We love a good adventure, but these days sometimes our family craves an opportunity to unplug. Over spring break we opted to head to Costa Rica in search of the perfect balance. A key piece of the puzzle was a four night stay at Hyatt’s Andaz Peninsula Papagayo Resort.
This property gets a lot of hype among Hyatt enthusiasts, but we wanted to check it out for ourselves. Is it worth the price (or points)? Is it a good introduction to Costa Rica for first-time visitors? How is the property for older kids and teens, versus little kids who are hanging out at the kids’ club?
With these questions – and more – in mind, we drove to Guanacaste from our previous base on the slopes of Arenal Volcano. We were excited to see what was in store! Spoiler alert: as always, the Andaz brand was an excellent fit for our style of travel.
About Andaz Peninsula Papagayo Resort
The Andaz Peninsula Papagayo Resort is located in the Guanacaste region of northwest Costa Rico, just 35 minutes (or up to an hour in traffic) from the Liberia airport. If you’re based in one of the 20 cities around North America with non-stop flights to LIR, it’s hard to imagine an easier getaway!
Andaz Papagayo was purpose-built in 2013 by Hyatt in the exclusive Papagayo Peninsula. Keep in mind that this beautiful gated area is remote – you won’t find any local tico restaurants here. The peninsula hosts Andaz, Four Seasons Papagayo, a marina, golf and some very exclusive private homes.
Despite being owned by a huge corporation, the Andaz maintains its mid-sized boutique hotel vibe in all the right ways. There are just 131 rooms and 21 suites, 25 brand new villas at the top level. The aesthetics of the place are absolutely stunning. The hotel is nestled into a steep hillside, situated on three levels. It’s so well-scaled to landscape that when you’re out on the water you can only see clearly one of the hotel’s buildings (and only parts of the upper two floors at that).
There’s definitely the feeling of being in a remote, wild place while you bask in extremely comfortable surroundings. You’ll hear birds and howler monkeys at the crack of dawn, and sometimes wiley white-faced capuchins try to snag goodies at breakfast.
The ethos of Andaz Papagayo is one of environmental sustainability, and behind the scenes a commitment to the local community. You won’t find single use plastics or reef-damaging sunscreen here, but you will find produce grown by local rural communities and workers who are grown within the organization.
I’ll cover more details down below, but it’s worth quickly mentioning that the property has a family pool with several sections and an adults-only pool, plus a very small pool at the nearby Casa de Playa beach club (opened in late 2024 after a complete overhaul) – accessible by boat from the hotel’s main beach or by van from the lobby. There are four restaurants open daily, a total of three beaches and a kids’ club at Andaz Papagayo. Keep reading for all the details!
A note on accessibility at Andaz Papagayo: Frequent readers of this blog will know that we often travel with Grandma so I’m always on the lookout for properties that will work for a multi-generational adventure with her.
Unfortunately I hesitate to recommend Andaz Papagayo for people with limited mobility. There are golf carts to drive you all over the property if you want a break from the stairs, but there are no elevators at all here. I asked one of the staff members how they work with guests with mobility challenges and he said that they aim to put them on the ground floor of each building. That limits your views, but it’s workable; however, Grandma would have needed a ride to every single restaurant on the property.
It also would have been very difficult for her to access either of the beaches right near the hotel, which are only available by descending a serious set of stairs. Guests with limited mobility can visit the beach at Casa de Playa by taking the van.
Andaz Papagayo FAQs
Before I dive in too deeply with my Andaz Papagayo review, there are a few important questions I wanted to address:
Andaz Papagayo isn’t your traditional Costa Rica experience. It’s a great place to unwind for a few days after busy adventures elsewhere in the country, or if you opt to make it your only destination you can stay for a week but plan on some off-site excursions like this tour or this activity center.
Simply put, no you don’t need a car. We already had a rental car and the valet stored it away for the duration of our stay – we had planned on one day trip with the car but ultimately changed our minds. Keeping it for those few days was still cheaper than paying for round-trip transportation to the airport for our family. If you’re staying for a week (or more) you’ll either want to rent a car or focus on booking off-site tours that include transportation.
Rooms at Andaz Papagayo, Costa Rica
Most rooms at the Andaz Papagayo Resort are similar in layout but differentiated by their views: forest, partial bay, or bay view. As you can see in my photo near the top of this article, many of the buildings are so nestled into the tropical dry forest that most of the rooms are considered “forest view”.
