Andaz Peninsula Papagayo Resort, Costa Rica

Our stay at the Andaz Papagayo was absolutely incredible! The resort offers breathtaking views, luxurious accommodations, and outstanding service from start to finish. To make our vacation even more memorable, we booked our adventures with Issys Tours. We enjoyed an amazing Mega Combo Tour full of exciting activities, beautiful scenery, and unforgettable experiences. We also went on a fantastic fishing trip that exceeded all our expectations. The team at Issys Tours was professional, friendly, punctual, and knowledgeable, making us feel safe and well taken care of throughout every excursion. Their personalized service truly made the difference. If you’re staying at Andaz Papagayo and looking for the best private tours and transportation in Costa Rica, we highly recommend Issys Tours. Thank you for helping us create unforgettable memories. We can’t wait to come back!

Great stay for 4 nights end of Jun, king bay view room was nice, fans, cold AC, amazing balcony but honestly too hot to spend much time out there. Not much bathroom privacy if kids sharing a room. Food very good: nice breakfast buffet, Chao Pescae was excellent (skirt steak and shrimp stand outs as were cocktail drinks), Ostra very good. Loved afternoon boat tour with Nomad. I should have booked fishing with Nomad too but had already booked via Andaz (caught tuna but no one spoke English so was hard and water rough). Highly recommend adult pool area Loved Casa Playa beach club, boat over so easy and took 5 mins - would definitely do 1 day Loved what’s app communication Boys played golf at Four Seasons Cons - Lots of walking and stairs, would not recommend if any issues walking as we would not want to wait for golf cart. Really need separate walking and golf cart path. Check in process can be improved- room not ready till 4, not sure why as Monday in offseason, very hot and traveled in jeans and tennis shoes to sit without AC while they explain activities and tour - really should let people change clothes and get settled before selling all activities Would definitely come again - 4 nights was perfect length

I really wanted to love Andaz because the property itself is absolutely stunning. The views are beautiful, the spa was incredible, and the staff genuinely seemed to want to make things right. Unfortunately, our overall experience was one frustration after another, and I left feeling disappointed. The biggest issue was transportation around the resort. Because of the way the property is built, walking isn’t very practical. There are steep hills everywhere, and to get almost anywhere you need to rely on the golf carts. The problem is that they were incredibly unreliable. We’d call and be told, “We’ll be there in two minutes,” only to wait 15–30 minutes—or sometimes they simply never came at all. This happened repeatedly throughout our stay. The most disappointing part of our trip was housekeeping. For nearly three days, our room wasn’t serviced despite multiple phone calls requesting it. I eventually had to go to the front desk and make a formal complaint because we had run out of towels, water, coffee supplies, and other essentials. As someone traveling with two young children, returning to a room that hadn’t been cleaned all day made things unnecessarily stressful. The resort apologized and generously offered me a complimentary massage, which was absolutely incredible and genuinely appreciated. However, after spending the day at scheduled activities, I returned to my room around 5:00 p.m. expecting it to finally be cleaned… and it still hadn’t been touched. Even when housekeeping did come, the service felt incomplete. Coffee wasn’t restocked, face towels were missing, water wasn’t replenished, and the room often wasn’t cleaned thoroughly. At one point I was standing in my bathing suit calling the front desk because I literally couldn’t shower—we had no clean towels or supplies. Communication between departments also seemed to be a major issue. Every time someone apologized and assured me the problem had been resolved, the same issues continued to happen. Breakfast was another daily frustration. The food was good, but service was consistently slow, and we found ourselves waiting much longer than expected every morning. One evening after spending the day at the beach, we ordered room service because everyone was exhausted and hungry—especially the kids. The food never arrived, yet it still appeared on our final bill. Thankfully it was removed after I pointed it out, but it was another example of the communication breakdowns we experienced throughout the resort. Families should also know that the Kids Club has very limited capacity. For a resort of this size, it only accommodates a small number of children, so it was often full and unavailable when we wanted to use it. Finally, while the property is undeniably beautiful, I didn’t find the layout practical. Almost everything requires either a golf cart or navigating steep hills and long flights of stairs, including access to the beach. If you’re traveling with young children, strollers, or anyone with mobility concerns, this is definitely something to consider. I truly appreciate that management tried to make things right, and I have to give credit where it’s due—the complimentary massage was one of the best I’ve ever had. But unfortunately, compensation couldn’t make up for the repeated service failures that impacted our entire stay. I’ve traveled quite a bit, and I know that no resort is perfect. I can overlook the occasional mistake. What I can’t overlook is the same problems happening over and over again despite repeatedly asking for help. I left feeling like I spent far too much time trying to resolve issues instead of enjoying my vacation. That’s not the experience I expected from a luxury resort, and unfortunately, it’s not somewhere I would choose to stay again. I can also make this version a little sharper (more direct and critical) or a little softer if you’d rather emphasize disappointment over frustration.

We loved it here!!! The property is gorgeous and we really enjoyed the pools. We also spent most of our days at the Papagayo park nearby. The kids loved the waterslides and the bike park. The ice cream there was excellent. We stayed in building 3 and it got tiresome having to walk up and down hills with two little ones. They do offer golf cart rides. My kids (8 and 6) got a little bored at the kids camp. I think they were a little too old for it, but they loved getting their hair braided and nails done there one day! What a beautiful special place, highly recommend!

We stayed at the Andaz Peninsula Papagayo once before and loved it so chose to return to celebrate our anniversary. But unfortunately, this stay made us never want to return. There's no denying the resort itself is beautiful. It's modern, and the design is perfectly aimed at a younger crowd. Our room also had a lovely view of the water. However, we found the service here to be incredibly unaccommodating, uneducated, and frankly, rude more than once. Check-in felt weirdly rushed and dismissive. Questions about dinner options and openings were dismissed in person and likewise via WhatsApp chat. We requested a golf cart pick up that just never came so we decided to walk 30 minutes later. And at breakfast the next day, the hostess (Katharina) made an inappropriate and rude comment about my body while seating us, and despite knowing what we wanted to order from the moment we sat down, it took over an hour and 30 minutes to get our food -- to the point where I got up and asked to cancel so we could just get over to the beach (where we'd already missed three boat shuttles and were about to miss a fourth). For a stay that didn't even span 24 hours, we encountered at least 10 uninterested staff who couldn't have cared less about service, and each one we asked about allergies (gluten free -- celiac -- options specifically that are not just a choice) were not only apathetic but unapologetically uneducated. Peninsula Papagayo is beautiful. But this second visit to the Andaz was a sincere let down. And we certainly won't be returning.