The Best All-Inclusive Resorts in Costa Rica

The Westin Reserva Conchal is the most complete all-inclusive in Costa Rica, and it gets there on breadth rather than on polish. Costco Travel records 406 rooms across two floors on Playa Conchal, the shell-sand beach on Guanacaste's northern Pacific coast, set inside a private reserve that published descriptions put at roughly 2,000 acres of tropical forest — some sellers say 2,400, and the operator does not settle it. Nine dining venues are named on the seller data: Mitra, Bamboo, Faisanela, Cauri Bistro, Manglar, Spirula Trattoria, Caracola, La Sabana and the Imperial Bar, plus a swim-up bar. That is more inclusive restaurants than anything else on this page except the brand-new JW Marriott.

Two things separate it from the mid-market resorts further north. The first is the setting: the reserve means howler monkeys and dry-forest birdlife inside the property line rather than on a day trip, which is the closest any all-inclusive here gets to delivering the Costa Rica people actually booked. The second is the inclusion list. Unlimited meals and snacks, unlimited domestic and select international drinks, non-motorized watersports, snorkeling equipment and evening entertainment are all inside the rate, and the Westin Kids Club for ages four to twelve is free as part of the all-inclusive package rather than a paid extra. As a Marriott property it earns and redeems in Bonvoy.

The honest catch is the transfer, and it is the longest of the Guanacaste cluster: Costco Travel lists sixty minutes from Liberia, roughly three times the drive to the Papagayo resorts. The golf is the second catch — the resort's own name says "Golf Resort," but the course and driving range are listed as available for an additional fee, not inside the plan, so budget for it rather than assuming it. And this is a 4.0-star classification rather than a luxury-tier product: 406 rooms on two floors is a large, busy, family-weighted resort with the queues and the noise that implies, and the room finishes are solid business-brand Westin rather than anything close to the Four Seasons twenty-five miles up the coast.

This is the most interesting hotel opening in Central America this year and the single best reason to look at Costa Rica for an inclusive week in 2026. JW Marriott Costa Elena is the first all-inclusive the JW Marriott brand has ever run anywhere, built as a conversion of the former Dreams Las Mareas Costa Rica on Playa El Jobo at La Cruz, in the far northwest of Guanacaste. The Points Guy reports about 415 rooms including a Griffin Club hotel-within-a-hotel with butler service and a dedicated pool and beach, eleven bars and restaurants spanning an international buffet plus Japanese, seafood, Italian and Costa Rican venues, a 16,000-square-foot Spa by JW, and a 44,000-square-foot poolscape the resort markets as the largest in Costa Rica.

The commercial logic is why it ranks this high despite having no track record. Everything else on this page is either a soft-brand label or a mid-market operator; this is a full-service luxury brand putting its name on an inclusive plan and keeping the plan mandatory, which is a different proposition from the Autograph Collection badge down the coast. For anyone sitting on Bonvoy points or status, it is the only genuinely upper-tier all-inclusive in the country inside a major loyalty program.

Three honest catches. The opening has slipped — the property advertised September 10, 2026, then moved to September 30, and Marriott's booking calendar opened for stays from October 15, so you are buying into an operation still finding its feet, with the service wobbles that always follow a 400-room launch. Bonvoy award rates were not yet loaded when reservations opened, so the points redemption that makes this attractive may not be bookable for your dates. And El Jobo is the farthest corner of the resort coast: La Cruz sits well north of the Papagayo cluster, close to the Nicaraguan border, which makes this the longest drive from Liberia of anything here and the hardest base from which to see the rest of the country.

Costa Rica has very few adults-only all-inclusives, and Secrets Papagayo is the best of them. Costco Travel records 202 rooms on Playa Arenilla in the Gulf of Papagayo, just north of Playa Panama, with the minimum age stated as eighteen and over. The Unlimited-Luxury plan is the most complete inclusion list on this page: unlimited meals and snacks, unlimited domestic and select international drinks, 24-hour room service, non-motorized watersports, fitness classes, evening entertainment, and — the detail that matters at checkout — gratuities and taxes inside the rate rather than added to it.

