on November 26, 2006Drinks are "free" ie. included in the price. We tried a bunch of cocktails which were all poorly made by indifferent bartenders whose days were spent being badgered by drunken teenagers. These people know so little about what they are doing that they served their red wine chilled and offered ice in the beer.
The beach is lousy at best. The hotel guests leave their trash (predominantly paper cups) on the beach and the staff is slow to pick up after the immature crowd that frequents the resort. The beach is about 60 percent rocks, and the rest is sand mixed with dirt washed down from the hills. Not good for walking barefoot.
The entertainment starts with an odious audience participation event called "Icebreaker" but which is really "Humiliate the Audience". Alternating between boring (an hour of unanswerable trivia questions) and crass (boyfriend holds a red 18-inch piece of broomstick between his knees and blindfolded, tries to insert it into the core of a toilet paper roll held between girlfriend's knees), "Icebreaker" is like watching a trainwreck.
Worst of all is the "Eco Tour". Costa Rica is a natural paradise. At Playa Tambor, you can get a tour guided by a staff member who is completely ignorant of what he is showing you. The "Nature Park" is a swampy palm farm, with two native trees mixed in with the palms, some aligators in a cage and monkeys fed into docility. The only real nature is the mosquitos.
If you don't care about Costa Rica and only want to hang around a pool full of under-supervised teenagers and overweight people whose bathing suits are too small, try Orlando or Cancun, it's a lot cheaper and easier to get to those locations than to the Nicoya Peninsula.
A completely unnatural spot in a country known for its natural beauty
