Hotel Tioga

We missed the last ferry at 6 pm, so had to stay overnight and catch it the next day. The breakfast was a bright spot, really good and served with a sea view. The hotel was very basic, though it gave us a bed, shower, and AC. The room was in rough shape, with dirty walls and old furniture. Beds were hard and the linens skimpy. We overpaid, but it worked as a place to crash while waiting for the ferry. I wouldn’t recommend it if you want comfort.

The rooms were comfortable and clean, even though the place doesn’t look great from outside. The breakfast, though, was a joke. My thumb was bigger than the one plantain they gave my girlfriend and me. They also wouldn’t cook her an egg because there were supposedly too many orders. If the restaurant advertises first come, first served, it should cook accordingly instead of preparing breakfast for people who show up late, after breakfast hours. There’s also an AC fan outside near room 37 that makes a lot of noise at night.

We booked this hotel at the last minute in Puntarenas and found it very outdated. There were spots on the sheets, so I asked for clean ones and they gave them to me. I should have looked for another hotel then. Instead, we stayed the night, and I woke up with lots of bites on my legs. We told the woman at the front desk; she seemed concerned but insisted they were probably from ants common in Costa Rica. She refunded $20 from the bill. I took her word for it at the time, but the bites continued after we left and were in a line, like bed bug bites. Back in the U.S., I washed and dried everything in my suitcase and hopefully got rid of the problem. We paid about $120, which was a lot. The AC couldn’t be turned off, so the room was extremely cold at night. The staff were nice, but that doesn’t make up for the hotel’s quality. I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone. :(

I came back a few weeks ago after vacationing here as a kid. It’s almost exactly as I remembered, very Costa Rican!