Taverna Violi is the new kid on the block at Oak Brook mall, having taken over the space that was formerly Mon Ami Gabi. Let’s just take a moment to shed a tear for the loss of that superb restaurant at Oak Brook! OK, moving on! Violi is a Greek Taverna, and this is not your regular old Greek diner. It’s most definitely a step up from even the old standard restaurants in Greek Town, and is a worthy replacement…
We loved Asia Luna Restaurant so much, that we ate here twice during our week-long stay at Nayara Gardens! If you search around, you’ll find that most folks who review the resort on Trip Advisor or wherever else, also list Asia Luna as one of the best meals they had at the resort. We ate here on our first and last nights at the resort. Asia Luna is called a fusion restaurant, however it is really mostly heavily Asian influenced….
This article is just a short description of our room at Nayara Gardens. I booked the Rainforest Pool Villa here because we wanted our own private space, and the resort was running a book 7 nights, pay for 5 deal. About half of the rooms at Nayara Gardens have a personal plunge pool. All of the rooms at Nayara Spring and Nayara Tented Camp have one. Our room was absolutely enormous, and easily one of the largest rooms we have…
Amor Loco restaurant is located at Nayara Springs within the sprawling Nayara resort in Costa Rica. This restaurant definitely wins for funkiest decor. Nayara Springs is the adults only section of the resort, and this restaurant is definitely geared towards romance. The vibe was like a hookah-lounge mixed with a steakhouse or bistro. There were plush velvet couches and chairs, purple, red and blue lighting, along with photos of all sorts of celebrities both old-timey and current, plastered along the…
Henry’s Bar up at the Nayara Tented Camp is a very cool and chill place to hang out any time of day. The best part about it, though, was the special Rum Tasting that we booked there. Our bartender and teacher, Joseph, was amazing. He was super nice, chatty, and very knowledgable and passionate about rums, and spirits in general. He was definitely one of our favorite staff members the whole week. The spread of different rums was intimidating, but…
Ayla is the brand-new full service restaurant up at the Nayara Tented Camp at the Nayara Resort in Costa Rica. We ate here on one of our last nights, and considering that at home we are transitioning to a Mediterranean diet, and we recently ate at Galit in Chicago (check out my review here!) which serves very similar fare, eating at Ayla was definitely on the list for us. The ambiance at Ayla is glamping chic. Ayla is in a…
So like I mentioned in my overview post here, Nayara offers about a billion different tours ranging from super adventurous to very low key. We are definitely more low key travelers, and picked a few tours that challenged us a little, but weren’t anything like zip lining or doing anything having to do with cliffs. Brian and I are extremely amateur birders, and I keep a life list in a note in my iPhone. I really keep thinking I should…
As I mentioned in my intro post here, there are three different resorts in one at the Nayara Resorts Grounds at the base of the Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica. Each of those resorts has a different vibe, and there are also several pools you can choose to hang out at. There are also a group of hot springs pools between Nayara Gardens and the Tented Camp. We checked out most of the pools, and I break them all down…
We just got back from an amazing anniversary trip to Costa Rica, and this post is going to give you a bit of an overview of the resort and what we did there. In the weeks to come, I’ll be posting individual articles providing more detail about the important stuff: excursions and activities, the pools, and the restaurants. I booked Nayara Gardens on a stay 7, pay 5 deal, and it’s a great deal! Everyone was so surprised that we…
Pasta Veneta is one of the newest restaurants in the poppin’ west loop area, and I visited here recently with my cousins. This place prides itself on making fresh pasta, and it shows. There is a sizable appetizer menu, but the mains are all primarily pasta based. The space is very open and very fresh and new, with a casual, bistro-type of feel. There is a very heavy straight-line/geometric shape thing going here, which is really cool. The lighting was…