“Relaxing - Fantastic location- Great waves!” Great location on beach access road. Large individual units are great for either renting individually or together with large group. The units are nearly identical, and both are large enough to easily hold 6 people. Each unit is two bedrooms and two full bathrooms plus the living room furniture quickly converts to beds. The kitchen was well stocked. There is an outdoor charcoal & wood grill. In the early am I liked to take a short walk or go to the roof top to listen and watch the howler monkeys and all of the birds. The pool area always became a relaxing lunch hideaway in the afternoon heat. There is a very large table where we could take our time eating having drinks, and relaxing while keeping an eye on the kids floating in the pool. There is also a very nice outdoor beach restaurant and bar right at the end of the road on the beach. We had so much fun surfing, boogieboarding, snorkeling, & exploring. The perfect riding waves at this spot were endless. Even when it looked fairly flat, eventually a nice set would roll in. I recommend bringing flip flops for walking the beach road as you can go barefoot but the sand near the top of the beach gets very hot in the afternoon sun. We have stayed at a few places in the area, but will definitely be returning to Sandy Bottoms!

“Wow! You'll love the Red Sunset!” Are you looking for a luxury guesthouse near Lake Arenal and Arenal Volcano? If so, look no further and book yourself into the Red Sunset. My husband and I, along with six friends, spent a week in March there. We are so glad we did! We found the accommodations to be everything they were advertised and more. The views are amazing and the house, pool house and grounds will give you plenty of opportunities to relax and explore. While the guesthouse is excellent, the very best feature is the owner/operator Patrick. Patrick met with us each day to help us plan activities and make reservations with the best tour operators. His local knowledge and recommendations were spot on each day, and his help was invaluable. The breakfast provided each morning was a highlight unto itself. Come prepared to eat well – you won’t be disappointed. We’ve never had meals of this quality at similar style lodgings. We also took advantage of the optional evening Chef services. While there were several great places to eat in the Lake Arenal area, all of which were recommended to us by Patrick, you won’t beat the meals prepared by Patrick and his wife. Our favorite was the Chicken Parmesan – sorry, Mom, but it was the best we’ve had anywhere! The Red Sunset was the perfect place for our Costa Rica vacation. We arrived as guests and soon felt like family. We’re glad we chose the Red Sunset!

“Beautiful Property” The entire staff was terrific. Viviana was super helpful as she was able to make travel arrangements for us to make our stay enjoyable. Stephen was also terrific, he was great during booking and even called to check in with us while we were there. My only regret is not taking Stephen's recommendation to have our cars (Suvs!) delivered directly to the villa. Also, do not get anything but an SUV as a rental, a regular car will not make it up to the villa.

“Best Vacation Ever” This was the perfect condo for our best vacation ever. We came as three couples and each couple had its own private room, bathroom and balcony. The design of the condo allows for a huge great room were we all gathered to discuss our daily events. The owner arranged to have his own private limo/guide pick us up from the airport. He also arrange free pedicures and manicures as well as nail art from a local Spa. It was the best my nails have ever looked in my entire life. When we arrived at the condo we were in awe of the beautiful condo and the breath taking views of the pacific ocean. The condo has an 20 foot mural of the ocean that you see when you first enter the unit. Your eyes then go from the mural to the most beautiful ocean view that my husband and I have ever seen. This unit was immaculately clean and decorated with luxury sculptures. The mattresses and linens were best we have ever slept on in all of our years of travel. During the mornings we would walk the beach, then each afternoon we did a local trip of either Zip-Linning, Fishing, ATV, or hiking. Then in the late afternoon the ladies went to the private pool as the men worked out in the private work out room. At night we went to some fabulous restaurants that the owner recommended and got a discount for us. Two nights we went out dancing to early in the morning. One thing we never missed was the sunsets from the balcony. The view from his balcony was spectacular. I would highly recommend you staying at this condo. We are coming back next year and this is the only place we will stay.

