Hilton Papagayo Costa Rica Resort & Spa

Hilton Papagayo Costa Rica Resort & Spa 2010

As many of you know, we are cruisers. But this year we decided to use our Hilton points (480,000 points) and try an all inclusive resort. The Hilton Papagayo went all inclusive in May 2010 and there were many enticing things about the hotel so we booked 8 days with them.
We liked the haciendas instead of the hotel look, the pool looked great, there was a private beach for the hotel and the restaurants offered the ability to order rather than a buffet for every meal.
We used delta miles to fly down and left Friday at 12:40 am. Just staying up till 10:30 pm for the airport shuttle to pick us up was an ordeal. We did not sleep much on our way to Atlanta and even less from Atlanta to Costa Rica where we arrived at 11:30 am. We were dead tired, hot and miserable.
The Liberia airport is small and can handle about 3 to 4 plans. They brought the ladder to the plan and we had to walk down and into the building. According to the internet the red and yellow cabs were metered and our best chance of getting a fair price. They were not metered and being the first off the plan we settled for a deal for $50.00 to get us to the hotel. We found out later, it should have been closer to $35.00.
We were on one of the first to arrive at the hotel as it seemed most of the ½ filled plane was headed to Hilton Papagayo. We are Hilton honor diamond members and got one free upgrade. And even though the hotel was only 1/3 fill they would not upgrade us any more. The hotel is spread out over several acres so if you want to go anywhere you need to go by shuttle. Unfortunately our room was not ready at 1:00 when we arrived so we changed into our swim suits and had lunch at the spa. It was a small menu but good food. We finally checked into our room a little after 4:00. The rooms are small but clean. Our room had an ocean view but it was difficult to see as it was the rainy season and our windows and doors always had water on them. We got 2 queen beds that were comfortable. It had a flat screen TV , small table and two chairs, a dresser, small fridge with 1 bottle water, 2 beers and 2 cokes, coffee and coffee maker. The floor was tile and it was always wet, slippery and cold. You had to keep the evap cooler on at all times and ours dripped. The bathroom was like home but very little water pressure and there were always bugs to keep us company.
After arriving in our room we were exhausted and took a nap that lasted all night long. We missed our first big meal at the resort. Something the brochures and internet failed to mention, during rainy season, it is a dark at 6:00 pm and the day is over as the resorts, streets and towns have no street lamps. It is very dark and with the rainclouds over head, it is even darker so you tend to want to stay in. The one bar is open but the bars had people who have been drinking free booze since 11:00am, they mostly smoke and the mosquitoes come out at night and eat you alive. I guess it is to hot for the mosquitoes during the day so they feast at night. We lasted about 20 minutes and went to our room.
Sunday, Day 2, we are up at 5:30 ready to go. Call the Shuttle. Sadly Breakfast is not served till 6:30 so we just kind of looked around. Breakfast was good but had the same menu for 8 days except they changed out waffles, pancakes and French toast. There is only one place to eat breakfast at this all inclusive. I did find a new favorite and it was their oatmeal. It was delicious. It was soupy and make with whole milk and tapioca pudding. I am going to try and make it at home. .
We spend the morning at the pool trying to have a day of rest. I joined the water aerobics class and Rob cooked in the sun. By 1: oo pm the first day, he was so burnt that he had to spend the rest of the vacation with his shirt on and out of the sun. Sun block 4 is not enough in Costa Rica. By day 4 he was peeling badly! Lunch options include 3 restaurants which were order only. Two restaurants had the same menu with the spa menu being a bit healthier. There is no buffet for lunch. I spent the day at the pool and Rob returned to the room as red as a lobster. For dinner there are 3 restaurants open. One is a buffet, one is an outside grill and the other a fancier restaurant but the menu for the two are always the same and the buffet changes are slight. The service was good but it was difficult to get a diet coke as it came from the bar. Which you should note there is no diet coke until the bar opens at 11:00am. So we had the change the 2 cokes in our fridge to 2 diet cokes to hold Rob over. Sadly the “coke light” has little carbonation and is not as satisfying as diet coke in the USA. After dinner it is dark and the smoke, bar and bugs made us head back in. It rained tonight.
