Elbow Bending at El Rituel

The great thing about all-inclusive resorts is that alcoholic drinks are free. So, it’s not surprising that swim-up pool bars like Fuente De Vida at the Hilton Papagayo stay busy throughout the day. The friendly bartender there gave me an insider tip: he said in Costa Rica, locals don’t order “cerveza”…they ask for “una bierra”.

While the swim-up bar stays busy during the day, at 4 p.m. guests begin to gravitate to its landside counterpart, El Ritual. If you want to try a local ‘bierra’, order an Imperial, but with the abundance of fresh fruit here, you’ll definitely also want to try some kind of fruity rum drink or frozen concoction.

While hanging out at El Ritual, I met a really nice young man who is doing charity work in Sri Lanka, and a private pilot who had flown some high roller in for a week at the Four Seasons across the Bay. He said Bill Gate’s plane was also at the airport, so he was obviously over there too, and Michael Jordan owns a house there. On my earlier jet ski tour of the area, we drove by it and at least from the outside, for 10 times the price, it’s got nothing on the Hilton in terms of location or ambiance.