There was a lot of back and forth in advance between me and the front desk manager, as my older kiddo is now a teenager! From a room occupancy perspective, Andaz considers him an adult so we weren’t able to just hop online and book a room for our family of four as usual. We booked for two adults and one child and then emailed to add him as well. It was totally fine and there was no extra charge. The hotel deals with this all the time (another family member went the following month and dealt with the same issue for his 12 year old).
We were fortunate to be upgraded to a bay view room with two queen beds thanks to my World of Hyatt Globalist status, room 435 – on the third floor of building 4. We liked this location as it was almost directly above Ostra and very close to the gym. As soon as we walked in all we could say was “WOW!” At 560 square feet, the room felt so spacious for a regular room. It’s almost as large as the suit we had used an award to upgrade into at another Hyatt the month before.
The rooms feel comfortable, thoughtfully designed and even a little luxurious. The main part of the bedroom was outfitted with two queen beds separated by a night table plus a wooden arm chair with an ottoman. If we had needed it, we could have removed the chair and ottoman to add a rollaway bed. The king rooms also have a small dresser with four drawers against the wall next to the bed, which families staying in the two queen rooms would certainly appreciate.
To make smart use of the space, a large divider separates the sleeping area from the vanity and bathroom. The television is mounted on the “bedroom” side of the divider, while the opposite side has closet space, the complementary minibar, coffee service and more. Your room comes equipped with helpful items like a beach bag (to use and/or purchase), flashlight and umbrella (to borrow) along with Andaz-branded straw hats and flip flops (to keep!).
One of the things I love about the Andaz brand is that you could show up here with nothing but your swimsuit and coverup and the hotel takes care of the rest – plenty of toiletries available, quality sunscreen and bug spray, hats, shoes, snacks, drinks… heck, they even brought us a bottle of laundry detergent and aloe vera when we asked.
Moving on from free things, the bathroom setup at the Andaz Papagayo may be… polarizing. It worked for our family because we’re used to traveling together and sharing space. But I would say that (just like the Andaz Wailea on Maui) it offers less privacy than you may prefer if you don’t know your travel companion well. For example, the door separating the toilet from the vanity is frosted glass. When the light is on in there, it doesn’t leave much to the imagination! The light over the toilet is on a dimmer, so you could make it darker for a little extra privacy.
The shower here is huge – if you have multiple sandy children, you can hose them all off at once here. Or for adults you can luxuriate in the spacious room with the rain shower head above you. The shower door is also frosted glass on the side where you enter from the vanity. But for a really unique shower experience, you can open the blinds on the opposite side of the shower and enjoy views of the jungle or bay while you get clean! Don’t worry, only people sitting on your own balcony can see in.
Speaking of balconies… again, Andaz really nailed it with the design here. Even though our balcony and our neighbors’ offered sweeping panoramic views, we were all blocked from each others’ views. Sitting on the balcony was by far my favorite way to spend the early mornings while the kids were still asleep and the sunsets while we all got cleaned up for dinner. The sky is incredibly dark here so we did some fabulous stargazing in our pajamas and even saw fireworks from the nearby Planet Hollywood all-inclusive resort. There is a hand-crank shade that comes down to block the blistering sun from the balcony – which happens basically as soon as the sun comes over the hills – but if you want a balcony that stays cooler it could be worth sacrificing the bay view in favor of a more protected forest view.
Pro tip: Balconies can be accessed through either the bedroom or the shower. In the morning it was much less disruptive for me to walk out through the shower so that I didn’t have to lift the room’s rigid blackout curtains.
We visited during an unusually hot week in March – temperatures were in the mid-90s, about 5 degrees warmer than usual. Thankfully the air conditioning at Andaz Papagayo worked perfectly! That’s very important since there are only a handful of air conditioned public spaces at the hotel, while most spaces are open-air with ceiling fans.
If I had one complaint about the room for our family it was the lack of adequate drawer space for clothing. I like to unpack everything and put it all away neatly, but it was a little tricky in this room. We had one narrow full-length closet (where you see the ironing board above) where I was able to stow most of our suitcases once empty – I had to tuck the last one into the corner of the room near the bed. There was another wider closet next to that with two drawers built into the bottom – my husband and I used those for our clothes and put everyone’s backpacks and extra shoes on top of the drawers.
But we still had two more people whose clothing needed storage. Thankfully we packed light! I was able to rearrange some of the provided bathroom items like the hairdryer and repurpose two of the vanity shelves for the kids’ packing cubes (where you see the hand towels hanging in the bathroom photo). If we had been in a king room or a suite we would have had much more storage space available.
