ESMERALDA - CASA/HOTEL/RESTAURANT & ROOMS, Samara Beach, Costa Rica [--]. My Costa Rican husband and I (Vancouver, Canada citizen) stayed in this new hotel from Feb. 29-Mar.5/08. Because it is only 1 mo. new, and few people have experienced it, we were fortunate to find out about this hotel through a friend's referral. The hotel looks like a Spanish stucco/tiled Villa..totally open-aired and inviting. I am an extremely 'picky' traveller when it comes to clean, bug-free hotels, and I must say that I was completely satisfied. There are only 5 rooms upstairs, and we were the only occupants at that time. Needless to say, all services were exceptional! Only 1-1/2 blocks to one of Costa Rica's safest and most beautiful beaches, and we also felt safe walking around at night. The restaurant , on the main floor, served incredible meals....one of my husband's typical Costa Rican meals ordered was one of the best he had ever tasted, and my shrimp cocktail had the largest size & qty. of shrimp I had ever experienced! In about 6 mos. - 1 yr. from now I can see the hotel room prices being over $100./nt. ... so it's currently a steal for anyone heading in that direction!! I wanted to submit this review as a 'thank you' to TripAdvisor, because I found that all of the hotels that I had checked into and people reported as 'poor' on TripAdvisor, turned out to be so when I was actually in Samara, and I was appreciative of the pre-warning! One can find a cute, accurate and informative map of Samara Beach online at www.samarabeach.com.