Mal Pais - beachfront hotels
 

My girlfriend and I are going to Mal Pais in November, and we're trying to find a nice hotel that's actually on the beach. Most of what we've seen is a little more removed, in the jungles and a bit of a walk.

Ideally, we're looking for a view of the ocean and maybe a 1 min walk to the water.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

-=greg

We were just in Malpais (Santa Teresa technically) and stayed at Tropico Latino hotel. I believe the beach is called Playa Carmen.

There are 2 beachfront bungalows and 6 garden bungalows (plus a couple of multi-bedroomed villas, I believe.) We stayed in a garden bungalow which didn't have a view but was still only a minute walk to the beach. The beachfront bungalows looked very nice.

Our bungalow was roomy with a/c and patio. The only iffy thing was that it didn't feel squeaky clean like our other CR accommodations.

The hotel's beach area is nice with shaded seating and hammocks. Great spot to watch the spectacular sunsets. They also have a nice little pool.

We stayed at the front most beach front bungalow (one behind the other, so the front one definitely has the view). How about 30 seconds or less to the water? :) It's one of the best little bungalows we've ever stay in, given the proximity to the beach, which sometimes is JUST what we are looking for! There's only that one, though, so I'd book it early.

Thanks Sumi!

Shillmac, what hotel did you stay at? Tropico Latino as well?

We've stayed in the beachfront bungalow at Tropico Latino as well &
were very happy. This one bungalow is
truly on the beach.

I was just going to write a little trip report on my stay in Mal Pais when I saw this.

Tropico Latino is one of the hotels we just stayed at. I was not impressed at all. First of all, the location made me wondering why people even like this town. They were constantly burning garbage either at the grocery market across or near the hotel. It was horrible and if the dust was bad enough the smoke sent my girlfriends allergies on a constant frenzy.

The food was over priced and awful. It was either overcooked or had a nasty sauce. Forget even trying something like a basic hamburger. just bad. The beach was nice but we had our backpack stolen in the 2 seconds I took my eye off it.

Thankfully nothing really important was in there. I found out later that
they constantly have robberies there. Nobody at the hotel every warned me about this big problem they have. Sorry to be so negative but I really wish someone had told me these things BEFORE. So, if it helps one person that will be good.

The rooms were not clean feeling and we almost moved to the nicest one in the very front because it came available, but we were already so over this place, we just didn't bother. It was brighter than the dark room we had but we really didn't care to be right on the beach with the robbery problems.

We also stayed at Moana Lodge and we liked it MUCH better on the Mal Pais side. It wasn't as dirty(VERY DUSTY, but not dirty feeling). And NO SEWAGE SMELL, yeah! We smelled constant sewage smells in Santa Teresa.

Now, don't get me wrong, we didn't love the Moana Lodge hotel. They don't even have a restaurant, the room was small and you never wanted to hang out in it. The owner was weird. But, we did like it better overall.

The best thing was we rented an ATV and had a blast in the town. We went to Montezuma for the day, we did the fishing trip, we LOVED Mary's restaurant. All of these things we on the Mal Pais side. The back way to Montezuma is on the Mary's road. It was VERY dusty because of the dry dirt roads, but even with my girlfriends allergies we both had fun. Even though the beaches are more rocky on the Mal Pais side it is SOOO much nicer than Santa teresa and still only a couple of minutes away on an ATV to go to the pretty beaches. We even rode all the way through Santa Teresa to Hermosa beach and that was a pretty beach. Worth spending some time at.

Anyway, this was mine and my girlfriends experience here. I finally did see the beauty of the area and if we had stayed at the right place we would have probably loved it like a lot of people. But our negative experiences did kind of dampen our excitement. Which is a shame because we really are normally laid back adventurous people. Like a said, we did end up having a good time but it could have been a lot better.

I definitely agree with SwillyK about the food at Tropico Latino -- it was truly awful. Breakfast isn't included with the room and I can honestly say that we had the worst $50 breakfast (3 of us) that we've ever had.

We discovered Cafe Artemis (right at the crossing) and stopped there whenever we left the hotel for coffee, croissants, smoothies, etc.

