Arenas Del Mar Beachfront & Rainforest Resort Member of the Cayuga Collection

Beautiful location and for the most part the service was great. First the pluses ....beach is super and the staff down by the beach was friendly and welcoming and they do a great job of creating safety (lots of lifeguard drills it appeared!) and overall the sense of a lovely vacation feel. There are golf carts to take you everywhere on the property, which is pretty necessary as the property is steep and quite spread out. You just give a call and someone shows up in minutes. Many of the drivers have a great personality, just made it surprising when a few of them seemed not friendly--and for us there was no need to speak English--I was always happy to try my Spanish! Ditto for the staff in the main restaurant--some were friendly and welcoming and a few others were all business and not very welcoming or patient. On with the plus items...the beds are very comfortable, rooms are private and quiet, and the policy of free mini bar snacks (with free restocking) is wonderful! The monkeys and iguanas --and sloths--on the property are terrific. There is a dinner in the beach restaurant on Wednesdays, Sats and Suns and since we were only there for the Wed dinner, I wish that the staff at breakfast had reminded us of it and also, there could be a small guide in the room that would include the beach dinner evening schedule as well as a map of the nature trail --with distances. We wanted to walk it ourselves, without their guide, but didn't have a good sense of the overall length of the trail. There was a little sense that they wanted to encourage us to sign up for their guided (for a fee) walk. The food in the main restaurant was good, but not exceptional and the dinners are quite expensive. The breakfast has many choices and again, it's good but not exceptional--but nice that it's included in the room price. Overall, however, it's a lovely place, clearly the nicest place to stay in Manuel Antonio, but also quite pricey, which you know if you're reading this! Trip.com had the best price by far, at least for November.

Literally spectacular! The views from the room were incredible . The people were so nice and friendly, helped with whatever we needed. Our room was amazing, if you can get room 401 do it, 2 bedrooms and two bathrooms, perfect for a family. Two good restaurants, we especially loved eating right at the beach, very special

I was scared about this place because of a few bad reviews I read. I can honestly say that this hotel deserves all of the positive reviews it has! We are foodies and the restaurant options were fantastic. Breakfast options were great and not boring. Drinks were very good, dinner options as well. Fridge stocked with house made sodas for kids. Everything was fresh, service was very friendly and fast. All of the workers are genuinely friendly. We had 3 kids with us and they all treated our kids wonderfully. They cracked coconuts for them, took them around the property to show animals, played soccer with them…. Laundry service was very fast, anytime we needed anything the staff was right on it, no matter what. There are stairs, our room was on third floor- so if you don’t like walking it may not be for ya! We loved every bit of it though. Walking was enjoyable! For the Americans that aren’t used to exercise - there are golf carts that come as soon as you call for them. I extended our stay during my original booking process and ended up booking a different class of room, they moved all of our luggage to the suite to make sure it was a very smooth transition. All rooms are very well appointed. Beach towels and toys are available. We packed umbrellas for the rainy season- they had those too. Jetted tub on our balcony was amazing (available in a suite). The grounds are very well taken care of, they are constantly cleaning and maintaining it. We have not a single negative thing to say.