If you have the opportunity to apply a Suite Upgrade Award at Andaz Papagayo, I highly recommend it! You’ll sacrifice the bay view for more than double the space. These are true suites and they look incredible. There’s a king bedroom with a forest view terrace and a separate large living room with floor-to-ceiling windows that open wide (don’t worry, there’s a glass barrier to prevent anyone from falling). There’s ample storage, a work desk and you can bring in two rollaways here to accommodate everyone’s sleep needs.
Dining at Andaz Papagayo
Andaz Papagayo has four restaurants open daily, plus a coffee shop and an occasional pop-up dinner restaurant. You’ll want to try a few options while you visit, as they all have a different culinary focus – and check the bottom of the activities calendar for theme weeks/nights as well!
Pro tip: All of the dinner restaurants take reservations via OpenTable, and if you have particular preferences after reading this Andaz Papagayo review you’ll want to reserve before you arrive. With just four nights on-site and no advance dinner reservations, we had to hustle a little to get things arranged.
Guests with food allergies are accommodated very well here. We felt like the level of understanding of our daughter’s Celiac Disease needs was higher than in the US. Allergens are well-marked on all menus – G for contains gluten, D for contains dairy, N for contains nuts. Obviously it’s a little different than the way we’re used to seeing menus annotated in the US.
One interesting option is that you can turn your experience into an “Andaz Papagayo all-inclusive” by purchasing their meal plan. It covers three meals per day and includes nearly everything except alcohol at a cost of $99 per adult and $49 per child as of this writing. If you aren’t a Globalist (or Guest of Honor) and haven’t booked a rate that includes breakfast, this could be a very good option for guests who plan to stay on-site for all meals.
Breakfast options
Andaz Papagayo offers two breakfast options: Rio Bhongo and Ostra, with the latter only being available to Globalists. They each have their pros and cons!
A few quick notes on Globalist breakfast at Andaz Papagayo… first, we were delighted to find that there was no bill brought to our table since we didn’t order any specialty coffee (lattes and similar are fine and included, only a few fancy single-origin pour overs incur a charge). There was no awkward hemming and hawing over whether to write “Globalist 18%” on the tip line or do something else! For Globalists visiting with kids, we were extra excited about the lack of a bill because we were fully covered for two adults, our 10 year old and our 13 year old – a leniency compared to the official “child” age cut off of 12.
We chose Ostra breakfast our first day because it seemed like the more unique offering of the two and it was right below our room. The setting is beautiful and the restaurant was very quiet, giving us our pick of tables. Because this breakfast is only open to Globalists, there is no price associated with it. Only the cocktails come with a charge.
This isn’t your typical hotel breakfast. Everyone is provided with the juice of the day (you can choose other drinks too), a bread course (not ideal for our daughter with Celiac disease) and a beautiful set of fresh fruit, yogurt and granola. After all of that, you can choose an unlimited number of the breakfast small plates. There are gourmet options here alongside Costa Rican classics. Check out the food we received as an example, and know that you’re absolutely welcome to try a few different dishes:
While my husband and I loved the breakfast at Ostra, ultimately our kids did not – the food was too fancy for our son and didn’t offer enough choices for our daughter’s dietary needs. The following day we headed to the buffet at Rio Bhongo and that was a much better fit for our family’s needs. The regular price of the full buffet is $39 per adult, $20 for kids 5-11 and free for 4 and under. If you’re trying to stick to a budget, there are also a la carte options (I say skip the $29 continental buffet).
This is easily one of the two best hotel breakfast buffets we’ve ever had, with the other being Andaz Wailea on Maui. If you go on the tail end (service ends at 10:30) you could easily call it brunch and skip the pricey poolside lunch!
What makes the breakfast here so good? The hot buffet has tons of options and is a great mix of American and Costa Rican foods. You can also order any preparation of eggs, pancakes, waffles or breakfast meat from your server. There are also multiple carafes of fresh juices, yogurt parfaits, tons of fresh fruit – both those typically found in the US as well as tropical fruits – and a massive table with a dozen different types of breads. In an adjacent “room” of the restaurant there’s even a dedicated kids’ buffet with favorites like a waffle bar, cereal with milk and more.
