Riu Guanacaste - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

10753 reviews

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  I didn’t want to leave…

  It was my families first time ever traveling to Costa Rica. The rooms were beautiful and clean and the resort was recently renovated. Food was good - lots of variety at the buffet. Breakfast was my favorite! Fresh tropical fruit and all the American breakfast staples + a variety of other traditional breakfast options! I also had great lobster, local fish, fresh salads, and pasta for lunch and dinner. The pool was so fun - a lot of seating, swim up bar, plenty of shade. But I did get burnt - the sun down here doesn’t mess around! Be prepared and wear sandals when walking on the pool decks/beach as thy get super hot. We also saw howler and capuchin monkeys, parrots, and iguanas right in the beach! The hotel staff was so friendly, accommodating, and welcoming - housekeeping worked around the clock. We were so impressed by their service! Lastly - make sure you book with Luis Solutions! We experienced so many incredible sights with him and he was extremely kind and knowledgeable! Waterfall, hot springs, rainforest, an intimate encounter with a wild sloth, and horseback riding in the beach. Incredible!

  Mar 01, 2026
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  Costa Rica getaway

  This hotel was new and nice. The staff was very helpful and courteous. The food was good and plenty to choose from. Large property and beautiful views. Large rooms. we booked through Delta vacations and it was a good value. They were cleaning the property 24 hours a day. If you are on the courtyard it could be loud some nights from the entertainment they has at the stages. I would highly recommend it.

  Feb 27, 2026
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  Mixed Review

  The renovation is simply gorgeous. It is very serene here. A+ There are no longer any bathtubs, so if you’re sore and need a good soak, it’s not going to happen. B- The beds are so comfortable. They did a great job here. A+ The food is subpar and has taken a complete nosedive since we were last here. Very limited variety, buffet is about 1/3 the size of the old one. Food is edible, and you won’t starve, but that’s it. It’s often cold and dried up. Nothing seems fresh. Foodies should look elsewhere. D+ Service is non-existent and the entire resort is understaffed. No one looks happy. C- Grounds are lush and beautiful but lacking in flowers. It’s mostly green so I have to lower the score for that. B- Casino closed. No ATM anywhere on the resort to get cash. D- Rooms are well stocked with drinks but no snacks. B- Overall, a lovely resort, much expanded, and the renovation is top notch. Truly beautiful…but everything else suffered.

  Feb 26, 2026
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  Fire alarms ruining our trip

  Every single night the fire alarm has gone off and woken our new born. Following a loud voice message to disregard. We then spend most of the night trying to put him back to sleep. Completely unacceptable and ruining our vacation:

  Feb 25, 2026
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  Great resort with new upgrades

  We stayed at the Riu Guanacaste Feb 16-23/26. Went with 4 couples. It was all our first time ever travelling to Costa Rica. The bus ride was approx 45 from the airport to the resort. The resort has been recently renovated. The main buffet is very large. Lots of seating. And lots of food options. Mostly the same things on the menu for breakfast and dinner. We never ate lunch there. We did eat at the sports bar - American Cowboy - it had really good wings and fries! Never once did we have trouble finding a place to sit at by the pools. Lots of seating. And most of the lounge chairs are covered with large structure canopies. These came in extremely handy as it is very warm and lots of sunshine. We could hide under the canopies to dry off and be in the sun in the pool. Three decent sized pools. Two of them had swim up bars. Pool games and aqua fitness were led every day with the Riu staff. We made sure to wear our sandals when walking on the pool decks or on the beach - it is extremely hot on the feet. We could leave our sandals by the stairs of the pool. The beach has black sand and is very hot to walk on. There’s lounge chairs on the beach as well. Not a lot of people sat on the beach for the day because it’s so hot. The water was roped off where the Riu guests could swim. There’s public beach access as well. There’s also some vendors on the beach right off of the resort where you can buy souvenirs. They’d usually only ask you once if you’d like to buy something and then leave you alone if you’d didn’t. We walked to the Monkey Bar - it’s a 1km (0.6mile) walk from the resort to the bar. It’s safe to walk there and back. They served drinks and food. If you went there early enough, you could see monkeys along the way. We headed out around 11am and we didn’t see any monkeys. It was too hot for them already. We did see monkeys just beside the resort. You could see them from the lounge chairs and pools. They were just off the resort lounging in the trees right beside. There were 4 à la cart restaurants. We didn’t eat at any of them. Simply because there were long lines for them every night and we could pretty much get the same food at the buffet. The Riu also has a water park - but we didn’t end up making it over there to see it either. We didn’t know how busy or how hot it would get during the day. There was a show in the theatre every night. They were themed. And then there was usually another show on the side stage after that. They were done by 11pm. The bar beside the theatre closed at 11pm as well. The American Cowboy bar is open 24 hours. Drinks were very good. Lots of options to choose from. Rooms were nicely updated too. Room service came every day with clean towels. The bar fridge in the room is restocked every other day. Probably the only thing I can say that the resort could have improved on was the amount of washrooms available. There was only 1 building out by the pools. And the closest one to the buffet was a bit of a walk. Not a huge deal breaker - but they maybe could have added a second set around the pools somewhere. We only did one excursion - and it was the zip lining right beside the resort. We just did the zip lining and not the animal sanctuary or some of the other things offered. We chose not to do any other excursions simply because we were there for the sunshine and heat and we didn’t want to spend a day in a bus travelling. But we heard some of those excursions were great! All in all, we were very impressed with this resort and hopefully will be back in a few years!

  Feb 24, 2026