Hotel Costa Verde — Hotel in Quepos

Marcella was beyond excellent. She always greeted us with a genuine smile. She bent over backwards to help us with whatever we needed, and made our stay very easy. She not only answered questions and made some arrangements for us, she had suggestions and helpful hints. She was efficient, knowledgeable, and genuinely nice and happy to help us. It was extremely refreshing.

We saw more monkeys than we've ever seen in our 17 times to Manuel Antonio just from our hotel room. Because of the location of the hotel, deep in the jungle, you get to see a lot of animals. We saw a sloth up close and we saw howler monkeys for the very first time

In one week we stayed in four different rooms. This was by choice. We tried out all three of the airplane rooms as well as a regular room. The airplane rooms were fun, beautiful, very well done, and we felt very spoiled. Our favorite was the cockpit Cabana mainly because of the back balcony/deck. We moved three times, and each time we simply left our bags in the room and the staff transferred it to our new room, along with things in the refrigerator. That made our trip so easy. They also got us into the new room as soon as possible, well before check-in. The regular room was very nice as well. We would be happy to stay in one of those again. All of the rooms had kitchenettes complete with stove, refrigerator, microwave and dishes. We appreciated that they did not make us feel bad or frown upon us bringing in our own food and drink to save money.

The reason I did not give them five stars, and I would actually give them four and a half but that is not an option was because of 3 things. First of all, the hotel does not offer room service. We really do use room service a lot, especially for breakfast. We like to have coffee juice and breakfast in our room on the balcony. They have a restaurant right on site that serves breakfast and lunch, so I really don't think it would be too difficult to add this feature at least for breakfast and lunch. The pizza restaurant, El Wagon, does deliver pizza to your room, and it is delicious. Also, most if not all of the other hotels in Manuel Antonio include breakfast in the price. This hotel does not.

Another small inconvenience was the exhausting, brutal stairs from the rooms to reception and restaurant. There is no elevator. I really don't mind doing a couple stairs, but this was a hike and a half, especially when you have to do it several times a day and especially when you are carrying things. I think they should put an elevator in where the downstairs bathrooms are going up to reception. I'm not being lazy, but those stairs were very difficult and I felt they were dangerous.

Finally, with the exception of Marcella, I found the front desk staff rude and unhelpful. If Marcella was not there, we simply came back later. I don't know his name and I do not want to get anyone in trouble, but there was a young man who was a pretty big guy, stocky, and had a beard, and he was downright unfriendly. He never smiled. In fact he glared at you when you walked in reception. He was very intimidating and made me afraid to even ask a question. Also, a few times I was literally the only person in reception waiting to be helped, and he continued to work on his computer and ignore me for several minutes before even acknowledging me and asking me to come forward. I finally asked him if he could help me and he rolled his eyes and acted like I was troubling him. I am not saying that he should be fired, but this is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed, and I doubt I'm the first person to feel this way.

Overall, excellent stay and we will definitely be back again probably in the...

We stayed in the adult building and made sure to book the ocean view room. A bellboy loaded our bags and drove us to our room at check in. He did a quick run thru of our room. The hotel provides everything you need to understand ordering the shuttle and room service. There’s a room phone with easy direct dialing to different areas of the hotel. You can order from the restaurants and have the food delivered. You pay the restaurants directly even Anaconda, which the front desk staff told us we could charge to the room but this is not accurate. We did order delivery and shuttle service and it went without a hitch. Great service. The hotel is clear on towels upfront so there should be no complaints on that score. Bring beach towels. When we walked in we couldn’t believe how perfect the room and view were! Since it’s off season we had the pool, deck, and grounds to ourselves. The big tub is wonderful and gets hot water from a tiny gas water heater. Just give it a second to power up, and turn the handle off then back on when you want more hot water. And realize your balcony is not private, so wear a bikini. The kitchen includes a cook top fridge microwave and coffee pot. Coffee is provided and dishes and cutlery. We did the hikes, swam in the pool, ate at the restaurants. The hikes are not well maintained so wear good sturdy hiking boots. The steps had washed out. Adult pool is gorgeous and clean. The pictures don’t do the pool justice. Staff clean it daily. Everything was great! The menus are available online so we had no complaints about prices, we could see upfront what to expect. The restaurant shuttle was easy to request via Whatsapp and the driver was super personable. We walked up to El Avión but didn’t want to make the walk back along the road at night. There is security at every restaurant entrance along the road. ||It would be a terrible mistake to miss the beach. We walked down early 7 a.m. and had the beach to ourselves. It was a pure dream. We walked along the shore and explored the rocks and trees and we swam close to shore. We watched surfers. It’s truly memorable. The jewelry sellers and beach goers started showing up about 11:00. They didn’t get too close and respected our polite no thanks. No pressure. ||Uber is available in Manuel Antonio and Quepos. You can’t pre book and the price will depend of course on where you go. You get to see the price after you input a request and address so if you don’t like it you don’t have to complete the order. We used them twice with no issues. The drivers were actually in red taxis. The hotel desk staff didn’t like that we ordered Uber. They will call taxis for you. The staff member showed us a computer screen claiming Uber charges way more than Uber had charged us. But it depends on where you go. For us to reach our destination in Quepos it was 4k colones which we paid by credit card to Uber. We appreciated the ease and speed and not dealing with taxi drivers. A local told us taxi drivers charge tourists more than locals. ||We were incredibly disappointed in the lack of wildlife. No monkeys! I don’t know if they are seasonal visitors and no one tells tourists but seriously there were zero monkeys. I still can’t believe it. We saw no sloths, no monkeys, no iguanas. There are small lizards. Scarlet macaws flew past in the distance. No monkeys. We explored the property, completed trails. sat on balcony, ate at the restaurants. No monkeys. We could see rooftops and balconies for other rooms and...

