Hacienda La Norma Boho Boutique Hotel

The owner, chef, and ladies made our stay here for my birthday quite special, with champagne, towel art- absolutely amazing!! The monkeys that live here- 2 families- are a hoot! Now I will say they are loud, lots of banging at night, dropping things on the roof. You get used to it, but if you are light sleeper like myself, highly recommend using earplugs and a sleep mask. I would wake up, and think, oh that’s a monkey, and g back to sleep. Elmer the chef made us dinner twice, all delicious food! Breakfast was yougart, fruit, cereal, juice and milk and coffee, we had made to order eggs as well! Lovely property with a pool and nice hangout at night with twinkle lights all over.

Staying at Hacienda La Norma has been such a pleasure! From the beautiful, well-appointed and thought out rooms and property, to the great restaurant, beautiful pool, and, most importantly, the owners and staff that truly made us feel like family and looked out for our every need. This is not a soulless, corporate hotel chain, but an intimate and homey getaway situated on a gorgeous property and nature all around (seeing the howler monkeys was such a treat!). Horseback riding, ATV tours, and zip line are on the property as well. Just under 15 minutes drive to the closest beach (Playa Avellanas) and about 25 minutes drive to the hustle and bustle of Tamarindo, so you’ll be very well situated without being in the craziness of it all in the bigger towns. We are already planning our next stay!

Seeing rating 10 we had high expectation. However, while it might work for others, it did not work well for us. We travel with a family and were looking for a quiet place where we can sit and enjoy the nature. We did not find it there.

Despite the fact that the overall property is huge, all the family units (sleeps 4) are built very close to the rather busy highway road which is less than 10 meters away. The noise is almost constant during the day with cars going by at 60-70 km/h. The owners said that it is "not a problem once in the room", but it was not true. The noise is very audible even with the doors closed. Moreover. the walls between the units are very thin - I was hearing snoring and steps in the next unit as if it was in the same room with me.
Note, that the pool is facing the same road. While slightly higher up above, it would still have the noise problem.

Another disadvantage is a lack of personal space for the family. The rooms don't have sitting tables with chairs and no place to sit outside by the room. There is a sitting at the common area/restaurant. But that's on the other side of the building and is shared with other guests. Would be fine if we were going for drinks/beer. But with the family it was not what we looked for. We ended up being in the room most of the time we spent in the property.

We booked 4 nights. However, we ended up trying to spend as much time outside as possible coming back just to sleep.

We had a fantastic stay here! The owners run a proud family business. The property is beautiful. We came with 3 families — the rooms were set up perfectly for 4. We ate on site one night and the food was delicious.

Everyone made us feel like part of their family, taking excellent care of us and always giving us the perfect amount of space if we needed. The property is truly gorgeous, filled with old trees, thoughtful decorations, a gentle family of monkeys living in the overhead canopies, a spectacular pool area to have food/drinks, play games, listen to music and relax. There is an incredible bonsai forest made by the owner, Greibin, which is wonderful to quietly walk through in the morning. Our room was perfect, the food was amazing, and the Christmas decorations were world-class!
This is a place you’ll (and certainly we) want to come back to.