Really struggling with Arenal lodging
 

You guys have been so great in giving advice. I've made most choices for our May trip with minimal hassle. Bosque Del Cabo? Sounds great, sign me up! Nature Air? Sure, I'll hate it, but I'll do it.

However, I am really struggling with where to stay for three nights in Arenal. My needs: somewhere with a peaceful setting, surrounded by nature. A hot tub and good pool on site. Volcano views from room. Decent beds. Doesn't have to be near La Fortuna, as we'll have a car.

Also, and perhaps most importantly, I really want helpful staff on site.

So far, I've come up with Lost Iguana or Arenal Lodge. There is quite a price difference between the two. LI is $255 (!) a night for a Junior Suite, whereas a comparable room at Arenal Lodge is $99. Is LI really worth $150 more per night?

Any other suggestions? Help!

I can't figure out how to edit my first post, but a couple of other things.

1: we're likely not going to be at the hotel a ton.

2: Anyone know anything about Arenal Volcano Inn? It looks appealing to me for some reason.

We just got back from CR (I haven't had time to post my trip report yet but I will soon)and while at Arenal we stayed at Los Lagos Resort & Spa. The rooms were okay - nothing special but clean - but the resort had everything we needed right on grounds. They have their own thermal pools (4 or 5 different pools of different temperatures) plus cold pools. One of the thermal pools has a swim up bar that serves awesome Pina Coladas. They also have their own zip line tour and the instructors were great with my 8 and 11 year old. You end the zip line right in their own gardens which include a butterfly sanctuary, crocodiles, turtles, etc. Breakfast was pretty decent and included in the price. To top it off it is right at the base of the volcano and you get a totally unobstructed view and they also have an observation platform.

Hi alw,

We stayed at the Arenal Lodge in 2006 and really liked it. It is a little bit of a haul into town, but the drive back and forth is quite nice and picturesque.

The setting is very peaceful and our junior suite room had pretty spectacular views of the volcano (when the clouds didn't obscure it :-) ). The hotel is set off the main road, up a very steep, winding, narrow, one-lane driveway. Getting up there was half the fun! The place has lovely grounds, a hiking trail, and small butterfly house. They also have 2 beautiful resident blue and gold macaws that fly free around the grounds during the daytime.

The hotel includes a tasty breakfast buffet in the price of the room. We thought the breakfasts were great, but preferred the lunch and dinner meals we had offsite (we loved both La Choza de Laural and El Novillo).

The hotel does have a hot tub and pool (both with volcano views).

I know that lots of people love Lost Iguana, but we were completely content at Arenal Lodge! I do have some photos of the grounds and volcano views from the hotel online if you want to check them out:

http://cmerrell.smugmug.com/

The photos are located in the Costa Rica: 2006 gallery. I've got a bunch of Bosque del Cabo photos as well from my recent trip last month, but I still have that gallery under construction. Soon to be unveiled hopefully...

I second puravida07's recommendation for Los Lagos, especially if you have kids. We just got back last night (puravida : we may have been at Los Lagos at the same time as you - from Dec 31 to Jan 4). Our kids (12 & 9) also loved the resort. They have a hot pool with a mid-sized water slide (great for those rainy evenings we had !), as well as two large cold pools with a small slide and a big slide. Plus the property is very nice & green, with the mini-lakes, crocodiles, butterflies, walking trails, etc on the property. And the view of the volcano (if it is not cloudy !) is awesome. On our trip, we woke up at 6am on New Year's Day - and saw the volcano clearly all the way to the top till about 6.30 am. After that, we did not see it at all - it was just covered by clouds !!


Sunil

...coming soon to a computer screen near you, right cam? :)

I stayed at Arenal Paraiso a couple of years ago & was very content there. It was around $65 a night, had a small fridge, ac and a nice patio with great volcano views. They have a huge pool and a couple hot pools plus several shallow hot pools.

We stayed at Lost Iguana last year, and it definitely fits the bill for what you're looking for. We loved it. I haven't stayed at the other hotel you mentioned so can't do a comparison, but LI does not disappoint. We would happily stay there again.

You can aso try...Mountain Paradise...nice hotel..nice volcano views...nice big rooms.

