Guanacaste Hotels

Giardini di Papagayo

By Nelson Sanchez ⋅ August 6, 2009 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Giardini di Papagayo is a great choice for anyone looking for a cheap all inclusive hotel while in Costa Rica. All Inclusive hotels as a whole are quite expensive in Costa Rica, which makes this hotel choice that much more interesting. It is located in the Papagayo region, home to some of the larger resorts in the country such as Hilton Papagayo, and Occidental All Inclive Resort.

It is a quick 45 minutes drive to your hotel if you are flying into Liberia (about 4.5 hours if you are landing into San Jose). Giardini di Papagayo is located directly on the beach, which is a dark sand beach. I was able to clearly hear the sounds of crashing waves from my room while I laid in bed. This was not the case while I stayed at other all inclusive hotels like the Hilton Puntarenas or Barcelo Langosta.

There is a little bit of a rustic vibe at the Giardini di Papagoyo. The pool areas are simple and basic, and serve their purpose of refreshing you after spending a few hours under the hot sun. The pools however, are not the type of pools where you would like to spend the entire day next to.

The meal plan at Giardini de Papagayo is one of the reasons they are able to offer much lower prices than their competitors. They consider themselves all inclusive because all the meals are included, however, they only serve 3 meals a day, at specific times, and they are served on plates, not buffet style. I was never hungry during my stay, however, I like to go over the top when I stay at an all inclusive resort, and this was not possible here. All in all, I would only recommend staying here if budget is an important issue in your travel plans, yet you still want unlimited alcoholic drinks and all meals included.