vaness

We will taking our 2 young children for 4 nights in Arenal (Los Lagos) and 3 nights in MA (Tulemar Bungalows) at the end of August. (Very excited!) Our return flight leaves San Jose at 12:30 pm. I think it might make for a long travel day to drive from MA to catch the plane so we thought to spend our final night in San Jose somewhere near the airport. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

shillmac

We are partial to Hotel Villa Bonita, 5 minutes from the airport. They serve a great breakfast, but no restaurant on site. Very homey, though, Costa Rican owned. Restaurants are within a block or two. Also, we like Orquideas Inn, although it seemed to us when we stayed there in July that the service had slipped a little bit. I do think the owner (U.S.) has lost a bit of interest and it shows. Good restaurant and swimming pool on site. Both inexpensive, $50-80.

qwovadis

www.adventure-inn.com

is fun with kids cheap nice free cab to SJO 2K away.

volcanogirl

We like www.xandari.com - pretty property with great views, good restaurant on site, waterfalls, etc. They have some little baby chicks and turkeys, goats, etc. that the kids would like. They grow a lot of their own food, have an orchard, 3 nice pools - it's a little pricey, but we thought it was worth the cost. Shuttle service one way from the airport is free.

katrinab

I can second the recommendation for Adventure Inn. Very convenient to the airport and inexpensive. Also very cheesy decor, but perhaps that would be fun for kids?

http://patrinadoestheglobe.blogspot.com/

hipvirgochick

I like Orquideas for the pool factor, nice restaurant and bar. The places is colorful allbeit some rooms are basic I was very happy with Darly's Suite and Susan's room looked great too. I don't care as much for Adventure Inn. Hotel Villa Bonita is nice too, if you want a B & B type of place and desire to venture out for dinner. Wonderful owners.

volcanogirl

I've always thought Orquideas looked great; we haven't had a chance to try it yet.

hipvirgochick

vgirl -- It's not fancy by any means, so don't go expecting lux and amenities. But, the pool area is very nice and the restaurant has been excellent for what I've tried. Plus, the bar is cool. So it's a good place to chill if you don't have a lot of time. I did hear that the place is up for sale though I don't know how long that process might take.

shillmac

Ditto on the good restaurant. One of the fun parts of staying at Orquideas is bellying up to the bar in the evenings to chat with other travelers and with the very friendly bartenders--all great guys, been there a long time. We do enjoy their food.

shillmac

vaness, you may want to base your decision on how much time you plan to spend at the hotel. Orquideas would be great if you plan to arrive from MA in the early-mid afternoon and just want to relax with the kids at the pool. Also, your children might enjoy Zoo Ave, not too far from Orquideas. It is a bird zoo, more or less (that's the ave part) with other animals also. About 1.5 hour's worth. Interesting.

adamjohn03

hello,

Just returned from CR and had the same situation as you. 12:30 p.m. flight so we drove to San Jose the night before from Manuel Antonio. You are going to be in no rush to head to San Jose your last day in MA. Based on response on this forum we decided to go with Hotel Villa Bonita. I don't feel this is a good choice for a last night place to crash in San Jose. Not knowing the area at all it was not easy to find and we were quickly in a bad neighborhood in unsafe situations. Needless to say we decided not to stay there and went to stay at the Marriott which was expensive, but beautiful. Most importantly it was easy to find and didn't have to drive through or around any unsafe areas to get there. To me that safety and ease of mind is priceless. There are a few other hotels that I would consider for next time. Hotels that are right off the highway, easy to find and basically just a safe, clean room to sleep in. Them being the Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn express. These hotels are never mentioned on the forum, but they are the easiest, most convenient, safe places to rest your head the night before your flight. The Marriott had an excellent restaurant as well which was key considering we did not want to drive or walk around San Jose at night anymore then we had to.

If you are renting your car from Tri Color the Holiday Inn and Hampton Inn are about 50 feet from the rental office. Very convenient and easy.