OVERALL: We were happy with the resort and would stay there again (depending on room availability). It’s cute and a bit rustic, with buildings and cabanas tucked into the jungle. The rooms we saw featured lots of wood inside, giving them a cozy, cabinlike feel. Like most resorts in Manuel Antonio, Costa Verde is built on a slope, which means lots of walking up and down hills, up and down stairs – in the heat. ||ROOM: We loved our room (except the bathroom). We had an ocean view studio plus in the Costa Verde II (adults only) section. It was large and open with two queen beds, kitchenette with full-size fridge, table with chairs, and living room area with a sofa and two chairs. The AC was cold but adjustable; we finally found a temperature and fan setting that worked for us. The large balcony was SPECTACULAR with sweeping views of the jungle, pool, and ocean below. The bathroom was okay. Shower was roomy with good water pressure and hot water when needed. But the vanity was small, and the window had only a screen, so the bathroom couldn’t be cooled by the AC = not pleasant. ||STAFF: Everyone was friendly and helpful. Front desk people were fantastic and did whatever they could to make our stay pleasant. Restaurant servers were consistently friendly. Housekeeping did a nice job.||POOLS/OCEAN: Pools were small but clean and warm. Costa Verde II pool had a huge deck area with loungers, a bar, and lots of covered seating. Area A pool was secluded and surrounded by jungle. Both pools were regularly visited by monkeys. The beach is accessible from the resort, but it’s a long way down. It’s closest if you’re in Area E. But once you’re down there, you have to walk back up. Given the heat and humidity, we skipped the beach. ||WILDLIFE! We saw more wildlife at our resort and near the main road than we did at the park. On site, we saw lots of white face monkeys plus a sloth, iguanas, agoutis, toucans, scarlet macaws, parrotlets, and more. Just off the main road, we also saw squirrel monkeys and more sloths. ||RESTAURANTS: We tried most restaurants owned by the resort. Food was good, but most restaurants had basically the same menu with just a few differences. Drinks were yummy but weak. Prices were similar to other restaurants in the area. The only dinner we didn’t care for was at El Wagon. Its focus is wood-fired pizza, but the pizzas were undercooked with pale, floppy crusts. ||SMALL NEGATIVES/OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT: |* Towels: Each room gets two bath towels, two washcloths, no hand towels (for bath or kitchen) and no pool towels. We got extra bath towels from housekeeping a couple of times, but they were taken away the next day, even when they were hanging and clean. Sometimes two bath towels aren’t enough, especially with the humidity. I even used a towel a couple of nights as an extra blanket. |* Bathroom window: As previously noted, the bathroom window has just a screen. That means the bathroom cannot be cooled by the AC so is always hot and steamy. Glass or film on the window would make a huge difference. |* Beds: Mattresses are hard and could use a foam topper (even on request). Also, they come with a sheet and thin bedspread. Having a blanket available would be nice, especially when the AC fan is blowing. |* Dressers/shelves. There is nowhere to put clothes other than a small closet. Dressers are not common in tropical resorts, but some shelves would help a lot. I’m glad I used packing cubes, which made “living out of a suitcase” a...