Overall didn't mind this resort. It has had better days but the food was ok,staff was great and the rooms were clean and spacious. Its a good deal for the price but if you're looking for activities and nitelife this isn't the place. The pool is great as is the local troop of howler monkeys!!! This resort is a great basecamp to explore Guancaste or just kick back and relax. I would go here again.

March 20-27 from Hudson, WI. USA

Cons:
They charged us $50 to be picked up at the airport, local taxis charged $40.
There was a problem with our booking, when we asked to speak to the manager, they said he wasn't there, as he was clearly sitting in the back room.
The beach is not a nice beach.
It is $10 taxi ride to go anyplace outside of the resort, but it is only a mile walk.
Bed/pillows were really hard.
Food was not the greatest, but not really any Costa Rican food is.
It closes at 10 p.m and there is nobody there, but one guard.
No activities.

Pros:
Staff was great, friendly and funny.
There is a bar 500 feet down the beach, it is fun with music and good prices.
Wildlife every place you look, monkeys, lizards, birds.
Really quite!
big pool.
Cheaper price.
Big room and bathroom.

In all:
We went here to relax and we had no trouble doing that. I wouldn't let a friend stay there, but I would tell them that there are more beautiful places in Costa Rica. CoCo beach is fun, it is a $20 taxi ride there, and $20 more back. But they have shops and a good night life. Tamarindo Is $120 roundtrip, We loved it there, that is where we will go next time for sure. So, the truth is you get what you pay for. But not a bad place. We felt safe and it was clean.

Just got back from the Sol Papagayo, read all the reviews before we left, weren't expecting a whole lot, and I am NOT a picky person by any means I have stayed in other 2.5 to 3 star resorts and they were better than this place. The good things.... the rooms were nice and clean, the staff was extremely good, always willing to please. The food was flavourfull but repeticious, If you like vegetables and salad you were fine, but if your like my husband and need meat, well it's chicken everyday and the odd time you got beef and it was chewy. Buns were stale, and the only meat served at breakfast was cut up hot dogs.
The part that really got me was that the table cloths were only changed once, so you were eating on dirty ones, the cloth napkins were NOT replaced after they were used, but refolded and placed in new glasses. Ewwww. And I witnessed that at one point cutlery being dropped on the floor and then picked up and placed on the table. The beach sucked so we did the 10 min walk over to the occidental Grand and used their beach. Loved Costa Rica but would never go back to that resort, thankfully we met some great people. Oh and did I mention that the pillows were well used the fiber fill had broken up and they were lumpy and smelled, so you might want to bring your own.

We arrived at Sol Papagayo at 9:45 at night. The room was musty, toilet dirty, and sheets old and over used. Someone (a guest) was smoking pot on the lobby by the bar. By 10:00 everything was closed and I couldn't even get a soda. The operator does not answer the phone after 10:00. The food is the same everyday. We ended up looking for another hotel and managed to get accomodation at Condovac La Costa which included breakfast and was just down the road from Sol Papagayo. This place was $100.00 US cheaper than Sol Papagayo and had a full kitchen if you wanted to cook. For $35.00 each we could eat lunch and dinner at the restaurant and the food was excellent. We were able to book several tours with the money we saved by leaving Sol Papagayo.