The bad with this site

Pat Sep 14, 2009

Would recommend to a friend!

Orbitz lied about how far the hotel was from San Jose Airport, its not 45 minutes but a 5 hour dangerous ride! Not only did ... the site not acknowledge this fact but would not accomodate for the hell of a ride to the hotel. You must also be careful with adjusting flights because they will rip you off $1500 to adjust flight to Liberia Airport and it was a connecting flight again no accomodation was done on the sites part for falsifying information. The hotel was beautiful, service was great but do not get the package from San Jose Airport!

great price great location

sarahhubb Sep 7, 2009

Would recommend to a friend!

awesome place wish the pool bar and snack area was open longer. great excursions offered through hotel ...

Don't believe their write up.

T-rex Sep 7, 2009

Was extremely disappointed in the website description said versus what we received for the Royal Club. Website description ... for the room said whirlpool tubs and private pool for all Royal Club rooms; however when we arrived at the hotel they said it was an error on the website and basically there was nothing they could do. We went on our honeymoon and the website also stated that there was a complimentary upgrade but since we were already in the Royal Club we were not given an upgrade. The only extra you receive for the Royal club was a private open air bar that in the evening you could have dinner. This was not worth the additional $500 we paid. Once that disappointment wore off we had a great time. The staff is wonderful and extremely helpful. The room was clean and spacious. There are an awful lot of stairs, we stayed in building 8 and there were 137 stairs from our room to the pool. We took two tours, Arenal Volcano and Palo Verde National Park with Summer Sun Tours and had a great time. We highly recommend using this company if you are in the Guanacaste area. Our tour guide, Marco, is extremely knowledgeable about Costa Rica and spoke fluent english. It was also just us on the tour, so although we paid a little more we were able to dictate the pace of the tour.

Honeymoon

Mike Sep 1, 2009

Would recommend to a friend!

We went here for our honeymoon and it did not disappoint us. As soon as we walked into the place we were treated like ... Royalty. The staff was one of the best parts of the whole place! I would recommend this place to anyone (nice place for families as well).

nice but could be much nicer

lamalo Aug 31, 2009

food is better at the buffet then in there special resturants. hotel needs more lights around the rooms, wake up calles you ... have to be happy if you get one.if you like hard bed & pillows you would love this place.

Great place for a honeymoon!

HONEYMOONER Aug 19, 2009

Would recommend to a friend!

This hotel is great. The food, alcohol & staff definitely stood out. We were fortunate to be there at the same time as a ... lot of other honeymooners/couples our age (late 20's/early 30's). The place itself is beautiful & there is so much to do in Costa Rica that this made the hotel a great home base! Tours are plentiful & easy to book at the hotel or from various men down at the beach.

Occidental Grand Papagayo All Inclusive

mcm Aug 17, 2009

Would recommend to a friend!

I liked this hotel but I wish there was more to do than just go to eat, the pool, and the beach. There weren't really any ... night time activities.

great honeymoon

L Aug 9, 2009

Would recommend to a friend!

Simply great! The weather was nice and everybody at the hotel were very helpful, beautiful views and nice beach, the food was ... excellent with a good variety.

Fantastic getaway for couples and family

MOM Jul 17, 2009

Would recommend to a friend!

Stay in the resort was wonderful. Hotel staffs were very nice and friendly My daughter and I had a great time. looking ... forward to go back

