affordable accomadations
 

Help...there MUST be others in my shoes. We have 3 kids (7,12,15) and are planning to go to Arenal, M.A. and maybe Monteverde. How do you folks find decent and affordable places to stay? Do you get 2 rooms or are you able to fit all in one room. I'm waiting to hear back from Arenal Paraiso and others but it's hard to get answers. I consulted a travel agennt and she said we just have to get 2 rooms and then tried to push some packages on us. Some of you must be experts at getting around this or just finding reasonable places. Thanks for any suggestions.

I have found in the past that it is a great waste of time to try to e-mail hotels directly, most will not answer or will do so late.

Your best bet is contacting local experts such as www.acrtours.com. I have worked with them in the past and have sent people their way, they work within your families budget and means, and can probably locate hotels that will accomodate the entire family.

Just let them know what you want and your budget, they can probably work something out.

My work friends and family have found them to be helpful.

Hi,
When are you going? I have been planning a trip to Arenal and MA with my family, consisting of husband and 3 sons, 22, 19 and 15. We are going at Christmas which has proved to be a very difficult time because the popular MA places require at least a 5 night minimum and are very expensive.

I booked 2 rooms in MA at El Parque Villas for 3 nights, 1 cabin which accommodates 5 at Arenal Paraiso, and 2 rooms at Orquideas Inn near the airport.
I have booked all of these rooms by directly contacting the hotels via email. All have responded immediately! I tried about 20 different places all together. Oh, El Diria in Tamarindo never got back to me, but we decided not to go there so I didn't pursue it. Also read the reviews on Tripadvisor.com and in the Costa Rica Moon Handbook. Very helpful! Good luck!!

Neta Talmor at Hotel La Finca Que Ama is very kind to help people find just the right hotel to suit their needs and budgets. She will do this for you whether you stay at her hotel or not. It isn't in either of these 2 areas anyway.

Neta just enjoys helping people make the most of their Costa Rica vacation and has booked hotels for us numerous times. She usually receives a hoteliers discount and generally passes it on to the traveler. It would definitely be to your advantage to drop her an e-mail. You will be very glad you made her acquaintance, and many others on this board would agree!

[email protected]

Thanks evryone for your suggestions. We are going in August...still trying to nail down flights at this point. I keep hearing about Neta Talmor and Finca Que Ama and since our plans are not carved in stone I just may check into that. So.. I will get the Moon book and check into some local experts!

Grretings fellow traveler!
If you speak Spanish well enough, you might pick up A New Key to Costa Rica instead of another travel book and, using the direct numbers found therein, call the places you're interested in directly. That is what I did and we stayed in pretty nice digs for a month. The most I paid anywhere was, well, I promised him not to say what a great deal I got, but, not much....tee hee. Anyway, I paid A LOT LESS than the advertised rates everywhere because the hotels and B&B owners were not having to pay any commision to all these internet reservation centers. They probably where not claiming it either, ergo no 16% tax. For whatever reason, we stayed in Alajuela, Los Angeles Sur de San Ramon, Fortuna, La Carolina in Bijagaua, Alajuela again, Tortuguero, Puerto Viejo, Orosi and Naranjo. Obviously, I tend to avoid touristy areas but I think you could still do better calling the places directly. The New Key book was the best IMHO after reviewing about ten travel books.

Happy travels,

Julie, the tica traveler

BTW, most B&Bs will give you a price per person then take up as many rooms as necessary to accommodate your family. Typically we're talking $8-12 pp for adults. I often got me and two kids (11 and 12 year olds but full-size people nonetheless) for $25/night. One week we stayed at a farm for $200/week for the three of us, including breakfasts and dinners. On the Caribbean coast we paid something like $60/night for a house that slept six (at that point some friends had met up with us for one of our weeks) and got six nights for the price of five, o sea, that is, six nights 100 yards from the beach, two bedrooms, bath, fully stocked kitchen, living room, dining room for six days for $300. At that point, after three weeks of traveling, we were VERY happy to have a kitchen and be able to hit the market, buy a little something something and fix it up ourselves. We were a bit tired of restaurant food and thoroughly enjoyed having the kitchen.

Happy travels,

Julie

Good to "see" you again on Fodor's, Julie. I hope all is well with you and yours!