Can anyone suggest a hotel in the Arenal region of CR. Also, any comments about Tabacon Resort?

Tabacon, while convenient, doesn't have the greatest reputation. .for food or rooms. But I have heard some say they liked it just fine. The nice part is that you will be able to use the Hot Springs free of charge. Otherwise, $29 per person. We loved Arenal Paraiso because they were very nice little bungalows, good restaurant, nice pool, spa, and offered a spectacular view of the volcano, which we got lucky enough to see! Arenal Paraiso and Montana del Fuego will offer you the best views. They are side by side facing the volcano and both have good reputations.

I just returned this week from Arenal and Tambor areas.
Arenal Observatory Lodge is where we stayed ..it was great ...
Good food, views, grounds, hiking, bird watching and services...I can't say enough good things about it.
We had the Smithsonian View Rooms
but any room on the grounds is great!
On the other side of the Volcano tho is a great viewing hotel - Volcano Lodge...from that side of the mountain you truly can see the Red Lava Flows..
we had a great lunch there on our full day tour and people we talked to who were doing our lunch tour said they say the Red Lava flows the night before.
As for Tabacon Hot Springs - they were part of the all day tour that we took ..and it was such fun - and the dinner that was included was OUTSTANDING. We paid $110 each for this full day all inclusive tour , which gave us many many things to see and do.
Be prepared to hike - we had no bugs at all - as it was a very hot and dry day altho the evenings we were there which was March 27 & 28 had pouring rains yet the days were warm and dry. We plan to go back next year for Sure - We loved it.
ALso loved our resort and 7 day visit in Play Tambor Area - at Los Delfines Golf & Country Club - 2 bdrm villas, great food , services and easy to travel by local buses from there to Paquera or Cobanno for banking needs.
We did not use our own rental vehicle but chose to take drivers for the entire trip and it was equal to the cost of a car and so much more enjoyable. In that we used local buses for .85 USD wherever - we met lots of locals as well. CR is clean , friendly and so very lovely.
Paulette

I'm sure you've read the reports on Tabacon in some of the above reports. We just got back from Arenal and Tabacon and thoroughly enjoyed it. Rather than rent a car, we used the "interbus" system ($25pp from about anywhere in CR to Tabacon) -- 506-283-5573 or [email protected] or swww.interbusonline.com. Let a pro who knows his way around do the driving, and you do the relaxing and sight seeing. Given that your room rate at Tabacon also gets you into the hot springs spa, it's a bargin. Just remember, everything runs on Tico time, so relax, protect your valuables, and enjoy it.

We were at the Volcano Lodge last week and loved it. They have doubled the size of the place in the past couple of years and the newer rooms are spacious and very comfortable and feature king size beds which are rare in CR.

We were able to view the volcano and lava flows from our patio. They even knocked on our door at 4:30 one morning when the clouds had disappeared.

There's a pool and jacuzzi that were just as refreshing as the outrageously priced Tabacon Hot Springs that the hotel has a free shuttle to.

The restaurant was excellent for dinner but the included breakfasts were a little disappointing compared to ohter hotels that we stayed at in CR.

The price of our room was $80 per night including breakfast.

We also stayed at Arenal Paraiso (in January), and it was excellent. Perfect location for viewing the volcanic activity. They will also have someone wake you up at night if volcan Arenal decides to put on a show. We watched the activity two nights in a row from our bed. Quite a sight.

Plindberg,
Can you tell me a little more about this all day tour you took for $110? What was included and what did you get to do? Was it worth the $$? Thanks!

Usually I prefer staying at more out of the way places like the Observatory Lodge and have stayed there. That said, I really prefered the Arenal Paraiso. The views of the lava were much better and we found getting to the various sights easier. Tours are a bit more expensive from the Observatory Lodge because of the difficulty getting to it up a dirt road. The Paraiso is right on the main road.
Regarding Montana de Fuego. There have been some very disappointing reports on it recently.

Spent 2 nights at Montana de Fuego 3/23 & 3/24, prior to traveling read a few bad reports, but turned out we loved Montana de Fuego, staff was helpful, regular bungalows were rustic, yet clean and adequate for 3 adults (we had 6 adults in 2 bungalows), were directly in front of the volcano, had great view of active lava flow on 2nd night, when clouds dissipated, pool was nice, restaurant was a bit disappointing, but lots of other dining options in surrounding area.

We stayed at Arenal Lodge for 3 nights 2 weeks ago and loved it. Read my thread entitled Report on our 2 weeks in Costa Rica for info. If you want more details or have questions, entitle your thread Arenal Lodge and I will be happy to answer it.

We also stayed at Arenal Paraiso in Jan 2003 and enjoyed it. We planned some of the activities through the hotel. We would have had a great view of the volcano from our bungalow, but it was cloudy the entire time. We have a great picture taken from our porch - of nothing but clouds!

We went to Tabacon for the day, and glad that we didn't stay there. It felt too much like a "Disney World" in Costa Rica.

We stayed at both the Montana de Fuego and Volcano Lodge in early March (couldn't get two consecutive nights due to last minute arrangements in busy season). Both were nice. Montano de Fuego was considerably more expensive and may have had a little better of the more active side of the volcano (hard to tell as it was clouded in both days we were in area). I preferred Volcano Lodge - clean, modern, well maintained motel like accomations on a nice property with pool and jacuzzi as mentioned above. We also thought the restaurant at Volcano Lodge was very good and our waiter there was very friendly and seemed to enjoy helping me with my spanish, which was fun. Tabacon is definitely worth a visit. If you go in the evening (I think after 7:00) the price is reduced considerably ($19 instead of $29 if I recall correctly) and there's still a few hours to enjoy the various pools and get a couple at the bar, which we thought was plenty of time.