The road, especially in the busy area from the crossing into Santa Teresa, is VERY dusty and chaotic. When we were there (not quite 2 weeks ago), they were putting in storm drains, so my guess is that improvements are in the near future.

All in all, Santa Teresa felt very different from the rest of CR that we travelled through. For one thing, the gringos (though not necessarily all Americans at all) heavily outnumbered the Ticos. My husband commented that we could have been on a southern California beach.

Hi all,
We last stayed at Ste. Teresa and Tropico Latino in 2004. It was great then with none of the problems mentioned. No trash burning, robberies not a problem, much less going on then, of course. Very slow style of living. . .

I agree the food wasn't anything to write home about. We had one dinner there. That was it. The rest of the time we ate at Frank's Place or Charlie's or elsewhere, like in Montezuma.

Walking and being on that beach 4 years ago was wonderful. So few people, so relaxing. No doubt much has changed. Not sure I want to return and find out HOW it has changed! :)

We were in Mal Pais in April of 2005 and are returning in 3 weeks. We absolutely loved it then. We stayed at Milarepa and Blue Jay Lodge.

This time around we have rented The March House with 4 other couples. We are hoping that we can still have some isolation by having a private home.

We will defintely post our thoughts on the changes upon our return.

Shillmac - we are spending our first two nights at La Carolina Lodge. The owners mentioned 6 months ago that they were trying to get a credit card machine, but they still haven't. That was actually good news to us because we are hoping all the rest of the changes haven't much occurred, either.

Well, good luck. That place just wouldn't have the same feel with electricity, etc. That's one of the reasons many people go there, I think, because it is just such an unusual experience. I hope you guys have a great time. Alejandro and the others who work there are such kind sweet people. You'll love the big pooch, too! :)

I too stayed at Tropico Latino in 2004 in the #2 Beachfront bungalow. I'm sorry to hear that the area has changed so much because I found it quite a nice change of pace from the north and I loved the wild surf.
I was not that impressed with the hotel/food/service (especially since I could not get coffee until 8am) but when the water went out in the area and we chose to leave early, the hotel was very accomodating in returning our cash payment.
I still hope to return to that area.
I found it absolutely beautiful and calming.

We were just in Mal Pais at the beginning of November and found it to be as beautiful as ever! I am sorry to hear your experience at Tropico Latino, SwillyK! I completely understand how that could give you a bad taste for the area. I don't think things are any worse in terms of petty theft than they have been. It's just one of those things on any tourist beach. You should never leave belongings unattended just because they can walk away so easily.

I'm sure its dusty now because the roads are all dirt and they don't get any rain until maybe mid-April usually. In November it was lush and beautiful and the roads were not really dusty because they were still getting some showers. It was perfect weather wise.

There are some terrific places to eat around, I agree about the food at Tropico Latino. As you mentioned, theres Mary's. But also Ritmo Tropical, Piedra Mar, Los Piedras, Artemis cafe, and several other sodas and places that are quite good. We ate gourmet food at Casa Chameleon by a private chef but thats not open to the public. Florblanca has somewhat gourmet style though. In Montezuma, Playa de los Artistas is great!

Theres also a lot to do in the area besides surfing theres the canopy tour, fishing, Cabo Blanco for hiking, snorkeling I found to be better than most people say, great beaches all over, and I enjoyed hiking around and photographing animals in the jungle near our hotel. There are day trips around to Curu reserva, ultralight flights(we didn't try it yet), ATV tours and I'm sure more than I have written down. We are active and are never bored in the area. We always leave wishing we had a few more days. I really love the area and find the people to be very friendly. There are many ticos around as well as foreigners. I guess it depends where you are. Watching a soccer game on the field in Mal Pais, you will see the whole town of mostly ticos and very few foreigners. That's a fun thing to do!

Hopefully when I go in May it won't be so dusty - so excited to finally be hitting the area.

I think Mal Pais Surf Camp is realtively close to the water but not sure. I will try to keep any eye out when I go for any waterfront places.

