jentom98

Driving time from Tamarindo to Arenal around lake including wrong turns-5 1/2 hours. Do not speed in this country, there are police everywhere. People wil flash you with their headlights to warn of police up ahead. Somebody almost hit us head on while passing. Scarey. Just drive carefully. The road around the lake was beautiful, seemed to take a loooooong time. There were potholes but I was expecting worse. An adventure. Arrived at Arenal Observatory Lodge just before dark.
Arenal Observatory Lodge - I loved this place. We got Smithsonian room #14, basic but comfortable. Huge windows to view the volcanoe while lying in bed. To walk to the lodge for meals you walk across a neat suspension bridge. At night there are lightening bugs!! I was quite surprised the first night when I woke up around 1:30 am and saw an orange glow coming down the volcanoe. After reading so many posts on this site I thought you couldn"t see any lava action from this side. Ironically I had changed one of our nights to go to Los Lagos for the chance of seeing the lava and we didn't see anything there. The volcanoe seems to clear up around 1:30 to 3:00am. We saw bouncing glowing balls on night two also.

Morning hike with guide- this is free. We had Eduardo, very knowledgable, went out of his way to make sure everyone got to see the birds and animals he spotted ( wild turkeys, monkeys, toucans). We hiked to an old lava flow through the jungle. You could hear the thud of the boulders rolling down the volcanoe. During the day you could see the dust of the boulders rolling down but no glow. This was a great hike. There are many beautifully colored birds around the Observatory also . They put out fresh fruit by the dinig area so you can see them feeding, also cootamongis sp?

Another great hike is to the waterfall. Takes maybe 20 minutes. You can dunk in the pools.
This whole area has a peaceful, quiet, uncrowded feel to it. I liked this side of the volcanoe better . Another plus, very close by is SKY TREK.
Sky Trek is a MUST DO. What an exhilerating, once in a lifetime experience! I have to admit, the first 10 seconds you're thinking what in the heck am I doing here, but oh what fun zipping through the air so high up, so fast, and for so long. The boys wussed out on this one. Not for the faint of heart.
Los Lagos- the kids ( age 13)liked the water slides, crocodile farm, and weird lizards. Our room wasn"t ready when we arrived so we squeezed in a canopy tour the hotel offered. Horseback ride up the side of the volcanoe ,almost too close to the volcanoe, to the first platform. This canopy tour was more mellow, not as high, and you go through the trees. My son did this one and loved it. It was fun. Note the different breaking systems. Skytrek you hold on to bars and tweak them back and forth to stop. This canopy tour you pull down on the cable with a gloved hand to stop. Both work, I like Sky trek's system better.
Tabacon hotsprings- felt obligated to do this since it seemed like a must do. However for our family it was a mistake. We would've been just as happy sitting in the pools at Los Lagos. Got to Tabacon just before dark. It must be very beautiful during the day. It was very crowded, and the pools are very very hot. If you like hot water this is the place for you . The slide goes into hot water. There are a couple cooler pools also. We didnt like it here.

Rafting on the Rio Arenal with Desafio tours-- this is a great company and a great trip. The river is about a 20 minute ride from La Fortuna. You can go in inflatable kayaks or rafts, and they have half day tours. The river was very low this time of year so we got stuck on quite a few rocks but the guides would get you off. Very beautiful jungle scenery, one monkey sighting. You float down the river and wonder if it could get any more gorgeous. This was a class 2-3 river. With higher water this would have been the perfect trip. At the end they serve you a delicious lunch at the riverside by the owners home. They are so friendly you feel like their guests.
After rafting on to Allejuela and Orquidas Inn. Got lost trying to find it drove right through bad part of town. Had to get taxi to lead us there. Was late and we were too tired to really enjoy this nice hotel. Very good dinners. Had to leave too early for their breakfast.
Travel tips--have an idea of what the exchange rate is when you arrive so you are prepared for your first purchase.
Leave enough time per area so you can settle in and enjoy it. The last part of our trip felt too rushed.
For a morning flight out of San Jose it might be good to stay at Hampton Inns for proximity to the airport. We felt really rushed leaving Orquidas Inn the morning of departure, returning rental car, making it to airport.
We loved Costa Rica!!!! The End

nancygol

My family will be staying at Los Lagos in June. How did you enjoy it? I have read a couple of bad reports on the hotel and am wondering if I made the right decision. I have a 17 and 15 with my husband and myself.

Thank you in advance.

jentom98

Hi, Los Lagos was pretty nice, we spent limited time there, cramming too many activities in. My kids (ages 13) liked the water slides. There seemed to be a pretty big pool area. The crocodile farm, butterfly house, lizard area was neat to walk through. I think there was more to the grounds than what we saw or got to check out. The canopy tour right from the hotel was really fun, horseback ride up to the take off point. The room ( we had a premium #123, trees blocking some of the volcanoe view) was clean, comfortable , decent. Try for 135 - 140. I think those were far enough away from everything but not too far,, and had a good unobstructed view of the volcanoe. Some of the rooms were located really far away from central activities, those might have been the super premium, I thought too far away, like you would have to drive down or take a long, long walk. There used to be a map of the room location on their website but I don't see it now. We literally crammed breakfast down in 5 minutes,(We really rushed around too much) the buffet seemed just ok. Check on lava flow direction. Someone said it was shifting. We didnt see anything the one night we were there and the volcanoe was clear. We would stay there again and enjoy it more. Hope that helps you some! Jenny

Chuckster

This seems to come up often, so I thought I'd add my 2 cents. The lava flow does seem to be changing sides. We were told that Tabacon/Los Lagos, etc. would be an excellent place to see lava. We saw the volcano for 2 days, but the lava activity was on the Observatory side just as jentom states. A guide told me that it is changing direction. For people who are picking hotels based on lava flow activity, you may want to check into this before deciding!

RufusTFirefly

The lava flow does change directions over time. If it is shifting again, it could have a real impact on a lot of hotels.