Everything You To Know

Msfarisa Jul 4, 2009

The hotel lobby was beautiful! The view is pictured above and it looks identical to what I saw. However, the rooms were a ... different story. The first room that they attempted to place me in appeared to be "OK" until I took a peek into the bathroom. The shower was supposed to be white but it was so filthy and moldy that it looked more greyish brown than anything else. I asked for a different room. The 2nd room was barely better. There were food crumbs and a previous guests hair piece under the bed but the bathroom looked better at first glance. The shower had black marble tile throughout (so that you couldn't see the dirt as much)but the sink was clogged. There was also one thing missing...A SHOWER CURTAIN! I had to call the front desk 3 times for a curtain! Then, when the cleaning lady finally showed up, she was holding towels instead of a curtain??? I was there for 4 days and I never did receive my shower curtain! Other problems? There seemed to be a shortage of towels and wash clothes all the time. I spoke with other guests and they had similar problems (The hotel would run out and you would have to wait for more to be used and laundered). We also experienced a few short power outages while staying there. Everything goes completely dark. This probably happened about 3 times in 4 days and it is very spooky when it happens at night. Another problem was the fact that they advertise two places to dine for dinner but good luck getting in. The restaurants are always booked. They told us that we would be unable to eat there because both restaurants were booked for the whole week??? Um... let's see, there was a stray cat at the resort that would beg for your food while eating near the pool. There were also large black birds that would swoop down and grab food off of the food bar outside. There were a million bees surrounding the outside drinking bar at the pool so you really couldn't enjoy sitting there. Oh yeah and the sand is not white (due to volcanoes), it's dark. There were a couple of good things about the trip. The staff was friendly and the buffet was pretty good I just wish my room had been cleaner and that I had received a shower curtain. Beware: The hotel offers different tours that you can pay for. I paid for the Panchanga Boat Tour. It's advertised as a "Sunset Boat" with a live band, music, open bar and drinks for $35. The boat was dirty and wet, there was no band and no music! The ATV Tour was much better...

absolutely beautiful

None Jun 24, 2009

Would recommend to a friend!

This hotel was exactly what we were looking for, not crowded which was expected for the time of year, peaceful, the most ... beautiful views no matter which way you turn, staff was amazing, food excellent, and as for being on a very hilly property which I personally would have wanted no other way, anyone who is to stay there with any handycap or disabilities of any kind they were picked up by staff and brought to any location on the resort they wanted to go with no problem. We are definetly going back to the Occidental Grand Papagayo, as soon as we are able. " remarkable " and thank you for handeling everything so well for us, all was perfect. sincerly: Chris and Valinda Carlson

Great resort for first time traveler..

first class traveler Jun 15, 2009

The Travel Coordinator for the tours was outstanding. The Buena Vista Adeventure day tour was well worth the time and ... money. If time permits, the day tour to Nicaragua was fantistic.

unbeatable location for the price

Ruben hood Jun 2, 2009

Would recommend to a friend!

we went jets ski, wild animal and birds observation, panaromic views to the bay area and the forest. could not get any better ... no complains. it is an experience very different in relation to closeness to nature

The Occidental

Traveler May 30, 2009

The hotel was average. The rooms were ok, the walls had some mold and on our last day the shower leaked through the wall. The ... food was also average but we always had amazing service. Pool was okay and beach was not bad. There are many activities/tours to do outside of the resort which can be arranged through the hotel or with people on the beach.

Overall very good place to relax

Leslie May 17, 2009

Would recommend to a friend!

We stayed here for a week...the rooms are not what we expected...don't go by the pictures on this site. We paid the extra to ... "upgrade"....don't you'll waste your money. We asked for a king room and had 2 doubles the whole stay. Included in the "upgrade" we should have had an ocean view and ended up with a pool view. Another couple we talked to had an ocean view and said that their room was amazing. Our fridge was only stocked with drinks 2 times over the whole week. We tipped the chambermaid daily...she didn't always leave towels or take the dirty ones on the floor. Jefrey is the best and friendliest bartender hands down. We never felt pressured to tip around the resort whereas at other all-inclusive hotels we have been in do(Mexico). The staff was great overall and very attentive in the restaurants/bars. Everyone was friendly. The food was very good and had a good variety. The service in the "speciality" restaurants was SLOW. There were only 2 of us and each time we spent about 2 hours to get through dinner. The food in the buffet was better. Look for [...] on the beach to go on tours with. Him and his wife own a tour company. You can find him hanging out usually by the kayaks. If he isn't there - go back the next day because chances are he is on a tour. Make sure you go with [...]. The hotel will tell you that the guys on the beach will take your money. HE IS THE BEST and extremely dependable. He has a ton of info to share about Costa Rica! We went on the Arenal Volcano Tour through the hotel ---- it was a LONG day and the chances of seeing the lava are about 2/10....we did not. We wish we would have done Monteverde tour instead. The jungle walk and Baldi hot springs are very commercialized....had much more fun on the adventure tour with [...] and saved about 5 hours! We also went on the boat tour which was incredible. If you want to see monkeys and wildlife -- this is the thing to do.

