My husband and I jsut returned from our honeymoon in Costa Rica. The country is beautiful, but we made the mistake of staying at Hotel Punta Leona in Jaco beach. It was a horrible hotel. The rooms were musty, mildewy and unkept. We moved rooms once, and that night my husband was stung by a SCORPION while we were sleeping. The doctor that was supposed to be available 24 hours was "not around"!!!!!!!! It took 45 minutes for the ambulance to arrive. The hotel staff kept saying it was only a small scorpion, "don't worry"......they were not helpful. To make matters worse, we had to return to that room, and when we left the next day Punta Leona did not want to refund the rest of our stay. (I got our money back though). DO NOT stay here. It is a major disappointment. The La Fortuna area was marvelous, particularly the Volcano Lodge.

Jaco Beach is a horrible area with black volcanic sand beach. if you enter the water the sand is churned up and gets into your swim suit and stuck to your bum. We got bitten by sand fleas or something at a beach bar. Better to go to Manuel Atonio.

Racheal. I'm so sorry about your unfortunate incident..and on your honeymoon! How awful for you! <BR>I'm am curious how you ended up spending ANY of your time in Jaco for a honeymoon! It's not a very good place for beauty or any other thing CR has to offer! Hope the anniversary is much better for you!

Rachel:<BR><BR>WOW!! I agree. What a bad experience. Actually, that would be something that would happen to my hubby as he ALWAYS has some kind of a hurt body part or mishap when we're on vacation!! Never a scorpion yet, though. Your hubby has him topped!! You're right, La Fortuna/Arenal is a wonderful area. We loved it. Glad you at least were able to enjoy that. Now you'll have a story to tell your kids!!<BR><BR>Tia

While I will agree that Jaco is not where you want to be on a honeymoon, I would defend it for what it is. Jaco was a relatively quite beach town that we found charming, if not entirely attractive. It was what we expected of it, and we enjoyed it very much. The food was awesome everywhere, and the locals we friendly.<BR><BR>Just curious, what made you go to Jaco for your honeymoon in the first place? Didn't do your research? Hmmm?

I have never been to Punta Leona, although I had a wedding in my hotel last fall and after the guests left for a few days to go to Punta Leona, and turned around and came back here the same day...Same complaints. have heard other people say the place was fine, but my guests weren't too happy with it.<BR>As far as the scorpon goes, they are about equal to a bad bee sting unless one s allergic, which you would know very quickly! So as long as you aren't allergic it probably wouldn't be worth calling an ambulance. The health care system is socialized and rather slow so it could mean a night in an emergency room that wouldn't serve much purpose.<BR>If you come back to Manuel Antonio, let me know and I will give you a free night in my place to make up for your bad experience! <BR>Best wishes,<BR>Robbie<BR>[email protected]