Andaz Costa Rica = Beach Resort in the Jungle

I have been wanting to try Andaz Costa Rica for quite a while but points redemptions seemed to be very difficult and I could never find availability for several nights in a row.  To ensure I could use points I ended up booking more than 11 months in advance for a 7-night stay and used a Globalist Suite Upgrade Award on top of it.  It cost me 15k points per night which was great value and in the subsequent months this property increased to 20k points per night which is still good but not as great as before.  Combined with the suite upgrade I can confirm that I got fantastic value but the property is not without some minor issues as outlined in my review below.  It’s nothing that would stop me from returning but W also opened a new resort about 1.5 hour drive away which we tried during the same trip; W is quite strong as well.  

We rented a car for our stay in Costa Rica and while not related to Andaz, I would note the questionable transparency about insurance fees from some car rental companies in Costa Rica; we had a particularly bad experience with Payless Rental Car who are borderline crooks and I would recommend another car rental company instead.  Regarding the location of Andaz, the resort was a bit more than 30 minutes from the airport and was fairly easy to find.  

Andaz is located in the Papagayo peninsula which is a gated area with manicured grounds, it contains a golf course, some private residences, a marina, and the Four Seasons hotel at the far end.  The area is beautiful and feels more upscale than Reserva Conchal where W is located, however Papagayo is quite isolated with not much around in terms of shops and restaurants.  Even if you are driving you probably need to go back close to the airport area just to find something basic like a convenience store.  Depending on individual preferences, the isolation can be a strong positive for people looking for a quiet time and just spend time on activities at the resort, but it can also be a negative for people who want to explore Costa Rica on their own and in that case the location of W might be better.   

Upon arrival at Andaz we were warmly welcomed to the resort and we were brought to our suite which had been prepared for a special occasion including a bottle of Cava on ice - we highly appreciated.  The layout of the resort reminded us most of Hyatt Regency Phuket because of the separate buildings perched in a hill facing the water with lush vegetation in between them.  

All rooms in the suite are spacious and nothing felt cramped, even the half bath near the entrance is of a decent size, with the main bathroom being one of the best part of this suite – it is bright and airy thanks to the large frosted window in the walk-in rain shower.  Even the bathtub was huge and you would have to be careful just to get in since it’s quite high.  The entire suite is over 100 square meters, nicely decorated and includes floor tiles suitable for the climate because they help to keep the room cool.  The bathrooms had stone floors and the wall of the shower was stone as well which I thought was tasteful design.  There were large windows not only in the bathroom but also on the entire length of the living room and more windows on two walls of the bedroom, one for the terrace and one in the corner of the building.  There were so many windows with blinds and sheers that for such a new construction it would have been handy to have electric controls for curtains rather than manual, in fact one of them jammed during our stay.  There were also windows in the back of the room which are exposed to the pathway behind the building.  The upside to having so many windows was that the room was not dark, but the main drawback was that privacy was somewhat affected.  The curtains (sheers) were not keeping the room private enough particularly on the side of the bedroom.  

Our building had rooms on three floors and ours was the middle floor which was exactly at the height of the pathway so people walking there or golf carts passing by would see directly into our bedroom unless we drew the blinds down which unfortunately made the room significantly darker.  The rooms on the top floor would be better for privacy and probably the views are better from up there as well, plus we could hear some noise from neighbors above us so the top floor would most likely be the most quiet.  Privacy was possibly better from the floor below us although views would not be as good.  The patio was also exposed to the pathway behind so it similarly had privacy issues.  

Besides privacy, one negative about the room is that water pressure in the shower was inadequate and it took a very long time before we could get warm water, but on a more positive note the air conditioning worked well during our entire stay which is important in a tropical destination and we could have good sleep during the night.  The only thing preventing us from sleeping late in the morning was not AC but it was rather that we could frequently hear Howler Monkey waking up very early around 5am; they were very loud especially if one of them came to a tree near our room.  I guess it contributes to the special experience – you are in a resort right in the jungle in a natural habitat rather than an artificial hotel location.

While the room was very nice generally speaking, there were a few minor issues that required maintenance.  In addition to the blinds that got stuck as mentioned above, also the lock on our room stopped working one day.  I originally thought our key cards were no longer working so I went back to reception to get new cards but they still did not work.  I had to go to reception a second time and they sent staff to our room with the master key and it did not work either.  We then had to wait for a technician to reprogram the lock.  In addition, the sink in the half bathroom also was not very stable and should be better fixed to the counter. 

The room was stocked with snacks and soft drinks which were refilled daily similar to other Andaz hotels.  Guests also get Andaz fip flops and hats which are complimentary.  Bathroom amenities are from the “Lather” brand which I had not seen elsewhere before; the smell reminded me Malin & Goetz found in Le Meridien hotels due to the mint scent.  The quality of Lather was good; it’s a brand from California with natural products (no sulfates and parabens) rather than cheap synthetic stuff from China.  

