Barcelo Tambor

The hotel location is the best part of the vacation. The beach is amazing, long walks, NO PEOPLE, jumping stingrays. The trip to the hotel is very long- be prepared, we landed in Liberia to avoid the overnight in San Jose but was still a 3.5 hr ride. One section was so rough our driver called it a Costa Rica massage. Once there we were happily surprised by the resort, not too large, clean large rooms, minibar.The resort is well maintained and nice to see wildlife on the grounds- howler monkeys, iguanas, small crocs in the pond, birds. Food was okay, very repetitive, NO seafood which was disappointing. It may have been due to the time of year we were there, MANY local families as it was their holiday break. Please check before you go if you want quiet because it was like Great Wolf Lodge at march break when we were there- too busy and may have been why food was repetitive and ordinary. Love the area but would go back at non holiday time. [Details]

I enjoyed my stay at Playa Tambor hotel. Food and accommodation were great. The air transat representative was amazing. I will go back to this destination in the future. [Details]

The hotel was very comfortable, your average 4 star, it was holiday season for the local people, so very few English speaking people at the resort, there was maybe 10 to twenty people on the resort that were not from Costa Rica, so if you go to mingle you need to speak the language or you may feel very isolated. [Details]

- Would recommend the air transfers (25 mins) vs. the ferry (4 1/2hrs) if you are staying at this Barcelo, although if you are afraid of flying, you may want to consider a different area of Costa Rica. The plane sits 12 people.
- Very difficult to find English speaking staff, but they do make every effort to make themselves understood and are SUPER friendly
- nightly entertainment is in Spanish so if you don't understand the language, you may be bored !
- lots of wildlife in and around resort
- food was good
- beach is not the nicest, but I think this may be typical of Costa Rica.
- Would recommend the Isla Tortuga excursion.
- Would also recommend renting a car and exploring the area and some of the towns nearby ( ie - Montezuma ) [Details]

As a four star resort, lacks in service, no english communication abilities by staff, food selection is below avarage (liver, rabit etc. on manue, not well cooked). Resort and staff cater to local population as 90% of guest are Costa Rican. Go if you have lots of kids, thats all you see and hear all day. Activities or entertainment at resort non existant. Nature and beach real good. [Details]

Staff is friendly, but they don't speak English, so if you have a question or a concern they don't understand. [Details]