JW Marriott Guanacaste Beach Resort

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

3558 reviews

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  A beautiful resort with truly wonderful staff!

  My parents, my partner, and I spent five nights at the JW Marriott Guanacaste and had such a lovely time. The resort itself is beautiful – gorgeous grounds, great pools, a nice beach – and the food across all the restaurants was consistently delicious with plenty of variety. But what really made the trip for us was the staff. Everyone we encountered was kind, thoughtful, and attentive in a way that made us feel genuinely cared for. They got to know us over the course of our stay, remembered our preferences, and made sure we had everything we needed. There are so many people I want to thank by name: Vinicio, Josue, Luis Diego (who took great care of us at the pool), Erick, Maricela, Ronny, Meilyn, Andres, Isaac, Monserrat, Gilmar, Elian, Adrian, Olger, Monica (who made wonderful omelettes at breakfast every morning), and Dionicio (whose smoothies we looked forward to daily). (And there were many others too!) A few extra shoutouts. Jhonny, one of the bartenders – we asked for fresh coconuts one afternoon and they had run out, so he went to another part of the resort and picked fresh ones for us. That kind of thoughtfulness really captures the spirit of this place. Randall led a really fun cocktail class. Carlos (the supervisor) and Frank (our server) made our steakhouse dinner a great experience. And Jose, one of the EMTs on staff, deserves special thanks – when my dad took a tumble off his chair, Jose was there right away and was so kind, calm, and professional. We really appreciated it. We made wonderful memories as a family and left feeling relaxed and recharged. Thank you to the whole JW Marriott Guanacaste team – we'd love to come back!

  Mar 04, 2026
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  Scenic and Friendly, Yet Below the Luxury Expectation

  We recently stayed at the JW Marriott Guanacaste and walked away feeling that while it has some strong positives, it doesn’t quite live up to what you expect from the JW brand. Let me start with what the resort does well. The staff, although clearly stretched thin at times, are genuinely friendly and work very hard. Every interaction was pleasant, and you can tell the team is doing their best. The landscaping is beautiful, and the massive pool complex is the highlight of the property. It stretches almost to the beachfront and offers gorgeous sunset views. The beach itself is solid for the Pacific side of Costa Rica — swimmable with decent sand. It’s not as picturesque as some beaches closer to Tamarindo, but it’s certainly enjoyable. Now, where the experience falls short. The approach to the resort is a long, dusty, bumpy dirt road. I’m not sure whether that’s on Marriott or the land ownership, but it becomes frustrating quickly — especially when you’re leaving the property for excursions. And because this resort is quite isolated, you’ll likely be going in and out. Tamarindo, the main hub, is at least 30 minutes away. Within the resort, maintenance feels lacking. Elevators creak, fixtures are faded, and moldings show cracks. While everything was generally clean, the rooms themselves felt average for what is marketed as a 4.5-star luxury property. Housekeeping was also inconsistent — on at least two occasions our room had still not been cleaned by 4 p.m. when we returned from being out all day. For a resort at this price point and brand level, that was disappointing. It simply doesn’t have the elevated feel you expect from a JW. Dining was mixed. The Asian Fusion restaurant was genuinely good. The steakhouse, however, felt like a slightly upgraded chain steakhouse charging high-end steakhouse prices. Again, service was pleasant and hardworking across all venues. Poolside, the vibe is fairly quiet, which can be nice. But during peak season it becomes crowded, and the 3 a.m. “towel on the chair” situation is real. That’s something you expect at a mid-tier all-inclusive in the Caribbean — not at a JW Marriott. Transportation is another challenge. Because of the remote location, there are no readily available taxis or Ubers waiting outside. If you don’t plan ahead, getting around becomes inconvenient and expensive. When asking for assistance, you’re typically referred to a third-party tour agency, and pricing reflects that. For example, it cost $24 just to get to a golf course two miles away. Overall, this property has a beautiful setting and a hardworking staff, but the infrastructure, maintenance, isolation, and pricing-to-experience ratio make it hard to call this a true JW-level resort. With some investment and better operational oversight, it could be significantly improved. For now, I’d describe it as a solid Marriott experience — just not a luxury-tier one.

  Mar 03, 2026
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  Paradise by the Sea

  My husband and I were lucky enough to stay here for a week. If you are looking for a DJ playing music by the pool, a conga line, pool slides and swan boats, this is not the resort for you! The resort is tranquil, beautiful, with the loveliest pool we've ever seen. It is cleverly lagoon-shaped with lots of separate areas and much room for beach chairs. Our room was an ocean-view suite on the "quiet" (non-pool) side, and we loved the privacy of it. Food was good, service was good, rooms and grounds were exceptionally clean. Location is not convenient for excursions, and we never left the resort. We loved the calm vibe, and felt as though the experience was a good value.

  Mar 01, 2026
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  Recent Stay at JW Marriott Guanacanaste

  Just back from the Marriott Guanacanaste. Random observations: Really nice property- clean, terrific friendly staff, great pools, great beach, good food . Be aware, it's *very* hot this time of year - in the 90s every day with relentless sun. Evenings were much more pleasant as it cooled a bit. The beachfront is terrific for walking- you can walk south on the beach for several miles and see very few people. Felt super safe. This hotel is extremely remote as others have noted. Took about two hours in the car from LIR airport as most roads are two lane and subject to traffic. But the area- Hacienda Pinilla- is sprawling and interesting as it's being developed with luxury homes springing up. We enjoyed the comp hotel bike ride for hotel guests. During our stay we saw monkeys in trees and iguanas. Pretty cool. Did the horseback ride for $60 pp. Very hot but fun and worthwhile. We rode down to Playa Langosta, a stunning beach nearby- like so many others, pretty much deserted. Had hoped to surf but conditions did not cooperate- waves small and pretty windy for several days. Rode hotel bikes(which were in good shape) down to the Beach Club ($5. entrance fee) several times and enjoyed that. Beach club has a nice pool, gym, nice little restaurant and tiki bar. It stayed pretty busy. And nice beach in front. Took a shuttle ($36 pp RT) over to Tamarindo one day. Another amazing, wide beach that goes for miles. Very touristy but it's what we expected. The hotel breakfast buffet is terrific- tons of fresh fruit, local foods, omelet station and quesadilla station- all made to order. Great smoothies. Highly recommend and nice that it's open until 11am. When checking in , no room upgrade available but staff pretty quickly threw in free breakfast each day so might be worth negotiating for that at check- in. I think they threw that in due to our Marriott status. Price is normally $35. per person. They also dont mind at all if you take items 'to go' and provide to go containers, which was great. We did not do any big excursions as they involved so much driving- two to four hours to a lot of destinations which was just a bit more time in a car/van than we wanted to spend.

  Mar 01, 2026
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  Hits the mark for a luxury resort!

  The JW in Guanacaste scored high marks during our four day stay. It’s very clean - everywhere. The staff were consistently friendly throughout the resort. We found the food quality to be very good, and the only outlet we didn’t try was the steakhouse. The pool is extremely large and winds its way through the inner courtyard area in a very interesting design. The beach, though not wide, is well groomed and there are good waves for body surfing at times. Note: It is some 25 minutes from Tamarindo and the dirt road as you get near the property is rough.

  Feb 28, 2026