Breakfast was free as expected for Globalists members.  In other Andaz hotels we stayed at, Globalists can also order whatever they want from the a la carte menu.  At first we were told we could, but after a couple of days we were told we could not but that they would make an exception.  It is my understanding that Globalists used to have the free a la carte menu in addition to the buffet but this is now off limits although they let it slide for us thankfully.  The buffet had excellent variety of hot food which changed daily including interesting local options such as chicken, beef, pork stew, and spicy chili, instead of the buffet being limited to the boring and traditional options such as sausages, bacon, and scrambled eggs.  We particularly enjoyed the breakfast burrito from the a la carte menu freshly prepared from the kitchen.  They also had a daily rotation of prepared salads for example one morning I liked the quinoa salad.  The choice of fruits was also quite good including mangoes, ground cherries, several kinds of berries, and the pineapples were among the best I have tasted anywhere.  Last but not least, as can be expected in Costa Rica they had excellent coffee including an extensive list with several choices.  At Andaz they pride themselves with their coffee so much that they offer a daily barista class at the resort.  All in all this was probably the best breakfast we have had anywhere outside of Asia and the Middle East.  Not to say that breakfast at W Costa Rica was bad, but Andaz is clearly a notch or two above.  The only downside of Andaz is that the restaurant felt more crowded, busy, and loud, whereas W was a lot more peaceful.

Dinner at Chao Pescao has live music a couple of evenings per week and we attended once.  The atmosphere was nice and we were not bothered by mosquitoes even without DEET so I would guess they are spraying well on the resort in fact generally speaking there were more mosquitoes in W and hardly any at Andaz.  Back to dinner at Chao Pescao it was ok but not a stand out in any way, especially not like breakfast was.  

I actually preferred the lunch / snacks at the adult pool which were very well presented and delicious.  

Wifi speed was fine and I measured 12Mbps.  However the main problem is that it was intermittent and would regularly stop working several times per day, sometimes it would stop working only for my laptop, my phone, or my wife’s iPad which leads me to believe that the problem was not a wide-spread outage but rather some kind of restriction on the number of devices that can connect to wifi on the resort; we just got kicked out on a regular basis which was irritating.  

The beach in front of Andaz is small and nothing special.

However it was enjoyable to have a boat ride to the other (larger) beach at the “Andaz Beach House”.  They have a menu of snacks over there so you can have lunch and they have a decent drinks menu as well.  The place was not crowded at all and we found it’s a very nice place to relax and spend the afternoon.  The first boat to the beach was at 9:30am and the last one to come back to the resort was at 4:15pm but we could also take the shuttle from the hotel if we preferred to travel by land.  Despite the Beach House being nice, the large beach in front of W (and also Westin) was better than at Andaz so someone who highly values the beach should keep this in mind.  

Andaz has a main pool near the restaurant and there is also an adults only pool at the far end of the resort.  I thought having the adult only pool would be quite useful to provide a good experience for both families and couples.  However perhaps we had bad luck but at the adult pool there were several drunk grown-ups talking very loud which made that pool actually less relaxing and noisier than the main pool.  Maybe it’s just an unusual group that we cannot blame the hotel for, but it made for a less pleasant time nonetheless.  It might sound counter-intuitive but at W the majority of guests were couples who were more well behaved than Andaz which had a greater number of groups which got rowdy, at the expense of couples on site.  When I think of W I normally think of louder guests who are partying, but it ended up being the opposite between Andaz and W.

The fitness gym was ok and had a decent number of machines and free weights.  It was not nearly as busy as at W.

Service at Andaz was hit and miss.  The pre-arrival arrangements were great as outlined above, and service in the restaurant was very friendly and accommodating.  The concierge was also excellent at arranging day tours or activities.  That said, there were a few minor incidents during our stay.  When we called housekeeping before going to breakfast and asked for our room to be cleaned, once we came back and nothing was done, and another time they were just starting.  Another day they forgot a trash bag on the floor in our room which means they do not have supervisors checking the work after it’s complete.  Despite that, housekeeping was well done and the room clean plus they were generous with refills of amenities, the same of which cannot be said of our experience at W.  There were also a few minor issues with service where follow-ups were simply not done, for example one time I asked to mail a document via courier and I was told someone would call me back the next day, but they never did.  After the lock on the door was fixed I was given a new key and told me that they would bring our second key later, but they did not.  During breakfast on a few occasions they forgot our order and we had to ask again.  One morning we had an early departure for a day tour and they forgot to prepare our breakfast box.  Upon check out their computer system was down and they could not print the bill for me to confirm the charges – this had to be e-mailed after we were gone.  All in all nothing major to say it left a bad impression, but the number of incidents was a bit surprising compared to our stays in other parts of the world – it’s clear this is not a business hotel striving for perfect service; it’s a laid back resort so expectations should be adjusted accordingly.  That said, it’s not just about local standards because service was significantly more attentive at W generally speaking where they went out of their way to ensure we had a good stay and greeted us by name in the restaurant as early as the second morning whereas at Andaz there seemed to be more rotation of staff from one morning to the other; even on the last morning some staff thought we had just arrived the day before.  

Overall I can recommend Andaz as a very solid choice.  It’s not easy to pick between Andaz or W because each has their own strengths, but probably for me the differentiating factor is if using a suite upgrade then I prefer Andaz than the smaller room at W not mentioning the superb breakfast at Andaz and lovely location.  I guess this is one way where the Hyatt loyalty program is superior to others: guaranteed suite upgrades at time of booking, and it makes a difference.  However if I did not have a suite upgrade remaining with Hyatt (of if suites were not available for my dates) then I might pick W instead because W seems generally cheaper and I found W to be quite good value for the money with a decent number of strengths over Andaz.