Arrival: August 7th- August 31st
I stayed the first 2 days at the Hilton Papagayo, it would have been equal amount to stay for 7 nights as it would have been for Occidental Allegro Papagayo IF it wouldnt of been for a "sale" that the Hilton was having!!! I tell you what- the lady who asked about my stay is NOT going to like what I had to say about her hotel.
It was beautiful. The hotel surroundings was beautiful. I loved the comfortable beds!!! But I did however leave because I found the prices somewhat outrageous. I will always remember paying $60 U.S. dollars for a meal for 3 that left us still feeling very hungry. Even just after we ate we were still very hungry. I decided to pay an extra $575 U.S. dollars and switch hotels to the Occidental Allegro Papagayo. I was extremely stressed at your hotel and felt as if I was going to run out of money very quickly when the prices for food were so expensive for so little food.
My first few days stay in Costa Rica were extremely stressful. I honestly couldn’t enjoy my time there at all. I paid $30 U.S. dollars for 3 basic alcoholic drinks.
If you were to get one alcoholic drink a piece (3 drinks) and 3 meals for 3 people each day you would be spending over 200 U.S. dollars a day!!! With your belly still hungry too!! $60.00 U.S. dollars each meal, 3 meals a day= $180.00 U.S. dollars $30.00 U.S. dollars for 3 alcoholic drinks add with the $180.00= $210.00!!!
The gift shop was also a lot more expensive than the Allegro. $8.99 U.S. dollars for a key chain. The exact same key chain at Allegro was $4.99 U.S. dollars- half the price!! Not to mention the phone charges are fairly cheaper at the Allegro. But I didn’t spend much time on the phone over there, seeing as though I was happy with my stay at the Allegro and my phone charges at the Hilton were over $50.00 because I was using it solidly to try to switch hotels so I would "enjoy" what was supposed to be a "vacation".
I did however enjoy my stay very much at the Allegro. I was very glad I paid the extra $575.00 U.S. dollars. Most of the staff at Allegro also understands English A LOT better than most staff at the Hilton Papagayo. I came to find that most people that visit Costa Rica speak English with very very little spanish knowledge on words. It is more important for the staff to know how to speak English than the visitors, seeing as how the majority of people who stay in Costa Rica (for tourism) are fluent in English. We are there to get our needs met and this is hard to do when staff doesn’t understand you. We are only there for a week, most people are only there for a short amount of time. So it wont do us any harm to not know or learn spanish, however your staff will be dealing with people who speak English on a day- to- day basis for as long as they work with you!!! Which could be years!!!
Overall- I would not recommend this hotel to anyone I know. Unless- they want to run their bank account dry. The only thing worth staying for again at the Hilton Papagayo, would be the extremely comfortable beds.
P.S. The view was the exact same if not more beautiful at the Allegro, but they had tons of wildlife right there on premises!! Monkeys right by the beach guaranteed every day!! 🙂 Crabs and Raccoons also. But it wasn’t overflowing or annoying with wildlife- everyone else staying there loved it also!!
Rooms:
The beds were not comfortable at all at the Occidental Allegro Papagayo, but I do agree with the lady almost 100 percent who stayed from May 16-22!! The room did have a whole lot of tiny tiny ants which yes- was annoying considering I was waking up in the middle of the night to one crawling somewhere it shouldnt of been crawling! lol. But they are so small and dont bite, that it didnt bother me. Because as the lady from that review (May 16-22) said- you should use the room more as a place to sleep, you shouldnt be camped in it all day. Also like she said, there was no alarm clock which was kind of annoying to have to call every 20 minutes to the front desk (is how we found out the time, since our phones dont work over there) when you are getting ready to go to dinner at the fancy restaurant that you have ‘reservations’ for by a certain time, or have to be at the tour by a certain time.
