Any advise for accomadation in monteverde?Price about $100 a night

I, too, am interested in recommended What is Fonda Vela like?

No personal exp--but have heard good things about El Sapo Dorado.

Visted Fonda Vela. It is very nice. Only downside (for me anyway) is the location. It is quite aways from town and will require transportation to just about anywhere.

monteverde lodge is great, great rooms, great location friendly service--I highly recommend it

Do you need your own car at Monteverde Lodge?

while it is very close to the town, it is probably still a 15 minute walk and is often cold and rainy in monteverde--a car would be better but not necessary--you could also cab the short distance--as an aside, we debated long and hard about renting a car or not and absolutely loved having one for freedom etc.

We stayed in Fonda Vela in January. It was excellent. Nice rooms, great service. The restaurant is very, very good. Cabs anywhere in the area were $5 to $10.

Good comments, another question on this thread - Is it better to stay closer to Santa Elena or to the Monteverde Preserve? I am looking at El Sapo Dorado ($84/night), which I too have heard good things about, and the Trapp Family Lodge ($70/night), which is closest to the preserve, about a 15 minute walk. We will not have a car in Monteverde.

We stayed at El Sapo Dorado and liked it alot. Believe most lodging is duplex cabins. Quite spacious, a bit rustic - in a good way. Nice big balcony overlooking valley. Restaurant is good, staff is very accommodating/helpful.

personally I would stay closer to town than the reserve b/c you will likely only go into the reserve once--the restaurants are either in town or b/t town and the reserve so it really doesn't matter--you can't make a wrong choice in this regard as the whole area is VERY small

A car is a good thing to have in Monteverde area, its all pretty spread out. We stayed at the Heliconia, it was ok...our only issue were the rooms where we stayed in the new building on the hill (jr. suites/fam. suites) were not equipped with a coffee maker...so it was a pain having to get dressed and walk down the hill to get coffee in the morning.

Hi Juss, just another good word for Sapo Dorado. We had a sunset room with gorgeous views. Breakfast is kind of skimpy but it was very clean,good food in the restaurant and nice grounds. Johnnys is not too far from there. They will arrange cloud forest tours if you do not have a car, but I think a car is good to have when you are there.

The Von Trapp is the closest hotel to the reserve and therefore the furthest from anything else.

Hi. Just a word for El Sapo Dorado, I loved the rooms there, and did not find the walk into town bad at all (it's not a short walk, but if the weather allows, it's a nice walk). I also had no trouble getting taxis w/ the front desk for other transportation.

Thanks everyone!