Charming Casa Macaw

We loved Manuel Antonio Estates. This place is situated very close to the town of Quepos, yet secluded. And being in this area, you are right in the jungle! Howler Monkeys, White Faced Monkeys (Capuchin), Toucans, all around you. The name, Casa Macaw is quite appropriate. The Scarlet Macaws were so close! I got up every morning before the sun to listen to the jungle come alive. Breathtaking!

And when you're ready to go to town? So close!

I would highly recommend this place to anyone.

We stayed at the Casa McCaw for 5 nights. Pros: we enjoyed lounging in the pool in the early evenings watching the monkeys swinging thru the trees above us. We also enjoyed sitting out on the balcony in the mornings watching the McCaws, which we think were nesting in a tree down the street. Cons: really bad parking. We usually had to park down the hill and walk up to the house, as the driveway entrance was so unlevel and there was not enough clearance for our SUV and we risked damaging the bottom of the car. Additionally, there is not much parking on the street close by and was usually taken, hence the reason we had to park down the hill. Another disappointment was the water pressure in the house, I like decent water pressure when taking a shower and this house had very poor pressure.

This was our second year staying at Casa McCaw. We simply love this property. It's clean and very comfortable. We had daily visits from Titi and white faced monkeys along with toucans and beautiful macaws. Our morning wake up calls came from owls and laughing falcons. The staff was very helpful and a special thank you to Maday who made our visit so welcoming by arranging a taxi service to shopping details or whatever your personal needs may be.

The house is beautifully situated on a steep hillside where you feel like you are in a tree house. We spent many hours on the outdoor porch and deck where everyday we saw iguanas, monkeys and macaws, along with other animals. You truly feel at one with the environment at the house. Although you are very close to other houses you barely notice them due to the steep terracing of the land that off-sets them vertically. Staff was always helpful. House had everything you could need. Only downside was the super steep driveway and single parking space that is difficult to maneuver; gratefully we had an all wheel drive vehicle because it was very slick in the rain.

We loved our stay at Casa Macaw! The house is cozy; feels like a cabin in the jungle, with the beautiful teak wood everywhere. All details in the house were taken care of; kitchen appliances and utensils, laundry (including detergent), even the current Lonely Planet book for Costa Rica. There were tons of towels. pillows and beds were very comfy. Air conditioning was quiet and efficient. What makes the place shine though, is definitely the staff at Manuela Antonio Estates, in particular Jessica, who checked us in, and made sure we had everything we needed, which included a cell phone loaded with her number and local eateries for delivery. Also, thank you to Dorit, who was available when I called from Canada and made booking so easy. We greatly appreciated the communication from her about arriving, which included details about restaurants on the way and directions to the Crocodile bridge, which we passed on our way from San Jose.

The grounds and pool were frequently attended to. The Estates are just on the edge of Quepos and we especially enjoyed the 20 minute hike from the end of the road of the Estates, to the a gorgeous waterfall and swimming hole, where we were the only people. Thank you for the directions Dorit!

The drive to Manuel Antonio is easy and takes about 10 minutes. Along the way are great restaurants, which we usually went to for dinner.

If you want to stay in, you'll be amazed if you order pizza. We couldn't believe how quick it came, even in torrential rain and lightning storm on a scooter! And delicious and hot!

To top off our experience in Manuel Antonio, we saw Macaws twice, A Toucan once and one afternoon, we were beneath the squirrel Monkeys passing through the area. We'd guess maybe close to 100?! We could see them coming through the trees and jumping from one tree to the ones across the road, practically over our heads, then through the branches and trees past our patio. It was thrilling!

As this was our first trip to Costa Rica, I was worried about bugs, and spiders and I'd heard ants could be a problem. We had a few ants, but really was no a big problem. We loved every part of Costa Rica and our favourite place was Casa Macaw at Manuel Antonio Estates! You can't go wrong staying here!