Our family of five stayed at Casa de los Sueños DEC 22-29. This home is located in a beautifully remote area about 6 km from the Costa Rica border. The house features loads of space, nice grounds and pool, with friendly and very helpful staff. Veronica and her helpers do an amazing job. Alberto (Jose and Veronica’s nephew) keeps the pool spotless twice per day.
The road to the house is steep, bumpy and rutted- kind of fun in a 4WD, but time consuming. Even though we stayed at the casa during the "dry" season, we had rain on 6 of 7 nights (unusual for the area), making the road slick and difficult even with a 4WD vehicle. A high-clearance (you cross two streams to get to the casa) 4 wheel drive vehicle was a must.
The location was lovely and peaceful. The views of Costa Rica across the Bahia de Salinas are amazing. If you head towards the village of El Pochote, one can catch nice views of volcanoes Orosi and Rincon de la Vieja in Costa Rica. Bath towels were fluffy and abundant. The bed linens were also very good quality. The kitchen was disappointing. Though billed as fully equipped, it wasn’t. The twin ovens were not working, so for Christmas dinner we made do with a toaster oven for cooking. There was no microwave, no dishwasher,no garbage disposal. The clothes washer and dryer were not operating properly. For short periods we had no bathing water in the house. Be aware that you will probably experience electricity outages. Be prepared by buying matches and making sure you know where the electric lanterns / flashlights are at night. There were candles in the house, but no matches. There is no DVD player in the house, but there was a nice selection of DVDs.
Access to the nice private crescent-shaped beach below and just north of the house was both hazardous and inconvenient. A non-stainless steel (!) stairway to the beach is completely rusted through and impassable. This necessitates one having to take the path to the south, invading the privacy of the residents of the adjacent house. Be aware that several of the wooden steps on that path are loose and hazardous.
Fun activities were plentiful- horseback trip to CR (Alberto expertly guided), fishing with Joey, surfing, turtle hatches at Playa La Flor. Try baked goods at "Pan de Vida" in SJDS! Puesta del Sol restaurant in Coco excellent.