Yuliana Valverde

Wonderful views of the volcano when not in the clouds. Fabulous breakfast buffet and lovely dinner in the evening.

this was very close to the beach but right in the middle of the jungle. Monkeys everywhere. Beautiful pool areas. lovely bar and cocktails. Close to our favorite restaurant....Emilios cafe. We could walk there. Woke up to beautiful bird sounds and some Howler Monkeys. Umbrellas available in the lobby for the guests which were big and nice. We needed them a couple of times and it was nice to have such sturdy big umbrellas to use. Nice balcony off of room to enjoy the jungle.

this was a nice self guided tour of this park. The waterfalls are beautiful. You should take time to see all 5. We spent about 3 hours including lunch here. We did the longer hikes which were right in the middle of the greenest forest.

We loved our guide Franklin. It was just the four of us and Franklin on our guided hike. We learned a lot and loved his description and passion for everything he shared. The Volcano was hidden behind clouds but Franklin was positive we would see it 100 percent as we acsended on our hike. He was right, A glorious site!

We went to this in the evening when it was dark. I would have loved seeing it during the day, but our experience was very cool. While we were in the Hot springs, we were also in a thunderstorm and rainstorm. We were in the Hot Springs for about 1 1/2 hours and then had a nice buffet dinner afterward. This reminded me a bit of the Blue Lagoon in Iceland, commercialized but a fun night and experience

This was a great place to see all of the wildlife. Since it is the busiest park in Costa rica, there were a lot of people there. Our guide had 4 couples, which we appreciated in order to see and hear our guide at all times. There were many other larger groups of people. All of the guides were friendly to each other and helped each other spot specific animals. the beach here was busy, so we just walked the beach and put our feet in and saved our beach day for another time.

this was other worldly. If you have not been in a Mangrove forest, it is so cool. We went late afternoon which was pretty nice for seeing birds, snakes, monkeys, etc. Even the bats at dusk were so cool to watch swooping close to the water

This hotel gets 3 1/2 stars on tripadvisor, which is astounding to me. It's beautiful, the rooms are huge, and have a magnificent view, and it's not super expensive. We loved it the best of all of our costa rica hotels. I read through some of the reviews that gave the place 1 or 2 stars, and people were complaining about things like the bathroom being dark, or whatever. And we wonder why Americans get bad reputations as travellers. My kids and I loved this place. We had a room in the lowest building, so maybe that helped (ask for something low on the hillside.). However, we did see aboutis in the lawn, and we had giant french doors opening onto the lawn. It was heaven.

Lovely hotel. We really enjoyed the location, since it's basically one of the closest hotels to the beach, as well as the the national park. Super easy to walk to the beach, and relax, or take a surf lesson. There is a bus stop, so if you want to go up the hill or to Quepos, it's like 350 colones to get on the bus, and it comes every 15 minutes. Super convenient. The rooms are small, but the air conditioning is good! The pool is warm, and the restaurant is at the sister hotel just down the road. Super convenient place to stay, and reasonable room rates.

Daniel, our guide for the hanging bridges tour was extremely knowledgeable, patient and had great communication skills. The whole group of assistants working on the 7 different Ziplines were professional, caring and reassuring those who were a little scared of the Ziplines.

Unique and comfortable hotel. The views from the 800’s building were gorgeous and the shuttle busses made traveling the mile (up and downhill) between the rooms and reception/restaurants very do-able. Our only issue was that the wifi, including the premium option, did not work in our rooms. Delicious breakfast and very friendly staff.

Fantastic hotel in beautiful surroundings. The bungalows felt very luxurious and the view of the volcano could not be beat. We enjoyed the swimming pool and hot tub and the breakfast was delicious.

Fantastic location right next to the National park. The hotel was comfortable, easy to navigate and only a few minutes walk to the beach and other restaurants. The hot tub did not appear to be working but the pool was lots of fun for the kids. The best part of the hotel was watching the monkeys and toucans in the trees next to the pool!

Danny of Toucanes Tours was a wonderfully kind and knowledgeable guide. His English is phenomenal and he clearly enjoys what he does. We saw many animals during our two-hour walk and enjoyed a brief break at the park’s beach. 10/10!!

AWESOME experience! We were a little hesitant about zip lining in the pouring rain but it was such a great experience. There’s nothing quite like zip lining into the clouds. The guides at Sky Adventures took safety very seriously and their course and hanging bridges are well worth it.

Rafael at Don Juan was a kind and knowledgeable guide who taught us so much about cacao and coffee. The kids loved making their own chocolate bars and we thoroughly enjoyed tasting the coffee. Definitely one of the highlights of our trip!

Quite a unique experience to walk through the Costa Rican forest at night at Refugio de Vida Silvestre. We spotted a bunch of different animals during the two hour tour.

Great time rafting on the Peñas Blancas river with a snow Aventira. Our guides, Martin and Brian, were knowledgeable and enthusiastic. Didn’t see any sloths but saw many other animals. The trip down to the waterfall was fun but, in hindsight, this was something we could have done on our own. Lunch at Cava Pizza was the only downer of the day - the guide called our order in ahead of time, sensing that the kids were hungry after a long day, but we still had to wait almost 1.5 hours for our food.

Very enjoyable, basically private tour at the Ecological park. Karina of Ecoterra Tours was very knowledgeable of the local fauna and flora. The butterfly enclosure had been damaged and all of the butterflies had to be released but we saw many other animals on the tour. The Maleku presentation was interesting.

