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Does anyone have a recommendation for a place to stay in Manuel Antonio? I will be traveling there alone and dont want to be surrounded by familes. I am looking for a nice mid priced place with a pool.

Lots of posts on this--see mine in fact. I like Verde Mar or Karahe cause they are of the very few that are on the beach. Lots of nicer ones, and si,ilar ones, but they are up on the hill and a a trek or cab ride to the beach.
Verde mar has small kitchens. Both have websites.

Haywood,

Peruse Tripadvisor.com for reviews, prices and locations of 20 or more hotels in the area. Many are $200 plus/night, but others, also nice, are much cheaper. Some have a "no Ch*ldren" policy. Others, like the Casitas Eclipse, are "gay friendly" and thus generally not geared towards youth. I stayed at Eclipse for a few days (with a chica btw) and enjoyed the property. The casitas resemble Greek villas (I know, hard to believe) and are quite nice. I think I paid about $125/ night. It is a couple of miles from the beach, across from a great restaurant (El Avion) and had several wonderful swimming pools, in addition to monkeys and sloths on the property.

Ciaociao

Been discussed often in the Hotels section. Try using the search button.

I stayed at Le Priss in Quepos last month. It's a few blocks towards town off the main road.

Fairly new buildings, good clean interior - AC,fan, sat TV, tiled modern bathroom ( a bit small but that’s the tico way anyway ),
Very good security, guarded and gated entrance with parking for the taller building. Very new roof top pool, with a pretty good view on surrounding hills and Quepos town.

Worked out to $40 for a room for 2. If my chica phucked me up it then could be cheaper because she arranged it . The front desk, inside the smaller building gave the same bank rate for USD exchange. 520 that's what they used that evening.

Don’t know about chica fee, since I brought sand.

If you want to do without ac they have cabinas right next to it. Cheaper. Looked fairly new and decent to me but I had to have ac that night. There's a couple pictures of Le Priss in the VIP gallery FYI.

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- must not waste chalk.

favorite place in manual antonia is el parador http://www.hotelparador.com/testimonials/index.html I am not sure if that falls into your budget but its by far the nicest place I have seen there. A couple resteraunts, 3 pools one being adult only and hidden from view and one an infinity pool with a truly amazing view, several bars, clean and incredible view. Several hiking trails right from behind your room with almost a guarantee at spotting monkeys and maybe an oso perisoso(sloth). This place is huge.
Second choice would be La Mariposa. 2 pools one with a swim bar, resteraunt is very good with a great view, several of the rooms have a patio on the back with a great view and romantic place to hang out with yer girl.
Both of these places are on the higher end of the spectrum as far as price goes but as you get into some of the medium end of the market in MA it puts you into a lot of eco hotels which mean no tv(some rooms at la mariposa don't have a tv either so ask) ,no pool and no ac. And a lot of them are on the opposite side of the cliff so no view of the ocean or a restricted view.

Parador is not at all comparable to Gaia. Gaia is the only 5 star property in the area.

Try the Babaloo Inn across the road from Mar Lun restaurant. $99 suites or $59 rooms