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Costa Rica Hotel, Resort & Villa Reviews Reviews
Villas Sol Playa Hermosa Gunecaste Province 11/30/2004
Reviewers Rating:  Great
Review Villas Sol Playa Hermosa Costa Rica
Date of Visit: 16 – 23 November 2004
Flew Skyservice with Sunquest Vacations for an AI week at the Villas Sol. The seats on the plane were really close together and the monitors are very small and spaced every six rows. Flying down, there was a hot breakfast served just after take-off at 7:45 AM (omelette, sausage, bun, juice, fruit cup) and tea/coffee). The flight to Liberia from Toronto was 4.5 hours. The Liberia airport is new, small and open air. The customs personnel were friendly and processed our planeload in short time. The Sunquest rep met us and we stepped onto the waiting air-conditioned bus. It was a scenic, 30 minute drive to the Villas Sol on Playa Hermosa (Hermosa Beach) in the province of Gunecaste. The rep told us a bit about the country and the area and what we could expect to see in Costa Rica during our stay. The water is safe to drink from the taps.
Upon arrival at Villas Sol, we were dropped off at Reception which was a separate office from the resort area. There was a small gift shop beside the office. Internet was available but not working in the Reception area so we were allowed to use the internet at the Condovac Hotel which is beside the Villas Sol. It was $1.00US for 30 minutes use…….slow server but manageable. At reception, we were given our room numbers, towel authorization, room key cards x 2 and wrist bands. We were then loaded on a shuttle which took up to 10 people and a truck picked up the luggage. Villas Sol is set into the hillside and some of the hills are quite steep. It only took five minutes to reach the hotel. There are 54 rooms on three floors, all with partial views of the ocean.
Rooms: Average size with two Queen-sized beds, tub/shower combo and hair dryer on the wall. Lots of drawer and closet space and a pay to use safe in the closet. The TV picked up satellite channels so we got news from CNN and lots of English speaking channels. The mini-fridge was stocked with two beers, two Pepsis, and two small bottles of water. It would only be re-stocked the following Sunday with the same amount. The balcony was the width of the room and quite spacious. It would have been nice if there was a clothes line on the balcony for drying wet bathing suits. Our air conditioner emitted a foul smell when it was turned on (needed a thorough cleaning). Housekeeping sprayed it but the smell returned within an hour. We didn’t use it all week but opened the balcony sliding door and pulled the curtain across and it wasn’t too hot to sleep. There were no mosquitoes. We woke to the Howler monkeys at 5:30 each morning. They were in the trees all around the resort but you couldn’t see them as they kept at a distance throughout the hills.
Buffet: There is one small buffet that has a fantastic view and a verandah that goes around ½ of the room if you would like to sit outside. The food is served from a small alcove off the dining area. Food selection is small but very good; however, the buffet did get a bit repetitious by the end of the week as buffet-style eating tends to. There was a fresh pasta station at lunch and an omelette station at breakfast. Twice during the week, they served a specialty – one night it was roast pork loin and the other night it was souvlaki. There was always fresh salads, beef (steak), chicken, fish (mahi mahi) and assorted cooked vegetables and the mainstay of the Costa Rican diet – beans and rice. Dessert was fresh fruit (melon, pineapple, papaya, mango, bananas) and one cake (different kind each night). Coffee was self-serve and strong but you could dilute it with warm milk or hot water.
A La Carte: One restaurant by the big pool opened three times a week for a meal with service. The soups at this hotel were excellent both at the buffet and the a la carte. Only one choice offered each night but they were wonderful. The menu offered fish, pork, beef or pasta. You could book more than once during the week if there was space available and you could book days in advance.
Bars: Two bars, one adjacent to the buffet and one by the big pool. One type of beer offered – Imperial. Mixed drinks were mostly run-based. They had a drink menu for ordering cocktails. There was nowhere to get a drink at the beach so take a bottle of water or be prepared to buy from a restaurant on the beach or a fresh coconut ($1.00) that locals sold.
