Hotel Villas Playa Samara

We were part of a Costa Rica monkey tours so we did not pick this place. Resort is going through a renovation. Our room was nice and clean, but had a couple of issues. The shower was a open shower with no door separating it from the rest of the bathroom. The shower floor was even with the rest of the bathroom. We had to use the towels for the beach/pool to soak up the water that splashed out in the bathroom floor. It rained very hard one night and the ceiling in a corner of the room started to fall down. The ceiling was repaired very quickly. They blamed it on the humidity. Restaurant on property was way overpriced in my opinion Food was good. The town of Samara where there are plenty of choices to eat is only an $8.00 taxi or if you like to walk the beach less than and hours walk.

Stayed there for 7 days, beautiful, clean and friendly staff. We had villa #37A which was close to the beach, restaurant and the pool but just far enough not to hear the music at night. If you go you have to take a walk to town (faster and nicer) or a taxi for between $6 and $8. Thus was our first time in Costa Rica and will not be our last.

When you enter via the drive entrance, the hotel is impressive. However my stay here was disappointing. The rooms did not have any television and I found ants (small nothing too alarming) throughout my room. We were talked into "all inclusive" however there is only one restaurant so not many options. The breakfast menu didn't change throughout my stay. The dinner menu did not have many options and I had to go into town to find dinner for my teenager.

I will start off with the positive things on this resort because the negatives is a way longer list. Pros: 1. The food is high quality (except the breakfast) 2. The staff are the nicest people ever. 3. The bartender made the best drinks ever. Cons: 1. There is only one restaurant here and during our stay the resort was dead so there was no buffet, rather there was a menu of 3 options only to choose from. It gets repetitive after a few days. The breakfast had some fruits out in the buffet area but everything else was to be ordered from a menu.. the problem with the fruits left out was that they were not kept in a fridge or container and there was flies/birds all over them... so they're inedible. 2. We requested a taxi and the guy sent us a van and guide as if it were an excursion and he brought us to a beach we didn't ask to go to and charged us 9000 colones to town and back when we asked for a TAXI. Taxis charged us 6000 colones to town and back and didn't make unnecessary stops to places we didn't ask to go to. 3. Wifi works 30% of the time. It's extremely frustrating. 4. No alarm clock/phone in room... I asked about a phone and was told none of the rooms have phones!!! 5. Grounds are dirty.. pool dirty.. beach had a lot of garbage 6. Villas are like tents. Their roofs aren't solid... many spaces for insects/lizards/rain to come into your villa. I saw a dead lizard under the couch... and a live lizard ran through the room which I could not catch and remove.. no idea where it went... 7. Because of the roofs not being properly sealed the rain came through and soaked the floor which I slipped and fell on while holding my 11 month old baby. She could have been hurt had I not held her up while I fell. 8. Only 2 umbrellas on beach 9. Entrance to hotel is a dump (bricks/scrap wood everywhere) not aesthetically pleasing at all!!! 10. No drinks in fridge in room....No water bottles for free even at restaurants... 11. We booked an excursion through air Canada rep Cintia and she tried to over charge us 100$ which I caught on to and confronted her which she then said she didn't mean to... if I wasn't paying attention she would have stole 100$. 12. An excursion we booked through Cintia was very bad. The description of it was misleading... we thought we were going to see fumaroles and hot springs but the "boiling mud" was just a small container of mud and not an actual fumarole to sit in! When we returned from the excursion the security at the gate wouldn't let the driver through and made us walk all the way from the gate just because they have problems over money with each other. Why should I have to walk when they picked us up from the front lobby in the morning??? 13. I couldn't smoke on their property... and they were really enforcing this rule. 14. Shower didn't work.. couldn't shower for a week.

All inclusive very nice place with a great beach on the Pacific ocean. Pool with a bar; stay in the shade, water is very hot. There is however only one restaurant a la carte, and you can go there only once. On the other hand, the buffet is complete; you can even have omelettes prepared for you at breakfast. Good choice of day tours on the ground and on the ocean, including deep sea fishing. We walked on the beach to the village of Samara (40 minutes), worth it.