Luis Eduardo

Thanks everyone.

After careful consideration, my husband and I decided we couldn't justify the cost of LI. Sure, it look gorgeous, but it doesn't appear to be over $100 better than our remaining options.

We've also decided we'd rather be close to town. Since we don't have children, we've narrowed our choices down to:

1. Silencio Del Campo - no hot tub, but good reviews. Worried about nearby construction.

2. Arenal Volcano Inn

3. Arenal Manoa

These three are listed as the "top" three on trip advisor. I don't think any will be a mistake.

Well then I'll put my vote in for El Campo del Silencio. The staff couldn't be beat, super friendly and accomodating. It's a smallish place so everyone is familiar and the little bungalows are cute and very spacious (not super fancy, but nice). The grounds are lovely and the ducks coming through every day to the pond are fun to watch. The breakfast is excellent and they have free private hot springs behind the property (which we ran out of time to go to), but is also just 2 min from Eco-Thermales. Highly recommend this place. :)

We stayed at the Arenal Lodge a couple of years ago and it was very nice. Large sized lodges; good breakfast included (either CR style or American). Very peaceful; very quiet. Arrange for a lodge closest to the volcano as they erupt throughout the night (and day, too) and can sit on your lodge's porch and watch the red lava streaks run down the mountain -- quite a beautiful site at night. Or, watch from the hot tub. It's a little bit of a drive into town; but an easy drive. Pool was refreshing. All in all, we enjoyed our stay and thought it was a good value.

Just got back from staying at Montana de Fuego and loved it... beautiful grounds, beautiful view from balcony, a porch with rocking chairs facing the volcano, 2 hot tubs and a nice pool, beds were good, bathroom was nice. We had a 'deluxe' room (nicer than the standards) and this also had a mini-fridge. I think the location is very central, too, and the price is reasonable.

Oh man, now I'm confused once again. I took another look at Los Lagos and realized my husband would love the place. Is it very "resort" feeling? It gets pretty bad reviews on trip advisor - is the place run down?

I stayed there 2nd week of December with my sister (puravida07) and her family and we loved it. The rooms were nice and roomy, the grounds beautiful, the hot spring pools amazing, the zip lines incredible! Everyone was very nice and the only problem we had, and there was nothing Los Lagos could do to fix it, was that when we were there it just so happened the lava flow was on the other side of the volcano. It didn't really matter though because it was too cloudy at night to see it anyway.

I know Los Lagos has been doing a lot of improvements so I believe it's only getting better.

We're staying there this March so my daughter can have fun on the grounds and with the water slides. I think adults like the adult pool/swim up bar area.

I can't remember if you're going with kids, but if you're not I guess you know this is a fairly family oriented place.

No kids (yet), but since we're going in early May, I doubt we'll run into a ton of kids anyway. Our dates are really outside of any traditional school breaks and it's too early for summer vacation.

Wait, when I say no kids, does my husband count as one? Sometimes I wonder...

Of the ones on your short list, I'd lean towards Silencio del Campo; it gets great reviews on these boards and on tripadvisor.com. Los Lagos attracts a lot of families with young children; like hip said, it's more family-oriented, so may not give you the peaceful vibe that you're looking for. Good luck!

I just stayed at Los Lagos last week with my kids. But even though we went at break time (Dec 31 - Jan 4 in Lost Lagos), the place was by no means over-run with kids. There were a few kids around, but there were a lot more adults even in the pool area - it is not like Disneyland at all, more like Yosemite Lodge with nicer rooms and a hot pool and water-slides and a swim-up bar...

And the place is not run down at all - very nice property, very nice rooms, very friendly staff. About the only complaint I have is that sometimes they did not have anybody manning the towel-station at the pool, so you had to walk dripping wet to the front desk (about 100 meters away from the pools) to get towels. But overall we enjoyed the place.


Sunil

We have been to Arenal four times and stayed at Montana de Fuego, Los Lagos and Arenal Paraiso. Los Lagos was the best. The rooms are clean, large, and the hotel has beautiful grounds.

I'm going to CR next Jan 09 with my kids and families (nine adults) I really like the look of the Los Lagos Resort in Arenal area. Please respond to any current experience.


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