Puerto Viejo Accommodation Review: Brisas del Caribe

If you are visiting Costa Rica, especially the Caribbean side, it’s probably for the beaches and you’ve probably thinking Puerto Viejo. Peaceful, quiet villages, beautiful sunny weather, black sand beaches, laid-back attitude… Ahhh, I can feel the relaxation seeping into my bones just thinking about it….

And you’ll need a place to park your stuff and rest your head at night. We chose Brisas del Caribe – Breezes of the Caribbean – for that and here’s what we found.

Brisas del Caribe – Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Costa Rica review

When we started looking for accommodation in Puerto Viejo we found that there weren’t many budget friendly options in the area unless you are comfortable with hostels. We have aged out of shared bathrooms so that wouldn’t work for us.

So we looked a little outside of town and found the little community of Playa Negra. Not to be confused with the other Playa Negras. We’re talking about the one south of Limon and just north of Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. Playa Negra is less busy, more layed back and much quieter than Puerto Viejo.

After looking at several options in the Playa Negra area we settled on Brisas del Caribe, because it fit our budget and had a full kitchen, laptop-friendly workspace, free wifi, separate bedroom, private bathroom and easy access to the beach.

What’s it like inside?

Brisas del Caribe is a multi-unit apartment complex. In addition to the little apartment we stayed in there are four individual, 2 level units, with more space and bedrooms upstairs.

Common Areas

There is no business center or lounge or anything; it’s not a hotel by any stretch of the imagination. The common area is the outdoor area between the units, and our front porch was a great spot to sit, relax and watch/listen to the sounds of the wild; toucans and various other birds, howler monkeys, iguanas, and many other native animals of Costa Rica as well as occasionally chat with the neighbors who were also sitting on their front porches.

The hosts, Gianni and Xelo, were great. Gianni is what I think of as a ‘typical Italian’; he’s very outgoing and friendly, quick to help with anything and usually smiling. Gianni loves to host small dinner parties for the guests and a few neighbors, It’s a fun way to spend an evening with a truly varied group of people. We got to experience two of these events in our 3 week residency and he invited different locals each time

Housekeeping

Cleanliness is VERY important to them; the units are kept to a very high standard. Xelo is pretty intense with her cleaning. She has a housekeeper helper who comes in and the two of them get after it pretty aggressively. They are flexible with the timing but fairly adamant about getting in once a week for a thorough clean.

Where we stayed

Our one bedroom apartment was located on the ground floor of the hosts home. Slightly less private since the dining/kitchen windows looked oout into their downstairs kitchen area (with curtains) but they are very respectful and it wasn’t an issue for us.

The apartments are well appointed and surprisingly well-equipped for a long stay. (Well, we say this because we’ve had issues with other long-term places lacking in basic kitchen utensils.) The kitchen is very fitting for a beach cabana type accommodations and had everything we needed to prepare most of our meals during hte month we styed there including a four-top stove, oven, fridge/freezer AND one of the coolest water filter system we’ve seen.

The bed was super comfortable and the had great linens!

There is no air conditioning so you are relying on fans and open windows to keep interior temperatures reasonable. They have good screens though and mosquitos were never a problem inside the apartment.

One thing we noticed on the review we read about the place was about leaving the screen covered windows open 24/7, and being from a city, this caused us a little concern BUT since it’s a gated compound and everyone is very vigilant about keep the closed it turned out to be a non-issue. No one is inside the compound unless they are invited.

The water filter systems in the apartment consisted of a covered clay reservoir that sat inside the black enamel pot. The water filtered down through the special clay and into the reservoir in the bottom As long as we kept adding tap water to the clay part, we always had plenty of fresh filter water to drink and cook with.

The gate is secured, that you’ll want to make sure you have the ability to call and let them know you’ve arrived so they can open up (it can’t be opened from the outside with a key.) Whatsapp is your friend! Gianni and Xelo were both super quick to respond to any inquiry

Gianni did a great job with communication throughout our stay especially considering he speaks basically no English and I had only broken, tourist-level Spanish. Google Translate was our go between. He arranged rental bikes for us an had them there when we arrived. We had a couple of mechanical issues with the bikes (no rear brakes on one and a tire went flat midway through our stay on the other) and he got them fixed amazingly quickly

Price

We booked 29 nights for just over US$800. I would assume that the other units are more expensive because you’re getting considerably more space

For its location and for the purpose of our visit, it was decent value. If we were returning we would opt for one of the larger units to have some extra space. The desk and office chair provided are great if only one person needs to be working but we overlap sometimes. The dining table is not ideal for working on the computer nor is sitting on the bed.

Easy access to the beach for sure. It’s just about a quarter mile from Brisas del Caribe to the beach in front of the Azul Banana hotel. One advantage to the beach area at the hotel is that it’s served by their restaurant. They have some beach-side lounge chairs and tables with service call buttons so you can have a frosty beverage or even a meal delivered to you beachside.

Location

A five minute walk to the famous black beach, and a short 10 minute bicycle ride into Puerto Viejo.

It’s a mile into Playa Negra and you can actually walk on the beach all the way into town (more like 2 miles) if you’re so inclined.

Local Grocery Stores, Cafes and Restaurants

You have several food options in the area. Just up the road, in front of the Hotel Azul is the Super Banana Gourmet Market. Their target customers are staying in the Hotel Azul so they don’t really have the stuff you’ll need if you plan to do any cooking but they do have an interesting variety of food and liquor. They do have coffee (by the cup) and get fresh pastries delivered from a local bakery at around 7 each morning so if you’re in the mood for a croissant or some other bread-type treat it’s not too far to go. The ham and cheese croissant was excellent but be there before 8am if you want one.

There is the restaurant in the Hotel Azul. Like we mentioned earlier, they also have beach-side service. Great Food.

The SuperSK, a little closer into Puerto Viejo, it’s about a mile walk, still doable ( or just ask Gianni to arrange for a bike!) For a convenience store there is a great selection of food and drinks here too with local snacks. Prices were also better for most items due to being out in a neighborhood rather than next to a resort.

In Puerto Viejo, 1.6 miles, you have a several restaurants and groceries stores as well.

We used the tuk-tuk service to go into town a couple of times but rode our rented bikes to the main road to shop at the SuperSK, better-stocked grocery market than the Super Banana.

So that’s it! Brisas del Caribe is a great place to stay! Contact us if you have any questions!