My husband and I just spent 28 glorious days at this property. This is our 7th trip to this area and our favorite stay so far. The casita / guest house is new, clean and very well stocked with everything we needed. The bed was very comfortable, there is also A/C if you choose, and the WIFI/Internet was strong. The location is only a short drive (maybe 5 minutes?) up the mountain from the highway. A 4 x 4 is a must. It is also a short drive to Playa Matapalo and Playa Linda. I would say the location is top notch. The exterior of the property is an experience in aromatheraply with all its wonderful plants and flowers. And although this is a guest house, with the owner residing in the main house, we had the pool to ourselves every day with great privacy (Gelena, the owner, insisted on this). And it was a bonus to have Gelena on site as she was very responsive to all our questions and provided excellent information about surrounding markets, amenities etc. The location is very safe and the bonus was having monkeys visit us frequently, as well as toucans and parrots. Highly recommend this property.
Big shoutout to Gelena for creating this gorgeous piece of paradise and letting guests come and enjoy it!
This property has everything you could possibly need! We loved making fresh smoothies and drinking them while listening to all the jungle sounds! Got greeted by a bunch of monkeys on our first morning, toucans in the afternoon. Everything was wonderful!
This house is the perfect size for a family of 4 as long as your kids can sleep in the same bed. For us it was the perfect size. This is a new property with an amazing view of the ocean. We were impressed with how modern the house was and the quality of the construction. With the proximity of the forest we even saw a group of spider monkeys from the balcony. The proximity to the beach is also a plus. Matapolo beach is sandy and was great for our family. Gelena is your ultimate host. This VRBO was our last stay but Gelena checked in with us prior to arrival. She offered suggestions for activities and gave us lots of ideas for things to do in the area. Having this info made our trip so much more enjoyable. We will definitely be staying here again if we come back.
I cannot express how amazing our stay was and our host, Gelena! The directions getting there are very accurate. Gelena makes sure you have the proper vehicle (4x4) before hand, check in/out is very easy! The property itself is completely breathtaking, you will see local animals in the trees (toucans, white faced monkeys, and more)! She has everything you need to stay for a vacation, including a full kitchen which we definitely enjoyed! Very clean as well, the woodworking in her home is beautiful!
The hostess was wonderful and easy to work with. The house was impressively clean. The neighborhood was gorgeous. We enjoyed driving around with the 4x4 and yes you will need a 4x4 for this gorgeous property.
Whenever you book on Expedia or other similar services, there can be a bit of figuring out the layout of places, especially when they have more going on or multiple amenities. Gelena has never had someone book through Expedia since she started offering the space, and it wasn't clear that this was a guesthouse in her post, but it is on the other posting sites where she does all of her business (until me - such a troublemaker! ;). Anyway, it didn't matter much to me because I was running around to other places during most days and chilling in the well-appointed home during the nights. The hum of insects singing at night is something to behold, and in my experience they had zero interest in biting me. The singing is relaxing and melds into the background. When you consider the lush vegetation on the grounds it's not a surprise. I struck out on seeing monkeys, sloths or toucans, but that's my hex, not yours. The pool was refreshing when needed, and Gelena helpful at all times, even though I was absent or occupied the majority of the time. If you're looking for a central location to check out central Costa Rica, or to just chill for some me time, it's hard to imagine that you could do better. Last, Gelena is straight up about the 4wd necessity, but 3 of the 4 places I've stayed at during this trip required them and it just means that you'll be more in nature and further from the rat race, which is what this is all about anyway, right?