A buffet wouldn’t be complete without drinks, which you can order basically without limit. The menu offers seven different smoothies, but you can customize them however you’d like including add-ins like protein powder and chia seeds. For the coffee lovers (hi!) there’s a carafe of cold brew sitting out every morning – you can even grab some while you wait for a table – and you can order any hot or cold coffee drink you can dream up.
To really level up your day, order a frapuccino to go when you’re part-way through your meal. There’s no extra charge and you can take it down to the pool or beach with you, which is helpful since it’s so hot!
Rio Bhongo
In addition to its breakfast service, Rio Bhongo is open for both lunch and dinner. Lunch service is offered both “inside” the open-air restaurant as well as poolside (with slightly different menus)… though just about everyone eats outside at the family pool.
I’d rate the poolside lunch as solid. Ronnie loved his fish tacos and our son’s kid-sized pizza hit the spot (especially with just a $10 price tag). I enjoyed ceviche one day and chicken nachos another. Gluten-free options were limited so our daughter ended up with the steak tacos every day. The alcohol-free drinks are wonderfully refreshing in the mid-day heat too! There are some additional “fancier” lunch options if you dine inside Rio Bhongo.
We felt like there was ample staff for poolside lunch at Rio Bhongo, but in one instance there wasn’t enough seating on the deck. It became an issue primarily because a wind storm caused everyone to flee the beaches (more on that below), but unfortunately Andaz Papagayo doesn’t seem to have a policy on hogging chairs. It’s a small enough resort that it wasn’t typically an issue, but chairs were being held by a tube of sunscreen and a book for two families that were out on a half-day tour and the staff insisted that their place be held.
Rio Bhongo was the only permanent on-site restaurant that we didn’t try at dinner. Its menu wasn’t as interesting to us as the others and the gluten-free options were limited. But this would be a good option for families with children who prefer familiar American-style foods – the kids menu here is robust and affordable. Some of the theme nights look good, and I wish we had tried the “Lucha Libre Taqueria”.
My brother-in-law visited the Andaz in Costa Rica just a few weeks after us and let me in on a hot tip: if you go fishing, the kitchen at Rio Bhongo will cook up your catch! They prepared ceviche with some of the fish and did a simple sautee on another and the results were excellent. The best part? The price was not more than $20 each and their kids were free!
Chao Pescao
This Central and South American restaurant on the far end of the property was by far our family’s favorite – we dined here twice at our kids’ request, and they would have been happiest eating here every night! This restaurant was part of the recent renovation and it’s really beautiful. We enjoyed sitting on the terrace, where we could catch the sounds of both nocturnal wildlife as well as the live music performed inside.
The culinary journey begins with your menu, which is a map of the region. It is ringed by a list of dishes for each country – think Costa Rican ceviche, Chilean skirt steak, Jamaican jerk chicken and more. We visited during “Peru week” so there was an extra menu of Peruvian specialties as well. There’s also a huge menu of cocktails and other beverages representing the region.
From start to finish, Chao Pescao was just a great dining experience. We never felt rushed and everything we ate was delightful. The food comes out quickly so it was easy to order a second round of favorites when they were devoured too quickly!
Ostra
In the evening, Ostra serves as the Andaz’s Asian restaurant. The main menu is focused on Southeast Asian cuisine, while the secondary Perla menu offers sushi. Our family generally loves Asian food of all types so we were excited to try this!
Unfortunately a lot of what we had here just missed the mark a bit despite the pretty outrageous price. The best item we ordered was the coconut laksa, marked at $30. As always we informed our waiter that our family doesn’t eat shellfish, and somehow the kitchen interpreted that note as a request for the laksa to be made vegetarian ($28) rather than with the fish that comes standard. We pointed this out and they eventually brought a fish fillet on the side, but it’s just not the same as the fish being simmered in the flavorful sauce and we were still charged the full rate.
We also ordered the pad thai pictured above, which we requested with chicken (since it normally comes with shrimp) and that was pretty good… but also $28 for the vegetarian version and a $10 upcharge to add chicken and not any different than the pad thai we would get at home for less than one-third the price.
Overall this wasn’t love for us.
Meso
The newly re-opened Meso is the focal point of Casa de Playa (the beach house). It’s not open every day for dinner, so if you want to eat here I recommend that you reserve it first. The menu here is Mediterranean.
I would rate this as our second favorite dinner option at Andaz Papagayo. The corvina with saffron risotto and the lamb loin with glazed carrots were both solid but not Earth-shattering. The kids’ menu here is somewhat limited on the surface, but the kitchen was happy to make a simple grilled chicken breast with sides for our daughter. She absolutely loved the sautéed broccoli served at Chao Pescao, and the team at Meso was able to serve it as well even though it wasn’t on the menu.
