One more post ---HX88, how was your trip? Anxious to hear all about it! :)

Hi Shillmac, we had a very nice trip though 50% of my family is still in CR becasue of flight cancellation. Our itinerary or my description of it could be boring to you. But for the benefits of other first-time visitors, I post it below (btw, i am a budget traveller). Thank you very much for sharing a lot of information here. I wish you have a nice trip next month.

Day 1 - Arrived at San Jose at 3:30 PM. Wasted over an hour at Budget. I reserved a Corolla but they gave me only Yuris. I asked for upgrade instead of downgrade but they would not. With the Yuris, I headed to MA. There was some jam near Atenas but overall it's a fine driving. Even at dark, we had no problem staying on the direction. Road signs (indicated by city names)are abundant and clear. Checked into Costa Verde in MA around 9:45 PM.

Day 2 - went to Espadilla beach. Rented surfing boards for body boogie (the wave was short and we could not do surfing). The kids really enjoyed that and they played until they burnt their skins. We drank a lot of coconut water. After a nap, we went to looking for monkeys in the hotel. Saw a lot of squirrel monkeys, many with baby monkeys on their backs. We saw a mother monkey carrying a baby grabbing a banana almost the same size of its body, very cute! We went back Espadilla for viewing sun setting.

Day 3 - visited MA N.P. We got there very early and we did not hire a guide because we already saw many monkeys at our own hotel. Hiked Punta Catedral trail and swam at the MA beach. Nice beach without many people (actually we were the first people getting there). We also saw some small fish. The park is very crowded, in my opinion. Probably more people than animals. We saw a few monkeys, sloth, and a few birds. We went back hotel to watch sun setting. The panorama ocean/beach/forest view from the adult pool at Costa Verde, is the best in the town and unforgettable.

Day 4 - returning San Jose. Caught up some views missed in the dark when driving to MA Day 1. Planned to do some surfing at Jaco but had to cancel it because of skin burn of my kids. Stopped to enjoy the beach at Jaco though. Watched crocs at Tarcoles bridge. Bought and ate 3 fresh pineapples along the road. In San Jose, we visited the National Theater and toured the city. Stayed at Parque Del Lago.

Day 5 - enjoyed a very nice free breakfast at hotel and left for Arenal. We first went to Poas. The water in the crater is muddy (I expected to see green or blue color) and not very interesting. The road to Poas and that between Poas and La Paz Waterfall Garden is tricky but the valley view is rewarding. We did not visit La Paz Garden. But a few km away from the garden, we arrived at a big (and free) waterfall along the road. The scenery is beautiful: waterfall, bridge, streams. (I believe the fall is the lowest fall in La Paz Garden.) Continuing driving northwest to Arenal and found the road is relatively flat and smooth. Checked into Lost Iguana. Went to hanging bridge. It's quite dark there and we did not see any animals. Had dinner at El Novillo. Had some problems finding it. But once there, we did not regret (thank you for recommending it). My favor is garlic sea brass. Very tender. The best part of our dinning came when the sky unexpectedly clear up - we watched lava flow from the dinner table (i think El is one of the best places to watch lava). After dinner, we went back to hotel thinking we could see more lava from our room as advertised. Disappointed that there is barely any lava view, we drove back to El Novillo to watch lava (my wife is lava addicted) until almost midnight.

Day 6 - Went to SkyTram/SkyTrek. We did not have reservation but just lucky to fit in a group. The dirt road to there (about 8km from the main road) is not paved and full of holes. You can imagine how scared I was with Toyota Yuris. We did Tram up and zip line down. There are about 7-9 cables with a total length of about 1.5-2km, the longest in Arenal. Then we went to Tabacon. Very nice and beautiful though it's hard to walk in the stream. Left for a few hours for having dinner and watching lava.

Day 7 - Played at Lost Iguana's pools (nice pools!). Then visited La Fortuna waterfall. Swam in the pool under the fall (I read somewhere here it's not allowed but quite a few people swam there). The water is cold but the experience is uplifting :-). Then we went to Baldi. Excellent volcano view from the pools. Dinned at El again and watched the most magnificent lava flow of our three days/nights there. Lot of eruptions and at times, the top cone is completely lit up. Checked into Cangreja Lodge. This two story motel is located right opposite the best lava viewing area. A short distance away, many tour buses stop to let their customers to view the lava. We got up at 4 am to watch the pre-dawn lava flow from our room. Very magnificent because we can see the skelton of the volcano. Thought about doing pure trek. But I do not believe the value of it since the rappels are only 50-70 feet long.

Day 8 - took the San Ramon route back to San Jose. We were told by a person at Alamo car rental office some portion of the road between La Fortuna - Chachagua - San Isidro - Tigra is broken. So we reroute as La Fortuna - Tanque - Jabillo - Tigra - San Ranmon - San Jose. The whole route until San Ranmon is full of sharp curves and the view is not as good as the view from the route of Alajuela - San Miguel - La Fortuna. At airport, we were told that my wife and daughter's flight was cancelled. They were put on a hotel in San Jose. Not very interesting but having two more days to enjoy the nice weather.

my girlfriend and her friend liked the spa!
as i said it depends why youre going!

Bored? Are you kidding? Never! :)

Sounds like you had a great time. We travel budget quite a bit as well. Try to work in something special for a couple of nights, budget for a few nights, and moderate part of the time.

El Novillo is indeed a great place for lava viewing. So glad you lucked out with that. Sounds like your move to Cangrejo was a good decision for you guys.

Thanks for posting. Did you notice if the wreckage for the old bridge was still there on the road by La Paz Waterfall? A heavy truck took that bridge down about 2 or 3 years ago, and a new bridge was built; however, last time we were there, the old bridge was still on the ground.

