Villas Playa Samara Beach Front Resort

We went again back to Villas Playa Samara for 2 weeks in Feb as we were there in Jan as well. Loved it even better. This time we got a ocean front Villa. Jan had more kids and Feb was nice and quiet. Lots of Canadians and a few from the US. All great people. Now The food was EXCELLENT and each day and night always something different. Very tasty. The Chef named ENOC was so sweet and went out of his way to cook anything we wanted. Some of our friends caught a bunch of fish and he cooked it up so wonderful for them as well. He loves his job and he does things from the heart. We sure hope he stays there for us for next year. Great job and again food was wonderful. Bartender Hazel, Brenda, and Joseph were all great and treated us like Kings and Queens. Everyone loved those kids. They work so hard and so nice and the service was always top Notch. The beautiful birds, and Iguanas and squirrels were so sweet and the property was so tropical and peaceful. I slept at night hearing the waves. Also the ocean was warm like a bathtub. This hotel is older but has the old school charm, and so clean and out of this world . Don't let anyone say otherwise. We travel a great deal and would come back over and over again. Loved our trip and Thank you to everyone who works there who made it so wonderful for us. Miss you all so much. See you next year. Heather & Randy

Upon arrival around midnight our time, we needed to deal with the Azure resort night manager Luz Wendy as there was no front desk for Villas Playa Samara. Luz was ignorant, had no customer service skills and did not care that we traveled 24 hours. When we entered our Villa, the kitchen taps were making a VERY loud noise and we had to go to the front desk 3 times to get this resolved as we could not sleep. They ended up replacing our kitchen taps in the morning. The second night we also needed to deal with Luz in regards to our A la Carte. This was also a very unpleasant experience as he was stating that we did not have A la Carte, which indeed we had paid for 3 of them when booking with our travel agent. It was finally resolved and indeed we did have 3. Needless to say, Luz should not be a manager nor should he be dealing with any customer. Not sure how he ended up in that position?!? I asked him to speak with his manager and he blatantly told me NO, he was the manager! The staff at Villas Playa Samara on the other hand were very pleasant. I want to give a shout out to 2 staff members at the buffet which are Christian Bustos and Joseph Arguedas. These 2 individuals were very friendly, always happy and pleasant... Two wonderful and polite gentlemen. They assisted me in any possible way that they could. I asked for the contact info of the resort manager to discuss but apparently there is nobody and I was advised to write a review on TripAdvisor. The owner is someone from Quebec, Canada. I would like someone from upper management to contact me so I could discuss this further. It will be interesting to see if I get a response.

Had a clogged sink ask them to come fix it hours later I had to go ask again for them to come because they’re were worms crawling out of the drain that same night there was a wedding right next to are villa they stored all the extra tables and chairs next door to are villa and moved them all back after the wedding banging and scraping and laughing loudly till 2:00 in the morning so I got know sleep at all then I couldn’t even get them to clean the worms I had to it was gross they don’t even care that all this was happening there’s know costumer service what so ever I don’t not recommend staying here

We had a lovely stay at the Villas from Feb. 5 to 12. We arrived late at night , and were able to get a meal at the buffet. Our room was not ready , so they put us in a lovely ocean view villa. The front desk were always helpful, even helping us deal with lost luggage. Concierge Luz was amazing- booking us for excursions and helping us with all we needed. We enjoyed the small buffet- lots of variety, and the serving staff were so friendly and helpful. We enjoyed the unhurried pace of the meals. the pool was clean and perfect temperature, and the pool bar was a delight. Hazel could mix any drink that you could imagine.We walked to the beach every day, and it was warm and sandy. We enjoyed the Palo Verde tour. The boat tour was great- we saw monkeys and crocodiles , and lots of birds. The boat operator always pulled up close to the animals and let us take lots of pictures. We also enjoyed the coffee tour. The little beach town of Samara is close by- you can walk or take a 12 dollar taxi ride. It has a lovely beach and lots of souvenir shopping. We loved the grounds- so well kept, and interesting vegetation. We always drank the hotel water, and enjoyed it- we find Costa Rica a very clean and eco conscious country. The resort never seemed crowded, and we never had to line up for anything. It was a great place to relax.

Allison Amador and Nadine Matarrita were the best hostesses and employees at this resort. They were honest, sincere and went above and beyond for us to have a good trip. Unfortunately we were disappointed that we did not get our a la cart meals . We put a claim in once home with our travel agent to be compensated but the owner of the resort denied it. This had nothing to do with these two young ladies who we loved because we took a cab into Samara for our dinners and they made sure we were safe going off resort.

A very disappointing stay Lots of issues experienced. - Reception unable to answer anything and told us to WhatsApp concierge. Was told by them I need to go to reception! - No info given at check in re meals etc, had to go and ask for times and receptionist wrote them on a post it note for us. - Wifi didn’t work in the room. - Two Light bulbs out in the room - reported but never replaced. - Toiletries not replaced when used. - Two chairs on the patio (no table) both too filthy to sit on for entire stay. - No waste bin in room. Left rubbish on side and never taken. - Flowers in a jar (no water) in the room on day of arrival - left to die and never removed. - Rooms not cleaned until late afternoon. - Breakfast was 7-9am. Went at 7am as had 8am pick up for a trip and told it wasn’t ready yet - was ready to access at 7.20am. - Buffet dinner poor and €30 a head. Had to get cabs into town each day - €10-12 each way. Security at the gate (top of a long drive, on the main road) wouldn’t let taxi in so had to be dropped at main gate and walk down to hotel. Also wouldnt let excursion buses or pick up in but didn’t inform us or let us know they were at the gate waiting. I don’t normally do reviews but this was so disappointing in the middle of an otherwise fabulous three weeks holiday in Costa Rica in a number of other fabulous hotels. And to top it all off we had to pay a €200 deposit on arrival but when checking out they would not refund it as said it wasn’t the card I used to pay (it was and I showed them proof on banking app on my phone) - they said could not check as their systems were down (still took money for our bar bill!)… I am still chasing the refund three weeks later through our travel agent. (Credit where credit is due, they did leave a lovely happy birthday message on the bed for my fiancé, I assume they saw the birthday cards in the room as I gave up trying to ask if they could do anything special for him!)