steve diamanti

Want opinions on best places to stay in the arenal and monteverde areas. <BR> <BR>In arenal I have heard good things about Arenal Lodge and Tabacon Resort. <BR> <BR>In the monteverde area I have only heard about Monteverde Lodge, any other places? <BR> <BR>thanks

Lisa

We stayed at the Hotel Belmar in Monteverde, which is a beautiful Swiss/Alpine style type of lodge. They have beautiful Costa Rican wood floors, and balconies, with great views of the Nicoya peninsula on clear days. It's up a fairly steep hill, so you'll need a 4 x 4. We went during Thanksgiving 1999 at the end of the rainy season, so it was really not wet at all most of the time. Actually, if you're going to Monteverde/Arenal, most rental companies will only rent you a 4 x 4. I really loved the hotel, and there are a lot of choices in accommodations.

cathy

My husband and I stayed at Los Lagos. It is at the base of of the volcano. It had great accommadations. You received breakfast for everydayyou stayed there, there is a great pool. We were in room 13 and we had a perfiect view of the volcano. Room 14 was the other room with perfect view. They have an obervation deck for view of the volcano. We were lucky enough to see the top of the volcano all 3 days we were there. The best time to see lava activity is around 1:00-3:00 am <BR> <BR>We did go to tabacon resorts, and it wasn't any better than Los Lagos, except it was more expensive. <BR> <BR>We did great tours in this area!

Cat

We stayed at Arenal Lodge and Hotel Belmar last month. Arenal Lodge is GREAT! Nice cabins, beautiful views, pool/hot tub (but restaurant not that great). <BR> <BR>Hotel Belmar had beautiful views and excellent restaurant, but because each room has balconies which open to the outside (with no screens) there were lots of bugs in the room which freaked out my mother-in-law. We stayed at Sapo Dorado in July (also in Monteverde) and they had bugs,too. Think you can't escape them in Monteverde! <BR> <BR>If you have a chance, check out Quepos/Manual Antonio Park. We saw it for the first time in April, and it was beautiful! Wish we spent more time there and less time in Monteverde.

cat

Actually it was Montana de Fuego I was referring to in the post above (Arenal area). We stayed at Arenal Lodge the first time we went to CR - it was OK, but we enjoyed Montana de Fuego MUCH better!!

ingrid

We stayed at Tabacon resort and loved especially the fact that as a hotel guest you can go to the hot springs after and before all the hordes of tourists; it's included in their rate. <BR>In Monteverde we stayed at Monteverde Lodge which was nice but the room wsa smaller than it looked on the picture. We also looked at Hotel Belmar, which seemed at least as nice.

Erik

We stayed at the Tabacon Resort. Rooms had awesome view of volcano and service was excellent. Included free entrace to hot springs and daily breakfast. Great resort.