ELEGANT, FULLY EQUIPPED RESIDENCE WITH HEATED POOL AND GREAT VIEWS

My family of 7 (self, wife, mother, kids age 10 - 17) spent the first half of our visit to Costa Rica in Guanacaste relaxing by the Pacific, and the second In San Jose due to it's central location.

This was our first time in Costa Rica, and we would not have found our way around without the Garmin from Avis. I had multiple iDevices and paper maps - the map apps were very poor in Costa Rica. This house is on a hillside overlooking the city, and as such has a street that passes in front of the house (where the entrance gate is) and one that passes in the back of the house - it was a bit tricky finding the correct street the first time in the dark, but once we found the house we put the front street location into the favorites on the Garmin and had no problem finding it after that.

We were checked in and out by Evelyn, who was very gracious and helpful during the process. Make sure you have the house landline phone number with you, we found mobile phones to be intermittent in the house.

The house was quite large and beautifully decorated. The beds were firm but comfortable. The views were incredible and the house staff did a great job keeping the house and pool immaculate. Escazu is one of the more affluent areas of the city. The house has a gate, a security system, and is surrounded by razor wire, we felt completely safe during our stay.

We chose the breakfast option at the house each day, and had more than enough to eat. The fruit was very fresh. We also chose to have them buy drinks and snacks for our stay, which worked out quite well on the drive to and from Arenal and La Paz. It was nice to have a glass of wine back at the house overlooking the city after a long day of travel and touring. There are many good restaurant choices within a 10 - 15 minute drive of the house - our favorite while we were there was Restaurante Pescatore.

There were several TV's with plenty of channels for the kids. We asked the maid to do our laundry on the last full day, and it was well worth the tip to return to the house and see our week's worth of laundry clean and folded for the trip back.

The internet was intermittent. Not quite sure if that's a Costa Rica phone company issue or the house, but the owner was very attentive and accommodating in resolving the issues and has since followed up with positive feedback from other renters.

Probably our only regret was that we split our trip and only stayed at the house for 3 days. We would definitely return.