Aqua Wellness Resort

What a beautiful place; quite, romantic, breath taking views, good food and excellent customer service. They offer pick up and drop off service. Just coordinate with them through emails even before you book. Loved it!

We enjoyed our recent stay at Aqua but it could have been a much better experience if the restaurant food was better and the service up to par with the higher price you pay for what one would expect to be a four to five star resort. Don't know if it was "off season" but even if it was or was not I would have expected better food in the resort restaurant. Check in was very easy and friendly. No welcome juice drink or anything at arrival like some people have mentioned receiving but that's ok. During check in they asked us what time we wanted the cleaning service to come during the day and for our return back to Managua information like what time for the return vehicle to collect us at our room and to where airport, etc?? I mention this because it will come up again later in my review. This resort is nestled in a beautiful cove, beautiful beach that divides them to Playa Gigante. It is a bit over 2 hour car ride from Managua. But unlike Costa Rica the roads are surprisingly very good to be more behind the times than Costa Rica is. The Aqua driver collected us at the Managua Intercontinental and as requested we let them know before hand we wanted a grocery stop along the way to Aqua as we reserved the Tree House Luxury Suite which has a detached kitchen. This service is not free. The round trip for the car to and from Aqua is US260. and a grocery stop is an additional US20. If you have a kitchen this is worth the stop. We love to make our own coffee and breakfast each morning and sometimes dinner. Our Tree Top LS was very nice. Lots of wood in the decor, your own plunge pool and a kitchen if that is one of the ones you reserved. The kitchen was well appointed but could have used much bigger coffee cups, more dish wear but thats about it. The kitchen has a full size refrigerator and that is really nice. They also supply you with a very large distilled water dispenser only if you have a room with a kitchen as I learned from our neighbor without a kitchen. The only other thing that would have made the room 100% is more lighting, as in a few lamps, desk and floor. Also, brighter bulbs in the wall sconces that are dimmable. So the second day (first full day there) NO cleaning service showed. I called the reception deck to find out why no one came. This was at 4 in the afternoon. We asked for two more shower towels and two beach towels as we were having to use our bath towels after using the pool. Frustrating because NOTHING dries quickly there or at all. It is very humid. They said they would send someone up to clean and bring the towels. No show again. Called them again. I think there was a communication break down because many times I spoke with a person that didn't understand english. The next day we called reception to get a spa session, no one at the spa answers, they said they would check and call us back to confirm. No return call. We couldn't spend our money if we wanted to. Finally, I spoke with Connie after asking for the manager. After, speaking with her things started working as it should like clock work. Room cleaned every AM, extra towels and bath soap (the bath soap is so tiny really only good for a few uses) everyday. Oh the return car on departure day was never handled until calling reception two or three times to clarify. Remember they asked us all of this and wrote it down at the time of check in. On to the restaurant. Earlier I mentioned "on or off season". Well, this is where we noticed it. The menu was exactly the same everyday. The fish ceviche was very good and just about the only thing on the menu, of what I tried, good. It became my main go to along with a small salad everyday. The dishes that were served with french fries I swear were from a bag of frozen fries. The "Jumbo" shrimp dish with garlic were frozen small shrimp that had to have been frozen for weeks. Chewy and bland!!! One thing I did notice if you did not finish all your seafood or meat portion of you entree when the servers cleared your plates they would scrap the food off the plate I guess for themselves. I noticed it when we walked by the tray they put all the dirty plates on to take up to the kitchen. I guess no waste. Not to go on about the restaurant but one more bit to add. If you order green tee at breakfast be ready to pay US3. I thought usually breakfast included coffee or tea.??? If you order fajitas and ask for two more tortillas get ready to pay US2.5 for those. Not something I was used to when ordering a fajita dish and being charged for extra tortillas. Just some things I noticed. When a restaurant does this kind of stuff, charging for what you would consider part of your meal and knit picky charges raises questions as to how they really are doing as a resort...or do they only do this at the low season.??? Cut backs cut backs on the quality of the food in ALL areas. Worse thing of it is I don't think the Chef ever gets the feed back given. How could they if the wait staff is keeping the uneaten food for themselves. All the plates go back to the kitchen as if all the customers ate all the food with complete satisfaction. ??????? In summary, as I have gone on and on...I was a bit disappointed and was expecting way better service and eating experience. As to yoga, my husband is a big yogi (the main reason we chose Aqua) and liked the yoga instructor Mandy alright but he had to teach her things instead of the other way around. I think during regular season the two owner's???are yogi's and are supposidly very good and that is what he was expecting to receive. Ps; I can't forget to mention the pathway to the yoga area, restaurant and the beach from the Tree Top rooms is VERY dangerous if it has rained. Very slippery and muddy.

