Pranamar Villas & Yoga Retreat

To put it in a nutshell: Outstanding hotel in a beautiful surrounding but not the best value for money in my opinion. The staff and the pool were amazing. Breakfast was good, the service was exceptional, but you got an extra menu with standard options (toast and eggs etc.), not the fancy one where you could chose more interesting options (you had to pay extra for that). A little bit disappointing regarding the 320$ per night. Everybody was very helpful and super friendly, the surrounding was very picturesque. The beach was beautiful and easily accessible. As I mentioned above, the breakfast options were quite standard. The pool is brilliant, but there are only 3-4 sun loungers, which was never a problem but could be regarding the number of rooms. Also, you couldn't adjust them to lie on your belly. The sockets in the bedroom are behind the bed which is inconvenient if you have to use an adapter as well because that wouldn't fit at all. I usually charge my phone during night but have it on my nightstand because of the alarm in the morning. was also really disappointed, when I was told that, although Pranamar is labelled as a yoga retreat, the yoga lessons are not included if you book via booking.com. The lessons are outstanding, but if you pay 320$ a night, they should be included no matter where you book. I do understand that they have more profit if people book directly on their website, but if they don't want people to use booking.com, they should remove their hotel from booking.com. But the incident that bothered me most was that when we had to change locations we asked them to call a taxi for us. I've been staying in Santa Teresa for 2 weeks and went by taxi a couple of times. You pay like 10-15$ for a 20 minute car ride. Our new hotel was literally 5 minutes from Paranamar and I expected to pay maybe 5-10$ for the taxi (we were not told how much it would cost in advance). So when we arrived at our new hotel, the taxi driver charged 25$ and said he couldn't do anything about it since he was told to charge that much. I don't know if Pranamar only knows the most expensive taxi companies in whole Santa Teresa or if they get to keep the the majority of the money for providing the taxi companies with clients? It did feel like a giant rip off. Even the concierge of the new hotel talked to the taxi driver and in the end we "only" had to pay 20$ for a 5 minute taxi ride. Most expensive taxi ride I've ever had in my life!

Beautiful place with incredible service. We spent 4 months at Pranamar during the pandemic. We were able to work remotely in this beautiful location doing yoga every morning with the most amazing teachers, and enjoyed the beautiful beach and pool with our two toddlers. Our villa had a nice kitchen setup which made it great for long term stays. The best part, though, was the wonderful friendly staff that made our stay a real treat!

While I read reviews all the time I don't often write them but will not. We have been to Costa Rica many times and each time like this one a length of 19 days or more. We typically stay in 4-5 star places across the country in January and have always had nice places. We are leaving tomorrow and sadly this place was far from 4 star. It is worth noting we had seen that this hotel was just sold and I think this week is the last week it is open. We had seen online that this was a small family owned place and supposedly family oriented which it is not. Staff: Staff are very polite but I would not say friendly. Typical lodging in Costa Rica, all employees are over the top friendly and keen on service. We found very little of that here. Hotel/pool: Hotel is quite old and it shows. Literally everything is falling apart. Several of the units the roofs are so bad they have to be leaking, the walkways the concrete is crumbling and same with the pool, much of the stone work is cracked and falling apart. Dangerous to say the least in bare feet. Overall the hotel is rather dirty and unkept. Rooms: The rooms we were really disappointed with. Aside from being very old and out dated, we had carpenter ants all over our bathroom. Bats, yes Bats flying around in our room. Now we have stayed in plenty of rooms snuggled right in the rain forest which are better sealed off from the creatures outside. This is sub par. The closet barely trickled water. Being a contractor myself I pulled it apart, cleaned out all of the calcium deposits and fixed the issue. Pricing: Breakfast is included. You are allowed 1 meal which is fine and 1 drink. That I found to be a bit much. Of the 5 other hotels we stayed at here if we wanted coffee and juice no issue. How about a juice refill somewhere else, of course. Not here. You get coffee or OJ. Want another one, no free refil but $5 more. Same with everything else around the hotel, we felt like they were nickel and diming you for everything and this hotel while less than the other was not significantly less. Beach: it's all stone and rough shelly sand. You really need to walk 5 minutes down the beach to a better beach that is nice and sandy and one you can swim in. Massage: This was great. They bring in ladies from outside and the massages were incredible. $80/pp oer hour which is close to standard and well worth it. Food: Overall it was just average at best. Very small menus with OK service. We found ourselves leaving the resort for everything really. All in all there were much nice, better maintained, better staff and property elsewhere. Our best hotel here was Amor Arenal and then the Rio Celeste Hideaway. These are located 4 hours from here into the jungle. In Tamarindo we stayed at Capital Suizo, which was nice. Much better property, room, meals, people, etc.

Amazing resort! Very secluded. Beaches are pristine and not busy at all. Restaurant is fantastic. Food is delicious and healthy. Pool is a great place to hang out in the late afternoon. Rooms are comfortable, clean and nicely done. Very short walk to the beach. Sunsets are incredible. I would visit here again without hesitation.

Ambiance great, food good, came out a warm instead of hot. For Costa Rica service was top notch. Biggest complaint is the “prawn dinner” $24 for 3 pieces of shrimp all about 1 OZ is highly over value. This is a coastal town in a 3rd world country. If a $24 meal doesn’t get you full I have a problem. Don’t get the shrimp, but still a place you can enjoy.

Hands down one of the most beautiful hotels we’ve been to - such a wonderful place! Every single person we met from staff member to founder was so hospitable and genuinely kind and caring for us. Incredible Yoga teachers, amazing food and superfood juices and great atmosphere. Special kudos to Alejandro who gave us such personal and amazing tips for our continuing travels to the Costa Rican mountainside and even helped us organized a car rental. Thank you again - we will be back !

Its a magical place, right on the beach with full bar, great restaurant, open air yoga shala, and refreshing pool. The grounds are an amazing array of beautiful tropical foliage that adds to the total Costa Rica experience. You can lay in one of the many hammocks strategically placed throughout the property and beach for total relaxation. You can get a wonderful massage while listening to the calming ocean waves, or sip a freshly made fruit drink while lounging at the pool. The staff are so friendly as they treat you like you are the only one there. Being vegan, they have a few food options which is greatly appreciated, but can also customize to your liking. This is my 3rd time to Costa Rica and to Pranamar as I can't imagine staying anywhere else! I love it here!

Went to a yoga class here today. Studio and facilities were outstanding, but the flow class was VERY gentle and would barely constitute what I would consider to be a good warmup for a workout. I would generally never complain about something like this, but at $45 USD for 2 people, I would expect a higher quality class. When you charge that kind of money for a 60 min yoga class, you better deliver. And this class did not.