location is nice as well.

Service seems a bit worse than last time (90 min for a bucket of ice.) no huge issues outside of that.

Still a beautiful property I love the area.

vudoosj

really enjoyed our stay here. Though the AC in our room was either on or off and when it was on, it was just blasting cold air. We switched to another room and had the same issue.

beachfan

bcosinteno

Our AC had a hard time keeping up as well. It was never uncomfortable but we could never get the room temperature any lower than 72. One thing that did help was when we weren't in the room during the day, we shut all of the blinds/curtains to keep the heat out.

beachfan

Thanks for the tip!

beachfan

Surprised people are finding mosquito problems. So many places spray these days due to disease.