We just returned from a week at the Ocotal Beach Resort in the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica (NW coast). Costa Rica was magical and the resort was very enjoyable. We stayed in a "junior bungalow suite with private pool" and found the room very enjoyable. We had our friends staying in the adjoining room (all junior bungalows are duplexes) and that made enjoying the private pool enjoyable. I think it could be awkward if you did not know the folks in the other side of the duplex. If you are in that situation, the suites in the 400 level should be perfect for you because they are close to the infinity pool. The rooms were huge and the beds and linens were nice. The mini fridge simply does not hold enough beer though . . . . The plunge pool was in great shape and was very refreshing after our scuba diving excursions. The view was excellent and it was close to the restaurant. The downside was the steep hills at the resort. It was no big deal to us, but if you are older or out of shape, I don't think this is the resort for you.

The food - breakfast was great, but everything else was average at best. Service was lackluster and prices were higher than we expected. Nearby Father Rooster's was a great alternative, wonderful atmosphere and excellent food. Restaurants in Playas de Coco were close and enjoyable as well.

Ocotal Beach Resort ive shop manager Marianna accomodated our every request. The diving was nice, but not stellar. Viz was terrible (10-20 feet) and the trip to Bat Islands yielded two bull sharks and no mantas. Oh well, the dive shop has no control over the fish!! We dove with the resort on one day and with Summer Salt Dive Center on three other occasions. Summer Salt has a nice small operation and were extremely accomodating to everything we wanted. Patrick runs the show, but be sure to ask for DiveMaster Rolbin and Captain Juan Carlos to lead your day. A cautionary note, if you are planning on diving while at the resort, you need to have reservations long before you arrive!!!! The resorts boats were practically full when we realized we need reservations - Marianna took care of us, but I sweated bullets until everything was resolved.

The best part of the trip was the adventure tours on land. For that we have Amy and her Avispas Adventures tour company to thank. Avispas was nothing short of fantastic. The "Miravalles Adventure" sent us zipping on a canopy tour, houseback riding, hiking, and bathing in volcanic mud. They then took us surfing in Tamarindo and on a 4-wheel ATV tour in the afternoon. Later they took us on a white water rafting tour. Each of their tour leaders was excellent (be sure to ask for Roy to lead your Miravalles tour) and their drivers were as well. Guillermo was great (his pics of his son Andres were priceless) and Jose was a fountain of information on the way to the white water rafting trip. Avispas is lead by Amy who was readily accessible via e-mail or cell. She was incredibly helpful in getting our trips scheduled when we wanted them. If you take a trip to this region and don't turn to Amy and Avispas Adventures, you have made a tremendous mistake.

Jim and Kristina

This hotel has some of the best views and is attached to one of the best beaches in northwest Costa Rica. There are multiple pools (including an infinity pool that is great for sunsets at the top of the resort) and a pool by the beach with a swim-up bar. We were staying there for a wedding, where the hotel handled the event fairly well. Other pluses included the front desk staff who were extremely helpful throughout the trip. Also, the included breakfast was quite a daily spread - from eggs to pancakes to cereal to tropical fruit every day. I almost didn't need to worry about lunch.

Also, I had a chance to use the dive company that is on-site. They did very well in taking care of our gear needs, as well as the on-boat experience. However, I think they are set up more to be a large group kind of dive experience, as they kept us in a herd under water. Note that I only did the two dives in one day with them, so this may not be the case for all dives, but I like to go swimming around on my own sometimes.

Now onto the negatives... first off, we saw the Beachfront rooms. Stay away from those. At first I thought they were storage for the dive shop or the lower pool before I realized that people could stay there.

Most of the wedding guests were sprinkled throughout the Panoramic rooms. These rooms were much better than the Beachfront and placed between the infinity pool at the top of the resort and the front desk/restaurant building. The location is a bit of a walk down a long hill to get to the swim-up bar pool and beach. If you aren't in decent shape though, you can hop a hotel van that runs up and down.

Back to the Panoramic rooms... We stayed in room #304. The room itself was clean (and came with a safe in the wall - nice to have) with two beds and a full bathroom. The bathroom was the worst part of this room, where the shower came out like a trickle. We had to laugh at one point when I noticed that I could get more pressure out of squeezing a water bottle. Also, the hot water fluctuates depending on who in the other rooms is using the water or flushing the toilet.

Our neighbors (friends of ours) in room #303 tried to adjust the shower head only to have it fall out of the wall. The Ocotal's "fix" was to wrap the pipe with electrical tape and leave. I bring this up because it fits alot of the mentality of the resort. There was a rumor that the resort itself is for sale and thus is getting minimal work done. This place could be absolutely amazing if someone was willing to put a little money into it.

