Having fun booking hotels last minute for this December. Any thoughts on the following?

Near Monteverde/Santa Elena:

Cabanas Valle Campanas - anyone who has stayed there care to comment? We would be in a standard cabin; are the beds okay? (clean, comfortable and or big enough for an adult) How about the noise? Are the cabins in good condition and kept clean?

Hotel Belmar vs. El Establo - El Establo is a bit more than I'd like to spend in Monteverde. (I figure we won't really be spending much time in the room, unlike in Manuel Antonio, where a hotel pool would be nice.) And it didn't get great reviews on tripAdvisor - noisy and long tiresome climb to get to your room. Like the Belmar on paper, but it's only open for one night. Seems like it would be a real PIA to move hotels when you'd rather be on a tour somewhere, but any thoughts?

How about near Manuel Antonio? Looks like I'll be "hotel hopping" there as well (spending one night each at two hotels), because of how late I'm booking. Anyone done this and any consequences besides inconvenience schlepping one's belongings around? BTW, if anyone knows of a great little hotel that just opened in MA and needs the business, let me know, because I'm just about desperate for two nights lodging in one place at this point. LOL

Seriously, booking this late hasn't been the most fun I've had in my life, but it's not like breaking rocks, either. It seems like everyone wants to offer me a room, just one day before or after I've got to be there! Wish my plans were infinitely flexible, I could stay in some amazing hotels! But once you book one part of your trip, the rest has to fall in line because of the transportation issues in CR.

Anyway, thanks in advance.

tripMe

Have you tried the Heliconia (more or less)in Monteverde? Or the Hotel Playa Espadilla in Manuel Antonio? The Heliconia is right on the road, but the rooms are up the hiil, so they aren't noisy---they're huge and the food in the restaurant is quite good. The room we had at Espadilla was a little basic, but it was big, had everything we really needed, the food was good and the people were very nice.

el stablo is overpriced and as u say, quite a climb to the rooms. there's a bus but when i stayed there it never came!!
try poco a poco, good value and a walk to santa elena.
spend the hotel money in MA!

http://monteverde.typepad.com/montev...ome/index.html

Thanks, Batson57, but Heliconia was completely booked. I'm inquiring about Playa Espadilla. Wish me luck.

Guanacaste, I came to the same conclusion about El Establo: overpriced for what we wanted.

I've booked at Valle Campanas for the two nights near Monteverde. I couldn't find any reviews here or on tripAdvisor, so I'm hoping it's okay. I'll let you know after our trip! Elisabeth at El Sol recommended it when I inquired about available rooms there. I thought that was really nice of her.

In fact, everyone I've dealt with has been great, with one exception: the people at Costa Verde in Manuel Antonio. The rooms there looked great with fabulous views, it got generally good reviews, and in the green season it's a good value. But I'll be there during Christmas week, and at $260 for one night, it's not such a deal. I was tempted to book one night as a safety net while I looked for something cheaper, but the cost of cancelling is an automatic 25%, so I'd be out at least $65 bucks, which kind of defeats the purpose. At any rate, I'm not inclined to reward people who are rude to me. I've contacted dozens of hotels in the last two weeks. The replies I got from Costa Verde would have given me pause if they were located in the US, but they really stood out in comparison to the other Costa Ricans with whom I've talked. So, I just couldn't bring myself to book there. If I can't find something in MA, we'll just drive back to San Jose instead. Anyway, end of rant.

Any other suggestions for MA hotels?

tripMe

tripMe,
While we thought Costa Verde a great value during the green season and views to die for, the front desk staff was rude and arrogant to us as well--at every opportunity. All of them. Well, there was one young man who was pleasant.

I met the owner and didn't care for him a bit. He spent our conversation time running down all the other hotels and hotel owners in CR--a generally obnoxious and negative guy. Left quite a bad taste in my mouth.

That said, a very good friend had gotten us a discount there and other aspects of the hotel were excellent. Rudeness is simply not the norm in this land of gracious people. I hope it won't BECOME the norm with the increase of tourism and more "ugly" Americans.

I had thought to e-mail back to the owner and express my views, but that got lost in the shuffle of returning home and getting back into my working routine. Doubt it would have done much good anyway. . .

i had the same problem with front desk staff when i was last there, shame i like the hotel but i may stay elsewhere in future.
sounds like it's becoming a problem!

I, too, had a bad experience at Costa Verde. We booked a Studio Plus room that had a specific description. When we arrived we were placed in the strangest, darkest room I had ever seen. It didn't have an ocean view as promised. The front desk clerk said we had been placed in the "family section."

After several complaint, the clerk changed our room to one with a much better view. Even there, the furnishings were old and yucky.

We did find, however, that all of the restaurant food was fantastic, despite horrible service (complete with eye rolling when I asked for tap water).

Yep, eye rolling is definitely not good customer service!

My first thoughts were that these people just needed some training, but no, that really wasn't it. Ticos are naturally friendly, anyway. More than most, as has been noted. It was pure attitude. Almost as if THAT had been the training they had received. Something sure as heck took the Pura Vida out of them!