Hilton Garden Inn Liberia Airport

Hotel Details
Hotel: Hilton Garden Inn Liberia Airport
Dates: December 12-13 2015
Rate Paid: $118/night
Breakfast: Complimentary
Room Points Earned: 1,970 HH Points
Promo Points Earned: 4,250 HH Points
Credit Card Spend Points: 1,180 HH points

We flew into Liberia Airport around 8PM local time. While the Andaz Resort was just 40 minutes away, we didn't want to spend extra money (or Hyatt points as the case may be) when we wouldn't arrive so late in the evening.

So my father booked my family into the nearby Hilton Garden Inn, just 2 minute drive away from the airport.

After clearing immigration and retrieving our bags, we looked outside for a man holding the Hilton Garden Inn Shuttle sign. We found him, but so did the dozen other passengers on our flight staying at our hotel. We were first in line, but the United Airlines crew arrived and got priority boarding on the shuttle, so we had to wait for the bus to come back. The man with the sign aggressively prevented us from coming near the shuttle and told us to wait along the wall for the next one.



After waiting for a total of about 30 minutes, we boarded the bus while the man who pointed us to the shuttle asked my father for a tip. My father just nodded his head and didn't move. The man waited awkwardly before he realized he wasn't going to receive any gratuity guilt money from us. Now, it would be simplistic to say my father is cheap. But those of you who know my father realize he's actually quite generous with tips, but only for service that is worth thanking them for.

It was a short drive to the airport and we were checked in quickly. We were given a room with double beds. It seemed fine, except we found some toe nail clippings on the floor. Gross! Not an ideal start to the vacation, but we just threw it out and didn't let it bother us.

Given we were now on Central time, we woke up early at 7AM. We went downstairs and checked out the festive Christmas tree in the lobby before heading to the on-site restaurant for the $13/person buffet breakfast (complimentary since we had Hilton HHonors Gold status).

Since our pickup to the Andaz wasn't scheduled until 11AM, we had plenty of time to walk around the hotel and enjoy our first sample of Costa Rican weather - 85 degrees and sunny with a high of 91 later in the day.

Around 9:30AM, I convinced my parents to let me get a dip in the outdoor pool for an hour before we had to pack and catch our private shuttle to the Andaz. The pool was pretty standard, but very clean and hidden in the shadow of the Hilton.

Overall, it was a convenient one night stay when flying in/out of Liberia Airport. And for the reasonable rate that included breakfast, it was even better.