Barcelo Tambor - All Inclusive

Customer ratings & reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

5577 reviews

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  Ignore bad reviews, nice hotel for reasonable price

  Despite all negative reviews a took a risk and booked Barcelo for hour last 4 days in Costa Rica. We wanted some relaxing time in reasonably priced all inclusive after travelling around. Ant to be honest I was pleasantly surprised. Grounds were well kept, room was great, overlooking the beach with big balcony. It was everything you might need in the room, even iron, big umbrella, sewing kit. Pillows were very fluffy. Location very nice, close to ferry, 30 minutes to Montezuma. Hotel is surrounded by forest and we saw loads of wildlife straight from our balcony, howling monkeys, macaws, racoons, squirrels, iguanas. Only downsize of this hotel was food, it was definitely not what you would expect from 5 star hotel. And we travelled alot around the world. Not much choice, very very basic, and staff just not prepared to cater for lager number of people. Long ques for eggs in the morning. A la carte restaurants like El Rancho and Japanese not to bad. Drinks not to bad especially if you purchased premium. Loads of Tikos and staff don't speak much English, but they nice and really true to help you. Overall was nice hotel and was sorry to leave, so just ignore very bad reviews and give it a chance. Just if you can pay a bit extra and get premium level, that gives you better rooms and some other nice extras 🙂

  Feb 21, 2025
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  Not a pleasant experience

  This hotel although beautiful on the grounds needs some serious up keep the grout in the floors and bathtub area ceiling and floor are riddled with mold The air conditioner works poor at best and kept everything very damp as well as blowing moldy air for many in our group to have respiratory issues I would not recommend this facility The food was also not good very hard to communicate with staff. I would not return

  Feb 17, 2025
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  Not worth the stay. Unsanitary eating conditions. Room :Old, dated, and unclean

  We were on a tour with Caravan. Barcelo Tambor was the resort included in the tour. The tour was great, but these accomodations were not. The outside grounds were well kept. There were pool bars, and a snack shack. Drinks were ok. The snack shack had good french fries but very bad hamburgers and hot dogs. There are 4 restaurants: El Toucan (buffet), El Rancho (steak house), Miyako (Japanese), and Trattoria (Italian). All of our meals except for 1 night were at the El Toucan. In this buffet restaurant there were several choices for food, but none were of great quality. What stands out most is that there were squirrels and crows in the restaurant going from table to table trying to get food. I had to protect some plates from the crows. I witnessed one poor man eating his breakfast with a squirrel at this table. He warded it off with a knife! Who knows if these animals got to the food on the buffet?Yes you could get as much food as you wanted, but it wasn't great. The one night we had at El Rancho ( the steak house) was suppose to be a special dinner. My ribeye, along with many others, was shoe leather! Over cooked, very thin, and under-seasoned. Some of my friends got the garlic red snapper which was whole,and deep fried. They said they had to work to get the meat off because of all the bones! I would not recommend this restaurant either. We did not eat at Miyako or Trattoria because we couldn't get reservations. Now, let me tell you about the rooms. Old and dated. Not clean. Sheets were stained. When we arrived we had 2 bath towels and 1 face cloth. The bar in the bath tub was almost rotted off the wall. Our friends said their room had dirty bathroom floors. I don't think this "resort" has any vacuum cleaners. We brought in some dirt from the beach and it stayed in our room until we left. I asked housekeeping for 4 towels. We received 2 bath towels, and 2 hand towels. Better than what we started with, but I was really looking for 4 bath towels. on the bright side at least the air conditioning worked, and in our refrigerator there was beer, water, coke and fresca. If they could pay attention to the details of cleaning as they do for stocking the refrigerator. I would not recommend this "resort" unless they at least clean the rooms with soap and water, and vacuum them. and use clean sheets WITHOUT stains. They should throw away the stained sheets! For now, if you have a choice, do not stay here. We had to stay because it was part of our tour package.

  Feb 17, 2025
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  Costa Rica Trip

  You need to clean up and update your rooms. Great job on the grounds, terrible job on the rooms. Your food service for your buffet's was terrible. Food was warm at best, stations were always dirty.

  Feb 12, 2025
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  Amazing week in paradise

  We recently returned from a wonderful vacation at Barcelo Tambor. (February 1-8) No complaints whatsoever - transfers, staff, food, beds, linens, grounds, beach. pool and drinks were all perfect. I don't understand some of the negative reviews... it quite simply was not our experience. We would definitely return the next time we are in this region. High recommended.

  Feb 10, 2025