Review: Tulemar Resort in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

My family returned from Costa Rica last week. Part of what made the trip so special was our villa at Tulemar Resort in Manuel Antonio.

Booking Tulemar Resort

Tulemar Resort isn’t a traditional hotel. It’s a collection of condos and houses that are individually owned. There are a few different websites you can use to book villas, and some are even on airbnb.com.

I was actually going to just book a regular condo or house in the area on airbnb, but several readers convinced me to splurge on Tulemar. We booked Casa Del Mar villa on this website. We paid $805/night before tax and stayed for 4 nights. The prices vary by season, and the villa is actually discounted for the rest of this year, so you may be able to get it for a cheaper price than what we paid.

After I booked the villa, I was contacted by our concierge, Javier. He explained that he could arrange a lot of things for us in advance (excursions, transportation, etc.). I was honestly a bit skeptical at first because I figured that using his services would be more expensive than just booking ourselves. But after some research, the costs were the same, so I let him do all the bookings for us.

The ride from San Jose to Tulemar took about 3 hours. My family of 5 had an 11-passenger van with WiFi all to ourselves, which was booked through the resort.

Casa Del Mar Villa

Casa Del Mar is two stories with 2 1/2 bathrooms. I loved the location within Tulemar since it was very close to the restaurant and one of the family pools.

Our concierge, Javier, met us at the Villa when we arrived. He really won us over with some glasses of POG juice (our favorite) to celebrate our arrival.

The front doors open to the living room.

Half bath upstairs:

The kitchen is modern and well-stocked, although we barely used it:

The living room also has a futon bed in the corner which one of our teens slept on:

The top floor balcony has a gorgeous view:

The balcony has a dining table, lounge chairs, a swing and a hot tub:

The stairs leading to the lower level of the villa:

Downstairs, there is a king bedroom:

And a bedroom with two queen beds:

Each of these rooms opens out to a shared balcony, and each room also has a large indoor/outdoor shower and separate bathroom.

There is also a washing machine and dryer on the lower level. We didn’t plan on washing clothes, but we got sweaty and dirty and had to change clothes more often, so it was nice to have the washer. Upstairs, there is a closet with board games and pool toys. The villa includes daily cleaning service.

It was so nice to have separate bedrooms and all the space that Casa Del Mar provides.

Food at Tulemar Resort

Tulemar Resort has one restaurant, Tule Cafe. We ate there twice.

The food was quite good and somewhat reasonably priced for a resort (see menu here). The cafe also has a full bar, and all the tables have great views.

Room service is available from Tule Cafe as well as from a nearby Italian restaurant. Tule Cafe also delivers food and drinks to Tulemar’s private beach.

Javier drove us to a nearby supermarket where we purchased breakfast food to eat in our villa. We dined out for lunch and dinner. There are many restaurants within walking distance or a 5-minute cab ride away from the resort.

Pools at Tulemar Resort

Tulemar has 3 family pools and one adults-only pool. In addition, some of the houses have private pools. We only visited the two family pools closest to our villa. The water felt great due to the hot, humid air.

 

Private Beach at Tulemar Resort

Tulemar has a private beach. The first day, my husband and I walked to the beach and got more of a workout than we realized. So, we rode the resort van back to the villa and back to the beach the next time.

The water has waves, which was a hit with boogie boarders. The resort has boogie boards, kayaks and other equipment you can borrow for free.

There are plenty of loungers, and the beach staff helps guests set up umbrellas. The beach was a relaxing experience, and it was nice to not be bothered by vendors.

Wildlife at Tulemar Resort

We saw unique wildlife from the moment we arrived at Tulemar. As soon as we got out of the van the first day, Javier showed us a pair of macaws in a nearby tree:

We also saw a sloth in the tree by our villa on the first day. The next morning, we went on a guided sloth walk at the resort where we saw 5 more sloths.

Throughout our stay, we saw several agoutis (cousin of capybara):

I only saw two monkeys during our stay, but we heard them every day:

The weirdest thing we saw was a boa constrictor swallowing an agouti:

In addition, we saw many other birds, insects, iguanas and butterflies.

Service at Tulemar

The service at Tulemar was outstanding. Javier was so attentive to our needs. When we asked him how we could break US dollars into smaller bills, he showed up with some change. He made us dinner reservations and booked us taxis. Anytime we needed a ride around the resort, all we had to do was text him, and a Tulemar van would show up in a few minutes. On our last morning as we were leaving for the airport, Javier sent us away with brownies.

Every Tulemar employee we encountered seemed happy to be there and exemplified the “Pura Vida” outlook.

Overall Thoughts

Staying at Tulemar Resort was a splurge for my family which was made easier by the fact that we used miles and points for our flights. I would not hesitate to book it again for a future trip. Stay tuned for a future post that compares Tulemar with Hyatt Andaz Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo.