UPDATE: Restaurant Di Mare was replaced by Pesce (still Italian), Caracoal by Nemare (still steaks)

Perfect for beach holidays, immaculate service & good hotel infrastructure:

Our family (my husband, our teenage son and I) had a three-day stay at this wonderfully located hotel, nestled on a Pacific coast hillside at the end of Peninsula Papagayo. You have to be aware of the fact that the Four Seasons Resort Peninsula Papagyo is in a remote situation. You are about 45 minutes away from shopping and dining facilities. Having said that, it feels good to be almost alone on these vast grounds. This means of course not when you are at the pool or at beach. But when you go on a hike around the property, which is a great thing to do. Yet it can become strenuous in the heat in the dry season.



As to rooms, you can choose the standard rooms, which are at two multi-story buildings next to the three pools and the two beaches. Or you can opt for the canopy suites. The latter are scattered around the property and partly quite far away from the main buildings. We had a room in one of the two multi-story buildings on the fourth floor. And we were very satisfied with our choice. It was generously sized, well-appointed and had a large screened balcony (no bugs or bird droppings) from which you had a nice view of the Pacific.



The area around the pools (one of them only for adults) and the beaches are immaculately maintained.

There are three restaurants onsite from which we only tried “Di Mare”. We liked the Italian food here (excellent pasta). There are two more dining spots which are further away. One is “Caracol” (by the golf course) where we celebrated my husband’s birthday. We had superb steaks and got a free dessert to celebrate the event, nice touch. Try to be seated outside, I found it much nicer here than inside. The other is at the Prieta Beach Club. Here we had lunch on one occasion and were fond to it. By the way, this club is destined – as far as I understood – for home owners but is open for FS guests as well for the time being. It is great for a day at the pool or at the beach as it quieter than at the resort.

Overall, the food is of a high standard but certainly does not level with Michelin starred establishments. And prices for F&B are steep as this is also the case at all the other FS hotels we have stayed so far. In my opinion, you either have to accept these prices at FS hotels as they are – too high in my view – or you go to some other place where prices are more reasonable. But I am almost sure – if you are a fan of FS – , you will most probably miss the high service level of FS, which is normally close to perfect! 



One more word to the facilities, my son and I had a fitness studio tour, provided by a helpful and courteous employee. I found it to be well-equipped but when it comes to group fitness, you have to pay for these courses, which I chose not to do. There is also a golf course but as we do not play it, I cannot comment on this. There are additional resort activities as well, but as we only stayed three nights, we did not do any of them.

One last remark: one staff member told me that he guest structure is homogenous, 97 % are Americans. We were quite an exception as Swiss. But we did not mind because we usually do like the American way. Overall, this FS resort is the perfect hotel for beach vacations. But make sure that you also get at least a glimpse of the rest of this beautiful country, it is really worth it.

Date of stay: April 2012