just spent an idyllic week at costa azul with my 15 year old son. if you like a taste of the real mexico, uncrowded beaches, small towns and a charming funky resort this is a great place. its well known for surfing and they take all levels out each morning to local beaches. some of the destinations are quite a drive tho. can be up to 45 minutes. suprisingly the beach its actually on doesnt usually have good surf.
pros. wonderful location, clean but basic accomodation, everything well worn but ok.
great activities including horse back rides, jungle tours, snorkeling, shopping. be aware (i wasnt) that ALL activities go off in the am so you only get to do ONE per day.
staff are charming, smiley and helpful.
its a small place so at the end of the week we knew everyone, very social atmosphere.
room for improvement .... cons.
the food is just ok - if you like great mexican food, seafood and variety of choices dont take the all inclusive package. go into town or lovely town of Sayulita close by and eat there. its a shame they dont use a more inventive and better quality menu at the resort.
a few dollars spent on nicer lounge chairs would go a long way at the pool and they have a nice massage area but charging US prices isnt much of an attraction.
only an hour north of puerto vallarta but like going back in time to kind of a 60's beach town atmosphere. a bit hippy, cobble stone streets, several interesting ex patriot americans living in both towns. no big resorts, no chains, no brands, lazy place but we LOVED the whole week.

My Family reciently visited Costa Azul all 9 of us to be exact 7 adults and 2 infants. As this was my parents 6th trip here my sisters 2nd and my first. I wanted to tell every one what a wonderfull time we all had.

The rooms were clean and spacious. The bed was firm (best for my back) and clean sheets were avalable at our request. Fresh towles were left in the room every day. The showers provided plenty of hot water (Just took a little bit to get it going) .

Wahoos was clean the food hot, plentifull and wonderfull. They make the Best guac (my 6 month old could not get enough and neither could I) and the Mahi Mahi coverd in coconut was out of this world.

The Grounds were neat and well kept and the shady spot over on the right corner was perfect as we felt the cool breeze and the bamboo kept the sun off of us.

The pool was spotless and and warm and the kiddy pool was perfect fom my little one.

The beach was wonderfull We spent hours under the shade being lolled by the sound of the crashing waves.

The Adventures were fun my wife and I partook in the snorkling, sunset horse back ride and the Jungle / Tequila factory trip. I have to say that Jesus our guide for most of the activitees was gracious, knowledgable, and above all good natured. (one note they allowed us to select specific days to upgrade to the adventure package once we arived saving us much money I wanted to Say thank you for that!)

Resort Events like Thursday the satff brought authintic singers and dancers and Friday we were treated to a live (Medium Soft rock band).

The Staff,

WOW! Where do I Start all the Costa Azul staff from the tour guides down to the maid were wonderfull. The Wahoos Wait staff were so frendly and we miss them (Edith and Mary Anne you are fantastic!)


All in all Our group enjoyed our time and were sorry to have to leave.

I highly recomend Costa Azul to any one at any age with any family!

The setting is absolutely beautiful but the place itself needs work. Luckily I had read other reviews and was somewhat prepared. We had 2 rooms; one for my husband and I and one for our kids. Our room that was in the main building was basic but ok. It was very roomy with a sitting area and balcony overlooking the pool area and ocean. We both commented that with a little work (new paint, better beds, and light fixtures instead of hanging light bulbs) it could actually be just fine.
The kids room on the other hand, which was in the "hillside suite" section was just nasty. (Even my 23 year old son said that he had been in some pretty minimal rooms through his travels but this was the worst!) Peeling paint, stains throughout the room... walls, comforter etc) no dresser, bare light bulbs, and the bathroom was even worse with a sink that was falling apart, a light that didn't work most of the time and a toilet half in the shower. (Another couple we met said it was the first time they felt they could use the toilet and shower at the same time!) Every morning the kids would compare who had the most new bug bites. We tried to get their room changed to our section but nothing was available.
We had the all inclusive plan which included meals & activities. You ordered off a limited menu. The food was adequate... not great but ok. I do agree with an earlier post that after a few days it did get a little boring. We do eat several meals out so that did help. The best food night by far was the Friday Mexican buffet.
The meals are in an open hut type environment. In good weather it is perfect but our first few days were very windy and chilly so wished there was and enclosed area as we were pretty miserable.
They do offer a wide range of activities.... snorkling, kayaking, horseback riding, hikes, surf lessons and a jungle river cruise. The problem is that it is first come first serve and it could be tricky getting into some of them. The first day we got there I went to sign up for some activities the next day and they were all full! So learned to book the whole week and even that needing flexibility as others had done the same before us. I heard the snorkling was great, but we got a knock on our door at 9:30 the night before telling us it had been cancelled due to choppy water from the bad weather. (And you guessed it, there was only one other slot open the rest of the week and it was the day we had plans for going into Puerto Vallarta!) We did do the 2 hr. horseback riding into the jungle. It was ok. Our kayaking we got another knock the night before telling us the time was changed and once again didnt work for us.
The staff overall was very nice and some were great. Communicating at times could be tricky but guess that could be expected.
The beach was really nice, and very clean. The pool needed some work... very used beach chairs, but overall fine.
So other than the kids room overall we settled in and enjoyed ourselves. Would we go back..... probably not.

I was tracking a rare South swell in mid January and was expecting great conditions along with guides that knew the local waves really well. However, when I arrived, I quickly found out that Costa Azul is more about going on horse back riding trips and shopping trips than about surfing. There was only 2 surfers in the entire place and due to the lack of people that wanted to go surf, we had to actually hire taxis out of our own pocket to take us to the breaks. They also kept trying to take us to La Lancha even when we specifically asked to not go to the break. I am drawing a blank on the name of the guy at the tour desk, but he seemed less interested in trying to find us waves than he was about getting his time in surfing in front of the resort. Also, if you are in Costa Azul outside of the rainy season, you cannot surf the San Pancho surf spot without possibly breaking your neck. I have heard that it does get good when the river mouth helps create the sand bar. We did hire our own guide towards the end of the week, a guy named Regis in Sayulita, who turned out to know the surf spots better than any guy we met and we surfed the Punta de Mita cover for 3 hours by ourselves.
On a positive note- I thought the condition of the hotel was really nice and I was upgraded in to one of the villas at no additional charge b/c they were out of regular rooms. The bar staff and wait staff was also pretty on point with service.