First, the good: This was out second stay at Aqua; our first stay was for two nights in January 2015. As before, there is endless natural beauty and wildlife to observe. We specifically requested the same room we had stayed in previously (Jicaro Tree House #1). We had forgotten that there were 200 stairs (in each direction) between our door and the restaurant on the beach below, but it was healthy exercise. Definitely NOT for the mobility-impaired. Our room was comfortable, the food in the restaurant was enjoyable, and the utilities (hot/cold water, electric, A/C, wi-fi, lighting) all worked as well or better than expected. Our favorite feature of this particular room is the secluded outdoor shower on the mini-balcony. Just us, some birds, and the occasional howler monkey. For this stay, we were celebrating our third anniversary and took advantage of a Honeymoon Package offered by the hotel. This was for 4 nights/5 days, included full breakfast daily, one romantic dinner with a bottle of wine, and one couple’s massage, all fees and taxes included. Our spa treatment was fantastic! One of the best massage experiences we have had (as expected as we did the same on our prior visit). Next, the bad: The billing is a mess; it’s incumbent upon you to make sure you’re not being overcharged. Three out of the four days we stayed, something was billed incorrectly. To begin, on our first morning we were charged for our breakfast, which was expected to be included in our package. This was quickly fixed, and we thought little of it except for what followed on subsequent days. When we arrived, we specifically inquired of reception whether we could upgrade our couple’s 60 min Aqua massage (2 x $80 value) to the Amor Massage package ($220 value, includes 2 Aqua massages, 2 cacao exfoliation treatments and some fruit juice/fruit plate) by paying the additional $60, and were told this was not a problem. We verified this again upon arrival at our appointment at the spa on our second day, again mentioning specific numbers (i.e., $60), and were again assured this was fine. It was therefore very frustrating to spend nearly 15 minutes after the completion of our fantastic spa treatments to have to dispute the additional $100 we were charged versus the $60 we had verified and were expecting. Eventually this was decided in our favor (even slightly better than in our favor, actually), but it was a disappointing conclusion to what was intended and expected to be an afternoon of relaxation. On our third day, we were again charged for breakfast, but this time there followed a debate about what constituted “full breakfast� (we had each had a single smoothie and a single hot entrée, as was our norm the prior days). This was eventually taken off our bill. On our final day, at check out, being cautious, we calculated our bill carefully. We were surprised to find that we were charged an additional $66 in taxes/fees related to our room; we referred to the “all taxes and fees included� language in the Honeymoon Package. This was readily removed from the bill. Finally, only after departing, did we realize that a $25 “additional tip� we had left for Hamilton, who waited upon us for our Romantic Dinner, had not at all been charged. This may have been Hamilton’s fault, but it was disappointing nonetheless as we had made the effort to be generous to the people who were dedicated to seeing our stay was enjoyable (including leaving “additional tips� at the free breakfast we were eating each morning). Any one or two of these oversights/errors are forgivable, and we were always very polite while working out disagreements. However, taken as a whole, this reflects a quality control problem that needs to be addressed. As it was, it left a sour taste in our mouths, and had this been our actual honeymoon, it could well have spoiled our memories of an irreplaceable experience. Unfortunately, quality control issues exist within the housekeeping function as well. When we arrived we were asked at what time we would like our room serviced each day. Surprised to be given the option, we carefully considered and decided 10A would work well as we would plan to be at breakfast at that time each day. When we first arrived in the room, a coffee maker was provided, but no coffee. A quick call sorted that out. The next day, only one set of towels was provided for two guests (on a “honeymoon� no less), requiring another call in the afternoon. On the third and fourth days, housekeeping did not clean the room at 10A, and it wasn’t until we called on each day, in the afternoon, that the room was cleaned. Again, shoddy quality control/attention to details. One or two oversights, are no big deal. To have to deal with something amiss on a daily basis is a distraction from the relaxation we had returned to enjoy. All in all, after this experience I don’t think we would return for a third stay.

