My boyfriend and I stayed at the Westin Oct 19-26th. We had a fabulous time! The property was great. Clean, well tended and beautiful. We upgraded to the Royal beach club upon arrival ( we paid the 40 dollar per person for the upgrade) I would say for me the money wasn't worth it because we did three full day tours and were not on the property that much. Had we been there more I think we would have thought differently. The best part of the beach club for us was the pool. The wait staff bring you drinks, food right to your chairs and it was quiet and peaceful, also we enjoyed the private buffet dining there was a pretty good crowd at the other buffet. We did have a private butler but to be honest we didn't see or use him much.
We had a bungalow by the main pool which was pretty close to everything. The room was spotless. We did have a problem with the air the first day. It was very hot in the room. Maintanance came right away and worked it out. We also had a problem with the water (shower) temp. It seemed to be a problem when a very large group (over 200 people) checked in. I assume due to high consumption of water. Early morning was the only time the water was really hot. Other than that the water was luke warm at best.
I agree with everyone else about the beach , not very nice but we weren't there for the beach so I was fine with it.
Food was very good. I wasn't sure what to expect since this was the first all inclusive that I had stayed at but I thought everything was very good . The french restaurant was my favorite. My boyfriend loved the pizza place for lunch. Also, the drinks were good and plentiful . I thought it was very funny at the pool bar when people were complaining that they didn't have bud light!! (they only had Imperial) Seriously, when in another country try something new!!! We also used room service several times and it was very good. They actually closed room service one night due to very heavy rain, we did not get back to our hotel due to a traffic jam until after midnight and we were starving they made our food , brought it out in the pooring rain! Much appreciated!!
We book our three tours through Swiss travel at the hotel . We did talk to Erik on the beach and
rented atvs from him but decided to go through the hotel for the other excursions. I am sure that Erik is ligit , I spoke to several people that booked through him and loved it. The only thing that I can say negative is that when I was asking Erik questions about the Nicaragua tour he was constantly looking around at the other people coming on the beach. I didn't feel like I had his attention and that he was to worried about missing a 'sale'. Swiss travel (Melvin) answered all my questions and offered alot of advise so we decided to go with them. I did pay about 10 to 15 dollars per person more through them. We had a great time. We did white water rafting, the arenal volcano tour and the nicaragua tour. They were all awesome.
Overall this was probably the best vacation I have taken . Costa rica is beautiful and we definetly look forward to returning