I had to spend a total of 8 1/2 weeks in Costa Rica for work this year and chose the Cariari as it was close to our facility. This is a great property in the center of the country. It is close to the Airport but just outside of San Jose. The rooms are all nice, clean, and have the signature Hilton bed and amenities. There is a full service restaurant but the food does tend to be pricey. The pool and hot tub area is great. It is always clean and has a garden type of feel to it. What probably made this a great hotel was the people. While there are a number of people who were great to work with, 2 in particular stood out. Ramon in the Breakfast Service ALWAYS made you feel like you were a long lost friend. He helped with with my Spanish and made sure that I needed nothing. The other is Lucia, the Housekeeping Manager. She went out of her way on many occasions to make certain I felt welcome and that I had everything that I needed. She went well and above what I felt she needed to and truly became a friend in Costa Rica. The true ranking of a hotel is if I would stay there again, and the answer is absolutely.

The hotel is within ~10 minutes to the airport. This is an important detail if you are driving a rental car and don't know San Jose. The city of San Jose has NO street signs to help you get around - despite how good the maps are in telling you the supposed names of the streets throughout, so this hotel is a good option. The rooms are decent size, and the bed is average comfort for hotels in this category. The menu and food quality is ok. Breakfast is ridiculously expensive for the buffet so get a package which includes it if you can. If you are a vegetarian, you will get by for the various meals, but don't expect alot. They charge for WiFI in the room but you can use it in the lobby. They have a few computers available in the lobby for those who prefer to use theirs. They DO charge regardless for late checkout starting with the 1st hour after checkout time. They were going to charge me despite fact that the hotel was almost empty and I have Silver status with Hilton. I found this ridiculous considering we were one of very few people even in the hotel that night.There is a small garden across the street for those into birdwatching - I found Rufous-tailed hummingbirds, a Summer Tanager, a Rufous-naped wren, and a few other birds just in that little garden. Some of the staff are very helpful, some were indifferent so it's a mixed bag.

This hotel is absolutely fabulous! Beautiful open air feel. Service is first class. Room as clean or better than new and very spacious. Bed was heaven. Even won a few colones in the casino. I would love to spend a month there!

We stayed at 3 Hilton properties on our Costa Rican vacation and 1 Marriott and I am sorry to say that the San Jose Double Tree was our least favorite and most disappointing property. It started with a lack luster check in – no Diamond Member greeting like we had received at the other two Hilton properties and no room upgrade. I realize room upgrades are contingent on availability but it was made clear to us that we were not being upgraded because the management chose not to. Some properties will upgrade Gold/Diamond members to a suite or a much nicer room than what you had booked – even if according to the guidelines of upgrades they are only supposed to upgrade you to the next higher room level than what you booked. The Double Tree San Jose sticks to the letter of the law and thus you are just another number to them and your Hilton loyalty means nothing. I questioned whether we could be upgraded to a 1 King Bedroom suite but buyer beware – a king bedroom suite is no suite at all. The front desk agent showed me one of these rooms but the suite is a small foyer with a tiny couch and a then a regular room. It is very deceptive in the website photo which makes it look like there’s an entire living room with a couch. We could have “upgraded” to this type of room but it was actually no bigger than the 2 queen room we had. There were 2 rooms suites available during out stay but again, the management of this property sticks to the letter of the law and said we could not be upgraded. I guess I shouldn’t be upset that they adhered to this but it just makes you feel like a number and also – very few properties are like this. We stayed at the Hilton Papagayo and Hilton Garden Inn in Liberia, CR and they upgraded us without question and treated us wonderfully during our stays. We also stayed at the Residence Inn in Escazu during our trip and even though I am very low level Marriott Rewards member they upgraded us to a 2 room suite. I highly recommend staying at the Marriott Residence Inn instead of the Double Tree for this fact alone but also for other reasons I’ll spell out as I ramble on.

Our 2 queen room at the Double Tree was very clean but very basic. The pool was cold and lackluster. The manager’s reception on the weekend is in the open bar area and very nice with a big screen tv. During the week days it is in the very small breakfast area and not much to write about. The free Gold/Diamond breakfast is horrible! Choices were cold eggs or burnt bacon and some fruit. (BTW – the breakfast is great at the Residence Inn!) During breakfast the staff had a television show on – a morning talk show – and they were discussing prostitutes and they were showing unsuitable images for our 11 and 12 yr old daughters who were with us. We had to ask the staff member to change the channel – they were oblivious to it. The hotel really isn’t near much in terms of sights to see though it is fairly close to the airport (why we chose it) and you can pay your departure tax ahead of time which is nice to get out of the way and not have to do at the airport. You can walk up the street and over a bridge that goes over the highway to the Plaza Carirari mall. Great food court at the mall and the mall has most anything you’d need. One other thing to point out – there are no washing machines or dryers at the Double Tree and laundromats are few and far between in San Jose – or in all of Costa Rica for that matter. The Residence Inn has washers and dryers that are free for their guests. That’s right – free! The Double Tree is clean and close to the airport but if you are a Gold or Diamond Member and are used to be treated better than just another ol’ guest – and you’d actually like a decent breakfast – skip the Double Tree San Jose. I wish that we had –we would have saved a lot of points and been a lot less disappointed.