A large group of friends recently went to celebrate two friends birthdays and it was truly a memorable long weekend. The villas are modern, clean, and many have plunge pools on decks. If you are a beach lover, then be sure to ask for a villa nearer to the beach. There are a lot of stairs to climb if you are located nearer to reception area. It is a magical place where you will hear hollering monkeys in the AM. Be aware to keep sweets, cookies in the frig as the monkeys did pay some of our friends a visit to snack! The beach is fantastic and the staff is very accommodating to provide cushions for the chaises and towels. Kudos to Stephanie and Christian who really helped make everything right for our group! Charlotte and the restaurant and bar staff went out of their way to make meals and happy hours rock! This resort is several hours from Managua airport and other than Playa Gigante which is a 25 minute hike nearby, one is truly in a remote area.

My fiancé and I were at Aqua Wellness Resort for 4 days during Memorial Day Weekend. We arrived around 11 AM and were told that we would be staying in Yuca. After finding out that treehouse did not have a pool, we asked to be changed to one with a pool since we paid extra just for that. We were then assigned to Iguana luxury suite which according to them did not have as good of a view as Yuca but we were fine with that as long as we had a pool. Since we arrived early, our tree house wasn't cleaned yet so we dropped off our suitcases while housekeeping cleaned it. After a couple of hours, we returned and we were amazed with our tree house! It had a full kitchen, a dining room, a pool, and the upstairs room was perfect! It was better than what we were expecting and we had a pretty good view! Before our trip, I did a lot of research on the hotel and the nearby town of Gigante. I read a lot of reviews that talked about the food at the hotel being overpriced, which it was, so we went prepared to have a few meals in Gigante. The path to Gigante from Aqua was not as easy to walk as I thought it would be. The path has a lot of uphills and by the time you make it to Gigante (20-30 minutes later) you will most likely be drenched in sweat. The food at Gigante was great (machele's place, mirador margarita, Gigante bay) and it was very cheap compared to the hotel. If walking back at night, I would recommend a flashlight since the path is not lighted at all (the hotel also offers pickup for $10 each way). We bought some groceries at the pulpería in Gigante so that we could make some meals in our kitchen. The pool at our place was great and it was nice having the option of relaxing there so I would definitely recommend a tree house with a pool since there's no community pool. The master was amazing and the bed was so comfortable! We both slept great and the AC worked really well. We only ate the Aqua restaurant one night and I must admit that the food was good. We both ordered the churrasco and it was amazing! I do suggest to go out and eat somewhere else because the same menu every day can get boring really fast. We went to the beach one day and it was very nice and calm. We also got the Aqua massage at the spa and it was great! There were A LOT of steps to get up to the spa but the view was amazing!!! I definitely recommend this resort to anyone visiting Nicaragua. It was such a great experience and it was our first time staying in a resort like this and we definitely enjoyed ourselves. There are a lot of steps in this resort but we were lucky that for our tree house there weren't as many steps compared to other tree houses. But in general be prepared to walk a lot.