Review of : APARTAMENTO RIO GRANDE, GUANACASTE, PAN DE AZUCAR
near ATENAS, COSTA RICA
We were booked into their Cabin #1 for 2 months – Jan and Feb 2011. Attracted by the Website and the information we made the booking. Upon arrival we found the claims misleading. The property is lovely and the cabins are attractive and kept very clean with fresh bedding twice a week.
We have travelled with our own vehicle extensively in Mexico for 17 years, and Guatemala, Belize, Panama and all South American countries except Bolivia and Paraguay. We are very familiar with 3rd world busses ( very modern to small collectivos) and roads of all descriptions. The busses in Costa Rica ran on schedule as they gave us a printed time table.
The following are some of the issues we encountered:
1. Dogs. The owner Teresa (in her 70's) and her son and family own at least 11 dogs on the small property. These dogs bark at any time of the day and night and especially early morning. The dogs range in size from 2 large Mastiff to a Chihuahua and others in between.
2. Pool. The pool is not cleaned sufficiently and is mainly murky with leaves and debris on the surface and the bottom was slimy. Some female guests were hesitant about going into the pool.
3. Location. The Website claims a hourly bus service outside the gate – not so. (We did not rent a car for the 2 months.) You walk 200 meters down a steep hill on very rough gravel road to the main road and wait for the bus that passes at 7:45, 9:45 and 11:30 am and takes about 45 minutes to town as it goes into 2 other villages and has many stops in between. A car would take 10-15min as it is not 5 km from town but 10-12km on a mountain road.
4. Internet. We knew there was no internet connection for guests, but because of the inconvenience of the buses it took at least ½ day to go into Atenas to check your e-mail etc. On one occasion we requested to use their private internet.
5. A small annoyance – the brooms are only available in the laundry hut. Calling someone from the door bell does not work and we were very hesitant about entering their yard because of the large dogs. On one occasion we witnessed the gardener's young helper leap the fence to avoid the attack of the huge Mastiff.
6. Contents of fridge on arrival: The term well stocked fridg is an exaggeration. It contained 2 bottles of water, jam -300g, cream cheese – 300g, milk - ¼ litre, baguette of bread. We asked for enough coffee for the next morning as we arrived too late to go shopping. The owner accommodated us with a bottle of wine which we resupplied him the next day.
Surprising the owners did not inform us or other guests of the bus schedule or that there was an English radio station.
posted by Chris and Irene @ 4:57 PM
2 Comments:
Reply from Apartamentos Rio Grande.
First we like say, that we are very sorry, that Irene and Chris were not as lucky with their stay here as all our other guests.
Dogs: yes, we have 11 dogs on the property, but our property is about 5000m2 and our private area with the dogs is seperated with a secure fence from the bungalow area.
The dogs were only barking, when there was one reason and this is for the scurity too.
Chris and Irene are bird watchers and need absolute silence for their hobby, so we think thats the reason why they mention our dogs.
Pool: In the time of their stay was a period of strong wind what is typical for this time in Costa Rica. Because of this, there were more leafs and dust in the pool then normaly and of course we cleaned it more frequently.
Bus: The bus stops close from our property. The condition of the street is typical for Costa Rica (this is not Canada !).
The local buses in Costa Rica have no fix times. Sometimes only one bus services this route, sometimes two. The time that they need to go to Atenas depend on how many people step in and out in the way because the buses stop in every place that people wait (this is not Canada too)
The distance to Atenas is 5km, but actually, this street is closed because of damages from mudslides.
So the buses have to go an other way what is unfortunatly more far.
We explained this situation to Chris and Irene.
Internet: Internet is until now not availabe in our cabinas, but we have internet in our private house and we offer our guests to use it for free to check their mails.
By the way, Irene and Chris used it many times too.
Brooms are available in the common "washing/maintanence" house close from the cabinas and for all guests available.
Fridge: Our cabinas are for self catering. Filling the fridge for the arrival day of our guests is a free service from us. Of course we can not put food in the fridge for the complete stay of our guests.
Doorbell: Our doorbell worked almost all time during the stay of Irene and Chris. Only one time the batteries were empty and we didnt hear it. We are sorry for this.
Finally we like say, that we try to run our bungalows on a high european standard for a very reasonable renting price.
Unfortunatly not all people are good prepared and informed about Costa Rica and compare all things with their home countries.
So did Irene and Chris.
I read both the original post, and the defense by Apartamentos Rio Grande and was struck by a few discrepancies that now seem to be cleared up for future renters. The description of the property given by the owners on the internet was updated recently and no longer claims a well stocked fridge, or exaggerates that frequent bus service is available outside the gate, instead of the in reality being erratic service and at the bottom of a steep hill... However, there is no excuse for a filthy pool - especially since the pictures on the website show a beautiful, inviting, pool in a tropical setting. A lovely pool is a Snowbird's dream, and tourists are disappointed if it is not true. False advertising? After reading the comments from the owners of Apartamentos I was also able to understand the problem with the doorbell. IT PROBABLY WAS WORKING THE WHOLE TIME, BUT WHO THE HELL COULD HEAR IT WITH 11 DOGS BARKING!!!!
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