Ah the soccer games. I remember there being one every evening on the beach just north of Tropico Latino. It was always fun to watch.

Tully, you'll have had enough rain to freshen the place up a bit. We were there in March and all the foliage was dusty. Also there in July and it was hotter than heck with no rain in sight for days.

joe, I do remember that about the area also--no coffee when we'd wake up and be ready to enjoy a cup! We went all up and down one morning about 7:00 searching for coffee! Weird, huh, considering what a big deal it usually is!

No coffee at 7am would be a deal-breaker for me! :) (heck, I know at BdC I sometimes would be over there at 5:30 waiting for the coffee! I don't know what it is about CR that I'm up with the birds - or howlers!) Yes, hopefully a little rain will be nice, but just the right amount - without a car I may just prefer dust over mud.

I appreciate your reply siempretrvs, I really do. Because I was able to enjoy my last few days there. I just think I had a bad hotel choice that got me (us) off to a rough start. It was my stupidity for leaving my bag on the beach. Even though it was just for a sec.

Funny that we drove up the road to Casa Chamaleon and remember the name because my girlfriend told me to stop there. It did look really nice. We didn't get to see much because they had a privacy sign at the front but wew really wanted to go in. We went up and down the road 2 times just top see it a little better. It was the only road in the whole area that was cemented with nice houses on it. I can see what you mean and how you like it so much. We did have fun on the ATV and when we were on the back roads away from the dust and away from that area in santa teresa, it was really nice.

For Tully, yes, surf camp was in Mal Pais and a nice location.

Sorry to write a review that was such a bummer. I just wanted to say my experience so maybe someone else can make better choices.

The little soda a few km outside of town (can't remember the name - is it Las Piedras?) was one of the highlights of our trip a few years back. I can not wait to go there on our return trip. The food was just simple casados served on plastic tables and chairs in the sand. However, it was right next to these huge rocks and during high tide the water came splashing over them. It was one of the most peaceful things I can remember. We must have sat there for quite a while reading and just taking it in. I hope it is still there! When we were there for lunch, we were the only tourists.

It took me 4-ever to find this post! I remembered reading this before we left and wanted to add my feedback since we were just in Mal Pais. So, before I ever visited Mal Pais I didn't really understand the layout of the area.

There is a main crossroad when you enter the town. This area is called Playa Carmen. If you turn left, that is Mal Pais. If you turn right that is Santa Teresa. Santa Teresa is a bit grungier in the main part. There are just a lot of shacks and a mish- mosh of things. I didn't think it seemed dangerous at all, it just had a hippie thing going on. A lot of surfers too. It was interesting though and just had a rustic, rugged thing going on. The area is not huge, but because it is so spread out on one long road it does seem like two different areas.

The beach was beautiful and very different everywhere we stopped. Playa Carmen seemed to be the main surfing beach but we would drive down a few minutes either way and it just changed from the way the rock formations were. One reason I wanted to find this post is to say we didn't have anything stolen on the beach and didn't feel unsafe anywhere we went. We found everyone to be relaxed and friendly. Except the people at that great restaurant on the beach. It's called PIEDRA MAR and it was a great location on the sand with the waves hitting the rocks. The food was good and cheap. But the servers/owners/whoever there were miserable. Who knows why, but we were told they are always like that. But that was the only negative thing I could find during our time in the area. So, no big deal. It was dusty. Maybe more right now because they are doing road work, but I loved how undeveloped this area is.

And the biggest reason I wanted to find this is that my husband played soccer on that soccer field! WOW! It's down near the end of Mal Pais before the fishing. It's incredible and the ocean is right there. It was all lit up at night. They had these huge lights that must have cost a fortune. We laughed and realized they really have their priorities straight! Stupid me didn't take my camera because it was night and I just didn't think about it. I'm still kicking myself for that one! But, what a great local experience! I just had to write here because it is very cool to read about something and then actually experience it! So, in a nutshell, we loved every part of our visit in Mal Pais. Definitely not for everyone because it is a rugged area. By rugged, I mean the terrain. Dirt rocky roads and hills, etc. But beautiful and very natural. We just loved it!