About Villas Río Mar
Hotel Dominical Costa Rica
Surrounded by Jungle, Many Amenities, Walk to the Beach and Dominical!
Eco Hotel in Dominical, Costa Rica
Villas Río Mar is an internationally recognized 3 Star Eco Hotel in Dominical, Costa Rica. The resort style hotel is positioned in a stunning jungle setting; an easy 10 minute walk from the fun and the beach of Playa Dominical, Costa Rica.
All rooms include a private patio and are equipped with AC and TV. We offer 2 large swimming pools and our spacious tropical gardens provide privacy and include many beautiful plants, flowers, and birds, which one can observe from the outdoor patio of the room.
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One of the best restaurants in the area, El Rancho, is located at Hotel Villas Río Mar; we grow most of the veggies ourselves; organically! The area offers a wide array of leisure and adventure activities, including beautiful beaches, four National Parks, and many other nature & wildlife reserves.
Whether traveling as a couple or with family, Hotel Villas Río Mar offers a wide range of amenities, facilities and services guaranteed to make your holiday worry-free and enjoyable. With 61 rooms our hotel can also host medium-sized groups.
Many Hotel Amenities
- Spacious Tropical Garden
- Large pool with Baby pool
- 2nd swimming pool for laps
- Quality Restaurant & Room service
- Cozy Bar with sports-TV, billiards and more
- Outdoor Gym
- Tennis Court
- Kids’ Play area
- Miniature Golf
- Rainforest Trail
- Body treatment services
- Tour & Transport services
Unique Location
- Surrounded by Jungle
- Walk to Playa Dominical
- Walk to the Beach
- < 3 hours from San Jose International Airport
- 15 min. North from Uvita
- 30 min. South from Quepos/ Manuel Antonio
30% Discount for May, June, September & October!
Our website always offers the lowest rate!
Things to do
The area of Dominical (also known as Costa Ballena or Bahia Ballena) is one of the best place to visit in Costa Rica. Our area offers a wide array of leisure and adventure activities including beautiful beaches, 4 National Parks (Manuel Antonio, Marino Ballena, Corcovado and Chirripo), and many other rainforest reserves like Hacienda Baru or the marine reserve Caño Island. Other things to do are: rafting, kayaking, zip-lining, surf lessons, body boarding, ATV tours or visit one of the many awesome waterfalls of Dominical.
We are a family friendly resort
Hotel Villas Rio Mar is a kid friendly resort and hotel in Dominical, Costa Rica. The whole family will like our 2 large swimming pools and we also offer a baby pool, a kids play area and mini golf. Our restaurants offers a kids menu and the rooms are suited for families. In fact, children under 5 years old are free of charge (when sharing room with parents – no extra bed – up to the maximum occupancy of the room). Our 4 Kitchen Suites are very popular with families who prefer to cook instead of going out for eating every time.
Best time to visit Costa Rica
The area of Dominical has nice temperatures year round. Some travelers are afraid of visiting Costa Rica in rainy season (also called green season), but most of time rainy season is not so bad in our area. From May to November you have a higher change of rain; mostly in the afternoon, evening or night. The mornings are mostly sunny. Most people like the cooling effect of a good rain shower. Another advantage is that rates of flight tickets, car rental and accommodation go down, in particular for the low season months May, June, September and October. Hotels and Resorts offer better rates for your holiday in Costa Rica.
Rooms from $84,-
(date dependent)
We offer 3 room types:
- Superior Room: 1 King size + 1 Single bed
- Junior Suite: 2 Kings size beds
- Kitchen Suite: 2 Double beds + Kitchenette
All rooms include:
- Private patio
- Garden view
- AC & Ceiling fans
- TV, Wifi, Mini fridge
Buffet Breakfast Included
Book direct for the Lowest Online Rate
We are an Eco friendly Hotel
Eco Hotel Villas Río Mar is committed to work in an environmentally friendly way. We are continuously trying to improve our ways of working that benefits the Environment. This is the reason why we are CST certified in the highest class, named ‘Elite’. Read all about this certification and the Eco things we do, by selecting one of the topics below.
