mary_s

Our family of four is planning an 11 day trip for February. I have to admit to being a lurker on this board for some time and have picked up some great tips from all the regulars and the wonderful trip reports.

I got lucky with airfare...TACA...from DC to SJ $189 including taxes. Still need to get flights to DC though!!

We've decided on the following itinerary:
Day 1-3 Orquideas Inn, Alajuela
Day 4-6 Los Lagos, Arenal
Day 7-9 Costa Verde, Manuel Antonio
Day 10 Pura Vida, Alajuela

I am pretty comfortable with this schedule after all I've read on this board and have made all of the reservations.

I am however having trouble faxing information on my credit card to Los Lagos (fax will not go through). I called the hotel and they will not confirm the reservation without a signed fax that includes all that sensitive cc info.

I know that several others here have stayed at Los Lagos and am wondering if any of you have any ideas about how to get a confirmed reservation from this hotel. They have not responded to any e-mails in over two weeks and I'm a little frustrated!!

Thanks for any suggestions,
Mary

shillmac

Could you scan something to them rather than fax? We've used both methods. I suppose it's a little risky to use e-mail, but. . . .

shillmac

BTW, Mary, your itinerary sounds very nice. It isn't often that people choose to spend any length of time in the Central Valley, and it is such a fabulous part of Costa Rica. That wonderfully cool weather! You can see and do so many neat things from Las Orquideas. You can actually take in quite a chunk of Costa Rica from the Las Orq, especially if you make it over to the Puerto Vieja de Sarapiqui/Rio Sarapiqui area one day.

Congrats on the great airfare. . .wish we could get something that low out of Dallas occasionally!

maryanne1

As suggested and what we had to do to get reservations for the Pariaso and Costa Verde was to scan the info and credit card and then email. The fax would not work for us. Try it.
We stayed at both the Orquideas(able to reserve by the internet) and Costa Verde. You will enjoy both places.

mary_s

The Central Valley temperatuures will seem like paradise to us western New Yorkers in February. LOL. Our flight arrives quite late (8:30 pm) and so we will have really only two full days there before moving on to Arenal.
As for the reservations, I was able to send payment info to Orquideas and Pura Vida through split e-mails and felt quite comfortable doing so. They were both very quick and helpful responding to e-mail.
Costa Verde has also been very helpful but also had an unusual payment method...requesting that I send check pymt or bank transfer to a Florida address.
The scanning would work but I'm a little concerned about that because they have not responded to my previous e-mails. Maybe I'll give them a few more days.
thanks for your suggestions!

shillmac

I understand your dilemma! We had to send a bank wire transfer to the Bank of Costa Rica through a U.S. bank in Florida once. My banker (we are in a small town) didn't quite know what to make of it or how to do it as he hadn't much experience with that sort of thing. That was at Tropico Latino in MalPais. Everyone there seems to employ a different method!

What a treat for you to go in February when it is so cold in New York! We been in December and in January a couple of times. It was quite a shock for us to return home in July of this year to 100+ weather when we had spent the last 9 days of our trip in the Central Valley temps that remind us so much of Colorado! It would be nice to live someplace that doesn't require air conditioning or heating.

TripleSecDelay

For Mary_S :

We stayed at Los Lagos and experienced slight phone difficulties one might easily attribute to the construction currently underway as they expand their lodging (as nearly all locations are constructing new facilities. No shortage of jobs in building around Arenal - and no shortage of jobs for welders and security guards in San Jose.) These conditions may be affecting their data transmission over 2wire.

Juan Carlos is the Manager there; we also dealt with Robert and Alejandra. Is Juan Carlos not taking a CC over the phone? We gave ours to Alejandra over the phone for our reservation. Maybe she broke policy in doing so(?).