TerriJ

I need hotel suggestions for both Montezuma and Malpais. We would like to be right on the beach and walking distance to the towns. Thank you.

sean420

The only lodging in Montezuma that is right on the beach is the Ylang-Ylang resort. Everything else is just a 5 min or less walk to the beach. Mal Pais has just about everything on the beach but there is no center of town to speak of. Everything is spread oout along a 3 miles long road that runs along the beach. Kind of hard to get around at night if you want to go out to dinner or have drinks

surfexec

In Mal Pais, there really aren't any decent hotels on the beach. I recently stayed at Casa Chameleon which was incredible. It's for couples only, amazing ocean view and just up the road from the beach. I guess some people walk but the hill would be tiring. Also, you really need a car for the whole Mal Pais/Santa Teresa area. As Sean said everything is really spread out which is why you don't feel crowded with other tourists. Tropico Latino is a good hotel in the Santa Teresa area if you're traveling with family or having a surf trip with the boys.

TerriJ

Thanks guys. Your info helps a lot. We are a couple with no kids & don't surf. Maybe we’ll just stay in Montezuma the whole time and do a couple day trips to Mal Pais. We are considering the Amor de Mar in Montezuma. Good choice?

jlh370

To get my opinions on both areas you can check out my trip report from May.

http://www.vallimont.blog.com/

If we only stayed in one town it would be Malpais hands down.

It depends what you want out of your stay and what you expect out of a hotel.

When we return we will stay at Tropico Latino. People have mentioned that there are newer bungalows on the beach. We didn't look in the rooms, but the location and atmosphere was perfect for us.

Looking back, we were in our rooms very little.

We also LOVED Blue Jay Lodge, but it wasn't on the beach, rather in the jungle.

If we return to Montezuma, we would try Amor de Mar. It is not right in the center of town, though. Further out. We loved Ylang-Ylang, but it is much more expensive.

We found Malpais much prettier, laid back and romantic. If nightlife is important, though, Montezuma is a better choice.

allison04

We loved Amor de Mar! And it is right on the water, just not on a swimmable beach (it's rocky--there's a cool tide pool). You can easily walk to everything.

sean420

I didn't stay at Amor de Mar but it looked very nice. The grounds looked great with green grass that went right up to the water. There were people getting married there when I was in Montezuma. The Hotel El Jardin looked nice as well

euripide

I would suggest that you stay in Malpais. We have been in Montezuma and did not like it at all. The Ylang Ylang hotel ( sano banano ) : we had a bungalow, VERY primitive, lot of bugs, sea noise ( incredible because the waves are sooo big we could not sleep ) did not like it at all.
We are in our 30 and travelled all around the world so I do not think we are hard to please, but I hate this place

jlh370

We had absolutely no problems with bugs at Ylang Ylang and we slept with our sliding doors open. The nice thing about this place was that they have benches that lift open so you can hide your belongings in there from people and bugs.

We had more bug problems in Malpais, but still not much of a problem.

As for the sound of the waves, they were loud - but we LOVED it. It was quite soothing and it put us to sleep instantly every night.

I'm sure everyone has different likes and dislikes and it probably depends on the time of the year.