My wife and I have traveled to many places and stayed at different hotels, but nothing compares to Issimo Suites. When we walked into our room for a second we thought we got a wrong room. It was a very large loft style room with a whole wall of windows. The views were amazing. You could see the lush jungle trees and the ocean in the background. At night you could hear the howling monkeys, and during our breakfast (which is complimentary) we had a few monkeys peek at us and even join us on the terrace. The service exceeded our expectations. Everyone was incredibly nice and helpful, particularly the servers/waiters at the restaurant. The food was delicious and very affordable too. We are already planning our next trip to Manuel Antonio and another stay at Issimo Suites.

My wife and I stayed for 6 nights over the Xmas period.

What most impressed us was the quality of service by every single one of the staff. In my experiences with hotels is that you may get 1 or two staff members willing to go the extra distance but not all.

From the time we checked in to the time we checked out we were very well looked over.

The rooms were clean and even the floors were mopped every day.

We were visited by monkeys on our balcony one of the days we were staying.

Also being adults only is nice to have.

I thoroughly recommend staying at this hotel

I booked my December trip to Issimo Suites in July. My fiance and I liked the price, the free breakfast, the possibility of seeing monkeys at breakfast, the great spa deals, and the raving reviews of the staff.

The free breakfast was amazing. Chocolate croissants, fresh fruit, hash browns, an omelet station, rice and beans, yogurt, and more. We actually did see monkeys at breakfast, and at lunch and at dinner! Meals were 30% at the hotel. And because the food was good, we took advantage of that numerous days. We were told the food in Costa Rica wasn't worth writing home about, but we enjoyed it.

My fiance and I had two, hour-long couples massages for 69 dollars each.

When I had to print out and fax paperwork for my job, the staff was more than willing to help me with that. They also helped us book activities such as ziplining, ATV tours, jet skis, boat tours, etc.

I was worried when we first arrived. I was in jeans and hot. The AC in our room wasn't on and the florescent lights weren't flattering. And there were two lizards on our wall. By the time I cooled down, noticed we had some non-florescent lamps, and decided to ignore the lizards, I felt a lot better about Issimo. The bed was incredible. If I hadn't been so tired at night, I would have flipped the mattress over to see what kind it was and bought one for myself. There were also really comfortable "couches" or bedded lounge areas in the room which were nice to rest on when you came in hot and sweaty from an a walk in the national park.

The beach was a bit of a hike but it wasn't a big deal to me because we did so much besides go to the beach. Also, we saw lizards, sloths and monkeys on the way to and from the beach. I enjoyed that walk more than the $10 per person walk in the national park.

What I liked about Issimo, is that what we saw was what we got, and in some cases, it exceeded expectations. So often, websites make rooms look bigger than they are, make deals look better than they are. But with Issimo, there were no disappointments only pleasant surprises.

The week convinced me that if I were to return to Manuel Antonio, I'd be returning to Issimo as well.

I recently stayed at Issimo Suites for my honeymoon. My husband couldn’t have picked a better place to spend our week. The Issimo website didn’t prepare me for the amazing views we had from our room and the incredible hospitality we experienced. We’re not typically early birds but while there we kept the curtains to our two glass walls open and woke up with the sun (around 5am) every day. The first morning we were amazed to find several monkeys (white-faced capuchins) playing in the tree outside. Many of them jumped on to one of the roofs of the hotel below us and were running around playing – not a bad way to start the morning. We could also hear the howler monkeys off in the distance. This didn’t happen every morning but almost every day we did get to see monkeys either in the morning or in the afternoon (some would even climb around in the pool or restaurant area trying to nab some food).

We also really enjoyed the little things the staff did. We would always have a tray of coffee waiting outside our room by 5:30am. Our room was decorated with flower petals, washcloth animals and candles when we arrived. We also had champagne glasses and a bottle of champagne waiting for us. We were on our honeymoon, though, so I’m not sure if we got extra treatment as a result. Lastly, the staff members were genuinely driven to please us. They would make our eggs to order with breakfast and wanted to make sure we had anything and everything we needed at all times. All the while wearing a smile on their face.

In addition to the staff, I can’t say enough good things about Issimo. The open-air restaurant was amazing – food and ambiance. The rooms with their gorgeous views, balcony, Jacuzzi and even a refrigerator and microwave made us feel like we had all the luxuries we could want. The proximity to a small beautiful beach (8-minute walk) was nice as well. I guess the only downside is that the main strip of restaurants was a bit of a hike but you can easily get a taxi for about 4-5 colones ($8-10). A small price to pay for the seclusion and beauty provided at Issimo.