“Truly Amazing property!” There are no words to describe how wonderful it was to wake up to the magnificent views at Casa Espanola. The concierge and staff at my vacation Costa Rica were very attentive to all our needs. We were there for my girlfriend's bachelorette party and we were a group of 15! From the beginning, geralyn and Amy did a great job planning out our trip. I was very anxious about how the trip was going to turn out because i had never been to Costa Rica, but they were always so prompt with responding to my emails and executing all that was promised. Geralyn set up all of our excursions ahead of time. She even scheduled massages at the property! You won't want to leave this place! The pictures do not do it justice! It is even more beautiful in person. We posted photos on instagram with the hashtag #casaespanola so that you can see some photos from our experience. There were 4 floors and each had an ocean view! It was refreshing being able to wake up to that every morning! Every day, the cleaning staff came and cleaned up the property thoroughly, so the house was so nice every time we got back from our daily outing. Oh and our private chef, Chef Harold, was amazing!!!! He and his wife are so nice and the food is delicious! They have a menu on site and they will cook anything you request as long as they can get the ingredients. I would recommend Costa Rican cuisine because it is really yummy. All you have to pay for is the cost of food. And it is definitely worth it! The beaches are close by and easy to get to. The cost of transportation is about $1.75 per person each way. We had breakfast at Cafe Milagro. Their food is really good and the coffee drinks are deelish! You must see Manuel Antonio park. It is about a 20 minute stroll through the park where you see cute monkeys and other exotic animals. Once you get to the end of the park, you get to Manuel Antonio beach which is totally worth it! We had a blast. We also went to playa biesanz which is nice and private. Our trip was at the beginning of rainy season (May 28th-June 1st). I was really anxious about the weather because of the weather reports. I will say this: please disregard what you see on your weather app. It said that it was 100% precipitation and that it would be cloudy and raining every day. The weather was amazing pretty much all day. It would get cloudy in the late evening and it did rain a couple nights, but Costa Rica is so amazing that it didn't even bother us. Especially since we stayed at casa Española. I forgot to mention that they even provide you with 2 cell phones in case you need to get in touch with your concierge! How amazing is that? You can use the phone to make any local calls. So after the first couple days, i was able to call my own taxi lol I’m sure some of the other girls will post a review so you can definitely see how happy we were with our experience! Stay here! You won't be disappointed! To Amy, Geralyn and the rest of the staff at My Vacation Costa Rica, Thank you again for your hard work and the amazing experience!

“Most enjoyable tropical get away” We stayed in the Cranford's Toucan Suite. Our friends stayed in the upper level suite. The house sits on pristine jungle - the sound and sight of rare birds is a daily occurrence. We could easily walk to the river, explore the grounds which abound with exotic plants.Toucan Suite is the larger of the two units and is fully equipped with linens, kitchen utensils. We were able to borrow and exchange with our upstairs companions for the items that we needed (juicer, coffee grinder, garlic press) but it would be nice to have both kitchens equally stocked. The stove and refrigerator worked well. The issues that we had with staying at the Toucan Suite would be that the fans need to be upgraded. There are two ceiling fans that function well, although the "blue bedroom" fan makes too much noise to sleep through. There were two portable fans; one of them was okay but the other one barely moved the blades and eventually went comatose. Fortunately our friends in the upper unit had powerful ceiling fans and two super powerful portable fans and they lent us one which saved us! I strongly suggest the Cranfords upgrade the fans in the Toucan Suite. The lovely wooden doors that lead from the main floor to the porch area need to be fixed. They are off their track so we were unable to close them when the hot eastern sun shone through. The house would be much cooler if these functioned well. Blondie and Michael have a sign asking that we remove our shoes before entering and I complied with this request the first night. I found the floor really dirty and in the evening the ants, frogs and other insects would come in so we kept our shoes on. The house could use a good cleaning and some general upkeep. The upstairs suite seemed cleaner and because of the fans, cooler. The views from the upstairs suite are to die for. As the Cranfords note, the Internet seldom works consistently. Overall, we enjoyed our stay very much and highly recommend the Toucan Suite.