Beach: Black volcanic-type sand; extremely hot in the mid-day sun. The Papagayo Bay was very calm and the water was warm. There were only a dozen beach chairs and most were not in the shade. You couldn’t move them because they were chained together. The beach is a public beach but it is very quiet because it isn’t close to the nearest town (Coco Beach….2 km away). It was a quiet, peaceful beach with a small area to snorkel with a few interesting fish. The shuttle came back and forth every 15 minutes to take you back up the hill to the hotel.
Nightly Entertainment: A stereo down by the big pool played music provided by staff-owned CDs and any CDs that guests happened to bring along. It was quite lively from 10 – midnight, then anyone who wanted to continue partying got a cab into Coco where the bars stayed open until 4 am.
Excursions: We attended the orientation briefing the day following our arrival. It was mostly to do with the tours that our rep was selling. I had known before my trip that Michael Mills, a Canadian who lived next door to the Villas Sol (accessible from the beach) was also connected with Allegro Tours, so after the orientation, there were about six of us new arrivals who hopped the shuttle to the beach and stopped in to see Mike about tours. For less money, we were able to hire our own mini-van and driver to take us to the Canopy Tour of our choice (Buena Vista Mega Tour…..$65.00 admission and $150 for the van and driver which was divided by 7, so just over $20 each for transportation and Mario was with us the entire day). It was so much better than being herded on a 40/50 passenger bus and having to follow a set schedule. We had a great time and Mario was a wonderful driver who pointed out things of interest on the way to the Canopy Tour. Buena Vista Mega Tour includes 11 platforms (what a view), a long waterslide down through the jungle (cold, natural spring water was refreshing after the canopy tour), 45 minute horseback ride to a beautiful waterfall, fantastic lunch serving typical Costa Rican fare, and then you go to this open air spa where you open your pores in a hot steam room (Turkish Bath), then come out and have hot volcanic mud spread all over your skin (bathing suit on) and get a back massage. Once the mud is dried in the sun, you wash it off under showers and then go to the hot springs to relax. You can cool off in a cold water pool to end the treatment. It was a wonderful day.
The next day Mario picked us up at our hotel (same group of 7) and took us to several beaches in the area (Playa Tamarindo, Flamingo, and a few small villages, one of which was famous for pottery). It was a fantastic day. Our third tour was on the Palo Verde Riverboat Tour. It was $75 each but we saw monkeys, alligators, lots of iguanas and hundreds of migratory birds who come from North American to winter in Costa Rica. The boats are narrow and it was so peaceful going down the river. The White Faced Monkeys were the hit of the day. It was so much better seeing them in their own environment than in a zoo.
Summary: The Villas Sol is a quiet, clean, picturesque resort which is excellent to use as a base for excursions. The walking paths can get steep going between areas of the resort so you have to be in pretty good shape to not get out of breath. The view from the hotel is breathtaking for sunrises and sunsets. There are 100 villas set around the hotel at different levels in the hillside. There are a lot of different coloured birds to watch, especially in the morning – parrots, macaws (if you’re lucky….I saw them fly by once), blackbirds, yellow canaries, doves, etc. The view from the little pool located outside the buffet is very romantic but there is little shade during the day here. It was most popular after 4 PM. The no see-ums at night really attacked your ankles so don’t forget the bug spray with DEET and some anti-itch lotion for afterbite. I only saw a couple of mosquitoes in our room (because I left the door open). One man at the resort was diagnosed as having Dengue fever the second day after his arrival. He was from the southern States and may have arrived in country with it….doctor couldn’t confirm how long he had it in his system before symptoms slowed him down.
Our package included a two hour boat tour of the Papagayo Bay two days after our arrival. That was really enjoyable. The boat held 25 people and we got to see the other resorts around the Bay – Fiesta Premiere, Nakuti, Giardini Papagayo and the Four Seasons. They are building about three more. The closest one to Villas Sol was Giardini, about 2 km away by road so you couldn’t walk to any others…we were pretty isolated. You couldn’t walk to the little fishing village nearby (Coco Beach). It was a $10 taxi ride so it would be better if you could find another couple to share the expense. Just little touristy stores and some restaurants in Coco but interesting nonetheless.
Marlene MacKenzie, Ontario, Canada
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