We stayed here from March12-15. The room was clean and had a/c. It's located above their restaurant, so we were concerned about the possibility of noise, but our room was very quiet. We had a huge king bed, and 3 single beds. Only drawback was that there was no table or chairs in the room. The staff were very friendly and helpful, and the included breakfast was good. We would definitely stay there again!
"Great value! Great food!" – El Sano Banano Village Hotel
I stayed at this hotel in spring 2007. I had to write a review because El Sano Banano was a great hotel (especially for the price!) My boyfriend and I had a romantic stay in Montezuma . The hotel is right by the beach and a close walk to the amazing waterfalls. The best part about this hotel was the great food and the nightly movies they played on the big screen downstairs. They have a big screen and projector, and it was so much fun to eat dinner in the open air while watching a movie. Breakfast was also included and the banana pancakes were delish! The room was fairly clean but small, and one day there was a HUGE moth the size of my head clinging to the wall. It was an interesting encounter... Montezuma was a tiny place with not much to do, but it is THE place to relax and enjoy.
We ate at El Sano Banano several times during our stay. The restaurant is located in the village of Montezuma and has street-side seating as well as indoor seating. The restaurant is not air-conditioned and open to the air. There is a great deal of tables, and it shouldn't be difficult to find a seat, unless it is during the movie.
El Sano Banano offers breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Their breakfast offerings include a typical Costa Rican breakfast, American breakfasts, and backpacker favorites. Coffee drinks and fruit shakes round out the meal. For lunch, we had soggy nachos. Due to the dampness of the climate, anything that must be "crisp" should not be ordered. There are many vegetarian dishes on the menu. For dinner, the best choices are fresh seafood and fish. Dinner entrées can be pricey for Costa Rica, but are delicious and well worth it.
El Sano Banano also has a selection of cocktails that beat any other bar we saw in Costa Rica.
In the evenings, El Sano Banano is a movie house showing recent movies on a projection screen. The movies are played at a high volume, and your table's location can be very important if you want to watch the movie. The projection screen is set up near the reception desk. There is a new movie every night.
This hotel is located right in central Montezuma above the El Sano Banano restaurant. When we arrived the hotel was pretty empty so they let us pick whichever room we wanted. Most of the rooms faced the back of the hotel and did not have a view. We chose one of the three rooms that looked out over the street and was surprisingly quiet even when music was blasting from Chico's bar a half block away.The rooms have good air conditioning and satellite TV with some channels in English. They play movies on a projection screen ion the restaurant downstairs every night and are free with dinner or if you buy a few drinks. They have a sister hotel, the Ylang Ylang Beach Resort which is located up the beach where you are able to use their beautiful pool. It's a bit of a hike to get there but worth it!
Breakfast is included with the room and the food was pretty good. My only gripe is that only one cup of coffee is included with the breakfast. Refills are extra. The banana pancakes are good as well as the fruit with yogurt and granola. Don't miss the awesome mocha chiller drinks !
There is also an Internet cafe next door with a slow connection. They can take your pictures from your digital camera and burn them onto a cd rom so you can free up your memory card.
This hotel owns two properties in Montezuma. The El Sano Banano is located in town, above their restaurant and movie house. The newly renamed Ylang Ylang Beach Resort is their fusion restaurant, yoga studio, and beach bungalow property, approximately a 15 minute walk from the town along some of the most beautiful beach front in Montezuma.
We ended up seeing nearly every type of room that they offer. We started out with a beach bungalow. Some people love the bungalow experience, but we did change rooms because it wasn't what we were looking for on our honeymoon. For one, it was extremely small, which shouldn't have surprised me, but it did bother me. Secondly, there were no screens to keep out bugs, and there was an ant trail of leaf-cutter ants swarming on the bed. The hotel manager did say they had never seen so many ants on a bed before and it was probably due to the torrential rain. They sprayed the bed, but we still felt uncomfortable, so we switched to their suites in the beachfront hotel. This was better, since it was on the second floor and much larger. However, because it was the rainy season, we had bats and all kinds of other wildlife entering the room. The hotel would be greatly improved by adding screens to their windows. Then one could open up the big double doors and let in the breeze without letting in the neighborhood.
Ylang Ylang Beach Resort does have amazing food and the property is beautiful. The beach access is superb - you are right there on the beach all by yourselves. Their yoga studio was beautiful, although we didn’t use it. The staff is friendly and helpful. It is obvious why this property is the darling of guidebooks.
Walking to town during the rainy season can be quite an adventure. Tiny rivulets become mighty torrents, creating rivers from the jungle to the beach that walkers must cross. When my traveling companion injured her foot, we changed to the in-town El Sano Banano because she couldn't walk out to the resort. In town, the rooms vary with size but have the same decor as the resort. The in-town hotel has air-conditioning. It's also quite quiet, even being located on the main strip of Montezuma on a Thursday night. The food here is great, and we enjoyed the movie that they played that night.can free up your memory card.
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