The dining roster is genuinely a la carte rather than buffet-plus-theme-nights. Costco names Market Cafe for the international buffet, Seaside Grill, Himitsu for Pan-Asian and Portofino for Italian, plus Coco Cafe; a Costa Rica specialist listing adds Barefoot Grill and Aqua for seven venues in total. Five bars and lounges serve unlimited premium-brand drinks. The other practical advantage is position: twenty minutes from Liberia is the shortest transfer of anything on this list, which for a four- or five-night trip is a meaningful share of the holiday handed back to you.

The catches are the beach, the scale and the count. Playa Arenilla is a small sheltered cove inside the gulf, not one of the long open Pacific beaches the Guanacaste brochures photograph — calmer water, which some people prefer, but a fraction of the sand. At 202 suites this is not the intimate hideaway the Secrets branding implies; it is a mid-size resort at a 4.0-star classification, with peak-season queueing to match. And the published dining count disagrees with itself, from five venues to seven depending on the seller, so if you are booking on restaurant variety, confirm what is actually open for your dates before you commit.

If you want a family all-inclusive in Costa Rica that still earns Marriott Bonvoy, this is effectively the only answer. Costco Travel records 292 suites across three floors on Playa Manzanillo in Bahia Culebra, thirty minutes from Liberia, with junior suites at roughly 611 square feet — a genuinely generous entry-level room by all-inclusive standards, with a private balcony, a ceiling-mounted rain shower and 24-hour room service. Costco names seven dining venues; Expedia and Booking.com describe eight restaurants and five bars. The Stars Kids Club runs for ages four to twelve, and a STAR Class tier adds an exclusive pool and bar.

The Autograph Collection badge is the practical draw. It puts a Royalton-operated resort inside Bonvoy for earning and redemption, which is worth real money to anyone already in the program and is the main thing separating this from the cheaper Papagayo properties a few minutes away. The suite size and the Bahia Culebra position — sheltered water, a short transfer — make it an easier week with children than the Westin's sixty-minute drive.

The catches start with the theme. The dining is So Cal Gourmet Food Emporium, Blue Star Tex-Mex Cantina, Guy's Burger Joint, Overtime Sports Bar, East Sushi & Teppanyaki, Gusto Italian Trattoria and Sunset Strip Steakhouse & Grill — a competent roster that has nothing whatsoever to do with Costa Rica, which is a strange thing to fly five hours for. The kids' club closes at 5 p.m., so it does not cover the dinner hours parents usually want it for. There are only two main pools plus the STAR Class pool for 292 suites. And Autograph Collection is a soft brand: it is a Marriott distribution label applied to an independently operated hotel, not a Marriott service standard, and the gap between it and the JW Marriott up the coast is wider than the shared loyalty program suggests.

Occidental Papagayo is the value answer to Secrets, and the two sit close enough together that the choice between them is mostly about how much you want to spend. Barcelo's own property page states an eighteen-year minimum age and more than 163 rooms spread across twenty-three buildings on a beachfront site in the Gulf of Papagayo, with Playa Hermosa three-quarters of a mile away. Liberia's Daniel Oduber Quiros airport is listed at roughly nine miles and about twenty-five minutes, which makes this one of the two shortest transfers here. There is a Premium Level tier for guests who want the upgraded rooms and services.

What you get for the lower rate is the adults-only format itself — no children anywhere on the property, two pools including one kept as a quiet relaxation pool, and a full all-inclusive plan — at a price point no other child-free resort in Costa Rica matches. For a couple who want four nights of beach at the start or end of an inland trip, and who are not going to use nine restaurants, that arithmetic works.

The catches are real and you should take them seriously. The dining is the thinnest of any adults-only pick here: two a la carte restaurants, one buffet, a snack bar and a lobby bar. Over a week that is a short rotation, and it is the single most common complaint about this category of resort. The property's own beach is small and Playa Hermosa — the one people mean when they talk about this coast — is a walk or a shuttle rather than a step out of the lobby. And twenty-three separate buildings across a sloped site means stairs, paths and distances between your room, the beach and dinner, which is worth knowing if anyone in the party has mobility limits.

