the staff was GREAT and I was able to negotiate a better room. Location is cool and had a great time. Work with Larry (at the beach) for the off-location excursions; he's an honest and knowledgeable guy. Fishing in the gulf is fantastic (caught a 5 foot barracuda) and the zip-lining/mud baths and hot spring excursion was well worth the trip. Really a great spot; will be back if we ever go to CR again. Highly recommend this spot as an "out-of-the-box" Thanksgiving location. Could not go to Florida for what we spent to head to CR. Had a ball. Pura vida!

We travelled with Air Canada Vacations, mid January 2013 to Occidental Grand Papagayo. I will first start with, as soon as we walked in, no welcome drink, no big deal to me, but we were immediately approached by a salesman, inviting us to a timeshare presentation. We were approached 3 times during the week for timeshare, some people might consider it, if they put some effort into pleasing their guests.
Buffet food is buffet food, but the breakfast is a jackpot....it is poorly designed, where to get eggs made to order, is right in the middle of the buffet, so if you don't want eggs to order, and trying to get other items, feels like you are being rude and cutting in line....
Good luck getting into a la cartes, we did get into Italien, only because it was my husbands b-day, but it was nothing to brang home about, service is poor, food was just ok... i actually preferred buffet food.
Room was average, we did get our fridge stocked every two days, except on the day before leaving, i guess they wanted to save it, but i made 4 calls to reception and they did fill it.
The beach is ok, there isn't much snorkelling going on there, it's a rock , there is no coral reef, (at least in the front, where i saw the resort do snorkelling tours) when the tide is up, not many fish, visibly is bad...so if you have snorkelled elsewhere, don't bother taking your snorkel gear, you are wasting weight and room in your suitcase.
Pool: I could not believe how small the pool was for the amount of rooms in this resort....it can be very crowded in the pool and around. I normally don't do the pool thing, when there is a beach, but when tide is high, there is no beach left, and the wind was so bad, it was a sand storm at times on the beach.
The resort is very secluded, no where to walk too.... it is too bad they don't have bicyles, and taxis are 40 bucks to town, no matter what, i tried finding a deal, i did get a bit of one, asking locals on the beach to phone me a cab, and i paid 30 return.
Drinks are fabulous on this resort, not watered down, they have pretty well anything that i could think of, and the staff in bars and restaurants are wonderful.
One BIG problem, is the size of the buffet, there are not many seats, maybe 60-70, only guessing, and the resort holds over 300 people, so when you want to eat, you may not be able too, line ups for buffet, breakfast and dinner, so you line up to give your room number, then asked to wait in the lobby til they call you, we waited up to 45 minutes on evening, and the resort wasn't at capacity. I could not imagine being there peak season, the host at the buffet had given her notice that week, as she could no longer handle all the guests yelling at her, because they had to wait to get a seat in buffet.
The wildlife around resort is great, i got up early every morning to see the monkeys down on the beach, and one morning they were right by the snack bar, and one day i saw a coati go into someone's bag at the pool and steal someone, so if people are missing items, there are no people thieves, just the animals...haha
Last but not least.....Tours: We booked all our tours from JD aventures on the beach, better prices and not with a big crowd, you don't have to stop at the other resort to pick up others....we booked one, and had the most wonderful tour guide, Mike, so once we had Mike, we booked 2 other tours with him....and lucky for us, we were suppose to have 4 others on the tour, but they no-showed so we had private tours with Mike all week, and well worth every penny.

I would return to Costa Rica, but one thing that really bothers me and still does, is the street dogs, i know they are everywhere, but in a country where they preach, save the rainforest and have national parks and protect this and that and the other, but no one cares about the street dogs, to the point where i saw a local in Liberia, kick one, i wanted to kick him....and then i saw another lady feed him, so i know there are some good souls in Costa Rica, I just wish they could focus just a little on the animals that are so dependant on us, it is not there fault they are on the street.

Hotel and staff were very nice. We were in an older room which needed a bathroom remodel; however, I am not traveling to stay in my room and it was better than some we have visited. The property is beautiful and well maintained. The pool was always clean and refreshing. We were with a group for a wedding planned by Harold and the whole experience was AMAZING. Thanks to everyone who made our trip special!

We booked the Grand Romance Deluxe room. Reviews online looked good and our travel agent had always had good results with this resort.
We arrived nothing in the room package was what we paid for. We did not receive a welcome drink. We did not receive a warm welcome either.
Our room did not come with any of the amenities stated. It was barely clean. The shower clogged as soon as you started running the water, the bathtub was dirty and the fridge was not stocked with alcohol and water as it was supposed to be. The sliding glass door to the balcony was broken and once we got it open it wouldn't shut.
We asked for these issues to be fixed and never heard back. We then went and asked to have our rooms switched. The manager of guest services was condescending and rude. He said they maybe had one room available that was clean. He had us walk all the way back up to it. It was further away from the resort and smelled moldy. But he assured us that the shower and patio door worked. Those were our main concerns. So we switched all of our things to that room.
We were supposed to receive chocolate covered strawberries and champagne on our arrival, the room was supposed to be done up nicely and there was supposed to be other romantic amenities included.We consistently asked for these things. We first received a plate of fruit and a seriously warm bottle of red wine after asking management 3 times. The fruit was on a dish wrapped in plastic wrap and it was fruit you could purchase in Stop and Shop in America. Also we need utensils to cut the kiwi, etc to eat it. We didn't receive any.
The next day we insisted again that we should receive the amenities we paid for. The rude guest services manager said that we received the fruit and wine and we said yes but explained that that's not what we had paid for and also it wasn't very good. He said well you ate the fruit so you are all set. I was not happy with this answer. I brought up all the other amenities we had paid for and the special romantic surprise we were supposed to receive. He looked at me and said well it's supposed to be a surprise isn't it. I did not find this amusing.
The second room had the same issues as the first, except we were actually able to get the patio door to open and close, but with much effort and actually got ourselves locked out one night because it was impossible to open from the outside once it was closed. We had to use sticks to pry it open. Absolutely ridiculous. And the shower was dirty and clogged in the second room as well.
Finally the nice rep from Swiss Travel spoke to management for us and requested all these issues to be resolved. He had to speak to them twice. They finally fixed the shower. That's it. Nothing else.
Aside from the issues with the room most of the service staff was extremely rude. Not all, but the majority.
At this resort the guests were treated as a nuisance. And even though gratuities are supposed to be included the ONLY way one could get any service or attention was if you tipped nicely. I'm not opposed to tipping and do so anyway but you should not be required to at a resort where you pay a hefty amount of money to cover all these costs.
My fiancee and I are not rude or pampered. We work very hard for our money and when you go to a resort you expect to be treated with decency at least and to receive what you are told you will and what you pay for.
Take my advice GO ELSEWHERE