Costa Rica, Guanacaste, Occidental Allegro Papagayo Review

Overall Rating

My fiance and I stayed at the Allegro Papagayo on February 21-28, 2004. It was both of our first time in Costa Rica. We're both in our late 20's, and we were traveling with just the two of us. We were looking for a relaxing hotel, with a decent beach and decent food.

Overall, we were not pleased with this hotel. I'll summarize the good and bad issues we experienced.

Bad Points:

The food was pretty much terrible. With the all-inclsive package, the hotel provides a buffet-style meal. Were it not for the great fruit and Costa Rican coffee, we would not have eaten much at all. The meat was usually of poor quality. The pastas were routinely over or undercooked.

The resort is arranged so that a stage is situated right around the pool and dining area. Everyday at 3pm, the hotel's "Fun Club" would blare music, and some Rica Suave looking fellow would come out and do his rap routine for 20 minutes or so. Every night from 8 until 10 or so, the hotel would put on shows that were largely aimed at entertaining children. I'm all for entertaining the kids, but the level of noise at placement of the stage disrupts the whole resort. It was impossible to sit around the beach or pool and have a normal conversation when these activities were going on.

The staff, although usually polite, speaks limited english, so be prepared to brush up on your Spanish before staying there.

Our room had a continual smell that was hard to describe.

Good Points:

The hotel has a decent black sand beach. It also had a "Beach Club" located about a 10 minute boat ride away from the hotel. The Beach Club was gorgeous. Be aware that in order to go to the Beach Club, you must sign up one day before at 8am in order to reserve a spot on one of the three trips the hotel provides.

The pool and other grounds were picturesque. Unfortunately, one could not enjoy them at all times due to Rico and the others.

The all-inclusive package includes one visit to the hotel's "steakhouse." The food was actually pretty decent there. Be aware that you must make a reservation to eat there as soon as you check in or you won't get in.

Overall, the hotel just did not work well for what we were looking for. Travelers with small children may really enjoy the Allegro Papagayo, but those who are traveling with just adults will likely be annoyed by the intrusive nature of the "Fun Club" activities.

Luckily, while we were in Costa Rica, we had the opportunity, to hook up with some excellent tours arranged by Michael Mills and Ricardo Vargas. We went sailing, took a trip to Mount Arenal, and also another trip to Palo Verde. Each of those trips were excellent, and well worth the money. I would highly recommend taking the tour with Ricardo. He is Costa Rican, very fluent in English, and knowledgable about Costa Rica in general. The tour groups through Ricardo will probably be around 6-10 people, vs. 50-75 through TAM/Swiss Travel. Their website is located at: http://www.costarica-realestate.com/Allegro%20Papa gayo%20Tours.htm