El Mangroove, Autograph Collection

Our room was not correct upon arrival which was supposed to include a separate partitioned off area for our young children to sleep. They had us in an odd room with a glorified screened in patio with a fan and no air conditioning. The room required two different key cards to access the primary room through a glass sliding door. Our kids inadvertently almost locked us out of half the room several times. The front desk didn’t seem to care or want to help but just replied with “we’re full you should have looked at the room online.” Our agent booked this who’s always done a stellar job. I am not certain if there was a language barrier despite conveying in advance the needs we had as a family for our room. The room was dated and small, so much so that we were literally tripping over our suitcases. Service was challenging the entire stay. The food wasn’t great and took ages to get. The main pool is adults only which we were never told and is in the middle of games and the main restaurant. We were accosted by a pool attendant for swimming with our 7-year old on our second day despite swimming in that very pool the day before for three hours along side other similar aged children. The entire pool stopped and stared at us which was embarrassing especially with all the children sitting around the “adults” pool area. We also were never approached by an attendant to take an order or to bring us a water while at the pool. Food was marginal but extremely overpriced ($40 for a marginal burger). The place smelt like sewage in the morning. At night, there was super loud music that posed a challenge to get our three and seven year olds to get to sleep. We have a lot of experience with Autograph properties and frequent those in DFW. This falls short on so many levels.

Especially loved the Azul water sports team. They made every adventure fun and tailored. Our whole family went out with them a bunch of times and loved it!

We stayed at this hotel with our kids. The food service was poor. We all waited over an hour for our food at lunch, our daughter over 90 minutes for a pizza. The smell of sewage as we went to workout in the morning was overpowering. Hotel feels more like a dorm room setup than a hotel room.

We stayed at El Mangroove the first week of November for our 10-year wedding anniversary. This was our first time ever in Costa Rica and we had one of the best trips of our lifetime, thanks to the wonderful hotel staff. I would like to give a special shout-out to the following individuals: Gerant and Jean-Carlo for all of their attentiveness, poolside and during meals, serving us drinks & food and making sure that we had fresh towels when needed. They always took the time to make sure we were comfortable. The next person that made our stay special is Eloisa! She is an amazing bartender, and her cocktails are always on point. She loves to strike up a good conversation and her knowledge regarding beverages/spirits is impressive. The third group of people I would like to acknowledge are the hotel's manager, Antonio and the amazing team from Azul Ocean Adventures: David, Pablo and Brian. They heard about our horrible, scam of an experience, trying to book a half day ocean adventure which turned out terribly wrong. The very next morning, the last full day of our trip, we went on a 4 hour plus adventure off of the coast of Papagayo and we had a magical time on and off the boat, fishing for tuna, seeing dolphins swim alongside us, snorkeling with sea turtles and other cool fish. Just pure magic! We won't be forgetting all of the memories made, for a very long time. Thank you all for your help, your friendliness and your warmth. Pura Vida para siempre!

Snorkeling and whales with Grace and Pablo‼️ out standing. Recommend Recommend Recommend Recommend Recommend Recommend