A Vacation within a Vacation - Dreams Las Mareas

 

We learned friends of our are spending a week at the new Dreams Las Mareas, located at the Northern point of the Guanacaste coast in El Jobo. It is a 3 hour ride from Flamingo to El Jobo but the roads are paved. However they are doing some road construction, which is a good time to stock up on chips that are sold by the locals anytime there is construction causing cars to stop.

The ride takes you through endless valley's with volcano's in the backdrop, very beautiful. From the airport in Liberia airport the ride is 1 1/2.

Dreams Las Mareas is an all suite, all inclusive resort with everything right there. Dreams is part of AM resorts which include Zoetry, Secrets, and Now resorts all of which I have had wonderful experiences with over the years as a guest and sending clients to the resorts.
When we arrived we were greeted with a glass of champagne. Check in was quick, easy, and we were in our rooms in no time. We are only here for 2 nights so it was great to get the party rolling as soon as we arrived.

 The resort has 2 levels of pools with all sorts of mini pools, you can always find a spot to sit. People still do get up early to reserve their spot but that happens in any resort and there really isn't a reason here with so much space.

We meet our friend by the pool for some afternoon beverages before going to the Seaside Grill for lunch.

The Grill is set right off the pool and with views of the ocean. Lunch was wonderful.

There is a salad bar with fresh fish salad, tuna, salmon, soup, chips, and assorted cold salads. I could of had just that for a meal and been happy. The fresh snapper was delicious. Wonderful meal, great service, and a beautiful atmosphere.

Now for some beach time.

 The beach is right in front of the resort. All beaches in Costa Rica are public but Dreams pretty much has this little cove to itself. It is a great for swimming, very calm.
There are lounge chairs on the beach and the servers do come and bring you cold beverages.

Life is good on this little vacation.

Dinner we went to Portofino's, Italian. Since George did not bring long pants which is required in many of the restaurants, we had to eat outside on the large porch. It was nice eating outside under the stars. The food, the service was all wonderful and we got to take in the show right from our table.

The next morning I woke up and couldn't wait to hit the breakfast buffet at the world café. One word BACON!! Oh how I have missed bacon. It was on the buffet and it was good. They had 2 egg stations, however only one was open and the lines were long. No scrambled eggs, there was a dish with a card stating scrambled eggs but empty. Oh well plenty of other things like bacon and fresh fruit.

We spent most of our day on the beach, enjoying the water and even got to see a few capuchin monkeys. There are kayaks, surf boards, boogies boards, and sup boards all for your use.

Lunch we went to the world café which I found to be not very good. It is a buffet filled with lots of fried food and pizza. Some fish but seemed like it had been sitting a long while. There is always salad.
Dinner we went to Oceana. It was not a good experience from start to finish. The restaurant was full and not enough servers. We finally did get food, extremely small potions, spring rolls smaller then the frozen ones you buy in for hor d'oeuvres in the super market.

Vincent ordered a steak medium rare and it came out well done. No one was happy with their meal.
We decided to go to Portofino's for dessert. That was a mistake. First they were not happy we just wanted desserts and drinks, even though not many people were in the restaurant. We finally got our desserts and it wonderful. While enjoying our dessert a women came up to the table and told us they have been waiting 1 1/2 for food. Not good.

Breakfast the next morning still no scrambled eggs and only one station open with a long wait.

The resort is beautiful with lush gardens all around and there are plenty of activities. It was wonderful not to drive and have everything right there. AM resort even has a app you can download that tells you everything that is going on at the resort and you can use it to make free calls. I had some business to take care of while in resort and this app was great. I was able to call my clients in the states for free. Even called my mother in law just to say hi from the beach.

We had lots of fun catching up with our friends. It was great to just relax in a lounge chair with a cold beverage in hand. Now its time for the next adventure.