Arenas Del Mar Beachfront & Rainforest Resort Member of the Cayuga Collection

Beautiful location and for the most part the service was great. First the pluses ....beach is super and the staff down by the beach was friendly and welcoming and they do a great job of creating safety (lots of lifeguard drills it appeared!) and overall the sense of a lovely vacation feel. There are golf carts to take you everywhere on the property, which is pretty necessary as the property is steep and quite spread out. You just give a call and someone shows up in minutes. Many of the drivers have a great personality, just made it surprising when a few of them seemed not friendly--and for us there was no need to speak English--I was always happy to try my Spanish! Ditto for the staff in the main restaurant--some were friendly and welcoming and a few others were all business and not very welcoming or patient. On with the plus items...the beds are very comfortable, rooms are private and quiet, and the policy of free mini bar snacks (with free restocking) is wonderful! The monkeys and iguanas --and sloths--on the property are terrific. There is a dinner in the beach restaurant on Wednesdays, Sats and Suns and since we were only there for the Wed dinner, I wish that the staff at breakfast had reminded us of it and also, there could be a small guide in the room that would include the beach dinner evening schedule as well as a map of the nature trail --with distances. We wanted to walk it ourselves, without their guide, but didn't have a good sense of the overall length of the trail. There was a little sense that they wanted to encourage us to sign up for their guided (for a fee) walk. The food in the main restaurant was good, but not exceptional and the dinners are quite expensive. The breakfast has many choices and again, it's good but not exceptional--but nice that it's included in the room price. Overall, however, it's a lovely place, clearly the nicest place to stay in Manuel Antonio, but also quite pricey, which you know if you're reading this! Trip.com had the best price by far, at least for November.

We were robbed by monkeys – 3 times. Best robberies ever. We were upgraded to a lovely suite of rooms on a second floor with balcony, jacuzzi and ocean view. Room had walk in showers, TV, hairdryers and stocked kitchen area. Breakfast with view of forest and ocean. Really good food which the monkeys watch you eat while looking for an opportunity to get in the sliding windows. A nice private beach which leads on to a long coastal walk. The beach is teaming with hermit crabs. The venue is on a very step location and for those who need it there is a golf buggy service. When the staff tell you to close and lock doors and windows believe them. The monkeys know how to get in and can empty the mini bar in 20 seconds. An added bonus was a free laundry service.

Overall the hotel was good but we felt the value for money was not reflective of other 5 star hotels we have stayed at in Costa Rica. That said, the location is amazing and views are incredible. The food was ok but a bit expensive and the restaurants lacked atmosphere sometimes. We paid extra for a room with a jacuzzi, however the room was right above the kitchen so we could smell food in the evenings when we sat out on the balcony which was a shame. We mentioned this to staff but very little was done about it and no alternative provided. The service was generally good but again we felt missed the level expected on a few occasions.