tinach2014
October 12, 2024
I've been to Marriott Vacation Club properties in Maui, San Diego, St. Kitts, Spain and now Costa Rica. We were there 2 weeks. There are some things that make this property similar to and different from the others. The similarities: Marriott staff were attentive and pleasant. The units were attractive and well stocked. We had a washer/ dryer in our unit. Housekeeping was particularly awesome. The most major difference is that the beach this property is on is not maintained. The sand is dark. There's lots of rocks and pieces of wood and some trash on the beach. No one went into the water. Another difference is that this property is quite far from the airport; it's over an hour away. It's also a distance from some sights, like the waterfalls. A pleasant difference was that they didn't hound us to sit through one of their presentation like they do at every other property--you know, the sales pitches that they say will last 90 minutes but in reality last 3 hours! It was so pleasant to not have to deal with this! There were 2 annoyances: a) Noise. just by the Vacation Club units there are trees that constantly drop their leaves. For many days during our stay there were people using very loud leaf blowers blowing leaves for hours during the day, most days. b) The Pickleball courts. They have 4 courts that were originally, obviously, tennis courts, so the Pickleball lines are laid out over the tennis court lines. They are not maintained. They had standing water in the morning and moss/ something green growing on some courts. Unlike the tennis court, the nets were sloppy. There were a couple tools to brush the puddles off the courts so we took care of the water. They do have paddles and balls you can use that were fine. The first day we played they gave us the paddles/ balls at no cost, but the second day they wanted to charge us $5/ paddle rental and a $22/ hour fee to use the court. Note that the maintained tennis court was free to use, because it was included in our reservation. So if you want to play Pickleball, make sure your reservation says it's included in the cost of your unit. The food was very good. Don't miss the breakfast buffet at La Hacienda. Let me comment on going there during the rainy season. The mornings were usually sunny/ mostly sunny. It clouded up in the afternoon, which, considering the intensity of the sun, was a good thing for me, and then it often rained at night. We found the weather to be good.