We stayed for four nights and had a great time. We had a spacious sea breeze room right by the beach. The beach is pristine and pretty much exclusive. The whole hotel is spread out in its own tropical rain forest with golf carts for the weary to get around. The restaurant, whilst sometimes a bit quiet, has an amazing view out over the bay and is way above the standard of the rest of the town. I cannot recommend it enough.

Wonderful hotel by the ocean! Amazing service! We had an apartment to ourselves and we were by the beach. Lots of wildlife around, great food. Loved the views from the restaurant area. I think the best place in the Manuel Antonio area!

Arenas del Mar provided luxury amenities, ideal location, and superlative service. Book your stay here with confidence. The hotel has a philosophy - learning, connection, experience, and relaxation, and it delivers! My husband and I stayed for three nights.

LOCATION: This is the ONLY hotel in M.A. with DIRECT BEACH ACCESS. Other hotels provide "shuttles" to the beach, and bring you to the busy center of town to access it. At Arenas del Mar you can walk out of your room and onto the beach. It's the most northern end of the long chain of beaches in M.A. so it's pristine and quiet, and you can walk the entire length of the beach if you wish - into town or even into the national park. I love the beach and water, so for two days we walked the entire length of the M.A. beaches, stopping at times and negotiating for chairs and umbrella, usually for two hours (US$6.) It was ideal. The section of the beach that the hotel fronts is lovely, and you can just stay there, where the hotel provides chairs, tables, an infinity pool, and an outdoor restaurant. You don't have to "pack up" to go to the beach! Request a room at Playitas Beach.

SERVICE: You are an individual at the hotel - it has only 38 rooms, and a staff of nearly 100! I don't need someone to fluff my pillow and keep my water glass full, although of course they do. The high level of service emphasizes CONNECTION, one of the hotel's goals. You get to know the cart drivers, the waiters, the tour guides, the receptionists. They will share with your their knowledge and love for their country. If you are interested, you will get to know about their families, and their dreams for the future. We opted for the free "tortilla tour". With Roger you go to the outdoor, covered staff cafeteria, and make tortillas with the staff "Mama", Dona Lisa. Then you enjoy them with her, your guide, and whichever staff members are around. What a lovely way to make a connection. Another example of service: When we checked in my husband mentioned that he likes tamales for breakfast. Laura our host said that tamales were not available for breakfast, but if my husband likes tamales, she'll get some. We had forgotten about it, and then one afternoon after an long day on the beach, we returned to our room, went to mix a drink, and there in our room refrigerator were four gorgeous tamales! We had them for dinner on our balcony.

LEARNING: It seems as if everyone is a naturalist. We asked our lunchtime (at Playitas Beach Restaurant) waiter William what type of tree we were sitting under. Not only did he identify the almond tree, he bent down and picked up three big pods - one immature, one maturing, and one with an almond inside!

RELAXATION: With perfect location, impeccable service, making new friends, and learning about your environment, relaxation naturally follows. We had a perfect stay at Arenas del Mar, and we believe that it's THE hotel of choice in Manuel Antonio.

We visited in early January and had a very good stay. The views from the beaches are amazing and the staff was incredibly friendly and always remembered what we had been doing that day (waiter from the night before asking us in passing how the fishing was the next day as one of many examples). The monkeys came and played around the beach, and there was a sloth on the nature trail. I would definitely recommend this as a place to stay.

The restaurant on the beach was very relaxing and I loved the fact that the beach had tons of shade so we could pick out the perfect place to lay out and enjoy the views. As a heads up, the public beaches are gay friendly. The surf school was fun and I got up for the first time.

Only improvement could have been the rooms being a little bit higher quality.