Having been looking for a place to stay in the peninsula area, we had initially considered staying at the Barcelo or Tambor Tropical-decided against the former and the latter(no a/c)
Upon arriving in 'tambor' I was a little disappointed in the town and the hotel appearance-I was picturing more of a traditional hotel and holiday for my western tastes. After the 1st night and getting adjusted to 'tico time" (local time no hurry ever) and the embarrassing fact that I don't speak Spanish-it became my best vacation ever.
The people from the hotel-Oscar and all the waiters, waitresses, front desk staff were able to help me and my wife in any way they could-booking dinner reservations elsewhere, golf, etc.
It actually became kind of amusing with the language barrier-we were looking to describe everything we could in spanish and the staff seemed genuinely interested in learning more English.
The food at the restaurant was good-not great but there are a 1/2 dozen other places to eat within walking distance. All the places with the exception of the Tango Mar restaurant were VERY affordable, after every meal we would comment on how inexpensive the entire meal had been.
The boutique hotel only has 6 rooms which gives people a chance to connect-your not just faceless tourists. Its not about the rooms, although in saying that the rooms were clean and the a/c was great, the shower was adequate for pressure and as noted elsewhere it did take a little getting used to NOT putting toilet paper in the toilet.
The area itself is a small <1500 fishing village but to get to surf in Malpais or zipline/waterfalls in Montezuma is no more than 45minutes there is a Budget rental agency across the parking lot from the hotel and taxis are an option(for some trips)
What made this vacation better than Hawaii or Mexico or Florida? Getting submersed in a culture and forgetting for just a few days that I'm a gringo guy who doesn't know more than a few words of Spanish.

Hotel- Colorful, beautiful, fabulous, relaxing, GREAT restaurant w/good prices. Close to a road, but still feels very secluded. The landscaping is fantastic and makes you feel like you're in a tropical oasis away from it all. Not too far from the truth- we went on a walk looking for downtown and never found it. There is a street with a church and a grocery store and a souvenir shop. Down the road there is a marina.

Location- could be better. The best part is proximity to Montezuma. Tambor is on the coast, but the beach is nasty (at least in the rainy season). It is in a bay and a river flows out onto the beach bringing trash and debris from upriver. Because of the calmness of the water, being in a bay, the debris doesn't get washed away. (This hotel isn't on the beach, which disappointed me until I saw the beach. It is nice for looking, not nice for swimming. Black dirt everywhere.)

The good thing about the location is it is a 30 min drive from Montezuma, which my Costa Rican friend from college told me is her favorite beach in CR. I understand why. Excellent surfing (we body-surfed), beautiful view of hills/forest, cute downtown with a very eclectic vibe. Friendly to Americans. (Lots of hippies.) Besides the beach, the waterfall hike is the best part of Montezuma. Swimming in the pool at the bottom was amazing!!!

Also, this is a close and convenient place to get a tour to Isla Tortuga, which is a nice day trip. You may be as lucky as me and get to pet a tame peccary (wild pig)!

Air conditioning, but no hot water. Not a big deal in summer, b/c I was hot anyway and it was refreshing. The pool is sparkling and inviting. Landscaping is gorgeous. Staff is polite and friendly.

I am surprised that anyone had trouble speaking English with the staff. Oscar is friendly, helpful, and totally fluent in English. Ask for Oscar. We got the honeymoon package deal (tho not on honeymoon) and he treated us like royalty! Dinner was included every night, and it was gourmet. And the drinks! Get the blackberry margarita!!! They know how to mix drinks here. (But if you're not a drinker, don't worry, this is a quiet family/couple place, not a crazy party place.)

Big bonus: howler monkeys across the street! You can hear them and see them at dusk and dawn!

I'm not sure why the person who wrote the "Couldn't make a Reservation to stay, because no one spoke English" review expected English in a Spanish speaking country. That should not have, in my opinion, tainted the review. Especially since the Tambor area is not a common tourist area.

At any rate, we encountered much the same, lots of Spanish, very little English, but expected it and had a dictionary with us. The staff was incredible. They went out of their way to make sure things were good for us.

We came to this hotel after a bad experience at the Tropico Latino in Mal Pais. Our first room was very nice, clean, colorful and had a t.v. and phone. It also had a small kitchen and refrigerator. Great to keep water cold! We had one small problem with the inline shower heater not working. They immediately relocated us to another room.

The new room was equally as nice. It was very clean again, colorful and had the t.v. and phone. The beds were comfortable...a bit firm for me, but still nice.

The pool was clean and nice. The restaurant was beautiful. The food was ok, but we found that to be the case in a lot of hotels...they seem to try to aim to the American palate but miss simply because seasonings and the such are different in Costa Rica. The breakfast each morning was nice and came with your stay. You could choose the Typical Tican breakfast or American breakfast. The fruit was fresh, the juice was fresh, everything was good.

Downsides: The inline shower heaters don't really heat the water so much as take the edge off. This really isn't a big deal because its 95-100 degrees F each day so the tepid shower feels good. The air conditioner wasn't super effecient, but did a good enough job to sleep comfortably. We were in the front of the building so traffic noise was a bit of an issue, but we're all pretty hard sleepers so it was not a deal breaker for us. Other than that, the hotel was very quiet.

The beach was nice. There were several excellent restaurants nearby. I'd recommend eating at the small restaurant 1/2 a Km down the road heading toward the airport, its on the left. The food was fantastic. Another great restaurant is at the Tambor Tropical hotel. Both were extremely affordable and delicious.

The beach is not too far away. Its a nice beach with some shade. The water is incredibly warm. The hotel gave us beach towels on request.

When we flew out of Tambor a few days later, one of the hotel employees was at the airstrip (he worked for Nature Air, we were flying Sansa). He saw us, recognized us, and came over to help us haul all of our luggage over to the waiting area. I felt this was above and beyond!

We had a wonderful experience at the Costa Coral!

For the money, we found this hotel to be great. We speak no spanish but found the staff to be friendly and helpful from restaurant staff to hotel cleaning staff. The rooms were spotless every morning. In the restaurant, if you order thier specials which appeared to be TICO inspired, the food was very good and reasonably priced. The bar is the local hangout for residents in this town, american and canadian ex pats as well as locals. The pool is clean. The hotel is about 1/4 mile walk to the beach but close to a great restaurant, Christina's. Hotel is also close to grocery, liquor store and police station.