I went to Costa Rica with a group from my church. There were about 26 of us split between about 9 rooms. The rooms varied from completely fine (my room) to somewhat run down. There were ants in some of the rooms, but they didn't seem to bother anyone. When we first arrived, one room had a broken AC unit. The hotel staff quickly moved that group to another room, so it was no big deal. We had breakfast each morning at the hotel. The food was basic, but acceptable. There are three choices for breakfast: 1) toast, eggs (scrabbled or fried), and juice; 2) toast, jelly and butter, and juice; and 3) fruit and juice. Coffee was also included.
The hotel has a pool and wifi. I was not able to get the wifi to work in my room but it worked fine by the reception area. There were monkeys in the trees around the pool several days. Cute, but noisy.
We were careful to keep things locked up, and as far as I know no one from our group had anything stolen. The hotel staff was nice but there did not seem to be many of them. They seemed to be honest. For example, my wife and I are in the habit of leaving a tip for the maid on our bed when we leave the room. The maid would not even take the tip. Each day that money was stacked on our night stand. However, I agree with a previous commenter that there is no real security here. The Hotel gate opens up onto the main street of Tamarindo. As far as I could tell, no one noticed who came in or who left. But, as I said, no one in our rather large group had anything stolen.
I enjoyed my stay here very much, but I cannot honestly say that this hotel was the key factor.....It is not a bad place, but be aware of what you are getting into.
By the way, I don't know the details, but I think they gave us a pretty good group rate....
- Tropicana Hotel Tamarindo