Day 3 Monday. Call Shuttle. I head to the ocean to swim for a few hours. I am strong, the water feels wonderful. It is like a warm bath. I swim back and forth to the reef. Rob watches me from the shade as he is afraid I might get hurt, eaten, bitten, you name it. But I survive. We meet the vendors on the beach and even though Rob had vowed not to leave the hotel while we are there, he now is all excited to go on an excursion. We decide to go canopy tour. The brochure makes it look easy, fun and relaxing. We are all excited as we head into the jungle. Once you arrive at the site the tour guides get you ready for the ride of your life. We climb to a platform and fly down the eleven suspended cables, 3 suspended bridges. It is hot, raining, we sweat so much that our hair is all wet as we slide down the cables through the trees. It was fun but a lot of work and certainly not joy rides as it looks in the brochures. Then we head to Coca beach for some shopping. Dripping wet we walk through the streets, too hot, too tired and too scared to buy anything. Surely there must be better shopping some where else. Buffet dinner again and then to bed! It rained tonight.
Day 4 Tuesday, call shuttle we have signed up to go deep sea fishing. The boat is small,the waves are big and as soon as we leave the bay, Rob and I am too sick to move or talk. There is no fishing biting. We head back into the cove and we both come alive only to head back out to sea where we sit quietly. We did see a mother whale and her baby, dolphins, sea turtles and sea snakes. I should say, Rob saw sea snakes, I did not see any but he saw them everywhere. Back to shore, we have been skunked and only want to go to bed. We spend some time at the pool, get ready for dinner and make it another early night. I should mention that while we did have flat screen TV, the programming was in Spanish. We did watch one show in English but the movie had people speaking in German which came up as Spanish so I was a little lost during the show. It rained tonight.
Day 5 Wednesday, call shuttle, we had signed up to go to some white beaches (ours was a black beach) to snorkel but neither of us wants to get back in to the boat so we spent the day on the beach. Rob has imposed the 3 item rule. He says we are getting up too early and now I have to wait until he makes a noise three times till I can get out of bed. I wait patiently. When we finally get to the beach it is the same vendors, buy a pot, buy a necklace, and buy a tour. It never ends. This day the Hilton security comes down to have they removed but they would not leave so they called the cops and the cops came but nothing changed. I guess 50 Ft of the beach is for everyone and as long as the vendors stayed on the beach the hotel could not do any thing about it. The tours were ½ the price the hotel had in their brochure and everyone was using them, including us. There are huge red signs on the beach stating Hilton is not responsible for the malpractice of the vendors on the beach. Everyone at the resort is very happy with the tours and vendors. The vendors all know you by your room number. Caesar is our tour specialist. He is very good and getting most of the business on the beach. He could sell ice to an Eskimo. Rob thinks he would sell his mom if he could. We eat at the restaurant outside tonight. It is the best food yet. The birds think so too and come down to the tables to steal sugar packet and packets of mayonnaise. It rained tonight.
Day 6 Thursday, call the shuttle, it is raining and we decide to take the bus (for $1.50 each) to the big city of Liberia. I am looking for some shopping. The bus picks us up at front of the hotel at noon and we travel for 1 ½ hours to Liberia. There are many stops and we get a feel for the people and the country side. It is pouring and the only windows you can see out are the front windows with the wipers. We get to see young and old and armed with our “map” we head to the big city, speaking no Spanish and no idea what to expect. The bus stops and the driver tell us to get off. We say we want to go to McDonalds as that is the landmark on the map. He shows us with his fingers that we must walk there, so we exit the bus. It is raining and we have no umbrella as it is back at the room. We head into the small strip mall for shelter and can see McDonalds and Burger king so we know we are close to “magio kingdom” We are told this was the place to shop, very cheap , has everything, used by the locals. We stop in the strip mall and have some $2.00 tacos which cost us $24.00. It is still raining but the waiter says we are very close so we make a run for it. We are not sure how to cross the busy street so we just follow the crowd. We can see the sign for magio; it is much smaller than we thought. It turns out to be an old rite aid still in the 50’s. There is nothing there we want. We never see a bus schedule or phone book. We had back to the bus stop and ask every bus that goes by if we should hop on. We are told “no”, finally our bus driver returns and he is not going to the hotel but tells us to get on the bus and he will get us there. As we travel, the other riders are telling us to get off; we do not know what to do. We are confused and think the driver has forgotten about us. He did not and a stop later we are off the bus, out in the middle of nowhere and headed down a road to wait for another bus. An hour goes by and we are still waiting. Finally one of the drivers says yes and we hope aboard. As it passes our turn off us know that we are headed to Coco beach. When we get to Coca beach they tell us we cannot get to the hotel by bus, we must take a cab. Rob gets a cab but I want to go shopping so we shop. We find some friends from the hotel and they have a ride at 6:00 pm and we decide to ride with them. It is dark and we are anxious to get back. Tonight we eat the fancy restaurant. I love the food but Rob hates what he orders. We had back to the room. It is still raining.