Since Meso is located at the beach house, you’ll take a van to get there for dinner. I recommend getting to the lobby about 30 minutes before your reservation to make for a smooth arrival.
Coffee & Vinyls
If you need a mid-day pick me up, you’ll want to stop by Coffee & Vinyls for coffee, tea, juice or even a sandwich. We didn’t purchase anything here but it’s a cool place to hang out in the afternoon.
Literally. It’s one of just a handful of public spaces on the property that’s air conditioned (the others are Cambi Kids’ Club and the gym/spa). If you need respite from the heat, it’s a nice place to pop in and browse some of the musical selections or even play a game of chess.
Off-site dining
Peninsula Papagayo is very removed from the rest of Guanacaste, so most guests stay in the area once they arrive. However, there are a handful of places that Andaz Papagayo guests can eat outside of their “home” hotel. We didn’t visit either because our stay was pretty short, but I wish we had!
The closest is Dive Bar at the marina. This one is close enough that some guests walk there from the Andaz, about 10 minutes for most adults, and there’s also a free shuttle. Prices are comparable to Rio Bhongo – $16+ for a pizza, $21 for a burger, $17 for a small ceviche. It does have a beautiful setting right on the marina, so if you go here I would arrive before sunset.
The Four Seasons Papagayo has a much larger array of restaurants, but one stand out against them all: Virador Beach Club. It offers up incredible Middle Eastern food against the stunning west-facing beach of the Four Seasons. Go during their Golden Hour service from 4:30-6:30 to enjoy wonderful food and a beautiful sunset! You can reserve your spot at least a month in advance and I recommend that you do so to ensure a spot at this prime time, especially if you’re visiting on a weekend or holiday. The Andaz shuttle will drive you both ways, so no need to worry about transportation!
I only have two regrets about our visit to Andaz Papagayo, and one of them is missing Virador! (Keep reading to find out the other)
Things to do at Andaz Papagayo Resort
Beyond hanging around your gorgeous room and eating delicious food, there are plenty of things to do at Andaz Papagayo. If you’re staying at the property for just a few days, you’ll be busy enough with the included offerings. Guests staying at Andaz Papagayo for a full week will probably want to check out a few excursions and day trips – more on those below.
Andaz Papagayo pools
It wouldn’t be a beautiful resort without great pools, right? Andaz Papagayo doesn’t have any fancy water features like you’ll find at huge all-inclusive resorts, but the pool scene matches the overall peaceful vibe of the hotel (though there are plenty of kids running around).
The main pool area is the family pool at Rio Bhongo. There are two terraces with pool (you have to walk a set of stairs to go between them), and the lower pool has a nice shallow zero-entry area for the youngest visitors.
There’s also another small pool adjacent to these, just below Rio Bhongo, but it wasn’t big enough for the kids to goof off so we didn’t use it. If you want to stay near the kids but have your own space, this would be a great option.
If you want to enjoy some totally kid-free swimming, head to the adults-only Ostra pool (pictured above). There’s also a small, shallow pool at the beach house.
Beaches at Andaz Papagayo
Andaz Papagayo has three beaches: Playa Sombrero Oscuro, Playa Sombrero Claro and Playa Nacasolo. While the first two are located at the resort’s main property, Playa Nacasolo is a 10 minute boat ride (or 15 minute van ride) away at the new Casa de Playa beach house. We had an opportunity to check out all three of these in one way or another.
You can think of Sombrero Oscuro – pictured above – as the hotel’s main beach, and it gets its name from the black sand you’ll find here mixed into the white sand. It’s accessible by walking down a long set of stairs from Rio Bhongo and has full services. There are chairs and couches, clean towels, sunscreen and bug spray plus a kiosk where you can borrow kayaks, paddle boards, snorkel gear and life jackets – just sign them out with your room number after completing a waiver. Young swimmers can enjoy a roped off shallow area, which does have some little fish swimming around waiting to give you a pedicure. This is also where you’ll catch the boat service to Casa de Playa, join a paid snorkel tour or pick up a third-party water activity like jet skiing or boat tours.
