Crowne Plaza San Jose La Sabana by IHG

Rooms and decor

Open the door to a room at Crowne Plaza San Jose La Sabana and the first thing you notice is how new it smells — the hotel closed for a full renovation in 2023, so all 273 rooms were stripped back to walls, floors, furniture and bathrooms. The look leans on easy earthy tones: cream walls against dark wood furniture and Caribbean-blue bed runners. The king beds are soft but firm, the kind several reviews call especially good for sleep after a long travel day. Large windows pull in plenty of light, and rooms facing La Sabana Park look out over a wide stretch of treetops, while the highway side gets a city-and-mountain view that has its own appeal. The bathrooms are completely redone, with good shower pressure and modern tiling and sinks. The in-room coffee maker is a small touch business travelers appreciate, and the desk is built for actually working rather than just stacking things. The overall feel is a freshly opened international chain — clean, orderly and easy to use, with no guessing which rooms are old and which are new, because they were all redone at once.

Food and amenities

If anything sets Crowne Plaza La Sabana apart from the usual chain hotel, it is the two kitchens on site. The first to mention is Fuji — a Japanese kitchen that has been part of this hotel for decades and is one of the oldest in Costa Rica. San Jose has come here for birthdays, anniversaries and special occasions since their parents' generation. The draw is the teppanyaki counter, where chefs cook beef and seafood in front of guests, with an egg-and-fried-rice show that keeps kids watching instead of eating. The sushi and sashimi land at a level many reviews rate the best Japanese meal they have had in Costa Rica. The other is Nattivo Urban Cuisine, which reworks Costa Rican food in a contemporary style, the chef folding local ingredients like Tarrazu coffee, Monteverde cheese, tropical fruit and local herbs into contemporary European technique for a more refined take than the usual tipico dishes around town. Breakfast is a standard Crowne Plaza buffet with a gallo pinto station (the local rice and beans), made-to-order eggs, pastries, fresh fruit and serious Costa Rican coffee that scents the whole room. Other facilities include the outdoor pool for a cooling dip, a 24-hour fitness center many guests like for its full set of new machines, large meeting rooms and a ballroom for conferences, plus free Wi-Fi throughout that is fast enough for video calls without stutter.

Location and getting there

The location is the big reason people pick this over a downtown hotel — Crowne Plaza La Sabana sits on the edge of La Sabana Park, the largest and best-loved green space in San Jose, more than 70 hectares that were once the city's old airport before being turned into a park. One block from the lobby you reach the running track around the park, a small lake with ducks and water birds, basketball and football fields, and the Costa Rican art museum (Museo de Arte Costarricense), housed in the old airport building. Every morning you see locals running, cycling, doing yoga and walking dogs — a safe, lively scene that the downtown rarely offers. For getting around, the hotel sits right on the Prospero Fernandez (Ruta 27) highway, the main link between the city and Juan Santamaria (SJO) airport, putting the airport about 15 minutes away. That makes it ideal for a transit night or the first and last night of a trip out to the Monteverde cloud forest, Arenal volcano or Pacific-coast spots like Guanacaste and Manuel Antonio. The old town center and the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum or Teatro Nacional are about a 15 to 20 minute Uber ride — cheap enough, but you need to allow the time.

Things to know before booking

To be straight with you and help the decision — the most common gripe is traffic noise from Ruta 27. Rooms facing the highway, especially lower floors, can pick up cars in the early morning and late night, so light sleepers should ask for a room on the La Sabana side or a higher floor at booking; staff are happy to arrange it if you note it in advance. The second point is that the pool is smaller than the website photos suggest — it is an outdoor pool built for a cooling dip rather than real lap swimming, so anyone planning a daily swim may be let down, while those just after a soak will not mind. The third is that the location is outside downtown San Jose, so if your plan is to explore the old town daily, or visit the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum or Teatro Nacional at night, you will need an Uber or bus into the center each time — less convenient than a downtown hotel, traded for a safer and quieter district. One smaller note some reviews raise is that evening check-in can run slow when it is busy; registering ahead through the IHG One app is faster.

Our take

From the real reviews we gathered across several platforms, Crowne Plaza San Jose La Sabana by IHG is a reliable international-chain business hotel that has done its homework where most travelers care — a full building renovation, a spot on the edge of the city's green lung, only 15 minutes from the airport, and the Fuji Japanese kitchen that locals have praised for decades. If the trip in your head is landing at SJO in the evening, a short ride to a clean, new-smelling room, an early run in La Sabana Park with the locals, and time for a teppanyaki dinner at Fuji before heading to the cloud forest or coast the next day, this is a very tidy choice. But if the heart of your trip is walking downtown San Jose and hitting a museum every day, the out-of-center location means frequent Ubers. Overall we give it 8.5/10, best for business travelers, couples and families using San Jose as a stopover, and anyone who wants a reliable international chain near nature rather than in the busy center.