Hotel San Bada is a 67-room beach resort hotel at the very end of the Manuel Antonio road, next to the main entrance of Manuel Antonio National Park. It isn’t a rustic eco lodge: it’s a multi-storey hotel with air conditioning, three pools and a rooftop sushi bar. What earns it a place in this guide is its location, which lets guests walk into one of Costa Rica’s best-known parks, and its Elite rating under the country’s Certification for Sustainable Tourism.
At a glance
| Location | Manuel Antonio, Quepos, Puntarenas, beside the national park entrance |
|---|---|
| Style | Full-service resort hotel, opened December 2010 |
| Setting | Forest edge and beach, a short walk from Playa Manuel Antonio |
| Best for | Families and couples who want the park on foot and hotel comforts |
| Getting there | About three hours by car from San José, or a short domestic flight to the Quepos airstrip |
| CST status | Elite (certified December 2024) |
Where it is
The hotel’s fact sheet describes the property as a few steps from the park entrance and about two minutes on foot from Playa Manuel Antonio, the public beach just outside the park boundary. Quepos is about five minutes’ drive back up the road. The hotel puts the trip from San José at roughly three hours by car or about 20 minutes by plane to the local airstrip, and the drive follows the main coastal highway through Jacó and Parrita. A public bus from San José ends a couple of minutes from the door, so a car is optional here: restaurants, shops and taxis are all within easy reach.
Manuel Antonio National Park is small but busy. According to SINAC, Costa Rica’s national park service, it was created in 1972 after local residents pushed back against foreign owners who wanted to close the beaches to them, and its main entrance lies about 7 kilometers from Quepos. It protects very humid tropical forest, mangroves, islands and a 14-hectare lagoon, and SINAC calls it the protected area that receives the most national and international visitors. The park itself earned the Elite level of the CST in 2021.
Two practical points matter for anyone staying this close. SINAC lists the park as open Wednesday to Monday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and closed on Tuesdays. Entry tickets are sold only through SINAC’s online system, so being next door doesn’t remove the need to book ahead. An official concession of certified local guides works inside the park.
Rooms and facilities
The fact sheet lists 67 rooms: 42 Standard, 18 Superior, 4 Deluxe and 3 suites (named Selva, Ballena and Mogotes on the hotel’s site). Every room has a private balcony looking toward the forest or, in the higher categories, the Pacific. Rooms have air conditioning, cable TV and Wi-Fi, and the hotel offers twice-daily housekeeping, room service, laundry and a backup generator for the occasional power cut.
There are three pools. The main pool is described as wheelchair accessible, with a beach-style entry ramp and two artificial waterfalls. A separate adults-only pool sits on the sixth-floor terrace with views over the ocean and the park’s forest, and a shallow children’s pool (about 55 centimeters deep) is set beside the main pool. There’s also a fitness room and Sana Spa, with sauna, steam and treatment rooms.
Food
Breakfast is a tropical buffet at Congo Restaurant, an open-air dining room off the gardens that serves Costa Rican dishes, seafood and international food at lunch and dinner too. Up on the rooftop, Perezoso Sushi Bar serves sushi and cocktails at sunset.
Mulguri: the hotel’s own waterfalls
The most distinctive thing San Bada offers is an excursion to Mulguri, a private property the hotel owns in the hills about 40 kilometers north of Manuel Antonio. The drive takes around an hour and a half, the last stretch on back roads through small villages. The property has four waterfalls with natural pools that, according to the hotel, keep their flow year round. Guests swim, walk the trails or ride horses through forest toward the Savegre River, and the trip ends with a Costa Rican lunch cooked on a wood stove at a farm. It’s run only for hotel guests.
Sustainability
San Bada’s CST credentials are better than many smaller places that call themselves eco lodges. The official CST directory lists it at the Elite level, the top tier of the current program, certified on 17 December 2024 and valid until 17 December 2027.
The hotel’s sustainability page gives the specifics behind that rating. Hot water in each room is heated with waste heat recovered from the air conditioning. Two on-site wastewater plants treat sewage biologically, and the hotel says the result is 99 percent filtered water. Paper, cardboard, aluminum, glass and plastic are separated for recycling in a dedicated storage area. Cleaning products, laundry chemicals and guest toiletries are biodegradable. The hotel says it owns more than 66 acres of protected land with primary and secondary forest, joins tree-planting campaigns, supports local schools and beach lifeguards, and hires local performers for evening shows. It also follows Costa Rica’s code of conduct against the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents.
None of that changes the fact that this is a large, air-conditioned resort in the most developed corner of the Central Pacific. The certification shows the place is run carefully. It doesn’t make it a wilderness lodge.
Wildlife
Being at the park’s edge means wildlife often comes to the hotel rather than the other way round. The hotel’s own pages promise views of park wildlife from the balconies and warn guests not to be surprised by a monkey at breakfast. The hotel’s own guide to the park lists two- and three-toed sloths, white-faced capuchins, mantled howler monkeys and squirrel monkeys among the regulars, along with iguanas, coatis and toucans. Our guide to the four monkey species of Costa Rica explains how to tell them apart. Sightings depend on the day, the season and a good guide, so nothing is guaranteed.
Who it suits
San Bada works well for families who want the national park and the beach on foot, travelers with limited mobility who need an accessible pool rather than steep jungle paths, and anyone who wants a full-service hotel without giving up a strong sustainability record.
It’s a poor fit for anyone hoping for forest silence, a small owner-run lodge or dark night skies. The park entrance area is busy with day visitors, vendors and traffic, especially in the dry season. For a more secluded Manuel Antonio stay inside private forest, Arenas del Mar and Si Como No are worth comparing, and the full Central Pacific region guide covers the rest of the coast. Readers deciding how much weight to give the CST rating can find the background in our guide to Costa Rica’s CST certification.
Travelers comparing Manuel Antonio packages can also find Hotel San Bada on Costa Rica Journeys.
Frequently asked questions
Can guests walk from Hotel San Bada into Manuel Antonio National Park?
Yes. The hotel sits beside the park's main entrance, a few steps from the gate. Tickets still have to be bought in advance through SINAC's online system, and the park is closed on Tuesdays, so check the day before planning a park morning.
What is Mulguri, and is it open to the public?
Mulguri is a private property owned by the hotel about 40 kilometers north of Manuel Antonio, with four waterfalls, forest trails and horseback riding toward the Savegre River. The hotel runs the tour for its own guests, including transport and a farm lunch.
Is Hotel San Bada CST certified?
Yes. The official CST directory lists it at the Elite level, certified in December 2024 and valid until December 2027. The hotel describes heat recovery for hot water, two wastewater treatment plants, recycling and biodegradable products as part of that work.
Is San Bada a good choice for guests with limited mobility?
It's one of the more practical options in the area. The main pool is described as wheelchair accessible with a ramp entry, and the beach and park entrance are a short walk away. Ask the hotel directly about specific room features before booking.
