Aqua Oceanfront Hotel Resort

I love eco-friendly lodgings. This one is built along a steep mountainside affording amazing views with the forest right in your face and the sound of waves coming from the sea below. However, I was given a room near the top and the restaurant was beachside. There were 196 steps, yes I counted them, between my unit and the beach and amenities. They really should have asked if I minded climbing the equivalent of 8 flights of steps every time I want to return to my room. There is eco-sensitivity and there is fitness, but lets not forget hospitality by asking the guest for their preference.

My wife and I (both in our early thirties, no children) spent 8 days in Aqua. We were in Urraca Treehouse, which was literally on the beach. My first bit of advice is that staying close to the beach is ideal (vs. further up the hill). Given the limited activities (by design) you'll probably spend most of your time on the beach, in the restaurant (food/drinks), and yoga - and the latter two are also on the beach path, so by staying on the beach you'll avoid walking up and down the resort all the time (unless you take the path over to Gigante, which we did several times; there was a small grocery store there and we surfed a few times on the next beach over, called Amarillo). Overall, the property is amazing. The rooms are comfortable (albeit quite tiny, at least the treehouses). WiFi was spotty in the room, but excellent at the restaurant. The private beach is great for swimming and kayaking (provided free of charge); very few rocks as well. To be clear, you go here to unplug - if you're looking for non-stop activities and nightlife, look elsewhere. The days are spent on the beach / surfing / exploring, and dinners typically wind down by 9 the latest. You'll see monkeys in the trees and fish jumping in the sea. The food at the restaurant was very good, but you'll cycle through everything within a week. The one thing to highlight is the staff - VERY friendly, very accommodating, and excellent English; we could not be more pleased. To be objective, there are also some areas of improvement. Rooms are tiny. We basically had a studio with a wine fridge (that never cooled below 50 F); being from NYC, it wasn't a foreign concept to us, but given the price point, I was a bit surprised (then again, you won't spend much time in the rooms). We also didn't understand the "value" of the meal plans. We're pretty good at math, but for what they charge per day, we couldn't figure out a way to make it economical vs. paying for everything a la carte (you'd think there would be a discount for locking people into a meal plan?). Lastly, the bill tracking is quite poor. There were reviews on other sites that suggested visitors check their bill upon checkout, but it's very difficult to spot inconsistencies. We did immediately notice/dispute two "laundry" charges that we never used, but otherwise we had to trust them. Advice to mgmt: guests should be able to take a copy of the receipt they sign at the restaurant! There are already multiple copies, but apparently not one for the guest to take - this doesn't make sense and it's the only way for guests to "check" that they're being billed accurately upon checkout. Some other random things worth sharing: the resort is about 2 hr 15 min from the airport (Aqua can arrange a transfer); dress code is causal (sandals, shorts at dinner was acceptable); every room has a cooler of filtered water (replaced as often as needed); A/C worked great at night; amenities in the bathroom were typical; safes in each room; plenty of beach towels are provided; villas have proper kitchens but the treehouses only have a small wine fridge (we used for water, beer and some chocolate :) We felt very safe on the property as well. Overall, we would definitely recommend to our friends, so long as the expectations are to unplug and unwind! Thanks, Aqua, for a great stay and introduction to Nicaragua!

This resort is by far the coolest place I have ever stayed... Starting disclaimer though, it caters to active people with able bodies... If you don't like the idea of hiking or walking to the beach down a steep hill (less than 500 ft), then go find some other place that has golf carts or Segways. Aqua Wellness is built on the side of steep hill that overlooks a beautiful private cove and to us that was a huge plus. The views were absolutely stunning. Walking down the rustic yet well maintained paths from the treehouse to the beach was both beautiful and exciting. The restaurant was very affordable (for USA standards), politely staffed, and the drinks were clean and delicious.. Such a lovely romantic spot for my girlfriend and I. Will be coming here again, but next time it will be for at least 2 weeks.

Great location, nice swimming beach, surfing nearby. Restaurant needs improvement

The views are stunning. The hotel is situated on a private bay of the Pacific Ocean. Our room was up high, which meant serious stair climbing after each meal. The rooms are clean, modern and beautifully decorated. They have comfy beds and nice warm showers. We loved hearing the monkeys outside of our room every morning and one of our trip highlights was watching them swing through the trees at dusk. One of the reasons we picked this resort was for the yoga, so it was surprising that a wellness resort only offered one class per day in the mornings. The hotel is extremely remote...it's about a 30 minute drive down a long dirt road and the nearest happening town is about and hour and half away. San Juan del Sur is a great beach town and we highly recommend a trip there. The grilled lobster at El Timon was one of our best meals! We went to the resort's neighboring "town" of Gigante (a 20 min walk). It's very rustic. We sat down for lunch at the main restaurant. After waiting an hour for "nachos" (doritos with red sauce) we found out they didn't have running water. We gave up on the rest of our food and went back to the hotel. We stayed in Nicaragua for one week- 3 nights at Aqua and 3 in Granada. I highly recommend splitting the time you have. Many day trips to the volcanoes and lagoons are near Granada, so if you stay at the resort the whole time it will be a lot of back and forth on that dirt road. Overall, the resort is a beautiful place to relax & enjoy nature.

Prime location on the beach. This resort is more rustic than pictures show though. The NICA staff is exceptional in trying hard. There is no concierge type of system to help schedule outings and communication with the reception area is almost impossible. They seem understaffed. We stayed in 2-5 star hotels during our entire stay and this one we thought would be around a 4 star from the photos but was not. Also, everytime you can not get reception on the phone and have to go to the office it is over 100 steps to reach them. Thankfully, we were very fit. Stay was OK but not at all what we expected.