If you are visiting the coast of Costa Rica and want a fantastic gourmet dining experience, stay at Villas Kalimba in Samara. Owner Roberto produces magnificent dinners 3 to 4 times a week, at the open air dining area of the hotel. The sleeping rooms are air conditioned (which is a requirement in this hot climate) and the staff is exceptionally helpful and accommodating. Their website is truthful. See [-]

Just returned from a fabulous trip to Costa Rica, where we finished our vacation relaxing on the beautiful beach at Playa Samara, staying 4 nights at Villas Kalimba.

Our family of 4 (2 early teens & Mom/Dad) enjoyed everything about the place! The villas are roomy and beautifully decorated, equipped with everything you could need. Absolutely gorgeous grounds as well. The kids loved the pool right there in the middle of the group of villas - again beautiful setting and well maintained.

The people here are so friendly and helpful with not only your stay there but also advice for all sorts of things - where to eat, where to find monkeys, etc. One of the men brought us fresh coconuts one day, chopped off at the perfect place with a straw through the hole to drink the delicious milk. A thoughtful gesture!

The included morning breakfasts in the little outdoor area were to die for! Smoothies, fresh fruit, eggs and the special pancakes - I still want to know the secret recipe! Not to mention that they were served by Romano's adorable little daughter! We miss those moments still...

Although not what is considered 'beach front', it was so close to the beach it didn't even matter! Literally across the street! Also right by the grocery store which had pretty much anything you could need, and walking distance to everything as Samara is just a quaint little place!

The beach is unbelievably beautiful, quiet, uncrowded, perfect for boogie boarding and surfers who aren't pros.

We absolutely enjoyed everything about the place! Please realize that this is Costa Rica and little lizards are part of the deal! Tell kids not to freak out - they don't bother you and they are part of the bigger picture - eating little bugs & such.

I would highly recommend a stay here! You can't go wrong!
PURA VIDA!

Our family (children ages 5 & 7) stayed at Villas Kalimba for Spring Break in April 2008 for six nights. It was truly an incredible experience for all of us. The villa was spacious, comfortable and clean. The pool was cleaned daily and the breakfasts were terrific! Fresh fruit, pancakes & eggs/bacon. Roberto's dinners were out of this world and for a four course meal, the price was great! They also had TERRIFIC Italian wine! Very short stroll to the beach and market two doors down. Samara was easy to get around and was also safe. Villas Kalimba was the safest and seemed to be the nicest accomodations in Samara. Wasn't ready to go "too rustic" with the children so Villas Kalimba was the perfect spot for our family. Enjoyed the river boat tour, authentic Costa Rican lunch & canopy tour Roberto arranged for us. Tried snorkeling & surfing too! The country of Costa Rica was so breathtakingly beautiful especially coming from a high altitude mountain town in Colorado. Made friends with the other guests, the kids played with the other children which was really cool! The whole staff was out of this world, I was very impressed! Roberto seemed to always be working, an amazing work ethic, which must trickle down to his employees. Would go back and back and back again! An experience of a lifetime for our children.

My wife and I split our time between villa #7 and El Gauchito. While the Villa was great, we defintely think Gauchito is worth the extra money (which actually isn't much). The only negatives about Gauchito were that it is a further walk from the beach and that you have to walk back to the reception area to ask any questions (which we had a lot of) since there is no phone.

Speaking of our questions, the staff is tremendous. Nancy and Romano were very patient and helpful with our barage of questions about where to eat, driving times, and which tours are the best.

The pictures on their website do not do Gauchito justice - I tried to add a few of my own, but I'm no pro either. There is amazing detail with the architecture and stained glass windows. The tile work in the bathrooms is beautiful, and the showers were much better here than in villa 7. The kitchen is huge, but we didn't use it as much as we would have liked to (we were still drawn back to the rancho for Roberto's meals). The pool is on the small side, but it gets so hot there it's great to be able to just jump in and cool off whenever you want.

There is no doubt that we will stay in Gauchito whenever we find our way back to samara!