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#1 of 1 hotels in Santo Tomas
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Only 20 min from the airport / A hotel inside a garden. 10 acres of the most beautiful gardens in Costa Rica. Experience Costa Rica: Come stroll in our beautiful tropical gardens; enjoy the fragrance of Costa Rica's refreshing air. Relax in our cozy rooms and facilities where our friendly staff will be happy to assist you! Enjoy our country, stay at Bougainvillea: A hotel inside a garden. Restaurant, bar/lounge. Indulge your appetite at our restaurant and bar, which offers a delicious fusion of international and local cuisine. The tasteful decoration of our restaurant compliments our personalized service. Enjoy a view of our gardens which sets the perfect backdrop for an enjoyable breakfast, lunch, dinner, or afternoon tea. Other amenities include complimentary wireless internet access and free parking. Balconies: Take a moment to notice all the beautiful details that the nature offers to you in our balconies with a mountain or garden view. Green mountains, colored tropical flowers and energetic hummingbirds will welcome you to Costa Rica!
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Giata.
HOTEL STYLE
Family
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Location
Calle Santo Tomas Contiguo A La Escuela, Santo Tomas 40302 Costa Rica
Hotel Bougainvillea
1,238 reviews
Getting there
Car recommended
Places to stay are graded on a 0-100 scale. The higher the grade, the easier it is for travellers to find restaurants and things to do within walking distance.
This lovely hotel is about 20 minutes from the airport. They don’t offer a shuttle so take an Orange Cab for under $35. The facility is lovely and the grounds are beautiful. All rooms have private balconies and there is an elevator to get to the second and third floors.
The rooms are well-appointed with nice beds, in-room WiFi, air conditioning, coffee maker, hair dryer and flat screen TV. The hotel restaurant is excellent. I had one of the best steak au poivre I’ve ever tasted. They serve pitchers of cas, almost a smoothie of sour guava, with dinner. It’s delicious. The breakfast is buffet style with delicious choices of fresh fruits, real eggs, rice and beans, and many other goodies.
Be sure to walk the paths around the gardens. Flowers are always in bloom and there are a number of tropical birds flitting about. So peaceful. I can’t think of a better hotel choice.
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Date of stay: January 2020Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The Hotel Bougainvillea is a very nice hotel with beautiful gardens. Be sure to make time for the gardens. And the interesting mineral collection inside the lobby area. The rooms are spacious, beds are very comfortable. The buffet breakfast is very good. We had dinner in the restaurant. The food is good, a bit of an odd international selection. the restaurant has no atmosphere to speak of, dinner service was frazzled. The hotel is a nice quiet location away from the noise of downtown San Jose, has parking if you have your own car and a reasonable taxi ride from town if you don't.
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Date of stay: March 2020
Value
Location
Service
Room Tip:Â get the garden view
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Our group stayed here for just one night as part of a birding tour of the area and were very impressed with the beautiful grounds where one can see a remarkable variety of bird species. For this feature alone, nature lovers will find it worthwhile to stay here. The hotel itself is clean and pleasant, and our room with small balcony overlooking the front parking lot was comfortable though a bit noisy (a nearby dog barked most of the night and some road noise was audible). We didn't have a chance to use the very attractive swimming pool and wish we could have. Food in the restaurant was perfectly fine and the small bar lounge area was pleasant, as was the staff. The Bougainvillea is a good choice when passing through San Jose.
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Date of stay: January 2020
Value
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Great location about 15-20 minutes from central San Jose ,Beautiful gardens with plenty of bird life & fabulous flowers . Nice swimming pool , Large comfortable , clean rooms , with balconies,,we had a spacious central room that was slightly larger , room looking out towards the mountains . Breakfast included , coffee machines in rooms & charger adapters , good choice of hot & cold food . Evening meals were excellent & reasonably priced . We ate in bar , well stocked with drinks . Staff very accommodating in all areas . Taxi to town arranged by hotel cost £8 ( $10 ) each way , plenty of Taxi’s available everywhere in town to return . An oasis in an otherwise busy suburb , loved it & would have no hesitation in recommending. A trip to San Jose is worth it , very interesting city with some great historic buildings & some ‘worth a visit ‘ pubs .
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Date of stay: March 2020Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We stayed here 2 nights at beginning of our trip to Costa Rica. It's a modern hotel with really lovely gardens. perfect place to get over flight /jet lag and settle into CR climate. The gardens were enough to keep us occupied looking at flowers and birds for a few hours. We also stayed 1 night at end of trip.
