Hotel Macao Beach — Hotel in Sámara

First let me say this is my fourth trip to Samara and that I understand rustic tico life and am not hard to please. I almost hate leaving this review because the staff is so nice. However, there are better places to stay, especially for the price.||||The good: fairly clean with a great oceanfront location between several lovely surf schools and restaurants and just a small beach walk to town. The people here are lovely. The apartment had a full size fridge and a decent sink, stove, and basic cooking equipment that were all clean. The kitchen window however looks out to the courtyard sand has no curtain to close so everyone walking about can see you. There are lovely beach loungers at Locanda (the sister property where you have breakfast) where you can lounge away a day oceanfront. ||||The medium: check in info is sparse. We check out tomorrow and I have no idea what time that is or what it entails but we will figure it out. No one explained the breakfast at the sister property two properties over. Once we figured it out (they stop serving at 10:30 even if you got there at 10 and they took a while to mosey on over), Breakfast was fine with several choices in a lovely setting. Air conditioning worked well but is in the living room not in the bedrooms so if you close the door to your room it will get warm. Housekeeping did change my sheets with the dead red ant carcasses (see below).||||The bad: Room 10 is close to the front desk on the bottom floor. I don’t know what goes on above it but it kept us up two nights in a row and caused us not to stay longer. The noise didn’t seem to go on during the day. I thought monkeys must be bowling above my daughter’s room. It almost sounded like pieces of the roof were flying off (there were no storms while we were here).||||The bathroom is in the main suite which is fine for us as I don’t care if my daughter comes through my room to potty, but if you’re traveling with people not as close it may create an issue. ||||The Bathroom faucets leak, the shower is older, and the toilet seat doesn’t fit the toilet. The beds are hard and there’s no blanket to be found in the apartment, just a top sheet on each bed and a towel. We used towels from home over the sheets as a blanket. The Sheets on one of the bunks (we didn’t use) appear to have bug or some other weird dotted red stains on them. ||||Red ants, wasps and mosquitoes are everywhere in this room- to the point that I felt like I was on a nightly red ant genocide mission since after the first night I was bitten and found a couple I had rolled on top of in my sleep (gross). Management said they’d spray. If they did I am unaware and the genocide continued every night. Every morning I woke up with new mosquito bites I hadn’t had before.||||The Pool is a hot tub that’s not hot (but I think you can use the Locanda pool up the way- not that anyone explained that to me).||||Overall, this place is not a terrible place. The location is unbeatable, the people are lovely and the food at the neighboring restaurant is good with great views. I just think our room sucked. Maybe another room doesn’t have the...

April 2025 update: Earlier this month my wife and I completed a two-week visit at Hotel Macao Beach: it was our third stay at this wonderful beachfront lodging in the past three years, and we cannot imagine choosing to stay elsewhere, when we visit Samara. The location is beautiful, and it is convenient in relation to restaurants and stores; our rooms have always been comfortable, the rooms and the shared spaces are always clean and well-maintained; it is the perfect place for us to be happy and relax. We have enjoyed every morning during our stays delicious breakfasts on the beach at the nearby Locanda Hotel, included in the charge for our room (as is use of the Locanda Hotel pool). While we have appreciated very much all of the aforementioned benefits, our stays at Macao Beach Hotel have been made truly splendid by the outstanding staff, every member of which has been so friendly, kind, and helpful to us: ‘Muchas gracias’, Dulce, Katy, Loriana, Sofia, Ilsa, Nana, and all who work with you! We hope that we will be fortunate to spend time with you again.

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December 2024: For my wife and me, Playa Samara is “heaven on earth”, and, if we were able, we would spend every day in “heaven” at the wonderful Hotel Macao Beach. Why would we want to be anywhere else? The two hotel buildings are charming, as is the courtyard between them; and when a guest leaves their room, they reach the beautiful beach by walking just a few steps. We have stayed in each of the Quadruple rooms, #s 3 and 4; each was pleasant and comfortable. The provided WiFi worked well for us. At the beach, the hotel provides lounge chairs, which can be moved, to suit one’s preference for relaxing in the shade of the palm trees or sunbathing. My wife and I enjoy reading, watching and listening to the waves, and strolling the sand beach, which stretches in each direction. (Others - individuals and families - who want to be more active have access to a variety of options nearby, including playing in the water, learning to surf, paddleboarding, and horseback riding.) We are grateful that, as guests, we can begin each day eating a delicious breakfast at a beachside table, by walking a few steps to Locanda Samara Beach, and, in the evening, enjoy dinner at any of the many restaurants to which we can easily walk.

Although the hotel location and facilities are splendid, it is the staff that makes Hotel Macao Beach exceptional. Laura, Dulce, Candela, and the others who manage and provide reception, concierge, reservation, and other services are so kind and helpful - as are Ilsa and the other excellent housekeepers and Leo, who keeps the facilities beautiful and in good repair. Thanks to their individual and collective efforts, I have never felt more welcome or comfortable at any other lodging, anywhere. I am very thankful that my wife and I have been privileged to enjoy two stays (March 2023 and December 2024); I hope fervently that we can look forward...

If you are fortunate, as my wife and I were last week, to have the opportunity to lodge at the beautiful Hotel Macao Beach in Samara, we urge you not to miss it. Among the many places that we have stayed during our forty-three years together, this is unquestionably among our very favorites. All of the rooms are within a few steps of the wonderful, clean, sand beach, at the edge of which reclined chairs, shaded by palm trees, are provided for guests. Our room was comfortable for the two of us, and the housekeepers were outstanding, cleaning and tidying it daily. We very much enjoyed the delicious breakfast, included with our room, served at the Hotel Locanda, a two- or three-minute walk along the beach. (We recommend the"tipico" breakfast option: the Gallo Pinto there was our favorite among various servings of that dish that we have sampled in Costa Rica.) The courtyard jacuzzi, located directly in front of our room, was pleasant and relaxing. Hotel Macao Beach's location is ideal - an easy walk to several beachfront and other restaurants serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, including the wonderful beachfront restaurants we visited (Hotel Locanda, mentioned previously, and Gusto Beach, which offers, with its delicious food, live music many evenings), as well as to a market, a nice food court (where I enjoyed a yummy, refreshing mango-pineapple-passion fruit smoothie each afternoon), and into town.||Among the hotel's many fine features, its finest, certainly, is its staff: each and all of them - reception, maintenance, and housekeeping - were so friendly and helpful to us before, throughout, and even following our stay. We are grateful to Laura especially.||We are already planning and eagerly anticipating our next stay - if we are so fortunate - at the wonderful Hotel Macao Beach in Samara! I hope that I have conveyed to you how highly we...