Review of Hotel Four Seasons Resort, Peninsula Papagayo, Costa Rica

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

Our family (my husband, our teenage son and I) had a 3 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 resort is most remote i.e. 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 meaning of course not at the pool or beach but e.g. when going on a hike around the property which is absolutely recommendable yet quite strenuous with the heat in the dry season.



As far as rooms are concerned, you can choose from standard rooms, which are at two multi-story buildings next to the three pools and the two beaches, or from 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 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 is immaculately maintained.

There are three restaurants on-site from which we only tried “Di Mare” and were very content with the Italian food (excellent pasta). There are two more dining facilities which are further away. One is “Caracol” (by the golf course) where we celebrated my husband’s birthday, ate superb steaks and were offered a free dessert to celebrate the event, nice touch (try to be seated outside, it’s much nicer than inside). The other is the one at Prieta Beach Club where we had lunch once and liked it a lot. 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 and is also recommended for a day at the pool or beach (more quiet than at the resort). Overall, the food is of a high standard but certainly doesn’t level with Michelin starred establishments. And prices for F&B are steep as this is also the case with 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 (although they are much too high) or you go to some other place where prices are more reasonable. But I’m almost sure – if you are a fan of FS – you will most probably miss the high service level of FS then because it is normally close to perfect! 



One more word to the facilities, my son and I had a fitness studio tour, made by a helpful and courteous employee. It is well-equipped but you have to pay for fitness classes which I chose not to do. There is also a golf course but as we don’t play it, I can’t comment on this. There are additional resort activities as well, but as we only stayed for three nights, we didn’t do any of them.

One last remark: As an employee let me know, the guest structure is homogenous, 97 % are Americans, we were quite an exception as Swiss. But we didn’t mind because we usually do like the American way. Overall, this FS resort is the perfect hotel for beach holidays but make sure that you also get at least a glimpse of the rest of this beautiful country, it’s really worth it.

Date of stay: April 2012