It's that age old question. How do you keep a family (or group) comprising a wide variety of ages happy? For us, the answer lay at the Flying Crocodile. To start with there is a range of accomodations on offer to suit everyone's tastes and budget: from 4 bedroom houses to simple rooms all individually designed, finished to a high quality and cleaned throughly everyday.
The resort is set out over a wide spacious area and connected by thoughtfully designed and well-tended, landscaped tropical gardens which bring nature to your very doorstep so you can see (and hear) Howler monkeys, iguanas, parakeets and the occasional bat or two. Talking of wild animals, the kids were kept occupied from dawn to dusk, thanks to the swimming pool complete with water slide, trampoline with safety net, table football, billiards/pool, table tennis and hammocks - with plenty of available shade to relax under.
The delicious, inclusive breakfast was enough to fuel us until midday and the evening meals offered a menu to satisfy everyone. Overall the service was good without being intrusive, even the gardeners greeted us with a smile and were happy to stop and chat to the children. For the green tourist, the Flying Crocodile has been built using natural materials, they recycle all their waste and use solar panels to heat the water (the only downside being that you have to wait a few minutes for the water to heat up and on cloudy days it hardly heats up at all.)
Samara beach is only a couple of miles away and the slightly larger more commercial Nosara beach also just a short car journey away, but for us the jewel in the crown was Playa Buena Vista, just a few minutes walk away not only was it completely devoid of hotels, bars, restaurants, houses and tourists, but is also a nesting beach for endangered turtles. (Incidentally the beach/cove behind Buena Vista is owned by none other than Mel Gibson!)
While we were happy to spend most of out time at the resort, there is plenty to do for the more adventurous. Aside from the usual offerings of fishing, horseback riding, yoga and surfing, the Flying Crocodile offers its very own microlight flying tours and flying school.
If you are looking to get far from the madding crowd, yet like your creature comforts close by, then the Flying Crocodile is the place for you.