Planet Hollywood Beach Resort Costa Rica

Pura Vida! I had the great fortune to stay at this new property February 2020, just one year after it opened. I had entered a Travel Photo Contest in 2019, and won! The prize? A trip for two to Planet Hollywood Beach Resort Costa Rica with Sunwing Vacations!

I chose my travel partner, my Fiancé, and off we went on this wonderful experience. Now, I spent a year travelling through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama a few years back so we did not do many excursions, rather stayed on property to have the real #Vacationlikeastar experience.

Since we were staying with a comp stay, we ended up in the standard room in building 17 on the main floor. In saying that, our room was beautiful! Large room, sitting area, fully stocked beer fridge and snack basket, refilled daily and a large shower and closet. The best part of the room was the patio. Even though we were in a standard room, we had a view through the trees of the ocean, even had a praying mantis one day on our deck, and could see the monkeys in the trees from our room in the am.

The food, lots of selection, we ate at all the restaurants, East Sushi & Teppanyaki Bar was one of our faves, even just doing the seated menu without the show. Guy's Burger Joint by the pool was where we ate almost every day for lunch. Blue Star Tex-Mex Cantina was enjoyable, I could eat fresh guacamoles for days! Not everyone enjoyed this restaurant though, so it was not consistent. We struggled to get into Gusto Italian Trattoria, and so finally gave up as we didn't want to wait 2-3 hours and you can't book this in advance unless you are Star Class. Our least favorite was Sunset Strip Steakhouse & Grill, the salad and soup was good, but the steak underwhelming- to be fair though we are Canadian and from a cattle farmer family. I have enjoyed many steaks in Costa Rica this one was just okay.

We spent two days in a private Cabana, this was a cool Star experience! We made friends with a few couples and we all came together for the rental of the cabana. The cabana rental comes with a bottle of your choice (Vodka, Rum, Gin) and mix and a bottle of champagne. The cabana had a seating area un the shade and your own plunge pool. They face the main swimming pool where all the action is. There are no speakers in the cabanas so you do need to bring your own, but there are plug ins so you can charge your devices.

The beach is a black sand beach, this is a unique experience as it can be a bit hotter during the day, so beach shoes are recommended. The sand itself is nice and quite soft. The bay, Payagayo, is actually a nice swimming area. The was is very warm and the sunsets are beautiful.

Overall the experience was amazing, I would 100% return. The only down side that I found staying here was that the location is far from other places, so if you like to spend lots of time off resort, then this is not the place for you.

If you are a selfie afficiando, then you will have a blast here as they have photo op locations all over the resort!

Video tour of Standard Room 17-103