www.CostaRicaTicas.com

cheap, clean, helpful staff, great location.......BUT the walls are thinner than rice paper , if you're a light sleeper better try a different place..... might stay here again or maybe not

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u reap what u sow

G O T, What part of the hotel were you in ? The motel style rooms in the back look pretty solid. If you want a nice quiet place to stay try the Amon Plaza. The rooms and hotel are a step up from the hotels in the gulch. The casino is a good place for a serious gambler. 300 colones to the Del Rey.

Did you stay in the main building or in the back? My main noise issue there is people moving chairs around upstairs during the middle of the night, but I stay in the back part. A friend said the room off the computer room (3 or 4) was noisy because of the stairs. Some people tend to ignore the fact that other people exist and speak very loudly at all hours. I've had more problems with noisy people at the Presidente than any place I've stayed in SJ, except for the Del Rey or Bella Vista. Over all, Hotel Castillo is one of the quietest places I've tried. El Sesteo had dogs barking, some very noisy guests (depending on which visit) and car alarms going off all the time. Private houses are all different, but one in Pavas I stayed in had 7 dogs barking at all hours within 20M of the place. Out in the country you have birds, dogs and howler monkeys. Quiet is not easy to find in CR. I often use the fan in the AC unit as a white noise generator.

1st night room #7 above the pool table w/ people(gringo negros) playing pool up to mid night (against the rules) , night 2 room #12 better but the main house walls are to damn thin!!!, IF i stay there in Sept i'll defintely ask for one in the back, but i heard a lady complaing about the noise there too!!! a bunch of loud mouth Frenchman next to her, we should've bombed Paris when they wouldn't let us fly over to bomb Libya

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u reap what u sow

Well, after some thinking, i've decided to stay at Castillo again in Sept, due to the fact that its next door to NF, & u can see ZB from the front door! Plus the Peruvian resturant up from ZB, and the short walk to the DR & the Pres. i'll just have to maybe sacrifice for 7 days on the sleep??? the rabbit/GoT

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u reap what u sow

Just be glad you didn't have that darn tuba player tooting his horn at 8 o'clock in the morning.
Later, SB

Why does anyone bother sleeping in Costa Rica at night? Stay up all night and get some sleep during the day like normal mongers.

I've never had a problem with noise at the Presidente (windows opened), Hotel Castillo, and Sleep Inn (windows opened). Try using earplugs if you must sleep.

I'm with you TP. I take 6-8 trips per year to CR, but they're always for 4 days at a time. When my plane touches down in SJO, I know that I've only got 96 hours in country, and I'm going to make the best of it. I'll usually get an average of 3, maybe 4 hours of sleep per night, usually from 4 am - 7 am. That's enough time wasted on sleep. The way I see it, we've got plenty of time to sleep when we're dead!
Pura Vida,
Mucho Gusto

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You ALWAYS have an option ....... "NEXT" !!!

http://store.yahoo.com/earplugstore/index.html

Great place, fast delivery.

I use them and don't have to here the Chica cry when I say "No Cien".

HL

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Don't tell my Mom I'm a Pilot. She thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Brothel.

You're sure to be awoken at least once by some chica screaming in the night.
Viva El Casillo!

I am sorry to hear about the Castillo being noisy. I must say that CR in general seems to have no concept of "quiet", it almost does not exist.

That said, I do use earplugs, and I have found that the "back" rooms at both the Morazan and at the Gran Via are very quiet. Unfortunately I did not find the rooms to be up to par in either place; I had problems with plumbing in both places, and the maid at the GV screwed up my laundry service, causing quite a hassle.

If the Morazan would put more effort into keeping things repaired and in good working order, they could easily be high on my list of places to stay. That, and get rid of that pushy fat a-hole who works as a "concierge", whose concept of his job is to see how he can get a few extra bucks out of you...

Noise pollution, light pollution.......it's just about everywhere these days. I started using earplugs about 5 years ago, and now, can't sleep without them. They've made a huge improvement in my sleep pattern.

Zebra

Are there good chicas available at the Castillo? I assume that there are safes in the rooms.

Panther,

There are safes in the rooms at Castillo, they are keyed versus digital.

I didn't experience any problems with noise there during my visit in March.

It is chica friendly but they do not have their own selection, you must bring your own. They do take the chicas ID and keep it until she leaves.

K, thanks for the info. I guess I will stock with SL, which had some great chicas. They were also pretty caring to the guests.