Girls going away trip!

MariaMaria May 4, 2009

Would recommend to a friend!

The resort was in an excellent location. Resort had beutiful views at every angle you stand. when we first arrived our room ... were not ready until 7pm. we arrived from a 9 hr flight at 12 noon. Finally after all the complaining we started to do (after 3-check out time) they gave us room. I orginally requested 2 beds, they wanted give us a king bed. refured the room so they gave us a 2bed dirty room. Overall staff was pleasent especially the the activity host. The food was not the best. The resort is super relaxing. If you are looking for a party resort than this s not it. But extremely peaceful. Finally, its a safe safe country and the Ticos & Ticas are so so pleasent and friendly. Enjoy your trip!

Great Vacation

Adopted Costa Rican May 4, 2009

Would recommend to a friend!

The Resort was at a beautiful location. Many of the staff were super friendly and helpful. ...

Not for Night Owls

Lenin Apr 22, 2009

If you are looking for a quiet, isolated resort that's only about 40% occupied this place is for you. The grounds are ... beautiful, yet very hilly-so if you aren't into walking up hills do not stay here. The resort is definately not a four or five star like advertised. I would give it three at best. Service is friendly except for the front desk and in particular, [...] who is about the rudest front desk employee I have ever encountered in all my years of travel. Indifferent would be about the best description I can give the entire front desk staff.A couple of important pointers you should know about:1. The water for the entire resort is shut off at 11pm every night and is not turned back on until 7am. On two of the days the water wasn't turned back on until after 10am the next day. I found this out the hard way after taking an evening hike and wanting to take a shower at 11pm upon returning to my room. The front desk staff will flat out lie to you and say the water is out in the entire area. After two or three strait nights of this, I began asking around to employees that I had befriended and they informed me of the truth. 2. The is absolutely zero night life at this resort. The "disco" stays open until 1am but I never saw more than four or five people in it the entire time I was there. The whole resort kind of had the feeling that it was running on it's last legs (restaurants that were supposed to be open weren't, lightly staffed with the same staff members working 14 hour shifts, etc..)If you want any night life at all you have to take a ten minute taxi ride (no hotel shuttle provided) for $35 to Coco Beach which has a strip of small bars and restaurants. On the bright side, the food was excellent at the buffets, with a lot of traditional Costa Rican dishes. They also had a nice selection of top-shelf liquors at the bars, but they closed the beach bar at 4pm and the pool bar at 5pm which were my favorite bars to hang out at. Good luck trying to get a reservation for the a la carte restaurants because they will tell you it's overbooked (which seems odd considering the resort was at 40 percent occupancy while I was there). I was there six days and was one of the first people in the reservation office daily to try and get a reservation and only ended up getting one once! When I did go to the Italian a la carte restaurant it was only half full! I know this is typical for most all-inclusives so I didn't consider it too much of a problem. Overall, I would recommend going to Cancun and spend less money and get more value.

Relaxing Getaway

Aggie Mom 94 Apr 22, 2009

Would recommend to a friend!

This vacation was for relaxing and it is a good place to do that. The grounds are beautiful and the view is outstanding. ... They do need to replace the outdoor furniture covers on a more regular basis. They get a lot of use. We did a couple of tours to zip line and and a river tour. We were disappointed that it was the dry season in the area. The areas outside of the hotel grounds were very brown. The staff is wonderful and ready to please.

Beautiful

Jodi Nov 15, 2008

Would recommend to a friend!

This hotel was beautiful, with gorgeous views. The food was great and the staff was soooo nice. They were always happy to ... do anything for us, and didn't wait around expecting tips afterward. The pool was great, and so was the beach. The rooms were not as nice as we thought they were going to be, but we spent very little time there, so it was no big deal. There is so much to do there, that we only wished we could have stayed longer.