Has anyone stayed at The Sanctuary Resort Condiminiums in Playa Azul, Guanacaste, Costa Rica? If so, we would love to hear abut it and any advise you could pass on to us.
Thanks
Has anyone stayed at The Sanctuary Resort Condiminiums in Playa Azul, Guanacaste, Costa Rica? If so, we would love to hear abut it and any advise you could pass on to us.
Thanks
Yes - we stayed there 5 years ago and it was terrible! Between the lack of staff, amenities, and extremely remote location, it was a huge disappointment. The condo we stayed in had fire ants, the power was off for days at a time, there wasn't a single clock, the towels were rough and threadbare, and the shower water alternated between a scalding dribble and icy cold fire hose.
If they send you pictures of the beach and it looks dreamy and white, they are lying. It's a volcanic beach and you need hiking shoes to get there. There's a dangerous rip tide too, so if you have kids or weak swimmers in your group, don't go swimming.
If they tell you they have a fully stocked convenience store, they're lying again. We didn't buy any groceries in town thinking we could get everything at the "resort", but the store looked like it had been raided during a zombie apocalypse and was empty. Make sure to stock up for your entire vacation before heading towards the resort. The road to the "resort" is like driving on moon craters. It takes about 2 1/2 hours to get there from the closet airport.
I know it's in a remote location, but if you like rustic living, then by all means, book your vacation today. It was touted as a fine resort and we were so disappointed once we got there. It was heartbreaking.
We stayed there last week. We had a condo booked for the week, but left three days early, because it was horrible. Several other couples that had reservations for the week left early also.
It's still as you described it, right down to the threadbare linens. You're right, there was not a convenience store, restaurant or anything on site except the pool. The beach was horrible, black sand, rip tides and all. We thought we would see monkeys, beautiful birds and be eating fresh fruit from the trees. Wrong, we saw five monkeys at a distance.
The whole experience gave us a very bad taste of Costa Rica and we never want to return, even though we did go to another place to spend our final days. Thank goodness we figured out that the resort was very remote before arriving and stopped at a grocery store in Santa Cruz, or we would have starved to death. The roads were like driving on moon craters, we agree.