Summary: The Rip Jack is a special place where the owners, for over 20 years, have done a wonderful job of growing the place in a respectful and well-thought out manner. Don’t go looking for luxury, but do go if you are seeking a quiet, quaint, comfortable, relaxing place that is nestled in the forest just behind the beautiful Playa Grande beach. I’ve never returned from a visit here where we did not feel completely relaxed and reset.
This is our 4th time at Rip Jack but it has been a while (15 years) so I thought it was time for another/new review. We first visited in 2006, just a few years after the current owners had taken over, as a temporary place to rest/sleep while we searched out a place to host our 2007 wedding. Little did we know we would fall in love with the place and choose it as our wedding location. We had our wedding on the Playa Grande beach a year later (2007) with 45 of our closest friends and family. We, and many of our guests, often refer to that wedding week as the best vacation/time of our lives. Two years later, in 2009, my wife and I came back and somehow we have managed to let 15 years pass without a visit. Until now.
Many things have changed over 15 years while others have not. Here are the pros and cons:
Pros:
- Owners and Improvements: The same owners have been here for 20 years and they continue to grow and improve the place. They are always looking to add a new touch (another room, a pool, yoga room, etc.) and are not content to just rest on their laurels. They have really grown and improved the place since our first arrival when they were just a small 8-room hotel with a restaurant on top. Yet even through the growth they have managed to maintain that small hotel feel.
- Area and Growth: While the Playa Grande area has changed (see cons), it has grown significantly less than some of the other nearby areas. We went to Tamarindo, which has always seemed more touristy, and I don’t think I will ever go back. It felt like a cruise stop in a Mexican city with bad, overpriced food and trinkets being peddled on every corner. Playa Grande has grown and changed but still seems to have retained much of the small, surfer town feel with a laid back vibe.
- Food: The food in the Playa Grande area is relatively expensive but generally quite good. The food at the Rip Jack is no exception and is possibly the best in the Playa Grande area. One of our favorite entree’s, which has been served since our first trip here, is the hot garlic shrimp. It’s delectable. On this trip we also tried the mahi mahi, hamburger, and tuna tower. We really liked the tuna tower and found the mahi and hamburger to also be good. The breakfasts were good as well and it’s one of my favorite parts of visiting CR. The eggs always have these beautiful orange colored yolks and the fruits, cheeses, and pico/salsa are always so fresh and tasty. There’s also something about the gallo pinto (rice and beans) here that is so much better than anywhere else I’ve had it. The Rip Jack does a nice job with their breakfast and, in my opinion, is as good or better than any other breakfast in the area. The breakfast next door, at the Playa Grande Inn, is also quite good but bring USD or Colones as they were not able to take credit. We also tried the breakfast at Onda which was cheaper but not as good in our opinion.
- Restaurant: the latest craze in CR appears to be “sports bars” where the restaurants are outfitted with numerous TVs playing different sporting events. Rip Jack just opened their new, open-air, sports bar and restaurant a few months prior to our trip. They really did a nice job on this new addition but I’m also going to circle back to this in the cons. The new addition is tastefully designed (not like your typical sports bars), open, and appropriately sized. During most meals you will typically find an open table but I should warn you that dinner on the weekends can get busy and Friday nights (live music) can make it a challenge to find a table, especially if arriving later in the evening. Arrive early if you plan to eat here on a weekend night or during the high season.
- Hotel: if you are looking for a luxury hotel, this hotel is not for you. Actually, if luxury is your goal, CR is probably not for you. However, if you are looking for a laid back place to stay where they take pride in the care and condition of the hotel, this place is wonderful. We stayed in the Bungalow which features a sitting room, with a couch and TV, and a separate bedroom with two queen beds. It was clean and the sheets and bedding were very comfortable to us. Generally we find the temperature in CR to be quite comfortable but AC was provided/installed to help bring the temperature down at night for a more enjoyable sleep. We did encounter one issue during our stay where the water heater broke but they had it fixed/replaced the same day and by the time we returned from our daily excursions. We enjoyed the pool areas (both of the pools are new from our last visit) several days and there were many other amenities such as a yoga room, beach volleyball court, and ping pong table to keep you or the kids occupied while on property. As previously mentioned, they do a good job with keeping the place up and continually improving without compromising the small, quaint vibe of the hotel.
- Security/Safety: in all of our visits to Rip Jack we have never felt unsafe. I’m not oblivious to potential threats, and the fact that crime exists everywhere, but everyone we have met in CR has been kind and seemed genuine toward us. The Rip Jack does maintain a gate/fence around the property and has security at night but based on our experience, this is likely to help deter petty theft vs personal safety. I’m speculating but we’ve never encountered any issues and the Rip Jack does take steps to make you feel safe/safer. I’ve certainly felt less safe in many parts of the US.
