Cariblue Hotel

I and my Husband were very indecisive about reserving a hotel based on the advertising in centralamerica because sometime we got surprises! but, apart that, we are use to go directly on the place and find some hotel we really like, we have no time pressure. So with few ideas of accommodation, we reach Puerto Viejo.
We decided to avoid the center because was noisy and a little far from beaches, the beach in town of course was nice but smell a little at drainage so we move to the first white beach after town toward manzanillo ( remember that in the other side of town ithe sand is volcano black that could be nice but penetrate and marking our white beach towels so..)After a couple of kilometers there is Cocles Beach that is a very long golden-sandy bay. Here there are five or six hotels close this beach two are in front the road but they are cabins surfer style and we want more like a hotel with services so when we entered in Cariblue we realized that have great pool, restaurant and much more finally is a Hotel, We stay four night in Cariblue, The place is how some, The pool area is the best place to read a good book with an incredible scenery on the wonderful garden where monkeys toucans and a lot of birds chatting together from the huge trees apparently for the pleasure of the guests!! Rooms are very clean with fresh flowers on the bed. the porch have hammock. air conditioning and satellite tv, but we have already a live NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC show in the garden.
Staff was really helpful: Nela, Magon the young receptionist and others not remember names, everybody always there to help us to relax and enjoy.
Very very good buffet breakfast, the restaurant was great we mostly eat Italian pastas or fish, tuna fish was perfect and the pasta Mariscos how some that
We have a wonderful vacation, THANK YOU CARIBLUE

I chose this hotel because it was listed as "Fodor's Choice". There are MUCH BETTER deals in Puerto Viejo. The service was terrible and the room was very plain (which is OK, but not for what they were charging). We tried to arrive early but were told the hotel was sold out, so we stayed an extra night in San Jose. To our surprise, when we arrived, we were charged for the night we were told wasn't available and they refused to refund our money. The pool was nice, food was so-so. Would recommend finding another hotel.

This hotel was a major disappointment in every regard. The room was small, hot, airless and had only one small window. Our shower was broken. The service was AWFUL. The people at the front desk were rude, unhappy and whatever we asked for the answer was always NO. This is the only beach hotel I've ever been to that doesn't permit you take towels to the beach! There are no phones in the room so be prepared for a long hike to the front desk to get your soap when the maids forget to leave it in your room. They had a great pool but other than that the whole place is a disaster. We stayed somewhere else even though we couldn't get our money back.