Costa Rica Hotel Advice
 

My wife and I (mid 30's) are planning to go to Costa Rica the first week of May for 8 days on a 4WD self-drive tour.

Could readers recommend hotels that cost around $100/night in the following locations:

1) Arenal
2) Monteverde
3) St Elena
4) Manuel Antonio

Are the voucher schemes offered by some vacation companies worthwhile/recommended?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Rihallix

I can recommend El Silencio del Campo in Arenal, I believe it's in that $ range. It's a wonderful smaller place (I think about 15 bungalows). Lovely grounds, great staff.

Didn't stay here, but in MA, La Posada Bungalows gets great reviews and I believe Costa Verde is around that price for May rates.

I don't go for the voucher things myself, but maybe others have experience.

We stayed at the Arenal Lodge in the Arenal area. I think our room was around 130$ or 140$ a night. In Manuel Antonio we stayed at Hotel California which was around 115$/night. Both places include a nice breakfast buffet in the room price.

We quite liked both of those hotels.

If you have a travel company make your arrangements for you, many of them will issue pre-paid vouchers for the reservations they make on your behalf. This is perfectly fine as long as you work through a reputable company.

I can personally recommend 2 such companies:

Tico Travel-

www.ticotravel.com

They set up hotel, rental car, and airfare for our CR trip last year and we had no complaints at all.

Pat Hewitt-

www.lovecostarica.com

Pat frequently posts here on the forums. He lined up our hotel, rental car and domestic airfare to the Osa peninsula for this year's CR trip. Once again, we were completely satisfied.

Working with a travel professional is great if you are short on time, need suggestions of where to go and what to do, or just prefer to hand off the task of making reservations.

With only 8 days I would cut a location, probably Monteverde (Santa Elena is the same place basically), which would leave you with MA and Arenal, and a night in Alajuela on arrival and a night before departure (if needed, depends on your flight times). Never used the voucher things myself, so much easier to contact the hotel you want to stay in and just book directly with them.

In Arenal I'd suggest Arenal Paraiso or Silencio del Campo or Arenal Observatory; in MA I'd suggest Costa Verde or Villa Nicolas.

I agree with Tully on all counts! Hotel California in MA isn't a bad choice either. . .