- Wildlife: I also talk about the turtles below. You can experience a plethora of wildlife just within a few miles of Rip Jack. We saw lots of beautiful birds, iguanas, monkeys, and more by just walking around the hotel. We also booked a trip with Jonathan (over at Los Tortugas) to hike and canoe the estuary a few miles away. He showed us monkeys, birds, crocodiles, bats, mangroves, and tons of termites and termite nests. I highly recommend spending one morning with him. We enjoyed it so much that we went with him to see turtles nesting which unfortunately are becoming rare/rarer in the Playa Grande area. Make sure to wear bug spray for both trips if you go. There are also motored boat trips of the estuary but they arrived later in the morning after we had already made our way through the area to catch the first viewings of the wildlife. Jonathan’s trip was much more personal and he puts you out early before anyone else arrives that might drive the wildlife away. The great thing about Playa Grande and Rip Jack is that you don’t have to go far at all to see some incredible wildlife. The only exception now seems to be the turtles.
- Beaches: The Rip Jack is just a couple hundred feet from one of the most beautiful beaches you will ever see. It’s not one for blue water but instead one that feels relatively untouched. During the middle of the day it’s not uncommon to walk for a mile or more with hardly seeing but just a few other people. In the evenings though it comes alive with people looking to catch a glimpse of the setting sun and the many surfers who come to this beach for some of the best surfing to be found. It really is a special place. To make it more comfortable, the Rip Jack rents chairs. However, no umbrellas are allowed on the beach and I’d caution at using anything that has to be buried in the event that a turtle has nested there.
Cons
- Restaurant: I know I listed this above in the pros so let me explain. The original restaurant was situated above the original 8 rooms. It was an open-air concept that made you feel as though you were dining in the trees. It was close and personal and quaint. That feel was also part of what made us want to get married there. While the new restaurant is very nice and tastefully designed, it feels like it has sacrificed some of that small, quaintness for something more modern. It could just be me and my nostalgia, but I really missed the personal feel of dining in the trees without the wall of TVs.
- Relationships: When we visited in 2006, 2007, and 2009 the feeling was a little different and felt more personal. It’s not that it’s not personal or nice now. The people have always been, and continue to be, wonderful here. But it’s not quite the same. I remember walking up the stairs, into the upstairs restaurant, and asking about checkin when we first arrived in 2006. We were fairly frazzled from the day of travel and the horribly bad roads at that time and were looking to just retire to our room. Dave, the relatively new owner, handed me a beer and told me to take a load off. We chatted a bit over a few more beers and within an hour there was no recollection of any travel stresses. Over the next few years and visits we would often have dinner with the staff joining us for a glass of wine and a chat about one another’s backgrounds. We drank many glasses of wine with Gregory (hotel manager) and Johnny (waiter) back then and even went to Johnny’s house in Matapalo for dinner one night. And Shirley…she was just so wonderful to sit and chat with. There was no wall of TVs, or WiFi, or phones. It was just people, wine, and good food in this small, wonderful restaurant nestled in the trees. But maybe this diatribe is more about the changing world and not so much a changing Rip Jack. Regardless of the reason, I miss that personal feel that seems to be eroding from the Playa Grande area, Rip Jack hotel, and new sports bar and restaurant. Don’t get me wrong; we do still love it here and the people are still quite wonderful, but I do long for the types of engagements we had in the area 15 years ago. I am also blaming myself here for waiting so long to come back.
- Roads: the roads are far better than when we first visited in 2006 but it’s still not uncommon to find yourself on some pretty bad roads. This is just Costa Rica. In 2006 it took us over 3 hours (maybe 4) to get from Liberia to Playa Grande. This trip now takes just over one hour because of the improved roads. Yes they were that bad! But bad roads still persist in the less traveled areas. The area/roads immediately around Rip Jack is no exception although 99% of the trip from the airport are on well paved roads. If you plan to rent a car, I recommend getting something that sits up a little higher than the average sedan. The typical sedan just doesn’t sit high enough and you’re at risk of bottoming out on the roads around Rip Jack and others that you may want to venture down. You likely will not need a 4 wheel drive outside of the rainy season (October/November) but get something that has some clearance under the bottom of the vehicle. Most small and midsize SUVs will be sufficient for your needs and opt for the one with no ground effects, running boards, etc.
- Turtles: Playa Grande use to be a primary nesting area for leatherbacks and other turtles but people, developments, and lights appear to have slowly pushed the turtles to other nesting areas and it’s apparently, and sadly, rarer/rare for them to come to Playa Grande any more. There have been efforts to keep buildings and lights from being visible but it does not appear to have been enough. On top of that, Tamarindo has grown so big that it alone probably deters most nesting activity. Jonathan, from Los Tortugas, took us further north one evening where he found a nesting Green Sea turtle. It was an amazing experience. It’s sad that this is rarer/rare to see in Playa Grande now.
Regardless of the change (I know change is inevitable), we still love it here. This is not a luxury five-star hotel but to us it is a wonderful place to visit. Go. Stay Here. You will not be disappointed.
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