The area is beautiful. The property is on the beach, but it's rocky out front, sandy nearby. The pool is great, but could be bigger. Food is good, some local, some international. Unfortunately they run out of some good dishes by the middle of service time.The food is a little repetitive, after a week one has tasted all! The rooms, I stayed in a new and an old room, are ok, a little bare. Service is spotty(except in the dining/bar area): Even at the front not everyone speaks an other language but Spanish and it took sometimes days for the floor to be cleaned. Where the hotel fails is in MAINTENANCE! In 3 days nobody could fix the air conditioner; in one week no new screen sliding door could be provided; in the first room the sink drain was partially plugged, in the second there was no drain plug and no solution for either one; while we were at the hotel, an overhead fan fell, while rotating, on a guest, injuring the person. The fan had been attached to the ceiling with a thin cable!!

Travelled from Toronto using Nolitours from Jan. 16 to Jan. 23 2012. Liberia airport is brand new and operated very smoothly, no hold ups, but we did land in the evening. Currencey exchange available but not required if you have US $.
Trip to Barcello took about 90 minutes, one stop at the Weston, long winding roads with max speed of 50-60 kmh.
Check in was smooth, had standard room booked, may have been upgraded? our room was in the 5000 block central location. Its a small resort so not to far from everything. Room was great with a loft bedroom and all the regular stuff, smelt fine AC worked great.
Food was ok but repetitive as everyone has said. No vegetables to be found on most days. Fruit limited to Pineapple and melons. Snack bar served anything they could deep fry. Entertainment boring, if you go one night you've seen it all.
Nice gardens, clean, pool great lots of chairs. Beach was different and was expecting that. We went looking for some adventure, something different and it was that. Some monkeys around as well as Iguanas strolling around the pool area. No colourfull birds around.

Went zip lining in the dry forest, lots of fun and fairly close to the resort, did the combo tour of the river trip and pottery, very nice but went on a bit long and a little too much detail for me. Cattamaran tour was nice as it always is.

Drinks were awfull with a few exceptions, no fancy banana drinks or that type of thing. Brand name drinks are available at a price. This was not a big deal, Imperial beer is great.

Tamarindo worth a visit, very touristy, expensive but worth seeing, nice beach here.

For a restaraunt in town try EL PESQUEDOR, excellent food, service and prices. right on the beach at the end of the main road. can not stress how good the sefood and steaks are at this place.

Best thing about this resort is the location, like nothing I have seen before. close to town.
Worst thing is also the location, takes 3 to 4 hours to go on most excursions and if you are looking for the typical white sand and clear green ocean this is not it,
All in All a good vacation but not as exotic as I thought it would be.

This was our first time to Costa Rica and with a group of 20 to boot!! We stayed from Jan. 9th to Jan 16th.Every person in our group had their expectations exceeded, especially considering the all around reasonable price of the all inclusive resort combined with the services and amenities and proximity to Tamarindo. The resort was full but never too busy as the grounds are nicely spread out with beautiful landscaping. The pool was always available and never too crowded. The beach is rocky but this gives it character and it is a short walk to an area where swimming is readily available. The walk to Tamarindo on the beach is also quite nice or just take the $5 cab ride into town.
Our expecations were not high in regards to the food and drink considering some of the negative reviews, but we were pleasantly surprised by both. Let me say, there were a few dishes and sweet alcoholic drinks that did not suit my taste but there was so much choice, it was easy to find good food and drink. Breakfast was especially good with fresh omlettes availble every morning. There was always scrambled eggs and French toast to just mention a few of the dishes. There was a different theme for dinner each night giving the buffet variety. Make sure you have an Al la carte booking(for your one time allowance) and if not, take care of that right away as the restaraunt fills up. The snacks by the pool bar were great also and that is where I ended up eating lunch everyday. I could of lived off the nachos alone. The chips used were very fresh tasting with a fresh salsa to go with them. Even the Imperial beer grew on us and why not when it is served fresh from the tap!
I really have nothing negative to say about the resort. The staff was friendly, service was good. We did have some of the rooms with a very slight musty smell(this happens in a tropical climate) and some in our group were close to the disco, but none of this posed any problem for our guests and not a single person moved to a different room. In fact, with the 4 hotels my wife and I stayed in during our trip to Costa Rica, the rooms were right at the top in size, value and comfort. We stayed in the master suite which was phenomonal! We had 3 direction views from north, West and south making for excellent sunsets right from our balcony. The room is a two level room, nice and large!!
A few in our group travel all over the tropics and mentioned this was their favorite place to stay. If you are a really picky person and looking for complete luxury with exquisite meals and Ritz Carlton service, this hotel is probably not for you. If you are looking for a small to medium resort atmoshephere, great location, an all inclusive that is reasonbly priced with decent food and drinks, you will likely be pleasantly surprised. This hotel is great for families, couples, etc. If you take excursions, the companies come right to the lobby to pick you up. We did many from this hotel including Palo Verde, Rincon de la Vieja, Canopy monkey jungle, Banana surf lessons, Hibiscus catamaran. We had so much fun and we are already planning a return trip!
Pura Vida!

Don't expect to be able to do any water activities other than swimming and surfing at this Hotel. There are no Kayaks, Sail boats or Paddle boats available. Depending on who you speak to this is either because the Hotel is built on a National Park where Kayaking is not allowed or the Kayaks are in such bad shape that they can't be used. Seems odd that you can build a Hotel on a National Park but you can't Kayak... The other little surprize is they don't put beer in the rooom fridge. Not sure why, or if this is a Barcelo Hotel policy. Both of these are easily overcame as there is a convenience store near the Hotel and an excellent Kayak Tour (Iguana Tours) in Tamarindo.

The Room
We always try to get a room that is not on the ground floor as they are often musty smelling. Overall ours was clean with a comfortable bed and a newer TV with some English channels. We had a problem with lights flickering off and on and a plugged sink. They were fixed the same day. No fancy Swans were created from towels but the room was always well cleaned.

The Food
Pretty good overall. I think of you stay anywhere for a week the food is going to be a bit repetitive. They have theme nights with food from different countries which changes the menu a bit at dinner. One A La Carte came with our package, if you want a break from the Buffet I imagine you could pay for another A La Carte Dinner because the food was excellent there.

Entertainment
I had read on this and other sites that the Entertainment was pretty bad so catching a show wasn't a priority. One night we caught the end of what appears to have been Karaoke night and it seemed to confirm what I'd read. However. later in the week we went to Light Night and found it to be quite good. I'm not sure why it's called Night Light but it's actually Cabaret style Entertainment. I now wish I'd given a couple of more shows a look.

Service
The staff are among the friendliest and helpful I've met anywhere! No complaints.