I, Michael McHugh, stayed at Planet Hollywood Costa Rica in Aug 2019 for 6 nights with my 4 children (21 girl, 18 girl, 15 boy, 11 boy). Overall the resort is very nice. The resort is about 40 min from the airport and it is an easy drive. They have 294 suites and even the lowest category suite is nice. It is hilly with steps, but they also have golf carts that travel around the resort to pick up guests. Like the other Planet Hollywood and Royalton resorts, they have a feature on their website that allows you to select your actual room before you arrive. There is an extra charge, but if you are traveling with other friends and family, it is nice to know that you can guarantee your room location.
Roo
We stayed in rooms 25105/25106, the STAR Class 2 Bedroom Directors Suite. This is a combination of 2 rooms—a junior suite and Directors Suite. Each room as a separate keyed entrance. There is also an outer door, so you can close the other door and leave the other two doors open to have connecting rooms. We had a ground floor room on the corner right in front of the STAR Class pool. It was very convenient. The junior suite has 2 double beds, a patio (or balcony) and a bathroom with full shower and double vanity. It does not have a separate living room, but it does have a pullout sofa.
The Directors Suite has a master bedroom with king size bed and a separate living room with a pullout sofa. Off the living room, there is a full bathroom with shower. The master bath is huge. It had a Roman style jacuzzi tub, standup shower, and walk-in closet. Both rooms have plenty of places to store clothing. They include a scale, iron & ironing board, hair dryer, robes & slippers. Both rooms have large laptop safes with a light and outlet to charge. The Directors Suite includes a microwave oven. The mini bar has beer (Imperial (local) and Budweiser), water, soda, juice. They have a coffee maker in the junior suite and an espresso maker in the Director’s Suite. They include snacks like chips, Pringle’s, M&Ms, and microwave popcorn. Shampoo, conditioner, body gel, soap, tooth brush tooth paste, vanity kit, body lotion. The Directors Suite has liquor (Red Label, Stolichnaya, Tanqueray, Brugal rum) and white & red wine.
There are two areas that have STAR Class rooms. Building 25 & 26 are closer to the main pool and right next to the STAR Class pool. You can see the ocean but there are some trees in the way. Building 10 & 11 are closer to the main lobby. They have a better ocean view and those buildings have elevators.
STAR Class and Personal Agent service
Henry was our Personal agent. Before you arrive we can send the resort your preferences for your rider. We communicated with Henry through WhatsApp. This was convenient because you could message him even while you are off the resort. He was very responsive. Even though he had 10 families, we felt like we were his only family. He made dinner reservations for us and walked us to dinner. He took care of anything that we needed in our room. We got a cabana for a day (extra charge) and even though we have a cabana attendant who gets drinks and food, Henry brought us sparkling wine. He knew I liked craft beer, so he got me a local beer. Henry took care of our every need and brought a higher level of service. I highly recommend STAR class.
STAR Class has a pool that is only for STAR Class guests. It has a bar with premium drinks and is open from 10am-7pm. The STAR Class lounge also has premium liquor and snacks for STAR Class guests. You also get one hour hydrotherapy every day for each guest (18 or older) in the STAR Class room.
Restaurants
Usually when you visit a resort you’ll have a couple of restaurants that you really like and others that were just OK or not good. At Planet Hollywood, I can honestly say that the food was really good at all the restuarants, even the buffet for lunch. You can make reservations at all the restuarants and I recommend making reservations.
Guy’s Burgers
Guy’s Burgers is near the pools. They are open 11am-6pm. They serve several burgers, chicken sandwich, and fries. If you are hanging out at the STAR Class pool, you can order Guy’s Burgers from the bartender and they will bring the food to you.
Juice Bar
The Point Break Pool bar has a juice bar that is open 7am-10am. I had a really good frozen ginger drink.
Blue Star Tex-Mex
Blue Star serves Tex-Mex dishes like fajitas. We got chips, guacamole and pico de gallo, fried onion blossom, shrimp cocktail, ribs, beef fajitas, chicken fajitas, and fish tacos. All the food was really good.
