Gorgeous Home in Playa Carrillo Near Samara and Nicoya

• Pura Vida

  Pura Vida

  • Guest Erin H.
  • Date of stay 05/19/13
  • Review Submitted 06/13/13
  This was the best family vacation in this hideaway home overlooking the Pacific. What an adventure to ride through the scenic tropical hill side, through Playa Samara, emerge at a breath taking coconut tree lined beach and ride up a hill in the middle of Playa Carillo to this house. The house itself is an open air, aka no ac, older Spanish style with decorative Costa Rican art. It feels like a place to kick your shoes off and settle in for a while. Everything we needed for cooking big family meals was there including a large dining room table overlooking a spectacular sunset view. The house is on a steep hill side nestled in a tropical forest. We recommend a four wheel drive vehicle to make the climb. However, the distance to the beach is short enough to walk if you want to climb back up. If you do not feel like treching out, you can experience wild life just by sitting out at the pool patio. Howler monkeys, Mono congos call this spot their home and make daily appearances along with parrots, iguanas, humingbirds and more. We played in the pool, went zip lining, surfed and went sport fishing. There are three adjacent beaches for surfing with varying degrees of difficulty, Playa Samara, Playa Carillo and Playa Camaronal. There are also three permanently moored sport fishing boats for world class fishing. Carillo and Samara have a variety of good restaurants and some night life. About the house, if you study insects as I have, the variety in the tropics is amazing. In open air style houses like Villa Mitchell one should be prepared to share the home to some degree with the forest. We, two couples and five children, found this to be a home away from home. It feels warm, inviting and a bit lived in but that is part of the charm. The sunrise can streaming in through the bedroom windows with the sound of the ocean, birds and monkeys in the background. We stayed for three weeks and had a perfect pura vida experience.

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• Email Sent to House Owner - No Response

  Email Sent to House Owner - No Response

  • Guest Nibur
  • Date of stay 02/02/13
  • Review Submitted 03/08/13
  A note on the door informed us the maid was at another job and we would find the key under the mat. Although we have been at the house many times that is not an acceptable arrangement. There are aspects to any house rental that need to be explained and as it turned out, there were several important deficiencies that needed attention. One of the toilets was not working (the water had been turned off); the gated metal door from the bedroom to the pool could not be opened with the key; we didn’t remember how to open the gas from the propane tank and would have asked a housekeeper; there was no hot water. We called Elmer, who managed to pry open the jaws of the lock on the metal door, cleaned it, making the door operable. He oiled the wheels, enabling the gate to move. He showed us how to open the propane tank to light the gas ( we had brought matches; there were none in the house). The next day we discovered the propane tank was empty so we could not use the stove. There was no charcoal in the house – we managed to use the outside grill by finding a few bits of charcoal. Although Elmer fixed the toilet, we did not realize until after he left that there was no hot water, forcing us to take cold showers until you called on Monday and told us how to turn on the hot water at the hot water tank. Several ceiling lights were out, needing to be replaced. Simply put, these are problems that point to a house that has not been properly prepared for guests. Ants on the kitchen counters and in the bathrooms have always been a problem, leading us over the years to be very careful about handling food and cleaning up afterwards. The problem now is far worse. After dark the kitchen floor was swarming with large black ants, that also were present in the bedroom. Only by keeping the light in the kitchen on at night were we able to control that problem. In the past we have stored fruit in the oven to keep it safe. That no longer works – a large chunk of a banana was eaten inside the oven, indicating there is now some way into that space. The seal on the door of the refrigerator needs a thorough cleaning - it is filled with mold and the refrigerator interior needed a thorough cleaning. Napkins and place mats in the drawers were dirty from previous use. The water jug was low and quickly ran out. The coffee pot was defective – sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. Despite the history of theft, the safes have not been repaired.

  Owner response: This review was sent, very maliciously, by people who have rented our home for over ten years sometimes staying as long as three or four weeks at a time. I was shocked at this nasty review and I think the main problem was that the maid was not here when they arrived. She had to go somewhere and assumed that since they had been coming for years, they would know what to do. Of course, it was her job to be there and her not being there is inexcusable! She is no longer with us! As for other things, homes in the tropics sometimes have problems, like an insect nest in a door lock but they just exaggerated everything that happened. She called me and I told her how to turn on the hot water--one simple switch, there was another tank of gas for the stove in the utility room and the leaking toilet was repaired in about an hour. There were other renters there two weeks earlier and they sent glowing reviews of their stay. They even called me and talked about how much they loved it for over an hour! So, don't believe everything you read. The woman who wrote the ugly review is in her late 70s and maybe her health is failing. I still can't imagine what caused what I thought was a lovely person, to write something so damaging! But be assured, the house is lovely and always in good shape. In 20 years of renting, this is the first time anyone has written a negative review. Thanks for reading this. Kay Mitchell (owner)

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• Great stay"

  Great stay"

  • Guest Alan S.
  • Date of stay 01/28/12
  • Review Submitted 02/12/12
  We have just returned from a terrific stay at thie house. If you want a hermetically sealed climate controlled environment, then this house is not for you. But if you want to wake up to the sunrise coming through the house, hear the surf, hear the howler monkeys and watch them as they periodically go through the foliage adjacent to the house, sit on the pool deck and look out at the sea, and take your pick of locally available activities or chill at this house high above and looking out at the ocean, this is the place for you. There are limited but good restaurants in Carrillo, with more a few miles down the road in Samara. But our favorite was buying fresh seafood and grilling it on the Weber on the deck. The house is older. The furnishings are a little worn but in a very comfortable way. If your family had a vacation home for 30 years, it would feel this way. The hill to the house, which gives it such a private, in the jungle feeling, is pretty steep, though not very long. We were glad to have a car to go down to the beach for our daily walks. Swimming, surfing, snorkeling are all very close. Popo's, or Blue Barrel Adventures (not sure of the last word) can arrange all sorts of activities. There is a housekeeper who comes daily during the week. She is nice, speaks virtually no English but will listen and talk if you want to try your Spanish. Her efforts keep the bugs down. This is Costa Rica, after all!

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• An Excellent Carrillo Adventure

  An Excellent Carrillo Adventure

  • Guest Sunny Outlook
  • Date of stay 03/17/09
  • Review Submitted 03/24/09
  We arrived from the Arenal Volcano area for some relaxation on the beach and we were not disappointed. This home is beautiful and had everything we were looking for. Even though it was very warm outside, the house remained cool due to its construction and overhead fans. The location could not be beat as it was a 2 minute drive up the hill overlooking Playa Carrillo, which is undoubtedly the most beautiful beach in CR. When we were not at the beach, we would hang out in the pool and name all of the animals that hang out nearby. The owners did a great job of providing restaurant and entertainment tips. I would definately go back and would recommend to my friends.

  Recommended for: Age 55+, pet owners, romantic getaway, families with teenagers, girls getaway, sightseeing.

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Additional information about rental rates

Christmas, New Years and Easter are $2000/week, not necessarily Saturday to Saturday. Prices for more than one week are negociable with the owner, email and phone listed above. Year round rate other than holidays is $1500/week. The minimum rental is three days at $250/night.

Fees:

• Taxes Included

Cancellation policy:

Cancellation must be no late than two months prior to arrival. Arrival after 2pm, departure no later than 10 am Early arrival or late departure may be planned with owner depending on other rentals.

100% refund if canceled at least 60 days before arrival date.