Azura is the one pick here that is not in the northern Guanacaste resort cluster, and that is the entire point of it. The resort has 74 rooms just outside Samara on the Nicoya Peninsula, on the road toward Playa Carrillo, and it takes guests aged eighteen and over only. The format is small-hotel rather than big-box: an infinity pool, swim-up suites, two outdoor pools, a spa, and three meals a day plus snacks and drinks including alcohol inside the rate, with unlimited room service. Hotels.com lists six restaurants and two bars across the property — Chill 'n' Grill on the beach, Chora's for buffet breakfast and lunch, Bocatto for Italian, Tao for Asian, Arrecife for Costa Rican and international, and L'Ardoise for French.

The reason to book it over Secrets or Occidental is Samara itself. This is a working Costa Rican beach town with its own restaurants, surf schools and residents, not a strip of gated resorts, and at 74 rooms the hotel is small enough that walking out of it for an evening is normal rather than an expedition. For a couple who want an inclusive plan as a convenience rather than a wall, it is the most Costa Rican resort on this list.

Three catches. The drive is the first: Samara is roughly 66 miles and a little over two hours from Liberia airport, which is double the next-longest transfer here and a genuine chunk of a short trip. Six dining venues in a 74-room hotel also means small kitchens and limited service windows, and published counts vary — some sellers list five restaurants rather than six, so confirm what is open. And there is an active advisory: Booking.com's listing notes a property next door under construction until October 15, 2026, with guests possibly hearing the work. If your dates fall before that, ask for a room on the far side.

Margaritaville Playa Flamingo earns its place for a structural reason rather than a luxury one: it is the clearest example on this coast of a resort where all-inclusive is a choice. The property sells room-only, breakfast-only and full all-inclusive rates on the same 120 rooms, which makes it the obvious base for the trip most people should actually be taking in Costa Rica — a few resort nights at one end of an itinerary that spends the rest of its time inland. The all-inclusive plan covers breakfast, lunch and dinner daily plus unlimited house-brand beverages and spirits, and throws in kayaks, bicycles and boogie boards that other guests rent.

Playa Flamingo is one of the better addresses on this coast — a white-sand beach with a marina and a small resident community, roughly midway between the Papagayo cluster and the Westin at Conchal. The resort itself runs an ocean-view restaurant, a pizza bistro, a rooftop bar and a swim-up pool bar, with multiple pools, tennis courts, a gym and a family center. At 120 rooms it is the second-smallest property on this page, which keeps it manageable.

The catches are plain. It is not beachfront: the resort's own description has you crossing a dirt road to reach the sand, which is a short walk but not the step-off-your-terrace arrangement the category usually implies. The inclusive roster is thin — one ocean-view restaurant and a pizza bistro is a short rotation for seven dinners, and the drinks are house brands rather than premium. And the optional-plan structure that makes this page's case for it is also its trap: three rate bases on one room is exactly how people end up arriving on a plan they did not mean to buy, so read the fare rules before you pay. Our guide to [what "all-inclusive" actually includes](/guides/what-does-all-inclusive-include) covers what to check line by line.

Hotel Riu Guanacaste is the volume play and it is included here on honest grounds: if the brief is a week of all-inclusive with a water park for children at the lowest credible rate in Costa Rica, nothing else competes. RIU's own property page describes 24-hour all-inclusive service, three large pools plus an exclusive children's pool with water slides, seven bars, the Splash Water World water park, a Renova Spa, a gym and sauna, and the Fun4All and RiuLand programs for children. Secondary listings put the room count at 701, which is reported as the largest resort in the country.

What that buys is scale and predictability. Twenty-four-hour inclusive service genuinely means food and drink available around the clock, which matters with jet-lagged children, and Playa Matapalo is a long open stretch of Pacific coast rather than a cove. The water park is included rather than ticketed, which is not true everywhere — our roundup of [all-inclusive resorts with water parks](/best/all-inclusive-resorts-with-water-parks) covers the ones where it is and is not.

Now the caveats, and there are three. The first is the one published lists keep missing: the sister property next door, Hotel Riu Palace Costa Rica, is closed. RIU's own page for it states that the hotel is under renovation with a reopening of April 2027, so if you have read a 2026 list recommending the Palace, or you were expecting to use its restaurants and pools, neither is available. The second is scale: 701 rooms is an enormous resort, and the buffet lines, pool-chair competition and service inconsistency that come with that volume are the dominant theme of its guest reviews. The third is that RIU does not publish a restaurant count for this property and secondary listings disagree, which for a resort this size is the number you most want confirmed before you book.