We stayed here b/c our first choice hotel was sold out for the 1st night of our vacation.

Issimo was 3x the cost of the other hotel we stayed at in Manuel Antonio. The room was awesome! It was like a high end hotel in the US. We did not need this much luxury. I felt bad about filling up the huge tub as it would take a LOT of water and normally in CR we are trying to conserve resources. I am posting photos of the room. We flew in from San Jose and getting a connection was a real trick. My plan was to be at ISSIMO to enjoy a fabulous sunset by we missed it by minutes!

We were served a refreshing drink upon arrival, it was really great. There were not too many people at the hotel and the service at the restaurant was top notch. It was HOT outside, we ate in the open air, there were fans, it was very romantic. Food was terriffic but portions small. Salad = yuck. Produce of this nature seems hard to come by in CR. Beef and shrimp were very good.

Woke up in the AM and had the front desk call us a cab to our next destination. Walked down a very steep hill / incline to the beach area and it was deserted and beautiful. Yes it was only 7 AM!

Used the free internet service to check e mail and book a domestic flight to Arenal. Hotel pool is small but nice. There is construction to one side, but it did not impinge on our stay.

Room was super clean, snacks and drinks in the fridge. Tons of closet space. I imaging if we had stayed longer we would need to cab or catch a ride of some sort all the way to the beach. Views are spectacular, you are on top of the entire area!

My Husband and I went to Manuel Antonio and Issimo Suites at the end of April into May and stayed for 7 days. We had a wonderful time. Pura Vida!

The Hotel

The hotel itself is beautifully appointed and romantic. They are in the process of switching their focus from a "family hotel" (which it is not) to a romantic boutique hotel for couples. The staff at this hotel was awesome. Edgar was quite helpful at the front desk with making plans for outings and transportation. The wait staff was attentive, respectful and fun. Everyone is on a bit of "CR time" which means that things take a little longer to get but you are on vacation so just chill out and enjoy your time and view in this fabulous country. We stayed in unit number 7 (a junior suite on the bottom level) and found it to be perfect for our needs. I love the fact that the tub and shower are essentially in the room with you. I took at bath filled with flowers that the cleaning staff had left in the tub and watched the sun set into the Pacific. Pretty cool. A lot of people don't like the WC situation at this hotel. I only saw our room but ours was fairly "private" and didn't prove to be a problem for us. If you are shy about going to the bathroom in front of people or are just weirded out in general then this is probably not the hotel for you. The rooms were always clean and they left flowers and flower arangements in the room for us which was lovely. I felt very safe at this hotel. We met the owner who was very nice and gave us a tour of the Presidential suite where he and his son were staying. He is a unique individual but is really have a GREAT time living in CR. The stone work is wonderful and the carvings that were done by local indians are beautiful. The pool was deep, cool, and refreshing and it was pretty nice after a hot day of hiking to come back, jump in and get a Bavaria light and relax. Some of the White-faced monkeys come around at sunset and visit. They drink out of the pool and if you leave a bananna out for them, they will come right up on the deck and hang out while eating it. SO AWESOME!

The Food

The included breakfast at the hotel is pretty good. The coffee obviously rocks and the Tico with scrambled eggs really hit the spot and gave me energy for the day. Black beans and rice for breakfast is about the best thing going so enjoy! The dinner/lunches were not quite as good. The food was just average and I thought overpriced. We found this to be true in almost all of the restaurants. Don't expect to come here and have it be cheap. We ended up eating out of the hotel more often than we ate there. We really liked eating at La Cantina, Ronny's Place, La Hacienda and my favorite was a little BBQ stand down at the Manuel Antonio beach. You can get a quarter chicken, red beans and rice, avacado slice, pasta salad, tomato slices, and plantains for about $5. I was in LOVE with this meal.

The Spa

We did each get a massage on our last day there and mine was very good but my husband's was not as good according to him. The spa in general was nice and I am really into the showers being a part of the rooms. it was a welcome reprieve from the hot activities of CR.

The Beach Cove

We did walk down to the Playa Biesanz and it is a HIKE up and down hill. Nothing is easy to get to in this town but at least you can burn off some of those calories that you are ingesting. At first we were a little nervous walking down to the beach and thought that we were in the wrong place b/c there is a house by the beach and dogs are barking when you get down there. Once we got there and settled in and relaxed, we realized how beautiful it is. I snorkled one day with some locals who helped me find the rock where the fish are. It was scary but pretty awesome. There is also a little stand where you can get drinks or food and rent snorkel equipment. It is more of a local scene than the main Manuel Antonio beach.

