We aren't chain hotel or resort people as we want to get to know the real people of the areas new to us. El Velero was just great. We found all of the staff to be friendly and personable. They were always attentive and Luis was particularly helpful even if we never did get on a catamaran. The food was great--we were there to enjoy both BBQ and Taco nights. The hotel though older was clean and comfortable. The area outside had a nice, clean pool as well as plenty of seating. We enjoyed most of our time sitting there watching the ocean, the boats, the people going by, the sight and noises of the various "wild" life. A clear indication that they served amazing food for a good price was shown by the people not staying at the hotel who, while walking the beach, would stop in--some staying hours. The ocean and beach was always clean and, while there were always people out there, it never seemed crowded. Excellent place to relax!
Clean, cozy open-air hotel right on the beautiful beach. Very friendly hotel staff. Staff were helpful in arranging taxis and tours for us. Our room was clean and spacious with a basic bathroom. No ocean view from the room, but it was always cool and quiet, being tucked away from the sun and far away from the pool. There is a small pool on site but no gym. Also, a nice veranda on the second floor for quiet reading and relaxing. No loud music from the bar was a big plus. The food and drinks in the restaurant were pretty good, but certainly not exceptional.
When you stay at El Velero you get to experience so much life For one thing you are literally staying in the center of a half moon beach with beautiful views. You are not staying across town or even acros.s the street. All you have to do is walk through the restaurant and there you are, People walk up and down the beach all day. Children play in the water and dogs chase after their owners. On Sundays the local people enjoy the beach too and bring blankets, tents, picnics, etc. with them and there is a sense of joy and well-being. If you are looking for a fancy, exclusive sterile place where you are going to be seen by all the "right" people this hotel is not the one for you,
I stayed in two different rooms and both were very clean and comfortable with air conditioning and ceiling fans, hot water in the bathrooms and a very competent and cheerful cleaning staff.
A lot of attention was spent on keeping the hotel clean. The swimming pool was cleaned early each morning... not just the surface water, but the bottom of the pool was vacuumed as well. The hall ways and area around the pool were swept multiple times during the day. Even the roof over the restaurant was swept regularly.
In my opinion the restaurant was as good as any in the area with a large variety of good food. Living far from the coast, I found the seafood was especially delicious.
The receptionists provided great suggestions for tours and activities. My favorite was the Palo Verde Riverboat tour.
The hotel provided live music once a week as well as barbeque and taco dinners during the week All of the staff were so pleasant and helpful that I hated to say goodbye to them.
El Velero is right on the beach—the only thing separating our room from the ocean was a small swimming pool, palm trees and sand. On the front side of the hotel ran a quiet street with lots of trees providing habitat for colorful Costa Rican birds and howler monkeys, which we visited with every morning.
The room was comfortable, the air conditioning worked great, showers were hot and there was adequate storage space for clothing. The hotel is not huge but it's attractively decorated and quiet. There is a nice lounge area on the upper deck with tables, chairs and sofas. The ceiling fans and pleasant ocean breeze made it a comfortable place to read or sip a drink.
This is not a place to make your own meals—there is no microwave or frig in the room and the grocery store is about a 15 minute walk away. But the hotel restaurant is open from 7 am until 10 pm and there are several other restaurants nearby so getting fed was not a problem! Actually, the restaurant and wait staff was one of our favorite things about El Velero. We tried a few other places to eat in town but our hotel restaurant was by far the best place for us. The waiters were friendly, funny and very accommodating. They whipped up some special fruity drinks for us that were yummy and the Saturday night barbeque was delicious and fun. The front desk and housekeeping staff were also very friendly and make El Velero a place that we’d definitely revisit.
I cannot figure out why this place gets any good reviews. It's clean and they have recently updated the bathrooms, but the staff is very grumpy, the price is ridiculous for what you get, the pool was filthy, the AC was on it's last leg, the beds were terribly uncomfortable and worst of all there were windows from the room that looked into the corridor and had no curtains. They're up high so there's no privacy issue, but the corridor lights shine in until late into the night. We had booked two nights, but only stayed on because it was so unpleasant. The front desk staff the first night told me it was no problem to cancel the second night and get a refund so we booked elsewhere. Then the manager refused to give a refund the next day so we ended up paying for the room even though we did not stay there. Very unethical!