Trying to figure out hotel in La Fortuna
 

Hi all

we are making progress on our plans. We have decided on a 14 day trip to CR with the first week in the La Fortuna area. Right now we are planning on landing at Liberia and paying someone to meet us at the airport and take us to La Fortuna, this is the part where it all goes horribly wrong. There is so much information about CR that we are confused. We want a reasonably priced hotel $100-150 per night with a/c place to soak our old late 40's retired bones after a long days activities. A good breakfast is important to us as we come from Chicago :-). We walk 5 miles a day but would prefer to hire moped/scooter to get around rather than a car. My wife has come up with a list of hotels:

1 arenal volcano lodge
2 lost iguana
3 arenal springs
4 loma del volcan

and a local travel agent
Carlos Arana H
Sales & Marketing Director
www.fortunawelcome.com


has suggested Hotel Arenal Nayara but we can't find much about it as it's so new.

ALSO we need to figure out what to do the following week. My wife wants to go to a beach to relax but I prefer to get out and do things so if the area called Tamarindo is good for that then let me know please? She is looking for a beach BUT if there is one that is near a rain forest then that would be great provided it's within 4 hours of Liberia where we will fly out of.

thanks for any help we are doing our best to sort all this out and we are running out of time.

I think all of the hotels you mentioned are really nice. Infact we were looking into staying at Lost Iguana because it looked so beautiful, so unique and I fell in love with the photos. Everyone has amazing things to say about it.

Arenal Volcano Lodge will give you lava views of the volcano.

We passed the other 2 you mentioned, and they looked nice as well.

We, however, decided to go with Magic Mountain (as you know from my trip report) because all the other hotels seemed really far from town. We didn't have a car and knew we wanted to be close to town. We personally need to be close to town where we can walk around til late, be close to restaurants, shops to pass time in the evenings...we go crazy if we are out in no-mans land or stuck in our hotel room. Another reason for us was that Magic Mountain was reasonably priced. We don't really stay in our room except to shower and sleep so we opted to save $$ on the hotel and use elsewhere on the trip. Being in a far hotel was a double whammy because they more more expensive plus more money on taxis to get to town. But if cost and location is not an issue for you - I think Lost Iguana has the best rep on these boards for Arenal accomodations.

Lost Iguana always gets good reviews and they are one of the few that still has views of the rocks spewing out & such. The Arenal Nayara is indeed new, looks lovely but again it's so new new that's there are next to no reviews yet. Might also want to look into Silencio del Campo, also gets great reviews. I myself have stayed at Arenal Paraiso and liked it a lot.

Sounds great! Happy planning and I am bias to El Silencio del Campo because we had a really great experience there (also convenient if you don't have a car because it's not so far out, plus 2 min to hot springs and great breakfast) but Lost Iguana does get great reviews from many people so I'm sure you can't go wrong there either.

We stayed at the Lost Iguana last year and loved it. The view of the volcano from our balcony was amazing. The grounds are gorgeous with lush landscaping, had a pool, on site restaurant, free breakfast, and it's right next door to the Hanging Bridges. When we were there, they had a free shuttle that ran into town each night around dinnertime. We loved being set outside of town a little bit because it was so relaxing and beautiful. Room also had a mini frig to keep drinks cold and a jacuzzi on the balcony. I wouldn't hesitate to stay there again.

I stayed at Arenal springs and liked it. Arenal springs is located off the main road about 500 meters (on the unpaved road).

Grounds are beautiful and well kept. Room was clean, spacious and comfortable with AC, ceiling fan, TV, fridge, security box. Bathroom had a skylight and plants in the shower though I noticed some dead small bugs in the bathroom each morning. Our room was on the last row (block 600, block 100 being the closest to the lobby) of the resort next to constuction. We heard them starting working bright and early. If you choose this resort, you may want to request room closer to the lobby/breakfast area and request one looking onto grounds rather than parking & other cabins.

Breakfast was good included eggs (made to order), rice & beans, pancakes, fried plaintains, fruits, cereal, etc.