Overall I really liked the vibe at this beach. Other than the loading and unloading of the boat to Casa de Playa, there were very few guests here – often no more than a dozen. It has the feel of a secluded jungle beach, complete with very climbable trees. The only shade is provided by the trees, so if you prefer the full shade of an umbrella it may not be your favorite spot. The sand here can get incredibly hot, so wear your flip flops until you’re close to the waters’ edge or wear water shoes and keep them on – that’s what I did a few times and it worked perfectly.
The adjacent beach, separated only by some trees and mangroves, is Sombrero Claro – so named for its relatively lighter sand. This is considered the “secret” beach and it has no services at all. You can walk here from Ostra or Sombrero Oscuro, but I think most people just swim over like we did. On the snorkeling map it shows that it’s a 25 minute swim but if you’re a decent swimmer with fins it’s not more than 10-15 minutes.
But instead of rushing over there through the water, it’s the perfect opportunity to take your time and enjoy the snorkeling at Andaz Papagayo! While there’s a small designated coral area marked by yellow buoys, we found the rocky area closer to share between the two beaches to be much more interesting. It’s not the best snorkeling we’ve ever done but there were plenty of interesting sites: some unique fish we’d never seen, an eel, sea stars, a turtle and my husband even saw an octopus! Like most snorkeling, you’ll find the best visibility in the morning; during the week we visited, afternoon winds made the conditions far too choppy.
It was also fun to tool around in the Gulf in the tandem kayaks provided. We didn’t try the paddleboards, but keep in mind that they have a minimum age requirement of 14 for kids to use them solo.
The final beach is Playa Nacasolo, which is home to the newly re-opened Casa de Playa. This is exactly what a beach club should be! There are loungers everywhere, umbrellas in many spots, a small pool, a restaurant and plenty of helpful employees ready to take your lunch or drink order or deliver complementary popsicles. There’s also a kiosk here that matches the one at Sombrero Oscuro, offering free water activity gear to borrow. Supposedly there’s some pretty decent snorkeling about a 10-15 minute walk along the beach from the main area. You can access this beach by either boat transfer or van transfer – both free.
Unfortunately our experience at Playa Nacasolo wasn’t all fruity drinks in paradise. We hopped the 10am boat to the beach club, and about an hour later we were fully sunscreened, had set up our beach stuff and gotten everyone’s snorkel gear. As we started the trek toward the snorkeling are, the winds picked up dramatically. By the time I got to the snorkeling area, it wasn’t even possible for me to enter the water – we’re talking about 30 mph gusts with sustained winds of nearly 20 mph.
Apparently these kinds of wind storms are pretty common at some times of year, and they’re incredibly unpleasant if you’re at the beach. The wind is blowing from the water on to the shore, so if you’re on a lounger you’ll have sand whipping into your face. Standing behind Casa de Playa offered some shelter, but the restaurant is open-air so even being “inside” didn’t protect anyone. All of the guests evacuated from the beach, and thankfully the Andaz was able to send some extra golf carts and vans to bring everyone back to the main property. The pools at Andaz Papagayo are up on the hillside and somewhat protected by trees, so everyone headed that way and enjoyed the rest of the day poolside.
Now for my second regret… I’ll be honest and say that my kids were pretty turned off by their experience at the beach house (which I understand). They didn’t want to go back the following day and we respected their preference, especially since the winds were picking up. However, we ended up missing a whale shark that came into the bay and spent thirty minutes just hanging around in front of Playa Nacasolo! We’ve never seen one in the wild before, and the passengers who took the boat across spent about 30 minutes just observing the whale shark doing its thing. I would have loved to be there, and regret not going when I had the chance!
💡 Insider tip: When making your plans in the morning, I recommend that you check the weather with a close eye on the hourly wind forecast to get a sense for whether a pool day or a beach day will be better.
Cambi Kids Club
The Cambi Kids Club is located just above Rio Bhongo and the family pools in a lovely stand-alone building. There are several rooms including an art studio and free play space, plus a nice nature-inspired outdoor play area with beautiful views.
The core program serves ages 4-11 and runs 8am-5pm on a drop-in basis, all at no cost. It’s a great option for parents who want to work out, enjoy a spa treatment or go on a tour that isn’t ideal for their young travelers. There are some paid activities that kids can sign up for as well, like pottery painting or cupcake decorating. My brother-in-law took his kids to the Easter party and they had a great time. A few programs each week (like sandcastle building) take place at other locations on the property.
If you want a peaceful adult dinner, you can sign your kids up for a Cambi Nights program for $35. While we were there we saw ads for a “neon party” and a movie night, both including dinner.
