Casa Chameleon Hotel Mal Pais - Adults Only

Casa Chameleon Mal Pais is beautiful. Also, you should know before you go that it is not for everybody. First, the great... There are only ten villas, offering a level of quiet and calm that is refreshing. Each villa has its own pool, which is delightful. Each villa also has a lovely view of the ocean and a measure of privacy. The restaurant on site is great for several reasons: each of the staff is terrific (special shout out to Diego), the view from the restaurant is gorgeous and the food never disappoints. Kudos to the restaurant. Some things to be aware of: there are lots of steps and they are not necessarily well lit at night. Some of the villas enjoy more privacy than others (ours was somewhat lacking in this regard). The wall between the bedroom and the bathroom does not reach the ceiling so middle of the night visits to the bathroom light up the entire place, likely waking your partner. The drive up the hill to the location is an intimidatingly steep road with lots of potholes and off and on pavement/concrete. We didn’t mind it, some would. If you want something a little different, where you feel exclusive, this is it. Overall a lovely experience.

Private & Perfect As wonderful as I had hoped. Personal attention from the time you arrive and new friends when you leave. The staff (In particular - Ariel, David, Andy, and Christopher, and the amazing chef we did not get to meet, but most definitely enjoyed) were welcoming and very helpful. The room was large, clean, and inviting, but what stands out when first entering the room are the large glass doors that fold open onto the personal balcony and plunge (infinity) pool. We were in the pool in minutes overlooking the green jungle canopy and the ocean. The cocktails were freshly made and delicious at happy hour. The breakfast selection was great and came with fresh juice and fruit along with Costa Rican coffee. We did happy hour every night and dinner twice - both great. The staff set up an island tour for us and transportation. A great, great place with great people.

I stayed with my wife and two teenagers at Casa Chameleon in Mal País, and it exceeded my expectations on all counts. It's one of the best boutique hotels I have stayed at. The service was impeccable. The staff memorized the guest's names, which is a small detail that goes a long way. The waiters were super friendly and seemed genuinely interested in us. Honestly, I can't say enough about how good they were. I would give them 5 stars. The food was extremely good. The meals were made with top-quality ingredients and the chef made everything with expertise and care. We were there for New Year's Eve, and they had prepared an amazing special menu for the evening. They had a very tasteful BBQ with a dessert plate that included 6 or 7 different pastries for each person! Wow. The desserts were as good as I have had at a fine restaurant in Paris. I was not expecting that! We had 2 separate rooms for our family, and the accommodations were incredible. Just look at the pictures people have posted. That says it all. I feel like my review is gushing, but it was really that good. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Casa Chameleon Mal País to anyone who is looking for a top-drawer boutique experience. I hope to be back!

We had thoroughly researched Mal Pais before choosing Casa Chameleon and weren't disappointed. Our villa was lovely with amazing views down to the Pacific. We only had 2 niggles with the room: the bed was so hard that I had to sleep on top of the pillows and the lovely folding doors kept sticking. Neither of these were too disastrous but our friends were upgraded to a superior villa where the bed was soft and the doors were on runners. There was also no wardrobe so we hung our clothes (after requesting hangers) around the room. The waiting staff and the lady who cleaned our room were all delightful. Andy, David and Justin were absolutely amazing and so efficient. The beauty of the location is tempered by the tremendously steep hill on a very rough road leading up from the main road. We all walked up and down as we deliberately avoided hiring a quad bike (ATV) as being too risky. We took taxis in the evening to go out but at $20 each way, seemingly irrespective of distance, this was another cost if you want to eat out at night. The food at Casa Chameleon is superb. Breakfast was fantastic and the 2 dinners we had during our 6 night stay were excellent.

We stayed in a suite, it was private, spacious, and gorgeous. We were a little disappointed at first that we weren’t closer to the beach but our room was so nice we didn’t care. Amazing view of the ocean and we got to watch about 20 monkeys travel through the trees one morning. The service was friendly and awesome.

Started with fantastic communication from the concierge staff who took care of us before we even arrived from planning our transfers to and from Tambor air strip to taking care of all the details for our excursions. They arranged a private surf lesson, a boat trip with snorkeling to Tortuga island, and arranged for our canopy ziplining tour with all transportation details. All we had to do was show up, easy breezy. They also scheduled for a doctor to come perform our covid test for returning home on site—very convenient. The onsite restaurant was delicious and we were grateful for our new friends, Andy, Diego, and Justin. They took excellent care of us. We had no problem having bottles of Rosé to our room, not sure what happened with the prior reviewer? Every meal was delicious. And the view from the open air restaurant was gorgeous. We loved the private terrace and used the dip pool daily. We are very active so we enjoyed trekking to nearby Santa Teresa but the hike up the hill is not for the feint of heart. Ending the hike with a dip in the pool and watching the sunset over the pacific was pure magic. You can walk on the beach all the way to Santa teresa or take the road. We felt very safe on the road but it is dirt and busy so lots of dust. The town of Mal País is raw, beautiful, not overly populated. The rock pools in the ocean were awesome to relax in. We found the room to be in fine shape, slept well every night. Somehow woke up on our own around 630-7 am every morning with no alarms feeling refreshed. Loved the indoor to outdoor vibes and shower! My only complaint will be for the guest who brought their drone. We only seen it flying around one day but we found this very intrusive to our privacy. The villas are very private and have a nice indoor/outdoor flow, so seeing this fly by we found very rude. We loved hearing and seeing the howling monkeys, iguanas and enjoyed all the flowers/butterflies. Coming from a large city we loved the brightness of the stars at night. Would love to revisit and hope nothing changes! this place was magic. Be sure to book your ATV before you arrive, they were completely out of them in whole town and are needed to visit Montezuma falls. We visited during peak season.