We stayed here for four nights as part of a seven night Essence of Costa Rica Monkey Tours. We purchased the all inclusive package for this part of the trip.

Accommodations: We had the standard suite. Our room had been newly renovated and had a king size bed, walk in shower, 48 inch flat screen tv, small fridge, safe’ and separate toilet. There was minimal furniture, good lighting, no phone. The room was very nice.

Service: Housekeeping service is bed made and does not mean trash taken out of room. I could not find garbage cans on the property, and we had one small can in the bathroom only. I made my own with a gallon size ziplock garbage can and left it in the bathroom but it stayed there and was not thrown out. My coffee pot was never cleaned nor was my coffee replaced. I had to ask for the coffee pot as our room’s was missing. Bar service was good but they did not have enough bar tenders. same with waitstaff. Would have been good to have self serve coffee in the a.m. On day three we had our bed made and dirty towels taken but no new towels. I am waiting as I write this review to see if we get towels. We kinda need them.

All Inclusive: Because the town was more than a mile from hotel and was a $15 round trip by taxi or a 40 minute walk on beach (day only) and the menu prices were high, we chose the AI for convenience and price. The hotel has a lot of work to do in my opinion in this area. They need to offer choices other than buffet only. They need to put water and soft drinks in your fridge—at least water. They need to have a snack menu. They need to work on their overall service and have more waitstaff.

Food: Food was ok. The first night they had a snack and dinner menu. The pizza on the snack menu was good. The surf and turf (beef filet maybe 5 oz and three grilled shrimp and small serving of mashed potatoes and no veggies) was good. Pricy if not AI at $25 especially for the size of the plate. The second day they had a lunch menu which was standard sandwiches and fast food type dishes. I got the club and it was grilled chicken (good), ham ( yucky) and fried egg on a nice bread. Husband got the chicken fingers. They were fried pieces of boneless chicken served with fries. Mine also came with fries. We also ordered the guacamole which was served with fried plantains which was good but only had three plantains. The dish needed more. All of this disappeared after lunch the second day to be replaced with buffet only. Breakfast buffet had standard fare of scrambled eggs, black beans and rice, plantains, hasbrowns and pan dulce. You could also get eggs made to order at the egg station. Lunch buffet had two proteins usually chicken and pork and rice or pasta. Salad bar had a pasta salad of some sort and some veggies. There was a daily soup. Dinner was about the same layout as lunch with a choice one night of grilled hot dogs and one night chicken and pork tacos. The chicken tacos were good. Husband said chicken was better than the pork.

Drinks: Expensive if not on the AI plan. Specialty drinks were $10. Well drinks were $7. Beer was at least $5.

Amenities: There were no ice machines anywhere on the property and no bottled water. In our four night stay we never had our shampoo/conditioner/lotion replaced. I am glad I brought my own as the bottles were very small. We had two towels per day. Several times we lost power for a half an hour to an hour. Beach/pool towels are only given out from 8 a.m. until noon and from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. we went to the front desk at four minutes past noon and were told no we could not have towels. However, as we walked off, one of the staff brought us two towels. Thank goodness as we had no towels in our room after the room was “cleaned.”

Beach: Pretty but not really swimmable. It’s the Pacific so not good snorkeling either. The tides are interesting and vary widely. Low tide and the water is far out from the beach. High tide and the water comes way close.

Town: there is a very small beach town that is walkable (1.4 miles) by the beach during low tide. There is a cool river about half way that runs out to the beach. At low tide it is inches high across and at high about four feet deep. The town has restaurants and small grocery and souvenir stores.

Things to do: There are kayaking tours, horseback riding, boats all on the beach as well as at the hotel. We had done three days of tours prior to our stay so chose to not do any more.

Bottom line: I would come back to Costa Rica as there is a lot more country to see. We did these seven days in the Guanacaste providence and although we experienced beach, mountains, rain forest and cloud forests there are more places I would like to experience. As for this hotel I would look to another place to stay.

We returned this past Sunday from this quaint, quiet and relaxing spot. We greatly enjoyed our stay, the staff is excellent. Yes, there is only one main buffet, but we sure didn't go hungry! We looked forward to every meal. You can book the specialty restaurant should you wish to change it up. The beach offers a great place to go for a very long walk to enjoy the ocean, or for a dip. We walked into the town a few times to visit the market and had a meal and drinks. The people everywhere are very friendly and helpful. A taxi into town is only 6$ U.S., so a great deal.Sure there are a few things that aren't perfect at the resort, but we would go back for sure! The Wi-Fi is excellent, I even was able to use it at the beach! Bring a book and relax. The construction happening next door at the new resort is audible sometimes. The saxophone player at dinner was fantastic, as well as the other musicians that entertained us. The staff make the difference at this spot for sure! All top notch. We had a Jr. Villa close to beach.

We just went to the hotel villas playa samara and it was the best trip we ever had! We met two incredible people who made our trip memorable. Rémy welcome us with open arms. He brought us to fantastic places and made us discover a lot of new things. We felt safe and taking care of. And we also met Freddy! This guy show us how great is the Costa Rica. We had so much fun whit him. Every morning he was there to welcome us. Always with a smile. He help us plan our activities. He really is the man who makes our days fun and full of surprises. Every part of our trip was incredible and it would never have been the same without those two men. Food was good, waves was amasing and we also had the chance to swim into bioluminescent water! It definitly is the best place to go in Costa Rica!