Younger kids are eligible for babysitting services, with prices dependent on age and the number of kids in your family.
While we didn’t use Cambi (one kid was too old and the other was on the edge), the families we met whose kids attended had positive feedback. When we toured the Club all of the kids were happy and engaged but definitely tended to the younger side – probably 7 and under. If my kids were younger I’m sure they would have enjoyed spending an hour playing and enjoying the air conditioning!
Andaz Papagayo Gym & Spa
While I generally get my exercise on vacation through leisure activities like walking and snorkeling, my husband is a more committed gym patron. He found the Andaz Papagayo gym to be appropriately sized for the number of guests using it (which isn’t always the case). He’s an early morning exerciser and only lamented that there was a single Peloton bike. There were also a few Lifecycle bikes in addition to treadmills and ellipticals.
For strength training, there was plenty of equipment for everyone. There are numerous machines, full racks of free weights, resistance bands and more in the well air conditioned gym. Andaz Papagayo also has a unique outdoor exercise terrace with plenty of weights and a TRX suspension system for two people. We explored all of the options, but to be honest the outdoor workout deck wasn’t very practical in my opinion: when our family went to check it out after dinner, it was still uncomfortably hot outside despite the sun having been down for several hours. Papagayo also gets hot early in the morning too!
The Onda Spa offers a range of treatments including massages, scrubs, nails and more on top of group classes like yoga and reiki. Many of these are in indoor-outdoor spaces so that you can still appreciate the beauty and tranquility of your surroundings.
Off-site excursions
We did one off-site excursion from Andaz Papagayo, a catamaran ride for snorkeling and sunset. I don’t necessarily recommend the specific company we used, as we’ve had better experiences with other tour providers. I booked through a popular tour consolidator who is often recommended in Costa Rica Facebook groups but I wish I had just booked based on Viator reviews like I usually do! A tour like this one that’s smaller (though less convenient) would have been more focused on activities than alcohol and that’s a better fit for how our family travels.
A fun option we considered – and would have done if we’d stayed longer – is Hacienda Guachipelin. This adventure center (and hotel) is just over an hour from the Andaz on the slope of Rincon de la Vieja Volcano. The activities here can fill a full day and beyond – everything from ziplining and horseback riding to hot springs and river tubing. While the Papagayo Peninsula has a fairly dry climate (for the region), at Hacienda Guachipelin you’ll find a totally different climate and a lot of the adrenaline-pumping experiences for which Costa Rica has become popular. We’ll definitely check this out next time we’re in Note: the river tubing activity has a minimum age of 8 and height of 55″, and all activities have a maximum weight of 300lbs.
If Papagayo is your only destination in Costa Rica, you’ll want to go on this tour that visits Rio Celeste waterfall, a forest full of wild sloths and a coffee farm. It’s a long day but showcases some of Costa Rica’s highlights – plus pick up Andaz Papagayo is included.
You can also book a number of activities through the Andaz, but prices are higher than booking independently so we skipped these.
How to score a discounted stay at Andaz Papagayo
There’s no getting around the fact that Andaz Papagayo is an expensive hotel, though it’s much cheaper than the more luxurious properties on the Peninsula Papagayo (by multiples). There are a few notable ways to save on your stay here, and I certainly wouldn’t be able to stay without using one – or several – of these strategies.
Booking Andaz Papagayo on points
First, you can book your room on points as we did. But unfortunately the economics of this option have gotten much, much worse. At the time when I booked our room – a full year in advance – the hotel was a category 6 on Hyatt’s award chart, so we were charged 29,000 points per night for our peak dates. Right after I booked it went up to a category 7, and just after our stay it topped out at a category 8.
The same stay would now cost a whopping 45,000 points per night! That’s way too high in my opinion, but if you’re trying hard not to spend cash then it might be worth it. For “regular” dates a room will set you back 40,000 points per night, while off-peak is only 35,000 points. pernight. Be sure to compare it to the rates I’ll share below.
Thankfully you’ll get free parking and waived resort fees (normally 12%) for your stay, and if you’re a Globalist you’ll also enjoy free breakfast. The included activities definitely add to the value as well.
How can you rack up enough points to cover your stay? You’ll want to grab one of the Chase Sapphire credit cards, potentially some of the Chase Ink business credit cards and then you can consider the Hyatt credit cards as well. Both the Sapphire and Ink credit card points can transfer to your Hyatt account, generally giving you the best value.
