What We Love
- Hang with the family at the unique onsite amphitheater and enjoy different shows every night.
- The activity schedule is filled each day with energizing aerobics classes, dance classes & more.
- The ocean waters are calm enough for kayaking, windsurfing and swimming.
Things to Know
- The resort is located on the southern tip of Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula. It's an ecological paradise.
- Barcelo Tambor is approximately 10 minutes away from Tambor airport.
- Onsite activities are perfectly suited for adults and families alike.
Location
GuanacasteProperty Information
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Resort Details
Hotel Advisories
General Policies & Fine Print
Check-in Policy - Hotel requires a credit/debit card authorization or cash deposit upon check-in for incidentals; this will place a hold on your funds.
Convention Policy - Individuals attending a convention cannot book this property for their stay. If found attending a convention, guests may be subject to higher room rates upon arrival.
Hotel Spring Break Policy - This hotel cannot guarantee a spring-break-free environment.
Transfer Policy - A price may display when children stay free, if your vacation includes transfer to your hotel.
General Information - Room taxes and service fees are included in vacation price.
Minimum night stay restrictions may apply.
Reservation changes may not be permitted unless authorized by the hotel.
Customer Ratings & Reviews
TripAdvisor Traveler Rating
3344 reviews
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Apr 02, 2020The good, the bad and the ugly
Let's start with the ugly just to get it out of our way: avoid weekends at all costs as the place gets packed with noisy locals and the whole resort experience is about keeping them happy (entertainment will be just in Spanish). The bad: it is a 25 year old All Inclusive resort and it shows everywhere, rooms, restaurants, theater, bars, lounge chairs so do not expect any luxury here. Food is not a strong point, it lacks quality. The good: the grounds are manicured with many palm trees all over the resort and lining the beachfront which truly lends a tropical feel to it as you probably expect from your stay in Costa Rica. The beach is rocky yet expansive and perfect to just go for long strolls, mostly at low tide. Would I go back?. Most probably if interested in an All Inclusive resort at a very reasonable price.
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Mar 01, 2020The perfect getaway
Direct flight from Vancouver to San Jose. Overnight to rest in a beautiful hotel then a exploratory bus ride on local freeways to the Ferry Terminal at Puntarenas. A one and a half hour ferry ride gives you your bearing of the area as you can view the shore line and enjoy the climate. Board your bus to get to the remote jungle resort where you can enjoy first class food, warm ocean breezes, comfortable air conditioned rooms and nightly entertainment. It is remote so getting there is part of the journey. Once there, you won’t want to leave. Temperature very hot in February but there is tennis, golf, horse back riding, Beach ATV, beach volley ball, a small rock climbing structure and so much more. But the best is the ocean, the air and the lovely people. Felt safe and secure. Very kid and family friendly.
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Feb 29, 2020
Love it and we would go back... if a few changes are made...
I have to say there are a lot of things we liked about staying at this hotel. The ocean view room with the patio table and chairs plus lounge beds plus hammock was perfect for us. We loved the huge pool with all the different sections and depths available. The kids pool with splash park was such fun for the little ones and other areas ranged from shallow to quite deep options. The pool was on the warm side which meant you were not cold when you got out. The gardens and landscape if was beautiful. Exterior of buildings were beautiful. Free activities you can do range from archery, mini-golf, dance classes, there are polo nets and a basketball hoop in one area of the pool and it is easy to get balls for these. There is an area with wild birds and butterflies used for educational purposes. Free wall climbing for 7 to 17 (? I think 17 was the max age) and also a bungee trampoline thing free for certain ages. There were wild scarlet macaws in the trees. The staff was very friendly. Food was good. The snorkel tour is about $79 USD per person and is mind-blowing. They offer many different tours. The mini-golf doesn’t open till 10 but the beach store you can borrow the equipment from is open at 9am. In my opinion it needs to be open at 9am for mini-golf because it is a cooler time of the day for children. There is also a small children’s park area. Complaint- while the gardens and lawns are well maintained the access to the playground and the mini-golf course was littered with rotting mangos ( thrown down by macaws that take a couple bites I think). It was smelly and difficult to avoid stepping on as there were so many and some had been there more than 24 hours I am sure. Also, the website is horrible for providing information before you go. We had no idea before we went or even after checking in that there was a playground, free mini-golf, trampoline bungee, wall climbing, archery, the animal/ butterfly education area. We just happened to figure all this out ourselves. We also didn’t know how many al-la-cartes you get ( ps it’s 1 per every 2 nights). The website also did NOT tell us that the kids club is NOT like other kids clubs where children can go to do some activities for a few hours and adults can go do their thing. NOPE- you have to stay with the children!! Our children are ages 6 and 9 and this would have been the first kids club we allowed them to go to for a bit of time on their own. They were very excited before we arrived and found out parents have to stay with the kids. NONE of this is on the website that I could find. The website is really hard to use as it doesn’t have the info we would have liked!! Also- plastic straws are not available at the beach bar- this is a VERY good thing and I applaud their efforts to have shampoo and conditioner and body soap dispensers in the bathroom- was less plastic waste. BUT the pool bar and snack bar uses small disposable plastic cups. This resort need to get In The game and have plastic cups they wash. They also give you paper sometimes but this isn’t consistent. AND the other bars have straws which they put in all their fancy drinks without even asking if you want one!!! Why has Barcelo not done away with these??? We cleaned 2 sand buckets of straws and plastic bottle caps off the beach area. Don’t get me wrong the beach is clean but these can be found around the rocks and it’s very sad to have a resort providing straws when they are so close to the ocean. Lastly- they say the birds they have in cages are for education and it’s not a zoo. But it is not ok to keep animals in cages for people to view!!! This is just so wrong and sad. Please make posters of the birds along the forest path instead.
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Feb 23, 2020
Just back from a week vacation. The best part of the hotel is the beach,the bad is the food
Just back from Barcelo Playa Tambor, definitely NOT a 5 star hotel by international standards. There are catered to the local Costa Rican tourists, who fill out an almost empty hotel on Friday for the weekend, the rest of the week is quiet. No wifi unless you pay and only available at the lobby with poor connectivity(definitely does not meet criteria for a star hotel); the quality and variety of food is disappointing(not a 5-star hotel), obviously the star system is part of a problem if rated more appropriately like a 3to 3and half star hotel then it would be ok. The standards for maintenance of gardens and pathways are 5 stars. I would suggest to the manager(if interested) to spend less money on the appearance of gardens and put the money on food and wifi. The shows were of terrible quality. Loved Costa Rica, and their people, I would not recommend this hotel, by far of the 25-30 Barcelo Hotels I have visited in various countries
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Feb 21, 2020Customer Services and clerk attention
After paying the reservation, we paid $30 additional (10 per person) for getting into the hotel before 10:30 AM even when they say it is all inclusive. Customer services is not the best, clerks look tired and they do not even do contact eyes and the answers are not nice.