Can anyone tell me anything about the Arenal Lodge? Their chalets and suites look lovely, but it doesn't appear that the rooms have A/C. That may not be good since we are planning on staying in the Arenal area at the end of August.

I dont know about ac, but you should know that this place is a good 5 miles down a dirt road from any restaurant or other hotel (other than the one on the premises). It looks like a cool place, as long as you know that there isnt much around it.

Weatherwise, it is fairly mild in this area most of the time. Cloudy usually, which keeps the temps down.

We stayed at Arenal Lodge a few years ago in February and liked it very much. Tabacon sounded too touristy for us. Arenal has great view of the volcano. Rooms are large and fine though not fancy. Nice balcony patio area off room that we really enjoyed for bird/volcano watching. The grounds are lovely. They've got a few their own mini rainforest on grounds as well as butterfly farm and a few other exhibits. Restaurant is nice, food average and probably more expensive than some just cause you're a captive audience. Easy to make arrangements for tours or guides from there. We did that and had a great one to the volcano. True the road back is dirt and long. All that meant for us was that when we went to town in the eve we had their van drop us off and took a cab as I recall back -- just so we didn't have to bother with the long dark dirt road in the eve. Certainly could have driven ourselves and otherwise this was no big deal.

We drove there in March,a few weeks ago[just to see the place], and the road was truly terrible-probably the worst we were on in Costa Rica--extremely rutted and bumpy, and we had to go very slowly. Once you are there, it's nice , but it seemed like it would be torture to go back and forth to see other things. Apparently, people do it, though. The grounds were nice.

We stayed there in the chalet in March and considered it a real find. It is about a 15 minute drive from La Fortuna and the awful road up to the hotel is less than a mile but it does feel like a lot longer. We rented a car so it was not a big deal. It took extra time but it was worth it and it certainly wouldn't deter me from staying there.The grounds are beautiful and the lobby is charming. The dining room has a great view of the volcano and we enjoyed the dinner that we had there. Breakfast is included. It is buffet style with lots of choices and made to order omelettes are available. The bird feeders in front of the dining room window attract lots of birds. We enjoyed their rainforest. It is a well marked, serene, easy path. They offer a horseback ride around their farm that we were told is beautiful but we got rained out.
We stayed in the chalet and would highly recommend it. The room has a 20 ft. window that faces the volcano and has a view of Lake Arenal as well. It was a definite wow and if the clouds had cooperated we would have seen the lava flow from our beds. If you stay there, tell them at the desk if you want them to wake you when it erupts.(I would suggest that you request the upper room instead of the lower only because the plumbing made noise when the people above us showered.)There is no A/C but there was plenty of cross ventilation and I think it would be comfortable at any time. There is also a small kitchen in the room.