Maravida Hotel and Resort (formerly Best Western Tamarindo Vista Villas) — Hotel in Tamarindo

I ADORE this hotel, I'll never stay anywhere else in Tamarindo or Costa Rica!

We went for our honeymoon in 2012, and returned with our 8yo son in 2020. It's everything I want for a tropical vacation: the rooms are comfortable and impeccably clean, with all the features I want (coffee maker, fridge, AC) but not so fancy I have to worry about my kid breaking things.

My very favorite part was that we had a shaded patio and garden right out our back door, where we could lounge in semi-privacy. (For a few days of one visit we had neighbors in the next room, and we could scoot further away for seclusion, or socialize if we wanted.) We had a room in the street of rooms lowest down the hill, with one bedroom separate from the living room and kitchen, so we could put the kid to bed on the couch and go be quiet in the other room till he fell asleep. I loved waking up to birdsong, and watching the geckos and iguanas outside. My kid dropped a piece of fruit in a corner and some ants found it before me, but both before and after that one event, I never saw any insects indoors.

The pool and restaurant area are spacious and comfortable, with a nice view of the ocean and excellent food and drinks. Ask the staff I met some excellent Engish (though I had a little trouble being understood with my limited Spanish in town a couple times). It's a short walk across the street and down a sandy trail to the beach, maybe three minutes. There are lots of other restaurants within a couple "blocks" worth of distance, and it's maybe ten or fifteen minutes walk to what I'd call "downtown" Tamarindo, though of course it's a fairly small town, so that's relative. There are convenient markets nearby for basic groceries, and right across the street is a pharmacy and small doctor's office... My kid split his chin open, enough to need a couple stitches, and the doctor came back early from his lunch break to help us out. It couldn't have been more reassuring to have such excellent medical care so close at hand. There's an emergency medical clinic in the middle of town, too.

The ONLY 2 drawbacks I can think of were that they have a big party at the bar once a week (the rooms by the pool must be pretty loud, but in my room on the lowest row of rooms, it was just distant drums & bass, and I quite liked it, for an occasional change And the other mild drawback, for me, was that after a long day playing in the ocean or walking around town in the heat, the stairway up from the street to the rooms was a bit daunting... but I'm a chubby and sedentary couch potato from a temperate climate, and while I did usually take a minute at the top to catch my breath and promise myself I'd join a gym when I got home, it wasn't as bad as I'd worried from the photos. Oh, and the rooms on the lowest level of the hotel had a partial ocean view the first time we were there, but the trees had grown up high enough by our second visit that we couldn't see as much. The ocean view from the pool/restaurant area is still great though.

Anyway, I highly recommend this place, the price is superb for the comforts and amenities. I also reviewed the budget Hotel Marielos, and for the slight price difference, this place is five times as nice, so it's such a great value (we stayed at the other one for two days on our second trip, until Vista Villas had a room for us... Big mistake, should've just rescheduled...

This is quite possibly the worst motel pretending to be a hotel I've ever been to. I've stayed at Best Westerns previously and Never had such a terrible experience. We checked in today I've been at this place for approximately 4 hrs and it's been hell. First the check in clerk only speaks enough English for his script, therefore any question you have you aren't getting answered. He checked us in but only gave us 1 key, I thought 2 were in the sleeve. Nope. He never offered directions so I thought there was a map in the paperwork or the room that was not the case. Then when I walked from the room to get some answers he had an attitude. Frowning and acting like why are we there. We get back to the room and wanted to ask him how to work this ancient tv and guess what. This motel doesn't have phones!!! They want you to use WhatsApp that is the most unprofessional thing I've ever heard of for a hotel. That's another reason why this place is falsely identifying its self as a hotel instead of a motel or roadside inn. Places i would never book because it's not the experience I'm looking for. When you book a brand you expect certain things none of which are here. So we were told we were getting a jungle room...blatant lie We are in a cubby with a bathroom. The rooms didn't come wth towels they provide them with the room key(motel). We were told this place has a restaurant, lies we went there to eat at 8:00 and they were closed. Mind you the (restaurant) has only two tables. How is that a restaurant? Are we supposed to hold our food in our hands and eat it. This place is a bar because that was open. So my significant other downloaded WhatsApp to communicate with the motel clerk. So we decided to get a massage once again WhatsApp nonsense. We sent text to the massage lady and she ghosted us. Ok so remember we just arrive and have no map. So we go back to that clerk and he's upset we are asking for directions I think because he can't communicate it. He asked us of we had a map I said You didn't give us one! He said there's no map in your room? I said why would I walk down here if we had a map? Next the massage lady agreed to do the massage but never came to the spa. This place is ridiculous. If you know what's good for you, you won't pay hotel prices for a motel experience. Also all the pictures regarding this hotel have to be AI because it's not a beach hotel at all. We saw the beach from the bar and it's no where near this place. Because of this experience I can never ever book a best western again because of all the lies here. Also the rooms are so small you constantly trip on something. Also don't walk around the grounds at night looking for things because the clerk treats you poorly the outside stares are only lit at the top of the stairs. I almost fell cpl times it's ridiculous! And who can I tell? The none English speaker who isn't very nice to begin with. So I called Best Western customer service #cr1081154. Supposedly a manager is going to contact us...yeah right, probably when we...

Coming from a well traveled and a resort employee like myself, I’ll give a pretty fair and we’ll rounded review. Overall the hotel is a solid 2.5-3stars. First off all the staff members that we had the pleasure of dealing with where all very nice and polite. The hotel is roughly a 8-10min walk to the middle of downtown Tamarindo or a 3-5min walk across the street to the nearest beach front. The hotel is just far away to be quiet but also just far away to be an annoying walk everyday to go to local restaurants just due to the fact that half the walk is in the street with cars wizzing by sense there’s no side walk for half the distance into town.. But we enjoyed the walk to get our steps in for the day. The hotel grounds were always clean and very well presented with the plants and architecture. The free breakfast was good to wake up too. And the pool was always cleaned and water felt great, barely anybody in the pool while we were there. And the pool deck had a great view of the sunset and a small sliver of ocean and mountain ranges in the distance. We opted for a more budget friendly room, do to us being out of the room mostly on the beach or excursions, but with that being said, our room felt more like a dungeon then a hotel room. It was extremely small in size, so with that being said, if you want a more presenting type room, I’m guessing up your price and get an ocean view balcony room. We tried to upgrade when we got there after walking into our room, but no rooms were available. The walls and doors r very thin, so door slamming from next guests over was always a loud issue. The bed was rock hard. We asked for a mattress topper, but they had none. Our hot water wasn’t really hot so we just made due, and our toilet wasn’t working properly, asked for maintenance a few times but nobody showed up, so I just ended up fixing it myself. The cleanliness of the room upon entering I would say was a 3 out of 5. Could see some things on the bed like hair and stuff and the ground wasn’t that well swept up. *if your looking to stay here on Friday nights, be prepared for a very large party happening on the pool deck from 9pm-3am. It’s very loud and will keep you up during the night if not properly prepared with ear plugs or sleeping medicine to knock you out lol free drinks for from 9-11pm which is nice if u drink a lot, but be advised, it’s very loud and people are yelling and screaming all night.

But all in all if I came here on a budget again I would stay here. Good property but just know it’s a budget property before booking and that comes with the things...