Day 7 Friday Today we had signed up to go fishing again with a promise to catch fish. We are too lazy and stay in bed late and spend the day at the beach snorkeling. Call the Shuttle. There are many fish, too many and it scares me a bit to think I was out there swimming with them all and did not know it. There are many rocks, cliffs and channels. We see all kinds of fish. It is fun and the water is warm but it is also murky. Rob sees a snake and head to shore. He is done. There is something called the red sea that has been there the whole time and makes it hard to see in the water.
We spend hours collecting sea shells, and then take a nap on the lawn chairs. I have finished my 6th and last book so I have to go to the hotel library. I will need 2 more books. Dinner that night is the seafood buffet and it is good. We are eating less and less. It rains tonight,
Day 8 Saturday I wait patiently for Rob’s three signs of life before getting out of bed to go swim at 5:30 am. Call Shuttle.
I swim and he packed, we had breakfast, secured our ride to the airport, I swam again while rob went to the beach. Then we head up and packed and went to the airport to head home. On both flights we got a full row but it did not help to sleep any better. We barely miss the plane in Atlanta for 7:15 and have to take the 9; 20 pm flight and arrive home about 1:30 am.
Lesson learned:
Unlike the cruise ship, the itiniery is not delivered to your room daily, it is posted down by the pool and you have to look and memorize. The cruise ship is full of people and everything is a party. At the all inclusive during rain season there are only 40 rooms occupied so there is only 5 playing bingo, 4 at the aerobic class, no one at the dance lesson. Many times at the all inclusive we were the only ones there at the pool, at dinner, at lunch. This place is not big enough if all the rooms were full.
Unlike the cruise ship, there is not always food or drink available. From 10:00 pm to 6:30 am—no food. After breakfast closes, nothing is open till lunch, after lunch closed there is nothing till dinner opens. Plus it is the same menu every day at every restaurant. I was putting peanuts in a paper coffee cup for a mid morning snack.
Although Wednesday when we were sitting in the cabana’s we did see a cabana boy doing drinks but other than that there was no service other than at the bars and restaurants. You had to get them on your own.
Also our room was not cleaned before 3:00 pm. And except for the last night, there was no turn down service, or other maid service. But on our final night, we went to dinner at 8:00 and returned at 10:00 and our room had been cleaned. There are never mints or treats in the room, we always get our bottle of water, 2 beers and 2 diet cokes. And a fancy folded towel on the bed.
We do not speak Spanish and they do not speak good enough English for us to communicate. Rob is frustrated as he asks for stuff and it never happens. They are good about getting you a shuttle but not good about extra hangers, diet coke, extra towels, wake up calls, getting messages from the tour people, The spas, gift shop, dive shop hours are all minimal and not within our schedule. If you want to go to the spa before 8 am- no, if you want to snorkel after 2:00 pm – no, if you want to eat at 10:30 before leaving- no, if you need aloe Vera after dinner- no.
Unlike the cruise ship where there are many things to do after dinner, at the all inclusive there is just the bar and bar activates. We do not drink and feel uncomfortable in the bar. Plus we do not smoke and do not want to be around smoke. There is nothing else to do. The beach is too dark to walk. So the only thing left is sitting on the chairs in the dark.
Unlike the cruise ship, there were too many bugs especially flies and bees, they had pet cats that roamed and acted like they owned the place, the birds came to the tables to eat while you were still sitting there.
There was no way a handicapped person could stay at this hotel.
You can barter here. Our wooden snakes in Coca beach cost us 2 for $11.00, they were $11.99 each at the hotel and $12.99 at the airport.