Restaurants and Bars: The food "was" different every single day !!! I just got back- I am telling you how it ‘really’ is! -some- of the food was the same every day, such as most of the fruit or the beans and rice. But all the rest of the food (which is alot) switched around on a day to day basis. I stayed for 7 nights and only ate the same things by choice. The bars were pretty nice. I wasnt going with the "all inclusive" so I could get hammered, so I am just telling you from a 1-3 drinks a day perspective. I tried the dirty monkey and it was great!!! However, not ALL the bartenders know how to make it!! 🙂
I recommend the steak at the mexican restaurant! very good !! Pay attention to the italian menu- it is soooo funny how many things are mispelled! lol
Beach/Pools/Grounds: Oh the black sand was very pretty. I dont have any clue how Jay from Canada says its like black mud….. It was actually lighter than sand to me! The pools were great! They clean them at least 3 times a day that I saw!! I wish they had a place for people to rinse off like one of those outside shower things, before you get into the pool though, so the black sand wasnt in the pool as much. The grounds- omg let me thell ya – monkeys outside the hotel by the beach every single day !!! In the mornings gauranteed and sometimes afternoons. Even though they have signs up not to feed them… they love food from ya like bananas!!! lol. What an experience it is to feed the monkeys!! That’s the last thing my mother did beore we left was see the monkeys right next to the hotel !! 🙂 I took her and my little brother there for vacation since I could afford it but she couldnt. 🙂
The monkeys were by far—- the best part of the whole Costa Rica trip!!!!! 🙂
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel: My mother and little brother went kayaking! They said they loved it!!! This was "at" the hotel, that came with it for free. The other "excursions" we did was- 1.($115.00/person US dollars) View the rainforest by the Arenal Volcano, meet the Maleku tribe, eat lunch, go to a hot springs at a beautiful brand new hotel called The Springs with a spectacular view of the Arenal Volcano and dinner at that hotel (The Springs). I did not, repeat- did not, like the rainforest- it had "NO" flowers or color to it, other than green. The Maleku tribe wasnt ‘that’ friendly of people nor was their little show very interesting. However there is room for improvement. The hotel with the hot springs, OMG this made the day!!!!! It was sooooooo beautiful. I took tons of pictures there and there is a water slide there also- look for it cause they dont tell you about it!!! The lunch and dinner on this excursion were very awsome!!! 2. ($125.00/person US Dollars) Buena Vista Combo tour- OMG, soooooooooooooooo awsome!!!! My favorite overall of the tours!!!! Zipline, Water slide through the rainforest, horseback riding, mud bath with steam room and hot springs, and lunch. Not in that order lol. The Zipline was fun!!! I felt very safe at all times! The water slide was a BLAST, especially for kids (my lil brother is 14 and he loved it!) however there was a man at least 45 who was running ‘up’ the natural man made (out of dirt from the rainforest) steps ALL the way up to go do the waterslide as many times as he could!!! Very thrilling to see! Lunch was very good!! Not alot to choose from though… The horseback riding was beautiful. succcch a pretty view !!! I couldnt seem to get ‘enough’ pictures of just ‘how pretty’ it was!!! The mudbath- wow… such an experience !!! for all ages !! We had a blast!!!! However, there is quite a bit of walking upwards (which is hard for me.. walking down is easy, even at a steep angle, previously shattered foot,ankle and heel) my mother had a hard time also with the walking up to the zipline and waterslide and walking up the steep angle to go back from the hot springs. Overall- I looked past my foot and I made it fun !! It was awsome !! An experience of a lifetime !!!
3. Papagayo floating and zipline- ($45.00/person also includes transportation) oh yeah, now here’s something that is soooo much fun for you thrill seekers, but it is quick and fun!!! Most of the excursions are half a day, this one is just a few hours, but sooo worth it !!!!!!! The staff at the place is soooo nice and it was private too, I was able to do just me and my little brother without a huge group like at the Buena Vista!! We were able to zipline upside down and superman style!!!!! I highly recommend this one!!! Plus, they are adding a resteraunt and a gift shop. The best part – It was all hand made!!! They dont even get to use any bulldozers or any large machines!! It’s all done with a mashetI!!!!! Restaurant, Zipline landing pads, Gift Shop, all hand made!!!!!! Which is very impressive when you ‘see’ it.
4. Butterfly Garden- My mom went. ($60.00US cab ride, $10.00US to enter) The one that is closest to the Occidental Allergro Papagayo- the one with the cage of monkeys at the end of the butterfly garden. My mom loves butterflys…… but she said that was nothing to be happy about- however she said she will always remember the monkeys, (as described by my mom) you walk into this large cage and the next thing you know, you have monkeys all over you !!! Wanting you to hold them like babies and holding on to you like your their mother. Feet and arms wrapped around you. My mom said the best part is, they dont want you to leave!! You put them down and they get right back on you and when you finally do leave, they hold on to the cage and look at you as if to say "… but… dont leave me…" picking through your hair for fleas, taking spare change out of your pockets, playful little boogers, but sooo cuddly.
We sent her to the butterfly garden while me and my brother did the Papagayo Zipline! 🙂 Shopping at coco cay was worth it 100 percent!! Souvenirs are so much cheaper !!!
Other Comments:
If you have a hard time with someone not understanding English at the Occidental Allegro Papagayo- ask for Pedro at the front desk, he speaks it very very good and understands it also ! and Gilbert/tour guy is from California, so he understands very very well and can speak it, but isn’t available that often at all.