Try to get a room overlooking the garden rather than 'mountain view' which was front and suffered from road noise.
The restaurant was fine. Breakfast buffet was good. Evening meal less so but as we found out CR food is generally quite bland.
The reception staff were excellent; checking our hire car pick up was as planned, checking airport taxi had the booking, providing iron etc
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Date of stay: February 2020
Location
Service
Sleep Quality
Room Tip:Â garden view room rather than mountain view
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
After spending two weeks visiting different areas of Costa Rica, we stayed our final two days at this hotel. The main reason was the new requirement to test for COVID a day before flying.
Everything about this hotel was great from initial booking to checkout. We asked for recommendations for nearby COVID testing and they referred us to a lab that came right to our hotel room for close to the same price as going to a lab.
Our room was a Garden View Junior Suite and it was very comfortable.
The restaurant food was fantastic. We each had a different fish/sauce combo each night and wow, the chef knows how to cook fish perfectly and develop delicious sauces. Breakfast came with the room and it was fruit plate, hot items, and extras like toast, yoghurt, cereals.
And the best part? The garden. We loved walking it and enjoying the beauty and sounds.
Would highly recommend.
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Date of stay: March 2022
Value
Cleanliness
Service
Room Tip:Â Garden View Junior Suite
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Room Tip:Â The best rooms are those with balconies to the gardens, but all are excellent
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The grounds are spectacular. You see lots of birds and it is safe to walk around and photograph.The hotel is pretty and food was great and they are very good at catering to your special needs (we had someone is our group that had allergies). The room was clean and if you get a garden view you can sit on the balcony and relax listening to the birds.
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Date of stay: January 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
I tried staying with a host family in Costa Rica and, when I couldn't take it anymore, I fled to the Hotel Bougainvillea and never looked back! This hotel is a beautiful nature preserve in a city full of concrete and cars. It saved my sanity to be able to walk in the gardens and listen to the birds before venturing out into the city jungle.
The entire hotel is nicely done and every corner is filled with a sense of peace and serenity. The food was excellent when I ate there, although service was a bit slow for this North American girl. I think that has more to do with cultural values than anything else. I would definitely stay here again the next time I'm in that area!
Pro Tip: The mountain view rooms are nice but you will hear traffic noises until about midnight and the traffic is loud. The guest I met had a garden view and she said there were no traffic noises but that she could hear dogs barking most of the night. I would recommend, whichever room you choose, bring earplugs to help you sleep!
Things I like to know: 1. You can drink water from the tap 2. They will store your bags if you get there before the room is ready 3. There is no microwave or fridge but another guest told me I could ask for a fridge 4. Room service is excellent 5. I felt safe the entire time 6. The internet is wonky and not reliable 7. Be sure to put your toilet paper in the trash can and not in the toilet!
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Date of stay: July 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This was a great place to stay at the beginning of our adventure and most certainly at the end of our 10 day trip as it was like coming home to an oasis after roughing it in the rainforest for 8 days! Great sheets, towels and beds! Food was good but alot of garlic on things but the service was slow and they would get confused so check your bill; though I will admit we had a table of 8 all the time for our group with individual bills. The gardens here are beautiful and you can see some exotic birds and butterflies right here without going into the rainforest- like MotMots and parrots etc... The pool was a welcome luxury at the end of our trip too. It is a fair distance from town but a 10 minute Uber ride into San Jose. Be VERY certain where we want to be dropped off in the city centre as one or two blocks off and its not as clean or safe as one you think. Also be careful of your knapsack or purses.
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Date of stay: January 2020
Location
Cleanliness
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We arranged through the hotel for a driver to pick us up at the airport. They emailed us the name of the driver ahead of time. It cost about $35.00 USD.
The official taxis at the airport to Hotel Bougainvillia is around $25, they are reliable and safe. They are located before the exit. I recommend you to use it. You can use UBER in other locations but at tne airport is safer to use official taxis (by the way, the color for those taxis is Orange, only airport taxis are allowed to use that color).
Enjoy your trip.
There are more places to choose from in the Santo Tomas area.
PRICE RANGE
C$216 - C$262 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
ALSO KNOWN AS
hotel bougainvillea, bougainvillea hotel
LOCATION
Costa RicaProvince of HerediaSanto Tomas
NUMBER OF ROOMS
81
Prices are the average nightly price provided by our partners and may not include all taxes and fees. Taxes and fees that are shown are estimates only. Please see our partners for more details.
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