I didn't want to give three stars, but you can't give 3.5. Short summary is that it loses a star for the drive up to it, and another half for saying that it has air conditioning in the listing when it doesn't.
The view is nothing short of breathtaking, as you can see from the pictures. The main problem is that it's so much trouble to get up there (between 15-20 minutes of fairly intense uphill or downhill driving; and I mean the sort of uphill where you are pressed into your seat as you go up, and you can't see the road over the hood of your car when you turn onto Isla road), that once we got up, we didn't really want to come back down. So that means that we weren't willing to run back to the condo very easily for a shower or to change clothes...we would go out in the morning, do activities, and then come back for good in the late afternoon. I'm not saying it was impossible to go back out at night, it just wasn't worth it to us to do so, even when we kind of wanted to. I was trying to keep the wife happy, ya know.
We had a stressful time finding the condo in the dark the first day in, and neither the owner or property manager were there to answer our calls. To assist others in the same situation, use Google Maps and navigate to the "Bar Jolly Roger Puntarenas"); that will save you a lot of grief trying to find where to turn off of the main highway in the dark, where all turnoffs just look like a small driveway; trust me, it's hard to see. Also, we didn't know the right thing to say to the person manning the gate (into Costa Verde Estates); we weren't told. And he didn't speak English, we didn't speak Spanish. For others, the right thing to do is to give the owner's name and lot number. At least, that's what got us in.
The stress of the drive itself in the dark, getting semi-lost, not knowing how to get in, and finding out that there was no A/C and we had to leave the doors open while we slept to stay cool, lead to a very unhappy wife (that first night, anyway). She was nervous about bugs, snakes, or whatever else her imagination could conjure that might live in the jungle. I like the adventure and enjoy a little uncertainty, but she definitely does not. So my best advice is that if *both* of you are adventurous, this place is for you. The view is outstanding. If not, maybe not. The price is certainly right, which was appreciated.
The condo was clean and had no problems in that arena. A small microwave would have been great.
