We loved our stay at Casa Macaw! The house is cozy; feels like a cabin in the jungle, with the beautiful teak wood everywhere. All details in the house were taken care of; kitchen appliances and utensils, laundry (including detergent), even the current Lonely Planet book for Costa Rica. There were tons of towels. pillows and beds were very comfy. Air conditioning was quiet and efficient. What makes the place shine though, is definitely the staff at Manuela Antonio Estates, in particular Jessica, who checked us in, and made sure we had everything we needed, which included a cell phone loaded with her number and local eateries for delivery. Also, thank you to Dorit, who was available when I called from Canada and made booking so easy. We greatly appreciated the communication from her about arriving, which included details about restaurants on the way and directions to the Crocodile bridge, which we passed on our way from San Jose.
The grounds and pool were frequently attended to. The Estates are just on the edge of Quepos and we especially enjoyed the 20 minute hike from the end of the road of the Estates, to the a gorgeous waterfall and swimming hole, where we were the only people. Thank you for the directions Dorit!
The drive to Manuel Antonio is easy and takes about 10 minutes. Along the way are great restaurants, which we usually went to for dinner.
If you want to stay in, you'll be amazed if you order pizza. We couldn't believe how quick it came, even in torrential rain and lightning storm on a scooter! And delicious and hot!
To top off our experience in Manuel Antonio, we saw Macaws twice, A Toucan once and one afternoon, we were beneath the squirrel Monkeys passing through the area. We'd guess maybe close to 100?! We could see them coming through the trees and jumping from one tree to the ones across the road, practically over our heads, then through the branches and trees past our patio. It was thrilling!
As this was our first trip to Costa Rica, I was worried about bugs, and spiders and I'd heard ants could be a problem. We had a few ants, but really was no a big problem. We loved every part of Costa Rica and our favourite place was Casa Macaw at Manuel Antonio Estates! You can't go wrong staying here!