My fiance and I spent two weeks in Costa Rica in January traveling to three different destinations, one of which was Manuel Antonio where we stayed at Makanda. The 5 nights we stayed in Makanda were by far the best of our trip, and I say that even though we thoroughly enjoyed our entire experience across the country. The service at Makanda is impeccable on all points. From our initial greeting to our departure every experience was intentional on behalf of the staff.
Makanda is situated on a bluff overlooking the Pacific and every view from all the rooms, both pools, and the restaurant are perfect. While we loved everything about our stay at Makanda, our favorite was the breakfast on the terrace pool every morning. The coffee, food, and service was of such high quality that even though we are now far from Ocean views, the piece we still miss most was enjoying our breakfast every morning.
The other great aspect of Makanda is there are a limited number of rooms, so even when it is "full" it is never crowded. You get to know the guests a bit as there are only a handful of people staying. And Manuel Antonio itself is a wonderful little town. We took the opportunity to walk the half mile (uphill) most evenings to get dinner at one of the fun restaurants on the main road, but it is also an easy cab ride to the top if you desire.
We have been a lot of places and generally make a point to keep our travel to new places at this point in our lives. But both of us agree we want to get back to Makanda and spend even more time sooner rather than later.