Activities

We went to the Manuel Antonio park 2 days out of the 7. We had a guided tour one day (SO WORTH IT) and then went back and did hiking and went to the beaches a second day. We saw White Faced Caputian, Squirrel, and Howler monkeys. We saw 2 and 3-toed Sloths. We saw lots of birds and lizards and insects and even some HUGE rodents. Monekys are THE BEST! We also booked an ATV tour through the hotel that was one of our favorite activites to do. It was about 40 minutes outside of Quepos but seeing the jungle and swimming in a waterfall was awesome. You also got to see some of the "real" CR and how people really live. Manuel Antonio is called the Beverly Hills of CR and is not how or where people live.

All in all, once we settled in and stopped trying to get Manuel Antonio to conform to the very narrow, sterilized standards of beauty that we are normally presented with on vacation and in life, the natural beauty of Costa Rica emerged and stole my heart. I would come back to this country to see more and more. The people are lovely and very friendly and I hope that everyone reading this has as great of a time as we did.

I have stayed in some of the best resorts in the US, Issimo was by far my and my families best all around experience in a resort.

I can't say enough great things about this resort. It is very small (9 rooms) and this was our first stay in a small, boutique hotel but we loved it. I spent 5 nights at Issimo with my wife and two children 6 and 7 years old (6/22-6/27). We had booked the penthouse suite #2. This is the best option with kids since it has a loft with a great bed and view so you do have privacy from the kids who have twin beds downstairs. The only thing this room was lacking was a balcony. After the second night, Edgar approached me with an offer, the a/c in our room needed some maitenance so Edgar offered us the Presidential Suite for the next three nights.
The Presidential Suite is like no suite I have ever seen! It was like our own two story house in the treetops. Complete with a pool, stainless and granite kitchen, floor to ceiling windows, full sized fridge and two full stone baths. It also has a wrap-around balcony with an incredible view of all Issimo Bay. The monkeys would visit us every morning around 6am and then again in the evening around 7:30. They would steal our wine corks and tea lights.
Then there is the incredible staff. Edgar at the front desk is is the guy to know. He made our kids feel so special and has great suggetions on what to do. He totally set up everything for us each day. There is also Leo in the restauraunt, he also made our kids feel very special. Our kids can be pickey eaters so Leo would bring them whatever they wanted for dinner, eggs, ham and cheese, chicken nuggets. The great thing about the layout of this hotel is that you can safely leave your kids in the room and go to dinner for some mom and dad time. The only steps coming down from the rooms lead through the restraunt. Leo would bring up dinner each night for our kids and then we put them down to sleep with a movie and go have dinner in the restauraunt.
The restauraunt is incredible! It is is all open to the bay with just 12 tables. Try the Costa Rican Chicken. Breakfast in the morning also was complete treat. The bannana pancakes are incredible but so is everything else. The chef only uses the freshest of ingredients and it showed.

Thanks again to the great Issimo staff. I can't wait to come back!

We have just return from Costa Rica and we stayed at Issimo Suites for 5 nights, I wish I could stay there for more!
Everything here was great, since the moment we got there, the waiter had for us delicious welcome drinks, they took our bags to the room, and a beautiful arranged room was waiting for us, with flowers and a the best view ever!!!
They plan our Wedding, we had it on the 2nd day, and it was on Manuel Antonio National Beach. The flowers arrangements were so cute, and we had a bilingual Lawyer, it was definitely the wedding of my dreams, we had never saw a sunset before like the one we saw on that day, me and husband were amazed!!!
We took a lot of pictures on that day because we were so excited, when we get to the hotel a really beautiful table was waiting for us at the full ocean view restaurant, with candles, the food was delicious and also dessert, everything was so romantic, it was actually more than what we were expecting, on that night in our room the made put candles, the next day in the morning we saw next to the pool like 10 monkeys going all over around.
At the front desk Angel and Edgar arranged for us really good activities and we had a lot of fun!!
In others hotels we had visited the spa, but nothing was like the Body Life Spa at Issimo, I fell asleep, we had the massages together in our suite. Both therapists were awesome!
I definitely recommend this hotel, the staff is really helpful and kind, we are already planning to travel next year for our one year anniversary,
If you are looking a good place in Costa Rica, take a look at Issimo Suites because you are not going to regret it!!!