Questions about Ylang Ylang

The property is pretty widely spread out with a lush garden feel, but not much in the way of hiking on the grounds. The beach walking is awesome though, as us the wildlife you'll see.

For hiking, you can try the waterfall trail (be prepared for water), Cabo Blanco, or Curu-- the latter two require driving.

The room rate includes dinner, so you probably don't need to worry about restaurants--Ylang Ylang's food was the best we had in Costa Rica.

Biking is probably not a real good idea--the only way to access the resort is by the beach, and the roads into the town are every bit as bad as those into Monteverde.

Thanks RAC. Just trying to get a sense of how much time I would want to spend there in relation to the other areas we'd stay next trip. Also, the lodge is walking distance to town, right (lunch)? What type of a room/bungalow did you stay in?

It's about a 10 minute walk across the beach to town and then another 5-10 to the waterfall trail. The only reasons we had for going into town were the waterfall, the zipline (very cool--if you go in the afternoon you get to swim in the pools above the waterfall), and to be picked up for our guided tour of Curu.

We spent three days there but I'd be happy to spend a week there again. Besides what I've already mentioned, there's Isla Tortuga tours, very popular horseback tours, and the rest if southern Nicoya to explore. And, of course, there's the Holistic spa and daily yoga class.

We stayed in one of the standard rooms--the cheapest option besides the tents--and found them to be just fine (this was before they added A/C). We only used the room for sleeping, showering, and changing--the rest of the time was spent in the ocean, in the pool, on the beach, or in a super comfy hammock relaxing to the sound of the ocean crashing against rocks 50 feet away.

Thanks RAC. We would just take the cheapest room as well. Thank you for all the helpful tips. The reason I was asking about town, is that our plan is to be in some other fairly isolated areas and it's sort of nice to have a balance where there's at least a small town to walk too once in a while and I also don't enjoy too much down time. Sounds like there are some good tours though and it sounds like a great place! The grounds look beautiful.

Bookmarking.

RAC - is Ylang Ylang a place you'd recommend for families? Or did it seem more of a couples place?

Thanks!

There were families there, and its certainly not some kind of couples-only place. If I had kids, I'd certainly take them there.

Great - this might just be the place I've been looking for! Sounds perfect for this trip! I remember looking at it when we planned our first trip and then sort of forgot about it thinking it seemed difficult to get to - how the travel time to get there? Did you fly or take the ferry and drive? Did you have a vehicle while there?

We drove there from Monteverde, so we obviously had a 4WD.. But, if we were heading straight there, we'd probably fly into Tambor and have someone pick us up. A vehicle is more of an inconvenience than a convenience if you're staying at Ylang Ylang--you have to park in town and have them come pick you up in their jeep and drive you across the beach to their grounds. Once we arrived, we didn't use our car again until we left town.

Shell - So you haven't settled on anything yet? What's the hold up? LOL! I'm the same way though...geez, we may run into each other at this point! Ha! If we make it there as planned, we'll be flying in from SJO cuz this will probably be our first stop after arriving from the U.S.