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This Andaz Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo review includes our experience of an Andaz Bay View Suite, breakfast at Rio Bhongo, the family and adults only pools, and a link to our previous review of Ostra Restaurant for dinner.
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Andaz Costa Rica Location and Check-In
The Andaz Costa Rica is located in Peninsula Papagayo, about a 35 minute drive from Liberia Airport (LIR). There's a shuttle between the Andaz and the Four Seasons that takes about 15-18 minutes. When we arrived in the afternoon, there was some kind of group reception in the lobby area, so we were instead checked in at the Rio Bhongo Restaurant. It took an inordinately long time, but we did enjoy the complimentary welcome drink (we asked for a smoothie).
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Andaz Bay View Suite
We'd reserved a Partial Bay View Room (560 sq. ft.) but were generously upgraded, via Hyatt Prive, to an Andaz Bay View Suite (1173 sq. ft.) with a living room with a half bathroom and swing chair off of it, a separate bedroom with master bathroom, and a balcony with a view of the bay.
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As we were celebrating a birthday, there was a vanilla birthday cake. It looked pretty, but was bland and not very good at all, apart from the little raspberry garnish.
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Note that the espresso machine isn't Nespresso or illy, it's a Britt machine:
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The master bedroom is separated by a door, making this an ideal setup for a family, as an extra bed can be placed in the living room.
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The master bathroom has double sinks, a soaking tub, and a rain shower with a view of the bay:
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A highlight is the balcony off of the bedroom, with its water view:
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Breakfast at Rio Bhongo Restaurant
Rio Bhongo serves breakfast from 6:30-10:30am. TravelSort Clients enjoy complimentary full breakfast for two daily, including the Rio Bhongo buffet breakfast, which also includes waffles, pancakes, or eggs any style prepared to order.
The buffet, while fine, isn't as extensive or as high quality as the one at the Four Seasons Costa Rica, and baked goods are apparently not made on site as staff were unable to guarantee the absence of an allergen that is deadly to one of us. The only fresh fruits were pineapple, mango, watermelon and melon, there weren't passion fruit, papaya, bananas, plums, etc. as at the Four Seasons.
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While there were quite a few cold cut options, we missed the delicious local goat cheeses and beet gravlax available at the Four Seasons.
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The blueberry yogurt with granola was the best thing I tried.
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Corn pancakes and chorizo were ok, but nothing special.
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For a destination so known for its coffee, the breakfast coffee was atrocious, my husband took one sip and made a face. I figured he was overreacting, but when I tried it, I agreed it was terrible.
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Ostra Restaurant
Our son enjoyed a fun empanada making class at Ostra Restaurant in the afternoon; the empanadas the team helped him make were delicious. I do wish he'd been provided a recipe with measurements for the ingredients, so that he could have tried to replicate it at home.
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We previously reviewed our dinner at Ostra Restaurant, where the main courses were very good, but the entire experience extremely stressful due to conflicting information we were given by different team members about the presence of deadly allergens.
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Family Pool and Adult Pool
The main family pool is located near Rio Bhongo Restaurant, the resort's all day dining restaurant, where breakfast is served.
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Couples will be happy to know that there's also an adults-only pool near Ostra Restaurant. Since Ostra only serves dinner, this is a fairly serene area, although quite shady in the late afternoon.
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Hyatt Prive Benefits
TravelSort Clients enjoy Hyatt Prive benefits at the Andaz Costa Rica:
- Upgrade at time of booking for non-peak periods
- Welcome amenity
- Daily breakfast for two at Rio Bhongo
- $100 resort credit once per room per stay
- Early check-in and late check-out may be able to be confirmed in advance during non-peak periods
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The Verdict
Our Andaz Costa Rica stay was mixed. We certainly appreciated the Hyatt Prive upgrade to an Andaz Suite with Bay View, and loved the water views from our suite, as well as the additional space. Our son also enjoyed his empanada class, and the empanadas were delicious. We also had delicious main dishes at Ostra Restaurant, although under stressful auspices, given the inexperience of the staff in dealing with life-threatening allergies. Other detractors were the protracted check-in, the too firm bed mattress (a common problem with Andaz and even Park Hyatt hotels), the terrible coffee and lack of allergy friendly bread and pastry options at breakfast, and delayed luggage pick-up on our morning of departure.
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