The Hotel Collection benefit program
If you prefer free agency over committing to one hotel program, you’ll definitely want to check out the benefits you can rack up by booking Andaz Papagayo through Amex Travel! Andaz Papagayo is part of The Hotel Collection, so guests who hold an Amex Gold or Amex Platinum (including business versions) and book through Amex Travel will get the following benefits:
- Free breakfast for 2 (worth $78 per night)
- $100 resort credit for food, activities, spa etc
- Room upgrade when available
- Early check in/late check out when available
When you book this way, you can still put in your World of Hyatt number to collect points and qualifying nights too! If you have status with Hyatt, you’ll get those benefits as well. Be sure to double check the price versus booking directly with Hyatt – Amex may be slightly more expensive but the extra benefits could be worth it. For example, I checked a random four night stay and found that Amex comes out $339 more expensive than the member rate but the benefits are worth at least $416 extra.
While we did not use this method at Andaz Papagayo, we booked through Amex Travel when we visited Royal Palms in Scottsdale and we were treated extremely well by the staff there.
Use a Guest of Honor award
Hyatt is one of the only hotel chains that makes it easy to share the benefits of elite status via their Guest of Honor awards. It’s not a cheat – they even reward Globalist members who share these awards!
When you have a Guest of Honor award attached to your booking, you’re treated as if you are a top-level elite. The benefits are tangible and monetary. At Andaz Papagayo, you’d get waived resort fees (12% + tax per night) if you’re paying cash and free breakfast for two adults and two kids in your room. Those savings are huge! In addition, you are eligible for a free upgrade to a standard suite but realistically you’re more likely to get a room with a view than a suite. Each Guest of Honor award is good for up to 7 nights.
Your next question is probably how to get one of these amazing Guest of Honor awards. If you’ve been staying at Hyatt properties and spending on Hyatt’s credit cards, you will earn a Guest of Honor award when you hit 40 elite qualifying nights – if you’ll be really close before your visit to Andaz Papagayo, it might even be worth booking a few very inexpensive Hyatt nights on points (they start at just 3,500 points, often just over $100 depending on where you are). You can either gift that award to someone else or use it to spoil yourself! If you aren’t close to reaching 40, your best bet is to find a friend who is an established Globalist as we generally earn a minimum of three of these awards per year.
Silly as it may sound, Guest of Honor is one of the things that keeps me loyal to Hyatt. I feel amazing every time I can gift one, as I love knowing that my family members are treated like VIPs even when I’m not traveling with them.
Booking Andaz Papagayo with a Hyatt discount
What if I told you that I have a secret for getting discounts on nearly every Hyatt stay?
It’s so easy that you can do it too, thanks to the World of Hyatt business credit card. If you have any small business – even re-selling items on Marketplace – you can apply for this card. Once approved, you can sign up for Hyatt’s Leverage small business discount program. This discount varies by hotel and date but there’s no limit to the number of times you use it! I’ve seen dates for which Leverage saves $50+ per night compared with the Hyatt member rate, though it could be just a few dollars off.
That credit card will also nab you a $50 credit toward a Hyatt charge twice per year, plus you’ll get at least Discoverist status though as of this writing there’s a promotion to grant Explorist status. As an Explorist, you could get upgraded from a Forest view room to a Bay View room. Charging your Andaz Papagayo stay on the World of Hyatt business credit card will earn you at least 9.5 points per eligible dollar spent, which is worth roughly an 18% rebate toward your next stay.
The standard sign bonus for opening this credit card and meeting the minimum spend requirement is 60,000 points. In theory you could cover two nights of your stay at Andaz Papagayo with those points and then pay for the rest using your discounted Leverage rate.
You can also check for AAA discounts, though I find that they’re usually pretty comparable to Hyatt’s member rate.
Overall impressions of Andaz Peninsula Papagayo, Costa Rica
If you’ve gotten this far, you can clearly see that we really loved our time at Andaz Papagayo. It has that perfect balance of a boutique hotel but still tons of offerings. I really love that family members who want to be in “slow mode” can do that, while those who want to be active can easily keep busy without leaving the property.
Is Andaz Papagayo worth the money or points? Only you can decide that. But for the quality of the hotel’s facilities, staff and inclusions I think it’s pretty hard to beat if you want to stay at a small property and get a taste of Costa Rica’s magic!
Planning your Costa Rica getaway
Ready to lock in your trip to Costa Rica? Check out these additional resources to start your planning: