Blue Dream Hotel — Hotel in La Cruz

We stayed here for 5 days and had a great time with this quaint and funky little resort. We absolutely LOVED the kite surf instructors, enjoyed most of the meals we had at the on-site cafe and wood fired pizza (They tend to get overwhelmed if there are more than 10 tables though). The owners are super friendly and helpful. The help staff does not speak anything other than Spanish, are not very helpful, and mostly seem to tolerate any guests that don't speak Spanish. The prices are super competitive with most meals being $9-$12 though they have this policy that they charge you for any food or drink you bring to the cafe yourself (Understandable but would be nicer if there was a common area). If you don't have a car the taxi is $15 to or from La Cruz (They will ask for $20, but this is overcharging). There is a bus that stops pretty regularly but is pretty early if you are catching a connecting bus. If you don't have a car you can ride out with the truck (Super fun actually) at around 9:15 to the dedicated beach. If you have a rental car, they give you a key to the gate to get to the beach. There are often cattle in the way.

The only things we disliked about the resort were pretty minor. Checking in was odd, the help staff just asked for our name and looked on a giant ledger for a match and tosses you the key. Checking out is , frankly, unprofessional. They have a piece of paper with handwriting all over the place and just jot down numbers and arrows and all kinds of havoc. I would not be surprised if they under or over charge every other guest just by accident. If you keep track of ALL of your purchases in the cafe and rentals on the beach you will be better off. You can pay for the cafe charges and hotel charges with credit card but all rentals and lessons must be in cash (US dollars are taken). The nearest cash machine is in La Cruz however, so come with cash. We also felt that the rental gear left some to be desired. Much of it was very worn (Expected) but to the point of excess. Make sure you check for damage if you rent a kite, the one I was about to fly already had a 6" hole in the canopy when I pumped it up.

They have kite lockers behind the office but bring your own lock. We felt safe the whole time and do not know of any theft in the area. There is a small mini mart that is a 10 minute walk away that takes credit cards.

Also, their beach is a bit of a fib on the website. There IS a public beach about 200m from the resort, but there are lots of locals and is not secure. You could do a downwinder from here to the REAL kite spot that is about a mile away. It takes about 25 minutes to walk on the beach (one stream crossing) or about the same to walk...

Important Note. This review is based on the Junior Suit. It has a much higher price than the normal rooms and this at least for us raise the bar on cleaning, equipment and service included. The normal rooms have a much lower price and they would rank higher in our judgment if we had stayed there,||||We stayed in the Junior Suit and found it lacking in regards of cleaning on arrival. The bed was very well made and 100% clean and the bathroom/toilet was also cleaned ok. ||||The bedroom floor was dirty (as well as under the bed) and there were more than the normal share of creepy crawlies. We got the impression that just the junior suit was not rented that often.||||The normal rooms (cheaper/no A/C) was located further up on the hill (Blue Dream Hotel is located on a very, but, very steep hill and you will have to go the hill to reach the parking as well as your rooms.||||The view from the normal rooms was spectacular (the junior suit has almost no sea view at all. We've been told that the suit id have good views but did not see it our self).||||There is Wifi coverage in all the normal places including rooms but it was a bit shaky and the speed varied from more or less ok to "go to bed" slow.||||The food was very good from the breakfast to the hand made pizza in the outdoor stone oven (recommended)!||||Food prices was at tourist level as was the rooms. Just over $70 for the junior suit without breakfast and around another $8-10/person for breakfast takes the pricing to the level of much more luxurious and modern hotels with higher standard.||||One should take into account the location as well and note that there are very few places close to this location where you can stay and this will raise the prices.||||The second day all the cleaning was well done and the lack of cleaning we found when arriving was corrected the second day and on.||||The location is good with easy reach (by car) to a number of beaches. Playa Rajada, Playa EL Jobo, Playa Papaturro and a number of other playas can be reached in under or around 30 minutes.||||As far as I understand the Hotel is well visited by kitesurfers and the normal room, the closeness to the beaches and the amazing pizza should give them a hard to beat treat by staying here.||||Not to much competition around when it comes to hotels so Blue Dream Hotel is well worth a look, a visit and a...

Blue Dream kite school at Playa Copal was a great introduction to kite boarding! Visited in early April and the conditions, location and atmosphere were all fantastic. Being new to kite boarding we took half day lessons for 3 days and then we were up and going for the rest of our trip kiting on our own with rental equipment! The instructors at Blue Dream were excellent. Much thanks to Nicola, Zulty and Lisa for sharing their passion for the sport, their knowledge and patience, all of which are invaluable to beginning kite students! Really great people, as were many of the fellow kiters we met during our trip. The learning curve is steep but this was a great environment to learn with warm water, consistent wind every day and even some strong and gusty conditions that made for great practice. Highly recommend wearing booties to help protect your feet from the sting rays just in case. We had no issues, they aren't anything to worry about but do be aware they are around. That being said, as far as sea creatures go, you are far more likely to see sea turtles! ||||At the beach, which is just a short drive down the road from the hotel, there is a shaded area with hammocks to lounge in while taking breaks. Both the beach and hotel have a very laid back vibe. We stayed in one of the bungalows and found the accommodations to be simple but very sufficient. The restaurant serves decent food as well. We had an excellent time staying at the Blue Dream kite school, learned how to kite and met some great people along the way. We will definitely stay at the Blue Dream and kite at Playa Copal again!...