Thanks Shillmac for the kind words. I did not notice any bridge wreckage. The "new" bridge does not look new either but it's pretty nice.

hx,

great report! thank you for writing.

Thanks, fishee.

Guanacaste,

I did not recommend arenal.net. I just posted that link there and referenced pictures of eco termales. I just mentioned it here and can't think of another post where I would have pasted this link so you might have me confused w/ someone else.

I wouldn't recommend any travel agent. I prefer to book everything myself directly. I really don't know what arenal.net is actually. I just saw the pictures at that site.

sorry i think i did mix you up with another person:)

its good for the maps but as you say 'book it yourself'

Just booked 3 massages at the spa (not all for me--there will be 3 of us "girls"). Although previous communication with the hot springs staff indicated that the $45 day passes were sold out and we'd need to get the $60 (which bugged me), I got another e-mail just yesterday telling me that since we were using the spa, of course we would be welcome to stay all and and into the night until closing at the $45 price. Made me feel a little better! He said he would be there should we encounter any problems upon arrival (Roberto, mgr).

In the end, did you regret your decision to stay at Lost Iguana? I'm bummed to hear that the lava viewing is not good from Lost Iguana. We're planning to to stay there next month, but I'm considering switching to a hotel with better lava views. On the other hand, the rooms and amenities at Lost Iguana look pretty nice, so I'd be interested to hear your take on it. Thanks.

I would base my hotel choice on amenities, price & surroundings, not "lava flow" as there is no lava at Arenal. What you are seeing is rocks being spit out & hitting the side, causing a red glow.

I don't think we can link to trip advisor but there is a post over there titled "La Fortuna - accomodation" where a poster explains this much better than I can. Going by location alone, Lost Iguana has one of the best views.

When in Arenal we went to Eco Thermal spa and thoroughly enjoyed it. good food, no crowded and very nice. Stayed at Lost Iquana and they recommend it over the others. Agree that the lava flow is not much to see even from Lost Iquana.

I haven't been to the "Big Island", so perhaps that is the problem, but Arenal isn't much to see? Are you kidding? Seemed pretty impressive to me! Hearing it rumble and then seeing the entire side light up red with those "fingers" of rocks or lava (or whatever) all over the side of it, streaking down--definitely one of my WOW moments! :)

haydencat -

I am assuming you posted the question to me. I think my position is already clearly stated in my posts so I will not repeat here.

Viewing volcano and lava is what drew us to Arenal. Isn't this also the first priority of most people?

We were lucky to see lava all three nights when we were there. We were constantly excited by seeing still larger lava flow (at times, the top cone wholly lit up) and saddened by not being able to capture it down.

Thanks for your trip report, hx88. What I got from your posts was that you were, indeed, disappointed by your choice of accomodations because of the limited lava viewing. I guess I was hoping to find out whether you felt the other perks of Lost Iguana, such as the quality of the room and amenities, the service, the "nice pools", etc. made it worthwhile to stay there even with the limited lava viewing. The other 2 hotels we were considering, Hotel Silencio del Campo and Arenal Kioro, seem to be situated such that they have more direct views of the lava flows right now. Still, the amenities of Lost Iguana seem more appealing to me for some reason, despite the lack of spot-on views of the lava flow from the resort. We've booked a 2-bdrm "celebrity suite" since we're traveling with some friends. (We've been joking about whether the suite actually comes with a celebrity of choice - hee hee). I'd love to hear your take on the room quality, service, etc. at Lost Iguana. Thanks!

I'd like to compare Lost Iguana with Costa Verde in MA.

Customer service - We arrived at CV around 10PM, the manager on duty accomponished us to the room and offered to carry my biggest luggage (I let me do with a small one). We got at LI during the days and except providing us a map, no one offered to show us the road/room and helps with our luggage.

Location - CV is only 2 km from the MA national park. LI is 16 km away from the location where you can view lava and more where activities happen. The last 4-5 km to LI is steep brick covered road. Bumpy and noisy.

Breakfast - CV does not include breakfast. LI's only has scrambled egg, bacon, mash potato and some fruits. The worst continental breakfast I ever had.

Room quality - I don't know about the presidential suite. My room at LI is large and spacious and nicely decorated. But the beds are small and soft. The bathroom sinktop and hair dryer also need be replaced.

My negative reviews probably came from my high expectations of them out of my reading of many good reviews on this forum and their seemingly very personal website. Their service is not bad but not super either. If you have already reserved or LI is the lowest priced one, it would be fine staying there especially now I have lowered your expectations. Good luck.

We had a much different experience from hx88 at Lost Iguana. We were there at the end of January and were able to see lava flow all 3 nights from our balcony and our bed. While I don't know what the flow looked like from other hotels, we were quite pleased with what we saw and were amazed. We enjoyed the included breakfast each morning, which consisted of something like an empanada, fresh fruit, muffins/bread, potatoes, pancakes, eggs, bacon, rice and beans, cereal, etc. Our room wasn't anything fancy, but then again it didn't really matter to us since we were usually out doing something and pretty much only there to sleep at night or sit on the balcony and watch the volcano. We were not disappointed with our decision to stay there.

2CR, we discussed whether LI has good lava view in another thread. I asked you to describe what you saw from LI but you seemly have not responded. There was a huge difference between what I saw from El and from LI. A lot of my disappointments actually came from this: LI fooled people into believing that they have seen the whole lava view from their rooms and they might as well charged you for that.

Your descprtions of breakfast are consistent with mine though I missed a few items. Despite of this, the breakfast is nothing to write about except the view of the volcano.

Can you also comment on customer service?