Gusto
Gusto is an Italain resurants. We had salad, bruschetta, caprese salad, minestrone, carspacio, spaghetti marinara, spaghetti meatballs, roasted vegetables, Nutella crape, chocolate cake, vanilla custard with fruit.
So Cal Gourmet Food Emporium
So Cal is their buffet restaurant. They are open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Breakfast
Breakfasts were decent. They had a lot of different food—pastries, meat, cheese, fruit, many fresh juices, typical American breakfast food as well as Costa Rican breakfast foods. Most resorts have omelet stations and Planet Hollywood does too. However, at most resorts, there is a long line for omelets. At So Cal, they had 3 omelet stations, so you didn’t need to wait for food.
Lunch
I don’t normally like buffets—definitely not for dinner, but I’ll sometimes do it for lunch. Buffet lunch at So Cal was amazing. They had a lot of different food choices—sandwiches, fried rice station, pasta station, grilled meat station, and grilled fish station. I had to get smaller portions of pasta and fried rice just so I could try everything else. They make the pasta and fried rice for you based on what you want on it and they have a lot of choices. The grilled meat station had steak, chicken, and pork. The steak was incredible. The grilled fish station had tuna steak, seabass, and red snapper.
East Sushi and Teppanyaki Bar
East is a sushi & Teppanyaki bar. We ate at the Teppanyaki table. Our chef was Kevin and he put on a good show. We had fried rice, steak, chicken, salmon, shrimp, and vegetables. The show was great and the food was really good.
Sunset Strip
Sunset Strip is their Steak house. Our STAR Agent got us a special table outside so we could see the Costa Rican Show. We had iceberg lettuce salad, french onion soup, deep fried shrimp & onion rings, filet mignon, New York Strip, filet & shrimp, angus beef sliders, and cheese cake.
Beach
In this area of Costa Rica, because of the volcanic activity, the sand is black, but it is very soft, like powder. The tide affects how wide the beach is. At low tide, it is very wide. At high tide, there was still a beach, but it isn’t as wide. Beyond the resort you can walk for a long time on the beach (not high tide). It is a nice walk because it is along the jungle and you can hear all the wild life. There is a natural preserve right next to the resort with trails. I walked it our last morning. I saw a lot of small insects and some cows. It was very peaceful.
Pools
There are two main pools. Both have a swim up pool bar. There is one hot tub by the main pool. There is also the STAR Class pool. It does not have a swim up bar, but the bar has premium liquors.
Cabana
They have 12 cabanas you can rent for the day. The price is pretty reasonable ($169). Each cabana has its own infinity pool with jets. There are two lounge chairs, a couch, mini bar with water, soda, and beer, flat screen TV and a safe. They also provide one bottle of Premium liquor. Everyone gets a 20 min massage. The cabanas are available 9am-6pm. The TV has Bluetooth so you can play music from your phone over the cabana speakers. Jarvi was our cabana guy and he was great—very attentive and friendly.
Activities & Entertainment
They have a bunch of activities during the day and entertainment at night. The schedule of activities is available on your TV. We did a lot of things off the resort, but we did do a Facial class. One of the spa employees gave us samples of products and showed us how to do a facial with them.
Just a short walk along the beach there is a the nature preserve. They have trails you can walk through the preserve.
We also did paddle boarding and kayak.
At night they had live music. One night was 80s vs 90s with live music. Costa Rica night had live music and a show highlighting the Costa Rican culture. Another night they had a silent party—everyone got headphones and they could choose the channel they liked. Every night in the lobby, they play different movies. Our first night they played The Blues Brothers.
Recommenations
I highly recommend Planet Hollywood Costa Rica for friends and families traveling to Costa Rica. The resort is very nice; the food is great; and it is relatively close to a lot of things to see and do off property. The Management and Staff are wonderful and we have a close relationship with them. Please contact us for pricing and recommendations.