The Papagayo Peninsula Has No All-Inclusive Resort. Here Is Where They Actually Are.

Four Seasons, Andaz and Nekajui all charge for the food. If you want the bill settled before you land, you are booking somewhere else in the gulf.

Article Toorizta Travel Made Simple · October 26, 2026 · 7 min read

There is no all-inclusive resort on Peninsula Papagayo itself.

The peninsula holds three hotels: Four Seasons Resort Peninsula Papagayo, Andaz Peninsula Papagayo, and Nekajui, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, which opened in February 2025. All three sell you a room and then charge you for every plate and every glass after that.

The all-inclusives that surface when you search "Papagayo" are real, but they sit outside the gate, around the wider Gulf of Papagayo. The two that matter are Secrets Papagayo on Playa Arenilla, adults only, and Planet Hollywood Costa Rica by Royalton near the base of the peninsula, built for families.

So the question is not which Papagayo all-inclusive is best. It is whether you want the week paid for before you land.

Papagayo GulfCosta Rica

Two places, one name

Peninsula Papagayo is a private development of about 1,400 acres of dry tropical forest and coastal cliff, per Ritz-Carlton's own description of the setting. It is gated. Three resorts, a marina, golf and a sports park sit inside it, and that is the whole list.

The Gulf of Papagayo is the bay the peninsula sticks out into. It takes in Playa Hermosa, Playas del Coco, Playa Panamá, Playa Arenilla and a string of smaller beaches, along with the towns and the restaurants that are not inside a resort.

Booking sites use "Papagayo" for both. That is how travelers end up paying peninsula money expecting all-inclusive food, or booking an all-inclusive and arriving puzzled that the Four Seasons is a locked gate away.

The peninsula: you are paying per plate

Andaz publishes exactly what its resort fee covers. Per the resort's own FAQ on hyatt.com, the fee includes shuttle transport within the peninsula, non-motorized water sports, the fitness center, valet parking, Kids Club access, entry to Papagayo Park, daily minibar snacks and local calls. No meals and no drinks appear anywhere on that list.

The same FAQ names six restaurants on property plus a coffee bar, and says the resort does not currently offer day passes. That last line is the one people miss. You cannot buy a day on the peninsula, which also means your dinner options are the resorts you are already allowed into. The towns with independent kitchens, Playas del Coco and Playa Hermosa, are back out through the gate.

Inside, the logistics are good. Andaz runs a complimentary shuttle every thirty minutes around the peninsula. Its boat, the Nimbu, crosses to the Casa de Playa beach club every twenty-five minutes, pauses from 1:45 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., and makes its last return run at 4:00 p.m. from the beach club side. Worth knowing if you are the sort who loses track of an afternoon.

Four Seasons prices its experiences one at a time. On its own site a sunset picnic at Virador Beach starts at USD 1,700 and a children's surf session starts at USD 1,490, which tells you the shape of the bill. Nekajui, the newest of the three, opened with 107 rooms, suites and tented accommodations and also carries a daily resort fee.

Three serious hotels, forest, cliffs, and a park with padel and pickleball courts, a lap pool and a pump track. It is a fine place to spend a week. Just go in knowing that food and drink are a separate, open-ended line, and that there is nothing within walking distance to use as a release valve.

Secrets Papagayo: adults only, bill settled

If "all-inclusive on Papagayo" is what you came for and you do not have children with you, this is the one.

Secrets Papagayo sits on Playa Arenilla, on a hillside above a black volcanic sand beach, roughly 10 km northwest of the Playa Panamá main entrance, per Hyatt's listing for the property. It is adults only, guests aged eighteen and over, with 202 rooms and suites, six restaurants and a café, five bars, and two pools open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The spa runs 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Food, drink, room service and the minibar are in the rate.

Two practical notes from that same page. The property is hillside, so the walk from a far room down to the beach is a real climb on the way back and worth asking about before you pick a room category. And it takes one small dog in select rooms at $50 per night with a 22 lb limit, which is unusual enough to matter if that is your situation.

The adults-only rule is strict, not a mood. Eighteen and over. If you are traveling with a seventeen-year-old, this is not your resort.

Planet Hollywood: the family version

Planet Hollywood Costa Rica by Royalton is the family-shaped all-inclusive in the gulf, near the base of the peninsula on Playa Manzanillo.

Its own site lists 292 suites, seven restaurants, a Star Kids Club, a kids splash pad, and no minimum age, though one guest per room has to be eighteen at check-in. It also states that taxes and gratuities are included in the package. On the peninsula both land on top of every bill instead, which is a larger gap over seven nights than most people budget for.

It is themed, loud in the good-natured way, and unapologetic about it. If your children want a water playground and a movie night and you want to stop doing arithmetic at dinner, it does that job.

What an all-inclusive does not cover

An all-inclusive covers the resort. It does not cover the rest of Guanacaste.

The good days happen outside the gate, and tours are charged separately wherever you sleep. From anywhere in the gulf you are within reach of the Rincón de la Vieja flank, which is where most of the day trips go. The volcanic mud bath and thermal pools at Rio Negro run as a day pass from from $35 per person, and a full day of sloth spotting with the Llanos de Cortés waterfall and a coffee stop runs from from $290 per person. Both are bookable through us directly.

Build two or three of those into the week and the arithmetic shifts again, because on tour days you are not eating at the resort anyway.

How we would choose

If you want the number to stop moving, book Secrets when it is the two of you and Planet Hollywood when the children are coming. You will eat on property most nights. That is the trade, and for a lot of couples on a seven night trip it is the right one.

If you want the setting and you have already decided not to think about the bill, go to the peninsula and pick by temperament. Four Seasons for Papagayo Park and the Virador beach club, Andaz for the design and the boat, Nekajui if you want the newest and the smallest.

If you want to eat where Costa Ricans eat and you like having a town around you, then honestly none of them. Look at Playa Hermosa or Playas del Coco, where you can walk out of your hotel to dinner. Different week, different article, and the right answer for more people than the resort pages admit.

If you are torn between two of these, tell us which two and why. That conversation takes about five minutes and saves a lot of tab refreshing.

Getting in from Liberia

Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport, LIR, is the near airport for all of this. Hyatt puts the drive to Andaz on the peninsula at 35 to 45 minutes, and Planet Hollywood puts its own at approximately 30 minutes.

Our private transfer from LIR to the Papagayo Gulf is priced per vehicle rather than per head, from from $78 per vehicle (up to 4), with pickup at the time you choose. Worth pricing before you accept whatever the resort quotes, especially if there are four of you.

One thing to confirm directly with the resort: Planet Hollywood currently advertises a complimentary round-trip airport transfer on direct bookings. Promotions come and go, so get it written into your confirmation rather than assuming it.

Elsewhere in Guanacaste

Staying somewhere else on this coast? We have walked through the same decision for Tamarindo and for Playa Flamingo, both of which trade differently between beach, town and car.

And if you are still weighing Papagayo against a base with a town attached, send us your dates and who is coming. We will tell you which of these fits the week you are describing, including when the answer is none of them.

Pura vida. 🌿