The Eco things we do
Herewith a list of some of the environmentally friendly things we do.
Green energy
All our bungalows have solar panels which provide sufficient electricity for the AC’s to run. Solar panels are also providing the warm water in the rooms.
Waste Collection & Recycling
You will find several waste collection units throughout our resort for guests to use. These units collect waste separately: glass, paper, cardboard and others. In our waste collection center we also separate the waste that we use in the resort. The separated waste will be picked up by a variety of companies that will recycle the waste. A good example is the old oil of our fryers; this waste product is used for the production of things like body creams and bio fuel (and more).
Home grown organic vegetables
We have our own greenhouse to produce the vegetables for the restaurant in an organic way.
Responsible Gardening
We do not use insecticides, fungicides or any other chemical to maintain our beautiful gardens.
Biodegradable Products
All the cleaning products we use are biodegradable; such as hand soap, dishwasher soap, washing machine soap, floor cleaner etc.
Saving water
The urinals in the restrooms of our restaurant, conference room and pool use sophisticated techniques that do not require water.
Keeping our Beach clean
Each month a different group of employees cleans the beach of Dominical. Throughout the year, each employee of Villas Rio Mar helps removing waste from the beach we all love so much.
Corcovado Foundation Partnership
We are a friend and sponsor of the Corcovado Foundation. We ask each of our guests if they want to donate USD 1,- (or more) when checking out.
Reforestation
In partnership with Cuna del Ángel Hotel, Villas Rio Mar helps to plant trees every year. The trees are usually planted in Marino Ballena National Park.
Employee incentives
We give incentives to the employees that want to help us with the Eco friendly activities as mentioned above.
Sustainable Tourism Certificate (CST)
We are the only hotel in Dominical Costa Rica that has the highest possible certification for Sustainable Tourism (CST)
The Certification for Sustainable Tourism Program – CST – is a product of the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT). The CST was designed to differentiate businesses of the tourism sector, based on the degree to which they comply with a sustainable model of natural, cultural and social resource management. CST is regulated by the Costa Rican National Accreditation Commission. Hotel Villas Rio Mar is certified with the ‘Elite’ status of CST. We are the only hotel in Dominical Costa Rica that has this highest possible certification.
The sustainable certification is divided in 4 environments, with different practices for each:
Physic-Biological environment
- Evaluate the negative impacts the company’s operations can cause
- Encourage customers to visit protected areas
- Inform about climate changes
- Monitor water and energy consumption
- Manage wastes
Politics of service environment
- Establish politics, vision and mission
- Train the staff
- Consumer friendly environmental products
- Use friendly environmental cleaning products
- Have procedures and installations in case of emergency
External customer environment
- Inform customers about the place and actions made
- Signs in the rooms about sustainable practices
Socioeconomic environment
- Hire people from the community and the area
- Use local products and services
- Inform about activities available in the community
What you can do
Sustainable tourism
Stay at a hotel or ecolodge which respects the sustainable tourism values and travel with a responsible attitude.
Please contact us in case you want to participate in sustainable programs as carbon compensation or when you want to donate to national parks like Corcovado.
During the tours and activities, respect the following recommendations:
- Do not leave trash
- Do not feed the animals
- Do not extract flowers or plants from national parks and private reserves
- Always stay on the trail
- Be silent, do not disturb the wildlife
- Do not use the flash while making pictures of wildlife
- Also at sea; do not touch the fishes or other living organism like sea stars
- It is not allowed to have fires within protected areas
- It is not allowed to consume alcoholic drinks in protected areas
- Don´t waste drinking water; close the drinking fountain when you are done
- Bring your own water container
- Don´t throw toilet paper in the toilet of protected areas, always in the bin