Papagayo All-Inclusive With Kids: Two of the Three Are Adults Only

Which resort on Bahía Culebra actually fits a family week, and where the all-inclusive band stops.

Article Marta Daví · October 26, 2026 · 7 min read

If you are travelling with children, Planet Hollywood Costa Rica by Royalton is the only full all-inclusive on the Gulf of Papagayo that will take them. Secrets Papagayo and Occidental Papagayo are both adults only, 18 and over. And the two resorts most people picture when they hear Peninsula Papagayo, the Four Seasons and the Andaz, are not sold all-inclusive at all.

That last part catches families out more than anything else here. You book what you think is an all-inclusive week on the peninsula, then discover that lunch, dinner and drinks are a separate bill on a resort where a coffee is not cheap.

Papagayo GulfCosta Rica

The five resorts, sorted

Every line above comes from the resort's own website, read on 23 October 2026. Links are in the sections below.

Why the Peninsula resorts are not all-inclusive

Andaz says it plainly in its own FAQ: "the resort is not all-inclusive; however, a Food & Drinks Package rate can be reserved or added to your reservation" (andazpuravida.com). The package is not published as a rate on the page. You have to write to the resort's reservations team for it, which means you cannot compare it against a rival resort's headline price in a browser tab.

One detail inside that FAQ matters more to families than the package itself. At the Andaz, ages 0 to 11 count as children, and anyone 12 and over is priced as an adult for both the room and food and beverage. A thirteen year old is an adult on that bill.

The Four Seasons does not publish an all-inclusive plan either. Its own offers page lists a spending credit, up to 25 percent off the room rate for advance purchase, a fifth night free and 30 percent off private residences (fourseasons.com/costarica). All of those discount the room. None of them covers your meals.

There is now a third resort inside the peninsula gates. Nekajui, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, opened on Peninsula Papagayo in 2025 and is not sold all-inclusive either; its rooms page lists a daily resort fee (ritzcarlton.com).

So the honest answer to "which all-inclusive on Peninsula Papagayo should I book" is that there is not one on the peninsula itself. The all-inclusives are a few minutes away, around the gulf.

The one that takes children

Planet Hollywood Costa Rica by Royalton sits at Playa Manzanillo on Bahía Culebra, about 30 minutes from Liberia airport. It is an Autograph Collection all-inclusive with 292 suites and seven restaurants, and the resort states there is no minimum age to stay, as long as one guest per room is 18 or older at check in (planethollywoodhotels.com).

Two things in its small print are worth knowing before you compare prices. Taxes and gratuities are inside the all-inclusive package, which is not true of every resort rate you will price in Costa Rica. And the PH Spa is marked as an extra charge on the resort's own amenity list, so the massage you were picturing is not in the band.

The resort was also advertising a complimentary round-trip airport transfer for direct bookings when we read the page on 23 October 2026, operated by NexusTours. If that offer is live for your dates, take it. Our own private transfer is the answer when you want a named driver, your own vehicle and a departure time you choose rather than a shared schedule. Liberia airport to your Papagayo hotel runs about 40 minutes: from $78 per vehicle (up to 4), with a per-passenger charge above four and a maximum of eight.

The two adults only ones

Both are real all-inclusives and both will turn your family away, so rule them out now rather than three clicks into a booking engine.

Secrets Papagayo is on Playa Arenilla, inside a gated community on the gulf. Hyatt describes it as adults only for guests aged 18 and over, with seven dining venues, two pools and the Unlimited-Luxury band that includes tips and taxes (hyattinclusivecollection.com). Its FAQ also says guests are responsible for their own transport to and from the resort, so budget that separately.

Occidental Papagayo is up on the cliffs of Culebra Bay near Playa Panamá, 163 rooms, adults only for over 18s, with a buffet plus two à la carte restaurants (barcelo.com).

If the children are staying home with grandparents, these two are where the quiet is. If they are coming, you are back to Planet Hollywood or to a peninsula resort with a meal package bolted on.

Where the all-inclusive band stops

At the resort gate, mostly. None of these packages covers the day you spend away from the pool, and in Guanacaste that is usually the day you remember.

Excursions at Planet Hollywood are booked through the concierge and are not in the inclusions list. Secrets says it can arrange off-site trips. The Andaz runs its own activity programme across the 1,400 acres of the peninsula, charged separately from the room.

Priced through us, a few of the trips families here actually take:

Nobody owns the sand

Worth knowing whichever resort you pick. Under Costa Rica's Maritime Terrestrial Zone Law, Ley 6043, the first 50 metres measured from the ordinary high tide line is the zona pública, held for public use (SINALEVI, the national legal database).

In practice that means a resort can own everything behind the beach and control the road in, but not the wet sand itself. It also means the stretch in front of your hotel is not reserved for guests, and the gated roads of Peninsula Papagayo are the reason that distinction feels different there than it does at Playa Hermosa.

One more thing travellers raise about this coast and few brochures do: the sand on some of these bays is dark rather than white. Calm, warm, swimmable, and grey when the light is flat.

Resorts sold as Papagayo that are not on the gulf

Search "Papagayo all-inclusive" and Dreams Las Mareas comes back near the top. It is a good resort and it is not here. The Costa Rica Tourism Board lists its address as La Cruz, Playa El Jobo (visitcostarica.com), up near the Nicaraguan border and a long drive north of Bahía Culebra. Right if you want remote. Wrong if you booked it thinking you would be 30 minutes from the airport.

Choosing between two bases

Children coming, and you want one price for the week: Planet Hollywood at Playa Manzanillo.

Children coming, and you care more about the land, the guiding and the quiet than about an open bar: the Andaz on the peninsula, with or without the food and drinks package, and work out the meal maths for anyone over 12 before you commit.

No children, want adults only: Secrets at Playa Arenilla if you want to walk to a beach, Occidental if you want a cliff and a view.

Tell us who is coming, which week, and whether the all-inclusive band is about money or about not having to think. We will tell you which of these fits, and what the week looks like once you add the days you spend off the property. Ask us.

Planning the wider Guanacaste coast? We have done the same breakdown for Playa Flamingo and for Tamarindo.