Volcanogirl: I've read that many of these hotels are on steep hillsides which require a lot of climbing, which accounts for the great views. Buena Vista Villas especially. Lost Iguana at Arenal was like that but they had a shuttle. Also, we like to eat off property sometime so restaurant recommendations would be welcome.

Our favorite restaurant was Ronnie's Place/Mi Lugar - excellent fresh seafood and good sangria. We liked Cafe Milagro for a Starbucks fix, Cafe Agua Azul was good, also liked Salsipuedes for tapas. We had some good drinks at Barba Roja. We stayed at Mango Moon and walked to all these places, except for Ronnie's which is further out, so we took a cab. Totally worth it. My husband commented at Ronnie's on how fresh his fish tasted, and they told us it was just caught that same day. Most of the places have good sunset views so I'd go a little early so you can watch it.

I agree about Lost Iguana; we usually stay in a lower level room, but this year we got 40-something, and I was shocked at the hike!

Sylvia - Buena Vista Villas, or Tulmar Bungelows - they share a property is on a hill side, but they have shuttles - minivans or golf carts (can't remember which) that will take you anywhere. They are fast to come when you call them and they have their own private beach. The shuttles will take you from your villa to the beach or to the restaurant or wherever you need to go. The hills are not a problem.

Honestly, we never even made it to the MA Nat'l Park beach because the private beach there was so nice and we saw enough wildlife right on their property. There was no abuse of monkeys on their propery either - it was all very natural.

From their property we walked to Salsipuedes, the tapas restaurant that v-girl mentioned above. It's very good. And we went to El Avion I believe it's called - the restaurant that is inside the airplane. That one we took a cab too because it was raining so hard at the time, but we could have walked. I think the cab ride was less than $5. We ate breakfast on the property because it's included.

I think you'll enjoy MA a lot!

Costa Verde in a studio plus room has great views and wouldn't be too much walking at all, ask for building B. As mentioned taxi's are plentiful and fairly cheap, during the day though I would rely on the bus, it runs so often and is so cheap. The route is just Quepos to the dead-end at MA Park, so not much worry about getting lost or anything.

La Cantina across the street from Costa Verde is nice, almost always a reggae band playing at night. Barba Roja was okay, I think I hit them on an off night. Marlin's down by the park is a nice place for lunch and especially people watching.

volcanogirl: I heard the Mango Moon has a lot of street noise. Did you experience that?

Tully: did the bus accept US currency? I can't rememember having to use colones.

Also it is interesting that Trip Advisor's top 6 hotels are La Posada, Falls Resort, Gaia Hotel, Buena Vista Villa, Mango Moon and Tullemar in that order.

Mango Moon was nice; it's more like a little boutique hotel. We didn't really love our first room - some of the rooms share a balcony, and we really wanted our own. They upgraded us for free to this wonderful room with a private entrance and its own balcony. We didn't even ask; she just randomly told us this great room was open and that we could have it! It was on the top floor - it was really great. They also have a trail down to the beach, but it was muddy and steep, and it took us quite a while to hike down. When we got there it was high tide, so we couldn't do the beach - kind of a bummer. The one thing about MM that I thought was weird was that you can't put t.p. in the toilets. You had to put it in a little trash can - I've seen that in small little shops there but never in a hotel, and it weirded me out - lol. My husband thought it was funny! They have a very nice little open area where they serve breakfast, and you have a view of the ocean. They also have a tiny pool if you want it. They've recently changed owners, so I'm not sure if they've changed things or not. Our first room did have a little road noise, but not enough to bother us. It's not on the main road, it's on a side road off of it. Our second room didn't have any.

volcanogirl: do you know if it is Tico owned? Seems like Americans own most of these places in MA. Also, the reports I have read on a lot of them talk about the staff not being helpful which is uncommon experience for me in CR.

Not volcanogirl here - but the staff at Tulemar Bungelows was very helpful - from those in the restaurant, to the drivers of the shuttle to and from the beach to the people at the small little check in area where we had them get us a taxi.

Also, the staff at each of the restaurants we ate at were incredibly friendly - not sure if they were Tico or not at this point - but at El Avion, it was raining and the storm picked up from a drizzle to very strong and the staff had us keep moving our table to ensure a great view, yet stay dry...they would move all our food and drinks, but insist on the perfect spot for the kids to be comfortable with the storm so close, and still be able to have a great ocean view.

At the pool at Tulemar, the bartender would make our kids different smoothies. On the beach at Tulemar, my husband lost his glasses - they were wrapped up in his shirt and I didn't know this and they fell out somewhere in the sand when we left and when we went back to find them, the whole staff there from the snack bar and kayak area helped look for them.

Our villa was kept immaculate by housekeeping and if we needed anything else, the staff was friendly and accomodating.

I have absolutly nothing negative to say about anyone or any aspect of MA. - at least the people and areas we ventured to while there.

Shell D: did you have a car? We won't have a car and want to be sure we can get a shuttle into town and then walk around from there. I read good things about Tulemar but isn't it up the hill from the restaurants?

Sylvia, it's American-owned as it seems a lot of things in MA are. But the people working there were Costa Rican; they were very helpful. They booked tours for us and recommended restaurants. I think one reason we liked Ronnie's Place/Mi Lugar for dinner was that it seemed very authentic and Costa Rican. The funny thing is we went there for dinner one night and saw every single person from our sailing tour that day - every group had randomly ended up at Ronnie's Place!

Woo, Woo, BdC has space for us so that leg of the trip is done. Now we just have to decide where to stay in MA. Tulemar is $270/night and breakfast is not included, Si Como No is $270 for a jungle view. Still checking on others.

Sylvia - double check the rates for Tulemar - make sure you look at the correct rates - if you look at the mot mot villa, breakfast is included. The premium bungalos don't include breakfast, but the 3 floor panorama bungalow does include breakfast.... - if you could get the upstairs Mot Mot - you should be all set!

Also, you asked above about the car - we didn't have one in MA - it was fine for us. There are several restaurants in walking distance and the few that we went to that weren't were a very inexpensive cab ride away. Maybe $4-5 US. We could have walked with no issues, but it was raining very hard (we had A LOT of rain on our trip!) and we had a 7 and 9 year old with us who wouldn't have been too excited about walking in the rain that much!

ShellD: Does Tulemar have a pool or does everyone just go to the beach?

Yes, they have a pool - it's not huge - it's right by the restaurant. I'm not sure if staying at Tulemar you can use the Buena Vista Villa's pool - the management says no (I had emailed them last year to ask and the answer was no) but I don't know how they would know where you were staying and the property is the same - but I believe their pool is a bit bigger. The Tulemar pool is one of the infinity pools, it looks like it's hanging right off the cliff. Very pretty views. My kids had a lot of fun - but no slides or anything.