Stay Report: Courtyard San Jose Escazu (Costa Rica - October 2017)

Stay Report: Courtyard San Jose Escazu (Costa Rica)
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When looking for a place internationally, I am usually looking for a hotel that is centrally located either to the sights I want to see; located near public transportation; and/or located near other services such as food outlets and supermarkets.  When I was looking for places in San Jose, Escazu neighborhood stood out as a nice place and I found a good redemption for points deal with the Courtyard hotel so I booked that hotel.

The hotel is located on the side of a highway, right next to a mini plaza and walking distance to a major shopping area.  To get to the major shopping area, there is no sidewalk so you have to walk on the street with the cars – the hotel also provides a complimentary shuttle there but it costs $2 for the return.  I walked the walk a couple of times, and while not the safest thing to do, it was alight.

From the outside, the hotel looks modest and decent – not great and not brand new, but not too old.  You walk into the lobby with the check-in desk on the left hand side and the restaurant and bar on the right hand side.  Check-in was smooth, we received our key, and proceeded to the elevators.  The elevators are located behind the check-in desk in a corridor which also contains the entrance to the outdoor pool, the meeting rooms, a lounge area for the dining area, and the gym.  Both the gym and outdoor pool are relatively small, but decent enough for the smaller hotel.  We took the elevator to the 4^th floor to our room.

The room itself was a standard Courtyard room, with a bit more room.  As you entered into the room, on the left was the bathroom.  It was a standard Marriott bathroom with a shower, a toilet, a sink, and a hair dryer.  Across from the bathroom was the closet which also contained the safe, an iron, and ironing board.  Right next to the closet was a small nook.  On top of the nook was the coffee maker and glasses, while below was the fridge.  As you moved further into the room, you entered the area for the beds.

On the left side were two double beds with a nightstand in the middle.  The beds were fairly comfortable, a nice size, and provided a decent night’s sleep.  Across from the bed was the chest of drawers with a TV on top and next to that was the desk.  On the side of the desk were additional plugs, and this was a nice touch as guests are always looking for additional plugs.  Across from the desk was a sitting chair that looked out onto the balcony.  The room came with a balcony which overlooked the outdoor pool.  The balcony also had patio chairs and a table.  Overall, it was a nice spacious room with the standard amenities.

The additional services at the hotel included a restaurant, a bar, an outdoor pool, a gym, a shuttle, as well as free wifi.  I utilized both the shuttle and the free wifi.  We took the shuttle to the main plaza, it was complimentary on the outbound but needed to be paid for the return.  The wifi was pretty good and strong enough to stream movies and check mail.

Overall, it was a standard stay at the Courtyard San Jose Escazu.  The only negative was the location – it was walking distance to the main plaza and to other restaurants and bars, but there were other hotels on the other side of the road (a 5-10 minute drive) which were more centrally located to the surrounding areas.