We’ve enjoyed great food at many eco lodges like Bosque del Cabo and La Paloma on the Osa peninsula, and the food at Banana Azul is right up there with the best of them.Ī full breakfast is included with the room and is always impressive, not to mention delicious. Nevertheless, mosquito repellant always comes in handy. The corner room has one of the best views of the property and the bathroom is spacious with a luxurious tub for two.Īt night, the jungle air can get still and sometimes buggy, but the ceiling fan kept us cool and mosquito netting kept critters away. We stayed in the Howler Suite for a week during each of our stays and were very comfortable. Several suites toward the back of the property - formerly the owners suites - are secluded and very roomy. Villas can accommodate up to four people and seem ideal for extended stays. The private Villas Banana Verde feature a kitchen, dining and lounge area, bedroom with cable TV, luxurious shower and A/C.Īll villas have a plunge pool and a balcony on both the first and the second floor. New villas were completed in 2016 across the street from the hotel - pics are on their website. You can sleep with the door open under the mosquito netting but you just might have some bugs and other critters want to join you for the night. The unique design of the hotel has all of the rooms opening to one side of the building overlooking the pool, so the rooms are very private. Just slow down at the sloth crossing signs! Transportation to and around Puerto Viejo is fairly straightforward, road signage is good, and moving around once you're there is also simple and safe. (Actually, the shuttle picks you up on the Costa Rica side of the border after you first haul your own luggage across a long, rickety bridge over the border, but that's a story for another day!) The second time we arrived from Panama to the south after 4 days in Bocas del Toro and took a van shuttle to Puerto Viejo from Changuinola. On our first trip to the southern Caribbean, we drove our rental car from San Jose to Puerto Viejo, about a four hour drive. We’ve stayed here several times and each time had a comfortable and relaxing stay.
And when you go, be sure and book your room at Hotel Banana Azul - dare I say one of the biggest reasons the secret got out in the first place. If that sounds like your kinda fun, get there soon.
The hotel itself has all the amenities you need in a great Costa Rica vacation with a lot of the natural world thrown in.Īnd the food? Don’t get us started on the food! Hotel Banana Azul is a chill and relaxed hotel on Puerto Viejo’s Playa Negra just north of the town of Puerto Viejo. Or you can fly from San Jose into the port city of Limon. To get to the Caribbean coast, you can either rent a car in San Jose or Alajela and drive - it’s a beautiful drive down through old pineapple plantations, now Dole banana plantations. The climate and weather is very similar to Drake Bay and the Osa peninsula on the south Pacific coast.īut this is a part of the country that has a completely unique feel to it - not typically Costa Rican, if there is such a thing.īut more of a West Indies culture and reggae vibe - a little edgy and always laid-back. The lush dense jungle that characterizes much of Costa Rica can also be felt on the Caribbean coast.
This post may contain affiliate links: if you make a purchase through these links, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. The secret trickled out about ten years ago drawing ever more tropical travelers in search of rum, reggae, surf, and self-discovery. I’m talking about Puerto Viejo, the once-sleepy village at the southern tip of Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast near the Panamanian border. Over the years, we’ve visited this favorite country of ours several times, checking out different areas each time.
#Puerto viejo hotels how to#
If you're heading there soon and looking for a fabulous hotel, Puerto Viejo is an authentic gem of a town and we know just the place - Hotel Banana Azul, one of our favorite places to stay on Costa Rica's Caribbean Coast.Ĭosta Rica is an amazing place, with just about anything you could wish for in an eco destination:ĭepending on what part of Costa Rica you visit, you’ll get each of these to some extent, unless of course you stay just near the capital city of San Jose.Īnd even that's a great part of the country, once you figure out how to get around the first few times. Everyone knows Costa Rica is the place to go for that pura vida vibe, and other guaranteed soul soothers.
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