sparklegem

Has anyone visited or stayed at this hotel? We are thinking about staying a week over Christmas. Thought that we would fly from San Jose to Tambor and either take a taxi or arrange transportation from the hotel to get there. Will we be ok with out a car? Are there place to walk to? Good surfing and body boarding for beginners? Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.<BR>Thank You,<BR>Gem

zman

I stayed at the tropical latino a few years ago. At that time they had about 5 cabinas right on the beach. They were nice with a porch and an extra twin bed. They have a small restaurant and pool. It is good surfing for beginners. The hotel used to have some boards for guests to use. The mal pais santa theresa area has under gone great change in the last fews years. From one year to the next more hotels restaurants etc. From the tropical latino you can walk to the little store, Franks place ( which is the center of things) and some restaurants. A car is helpful here as everything is spread out along the road for about 7km. I think it is a beautiful magical place with many interesting people from all over the world. But it has been taken over by the young surfing crowd. Flying is a good way to get there. Maybe the hotel could arrange for a taxi to meet your flight. Have you thought about Samara? It has gentle waves safe for children and beginner surfers

Ally

I stayed there just a couple years ago. The rooms are large with a king bed and twin.<BR>The patios are large too, with a hammock. They don't have a/c but had a ceiling fan. Unfortunately, our ceiling fan had only one speed...SLOW. Fortunately, we also had a large stand up fan that worked great. The bathroom was very dark, but had a large walk in shower. We had a large centipede (4 inches) and very large spider (think tennis ball!) in our room on two different days. Creeped me out, but hey, you are close to the jungle and there will be occasional bugs. Just check your sheets before laying down, check your clothes etc. before getting dressed. Don't get me wrong, we loved Tropical Latino and would stay there again. The room was kept very clean. Maybe the bugs came in while the maids had the doors open to clean and they just didn't see them.<BR><BR>I especially liked the pool by the beach. I could float in the pool and watch the surfers. They also had 3 or 4 hammocks on the beach which was very nice. There are good 'beginner' waves just a bit to the left of the hotel (too many rocks directly in front) and excellent waves to the right of the hotel, about a 10-15 minute walk. It's a fun place to watch the hard core surfers. <BR><BR>We only had appetizers and one dinner at the hotel as we like to get out and try other places, but the food was good. Especially the guacamole! Yum! As for a car, you should be fine if you're in decent shape, but as other poster says, it's rather spread out. There was an excellent place to eat right across the 'street' from Tropical Latino called something like 'Shambala'. It looks like a dive but had the best food prepared by a chef who had worked for a big hotel in Miami. I think he was was from Argentina. If he's still there, you must eat there! We also had good pasta and salads at The Place, and another good meal at the Mal Pais Surf Camp. The service was slow at the 'camp' because it was full of young surfers, but it's a fun place to hang out for a couple hours with videos, pool table, skateboards, board games, etc. I must say, at mid 40's, we were the oldest ones there but had a great time. All these places are within walking distance..maybe 15-20 minutes tops. There are also two small stores within walking distance. Not a large selection of anything, but necessities.<BR><BR>Thanks about all I can think of. If you have other questions I'll try to answer. I hope you love Mal Pais as much as we did!

sparklegem

Hi,
We had a delay in our trip, but things are back on now. Thank you for your replies!! Any suggestions on how to get there?
Very Best,
Gem

Iza

Gem, I answered your questions on the thread that contains my trip report. Just another comment after reading Ally's response: there are plenty of insects and various other creatures getting in your room in that area but there are hardly any mosquitos. At Florblanca which is about 1km north of Tropico Latino, all villas are totally open and we slept with open windows and no screens or mosquito nets. I got one mosquito bite during the 4 days we spent there and normally, I'm a magnet for mosquitos. As to other creatures, our daughter loved seeing geckos and various lizards who &quot;visited&quot; our villa. The only thing that bothered her were ants. But if you don't leave any food items out, the ants should not be a problem either.

Iza

Forgot to post this website address for you. It is a great source of information about the southern Nicoya Peninsula:

http://www.nicoyapeninsula.com/

Ally

You know, now that I think about it, I never was bothered by the mosquitos either, and I LOVE geckos! It's the spiders and centipeds (sp?) that make me squirm!
Next time I'll ask, &quot;may I have more geckos please&quot;? They keep the spiders down!

sparklegem

Hi Ally and Iza,

Thank you so much for the great information! Tropico Latino sounds good. I am going to check into availability and air tickets and check out Ally's website.

Very Best Regards,
Gem