A Friendly Trip to Costa Rica: Part 6 – Andaz Papagayo

Previous Trip Notes
A Friendly Trip to Costa Rica: Part 5 – El Silencio > Tabacon Hot Springs > Andaz Papagayo
A Friendly Trip to Costa Rica: Part 4 – El Silencio Lodge & Spa
A Friendly Trip to Costa Rica: Part 3 – National Car Rental & SJO > Bajos Del Toro
A Friendly Trip to Costa Rica: Part 2 – MIA Centurion Lounge & MIA > SJO
A Friendly Trip to Costa Rica: Part 1 – AA DCA > MIA

We arrived at the Andaz just before sunset. They brought over welcome drinks, and let us know that as our Diamond Amenity we could each get a complimentary sangria as well as tiradito (a dish of raw fish, cut in the shape of sashimi) at Chao Pescao – one of their restaurants.

The bellmen took our keys to park our car and loaded up the luggage on two golf carts. We then drove a total of 20 yards to our rooms. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect. This was a category 4 hotel – fairly low in the Hyatt scale of hotels (i.e. the Hyatt Regency in Baltimore where I live is a category 4). But the Andaz exceeded all expectations. Despite not having any available suites to use one of our Diamond Suite Upgrades (a couple corporate functions booked all suites), the room felt larger than it actually was. There was a half-wall in between the open bathroom and bedroom, with wall-to-floor windows overlooking the coast, a giant shower room (could literally fit 6 people comfortably with a 9-10 foot rain shower) also looking over the coast, a separate bathroom with a toilet and a fairly large balcony. The room was simple and elegant, and I thought it was perfectly designed.

As with all Andaz properties, the mini-bar was complimentary and restocked each day (it contained water, sodas, juices, coffee and snacks). There were also complimentary fedora hats and flip-flops. In addition, they provided a beach bag, although they graciously mentioned it would be $150 if we checked out of the hotel with it in our possession.

I had my beer watching the sunset and then headed down to Chao Pescao for dinner. The service was horrible. We waited at least 15 minutes for a server to come by, and then finally asked someone. We ordered our sangria and then waited for another 15 minutes. That finally came and then we asked to order food. Chao Pescao is a tapas bar, so we ordered our tiridito as well as a number of other dishes to share. The food was really good, and the tiradito was huge. So we were completely full, waited another lengthy amount of time for the check (so much so that the girls went back to the room while we waited). This wasn’t the only time we ate at Chao Pescao, and each time service was lacking.

We finally paid and then had them call for a golf cart back to the room. Sidenote: it’s a decent walk between restaurants, pools and rooms, and the hills can have steep grades, but mostly the use of a golf cart – which I tried to use at every possible point – was due to laziness. I’m on vacation. I’m lazy. And I love golf carts. Enough said.

We went to bed early and got up early the next day. We headed down to Rio Bhungo to check out the breakfast buffet. Wow. This was definitely a highlight, so much so that on multiple of the following days, we arrived around 7am-7:30am with our laptops, and did some work/surfing the web/hanging out until breakfast closed at 11am. In addition to fantastic food, they had a full-on coffee bar where you could order anything. Luis at the coffee bar was fantastic, definitely one of the best Hyatt employees I’ve encountered. Luckily NSPwife status-matched to Hyatt Diamond status with her Hilton Gold status the previous fall. So breakfast for the two of us was free. In addition, instead of having our friends book the stay with their points, we had them combine their points with NSPwife’s points, and then we booked the room for them using Hyatt’s great “Guest of Honor” program – also giving them free breakfast. Weeks later, I’m still missing it…

We then headed to the large pool – there are two pools, one large one and one smaller one for adults only. The pool was nice, and a really nice touch is that the Andaz provides complimentary sunscreen. Little did we know, this would be the last time we hung out at this pool – as the adult-only pool was our future go-to. The pool-side dining was reasonably priced, and we often ordered lunch at either pool.

One thing to note: the beach at the Andaz is relatively non-existent:

Having said that, there are reciprocal privileges at both the Four Seasons and Prieta Beach Club. The hotel has a free shuttle that runs between the three locations hourly, and is free until 6pm. After 6pm the cost was $25 per room, round-trip. We did hang out at the Beach Club one day, which, in fact, has a beach. It also has some nice pools, bars/restaurants, activities and beach items to rent (from jetpacking to body-boards).

The Four Seasons, as expected, was very nice. The pool areas were stunning, although it was much more crowded than the Andaz, and after hanging out there for about an hour we decided to return to our home base. The shuttle was convenient and fairly quick.

Our other dinners were courtesy of a restaurant at the Andaz, Rio Bhungo (fairly good food at decent prices), and The Dive Bar. The Dive Bar is in the marina, which is about a 10-15 minute walk if you “off-road” it by the water. The food was absolutely fantastic – especially the fish tacos. Prices are very cheap, particularly if you go during the 5pm-7pm happy hour each day. It’s a very interesting place, being situated right next to a rather old-looking hotel and also the happening spot for all the yacht-workers who after docking their ridiculously large yachts would walk over to the restaurant.

The shuffleboard table was also a really nice touch:

I did take a 45 minute drive one day down to Coco Beach, where there were a number of touristy markets, massage places, and, of course, a casino. Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve been to about as many casinos as anyone, but something happened here which was a first for me. There were three table games upstairs, but no dealers. I asked the bartender what time the games opened, and he said he would take care of it. Five minutes later two people came out, a dealer and “supervisor,” and they started shuffling and ran the game. Coco Beach seemed to be your typical beach town, full of tourists and travelers, but I was glad I spent some time there.

After our second full day at the Andaz, we googled to see if there were actually monkeys at the resort, as we hadn’t seen a single one (everyone kept telling us: “you will see them at happy hour at Rio Bhungo”). After day two, we were almost certain it was just a bogus sales pitch. To our surprise, starting on day three, there were monkeys EVERYWHERE, with sometimes half a dozen hanging out or swinging from tree to tree near the adult pool. In fact, on our last morning, when we woke up at 6am, there was a monkey in a tree about ten feet from our window. Iguana’s were all over, and we even had a pizote visitor at breakfast on the last morning.

The gym was nice and offered both cardio equipment, free weights and machines:

On the second to last day, as we were hanging out at the pool, a spa representative came down to offer discounted rates. I was hesitant, but ultimately decided to go for it. And luckily I did. It was without a doubt one of the best massages I’ve ever had, and the spa was very nice and relaxing:

Overall the resort was great, and for only 15,000 points/night, it is a complete steal. If you include the fact that Southwest flies to Liberia, someone with a companion pass, Hyatt points and status, could really get a heck of a vacation for just pennies on the dollar.

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