Lastly, on the negatives, the main restaurant and pool-side restaurant staff were super super slow. They were constantly understaffed, and I think this goes back to the operate-on-a-shoestring idea until the place gets bought.

So, all in all, great views, great beach, great pools... currently trying to do the minimum until they are sold. Fantastic potential though.

We stayed at Ocotal Beach Resort for two nights as part of our honeymoon. It was the only part of our honeymoon that we booked through a travel agent and it was actually recommended by the agent when he found out we were on honeymoon.
It was the WORST hotel of our 2 week honeymoon! The resort was generally dirty and very very shabby. This was supposed to be a luxury resort - the only thing 5-star about this place was the view! It was totally overpriced and they are obviously cashing in on the location and the views because I can't believe what we got for our money.
You could hear everything through the walls in the bedrooms and they were very small compared to the other hotels we stayed in. Our room was filthy and the bed linen was tatty with holes in it. The fridge in our room didn't work and when the water system came on (every 5-10 minutes), it was so loud that I hardly slept all night.
Whilst the restaurant had stunning views, especially at sunset, the food was very disappointing. I had a pasta dish, which was the only vegetarian option on the menu. I think I would've got more flavour if I'd eaten tree bark! It was so bland it was inedible.
On the first night we noticed a glass had fallen off the table and smashed all over the floor on the terrace below us in the restaurant. One of the staff went down and cleared the bulk of the glass away but left a lot of shattered glass on the floor. The next day we went for lunch and noticed that the broken glass was still there. There were children and people walking around with bare feet and they couldn't even observe basic health and safety. It was eventually cleared up 2 days after we first noticed it!
After the first night I decided to complain to our travel agent and asked to be moved. The hotel manager came to see us and offered to upgrade us to the honeymoon suite for no extra charge. We decided to accept this as we only had one more night there. This was supposedly their best room available, yet still it was shabby. It was clean but I think this is only because they'd given it an extra going over before we saw it. The jacuzzi in the suite was old and very very worn and again the bedlinen and curtains were shabby. I think the full price for this room was around £200 per night. I would be disgusted if I'd paid this for it, in fact I was disgusted to have to pay £100 a night for any room at this hotel!
I would put this hotel down as a 2*-3* with 5* prices. I would not recommend this at all and wish we had gone to our original choice of the Puerta del Sol Hotel. At least we would've been paying budget prices for a budget hotel and it had much better reviews on here than Ocotal Beach!

My father and I stayed at Ocotal Beach Resort June 7-14th. This was a vacation that was primarily for fishing, with some scuba and other activities mixed in.

The resort was for the most part clean. Most of the workers seemed friendly, but not many were good at speaking English. We stayed at the lower level rooms down on the beach. It was small, but had the best view. The room was a regular motel room that had general aminenities, but nothing out of the ordinary.

As many has noted, the walk up the hill to the resturant was very bad and steep. We choose to walk it for exercise, but they offered a free cab ride up.

We witnessed the racoons and birds trying to steal food while sitting at the resturant. A lot of people was annoyed, but it didnt bother us.

The scenery in Costa Rica was quite beautiful.

The Diving operation seemed to be pretty good. We had a good time while diving and saw many different sea creatures:whitetip sharks, jellyfish, octpus, eels, stingrays, seahorses, etc...

We also did a canopy tour at the Congo Trails. It was fun, but not for me.

Now the BAD!

This was a fishing trip when booked. We did the 4 day package with the anticpation of 3 days for sailfish/marlin and 1 day for roosterfish.When the trip was getting close, I tried to email Roy the fishing manager for a fishing update and never got any reponses. Day 1, we fished for roosters and caught nice fish. This is a 8 hr fishing day, 7AM-3PM. At 2:30 PM, my father hooked a 600lb+ black marlin fishng for roosterfish and fought the fish for hour and half when we received a call from Roy at 3:55 saying the fish would be cut off if it wasnt landed by 4. The mate promptly broke the fish off some 10 minutes later. This was a fish of a lifetime for us and in reality was $25,000 invested in previous marlin trips to get a fish of this size and ruined by the fishing manager. What poor customer service. We had several hours of light and no on the water dangers, and we certainly would of made sure a decent tip would of been made.

Day 2 they took us Roosterfishing again and mahimahi fishing, not sailfish/marlin as paid for

Day 3, finally went sailfishing and only one raise with no hookups.

Day 4 the fishing manager sent us roosterfishing again and we got blanked again.

We tried to get daily fishing reports and the manager never knew what was caught. I feel we were screwed out of $4000 of fishing here!!!

Marc
mgaction@aol.com