Additional postings from this trip, and last year are found elsewhere in this blog. Look for Mal Pais / Santa Teresa on the sidebar.This year, we came back to Santa Teresa with a group of friends, and rented “The Beach House”. This immediately adjoins the Hotel Tropico Latino, and has the same ownership. So all of the facilities at the hotel (pool, restaurant, beach chairs, etc) are available to guests at the house.
The house slept our three couples and two “single” gals quite well. The gals shared a first floor suite with two bedrooms with king beds. Each bedroom opened onto the beachfront deck and had its own access to the bath. One couple also had a first floor room with two beds, and private bath. Again, it opened onto its own covered beachfront deck. The other two couples had suites on the second floor, each with a king sized bed, private bath, and small beachfront porch. One featured a second bedroom (double bed) and the bath here was amazing. Double vanity, shower, and large jacuzzi tub. The lower half of the wall was wavy free form cement, and the top half was screened in. Very nice. We all did the paper, rock, scissors thing, and my bride and I were lucky enough to score this suite.In between the first floor suites, was a fairly well equipped kitchen. This was the scene of our daily “family” breakfasts, and where we did some serious research on our Bloody Mary recipes. There was even a single trundle bed in the dining area, that would be a good place for some kids to crash. All in all the house was nice enough, but not so perfect that you felt that you had to be overly fussy. So it was a very comfortable place to hang out and socialize when we weren’t on the beach or on an activity. I can see this place easily sleeping a dozen family members, or close friends when absolute privacy is not an issue. It will sleep four couples with full privacy, and five or six if some don’t mind sharing a bath.
All the bedrooms and the kitchen were air conditioned. The house came complete with fast and free WiFi. There was even a cat! Although, I have to say that this was more of a pleasure for my wife and I than for some other members of the group. We are very cat friendly, and it was nice to have this little guy hanging around. Very sweet, and seems to know where the food is kept! He even followed us out to the beach every day. Though he would hang back and cry out to us if we got too close to the surf. Must have had a bad experience! If you aren’t a cat lover, you could shoo him away. We noticed last year that he liked hanging around the hotel.
Although none of us were surfers, we thought we might come back next year for lessons. Great surfing was right outside the door! This is a good news / bad news kinda thing. The water here is turbulent, and the shore can be rocky. So it isn’t a great swimming beach. We were told that we could walk down the beach a ways, and find a spot there. We never looked for it. But we enjoyed wading, and walking down the beautiful beach. The hotel pool was very nice, and we were there cooling off almost every day.
The location here is perfect. It is only about a thirty yard walk across the lawn to the beach and some very inviting hammocks. It is close enough to the hotel to be convenient, but not so close to feel like we were without privacy. Our gals were even comfortable using the outdoor shower, when they had a small plumbing problem in their suite one day.
It is a short walk to the concentration of shops, restaurants, tour companies, and other small businesses in this area. Not a metropolis by any means. But there are dining and shopping options nearby, and secure parking for your vehicle right outside.
This was a great spot for our group of friends, that enjoy being together. I could see it working well for a large family group, or a gang of surfers. The suites can also be rented individually at a reasonable price. You must rent at least two, to get the kitchen.
We have already booked it for next year!