Poás Volcano, reasonably priced Hotels in the area or 30 min away?
 

are there any hotels close to Poás Volcano that are reasonably priced or 30-45 min away (twards Arenal) upon arival in San Jose we were thinking about driving to Poas Volcano staying the night then continuing up to Arenal.

You can stay in Alajuela at one of the many nice hotels there and take a day trip to Poas. Some hotels to look at are Hostel Maleku, Alajuela Tropical, Hotel Los Volcanes and Orquideas Inn (not far from Poas).

"Reasonably priced" means different things to different people - but - I don't think you can go wrong with Orquideas. It's a great place and gets good reviews.

Thanks the Orquideas Inn looks perfect. (Resonalble for us means $125 or less)

"Continuing up to Arenal" from Poás is still a little rough because a section of the road was destroyed in the '09 earthquake has not officially reopened. It's been mostly repaired from Varablanca to the Peace Lodge, but from there down to San Miguel is now a pretty rough dirt and rock road with some serious drop off exposure. It can certainly be done and if the rains haven't been bad you can do it without serious four wheeling, but the MOPT still lists this section as closed.

It's about an hour from Alajuela up to Poás then if you don't want to negotiate the San Miguel route you'll need to backtrack to Alajuela and head to Arenal from there.

Sorry, with all of that route info I forgot why I started to write in the first place ;-)

Orquideas is nice but if you do decide to go the San Miguel route the Poas Volcano lodge is another great option (just before you reach Varablanca on the left coming from Poas), and if there were ever a place to splurge (about 75% over your budget...) the Peace Lodge and waterfall gardens would be it.

Happy to see you here, costaricaguide, and with excellent information, as always.

http://www.puravidahotel.com/

Great breakfast and entertaining host. Be sure to book for dinner if you can.

Thanks for the welcome hsmithcr. I've been lurking around here since about '04 but there's usually not much point in posting because there are so many regulars that are much faster and get it right but occasionally I find a unique two cents to toss out there ;-)

Bookmarking for good info. :)

Love the Peace Lodge, but it's so pricey.

Well if it's going to get bookmarked for info on the region then I'll add that there is also a decent budget option just on the Varablanca side of the Poas Volcano Lodge Villa Calas is a few cute little A-frames with their own fireplace http://goo.gl/7xL8j and great hot water. Beautiful spot for the price (website says sixty but we've always paid $40-50 cash) and the restaurant is good too.

Could anyone please tell me if the road from Poás to Arenal is still rough (due to the road that was destroyed in the '09 earthquake)? Has it been officially reopened?
Thank you!

www.puravidahotel.com pretty closer to Poas also Siempre Verde
on www.dokaestate.com $60-80 per nite when there last a couple of years ago.

@Costaricacourtney, We turned around as the drop offs were so scary & the road was no wider than a small car in a few places (this was in July 2011)If you met someone, you would have to do some long backups. Better to take the time to go the other way IMO.