A large hotel, with beautiful ground and great facilities - multiple pools, 3 restaurants including a sushi bar, it's own crazy golf course and monkey trail. Rooms were not the biggest but adequate and well equipped. Small balcony, looking onto the courtyard. A wonderful local beach, Playa Biesanz which is walking distance but quite a steep walk. We felt the hotel was very security conscious, all entries and exits were questioned and confirmed for vehicles and pedestrian. Great ocean views. We loved the Pedro, the resident iguana!

Not the biggest hotel. More basic than the previous two we'd stayed in. We ended up being allocated a room without air con although it did have a fan. The hotel room was quite small but adequate. Storage was a bit of a challenge in that the hanging space was limited, within a short cupboard where my husband was not able to hang his shirt up without being crumpled. We had an issue with our plumbing which was quickly rectified. The grounds were very well maintained with beautiful planting. The hotel had a covered pool area with a good bar, a large jacuzzi and a large fire pit with seating which were popular in the evenings. There was a short walking trail around the grounds and plenty of outdoor seating, which I made use of to compensate for the smaller rooms. It's the only hotel out of 5 that had a menu option for breakfast, which was lovely.

Lovely hotel set in a lot of grounds. I like the lodge arrangements that was separate to the pool and restaurants. Good choice of restaurants, we particularly liked the Italian, the Sushi bar and the snack menu which was offered during the day. There was plenty of choice for breakfast and the service time from 6:30 helped with several of our early morning excursions. We preferred the evening meals from the other restaurants on site. There was a mix up upon checking where my acceptance of an upgrade for one of the rooms turned out to be a change the hotel had made, reducing our 3 room requirement to a single room which was upgraded to the Master Suite. Whilst this did come with a double room, it would not have worked accommodating with 2 families, 7 people. The hotel did insisted that we had to settle for this arrangement as they were full, fortunately KimKim were already on the case and by the time we went back to reception after assessing the room. Arenal Springs did provide us with another double room which we made work. That was an unfortunate start to an otherwise wonderful stay at Arenal Springs. We all loved the daily towel displays and chocolates and the Master Suite was luxurious with two in-room jacuzzis powered by Hot Springs, an indoor and outdoor shower and a hammock with a view of Arenal Volcano.

Good hotel, room size and facilities as you'd expect of a large chain.

Cristal Ballena is one of our favourites on the trip. The hotel was fairly small therefore an intimate feel. It was tucked away off the main road and had amazing views, floral, fauna and wildlife. We got best close up view of a sloth of the whole holiday at Cristal Ballena. The staff were attentive, the food was good. We had dinner at the hotel on all 3 nights we were there. Rooms were of a good size, with air con. We had a balcony with a view into the the hotel grounds, swimming pool, the ocean in the distance for incredible sunsets.

A great adventure with a relatively small group. We were rewarded with sightings of plenty of dolphins and a turtle, even though the whales didn't make an appearance on that day. We liked the way the guide was in communication with all the other boats out with the same purpose so if one boat spotted wildlife, the others would rush to the same spot so others could also. It brought an additional element of excitement to the tour. We particularly loved the way the tour started and ended, where the passengers had to enter the boat from the beach rather than a jetty and surfing the waves to get back onto the beach! What fun. The fresh fruit was a nice touch.

Thanks Alain and the other guides for a wonderful experience. We saw lots of wildlife, had enough freedom to go at our own pace although there were some quite competitive kayaks :). We appreciated the food at the end of kayaking.

Thank you to our wonderful guide, Carla for spotting all the wildlife (we don't know how you manage to see some of the well camouflaged insects and animals), flora and fauna and particularly for help us take some tremendous photographs through your binoculars with our smart phones.

We spotted 7 in all, two and three toed sloth. We also saw plenty poison dart frogs, a Jesus Christ Lizard, howler monkeys and a tiger heron. Thank you to our knowledgeable guide and the local spotter who'd spent hours before tracking down the animals.

Thank you to our guide Phillipe, we thoroughly enjoyed the tour. We learnt a lot about Costa Rica's eco system and climate. The transfer was a little confusing, as it was a bus full and no communication about where we had to go at the beginning so we joined the main queue, along with the other bus loads. However, all was clear when we got to reception. We were assigned Phillipe as our guide. It was really busy at the time so Phillipe suggested that we did the bridges backwards, ie. from 8 to 1 to avoid the crowds. That worked really well.

3 star, not because we didn't see as much as we'd like but because our guide whilst informative was less conversational. Again, he tried to avoid the crowds and the searches felt a little desperate towards the end. That said, we did enjoy it and managed to capture great photos of a glass winged butterfly, pit viper, hummingbird amongst others. Thank you for providing torches.

Thank you Franklin, we believe he's one of the best. We were entertained. The teenagers even enjoyed the singing and the dad jokes ;). Hot and humid but we really enjoyed it. Franklin kept a good pace, although he did say at the beginning that we could ask him to slow down if we'd need him to. The heavens opened when we got to the thermal springs and for the most of our time in the springs but we enjoyed the experience nonetheless.

This was never going to be our favourite activity, as a group we're not experienced, therefore I don't review the horse riding part. The 3 star review is because of the mismatched in expectations around the La Fortuna Waterfall and optional opportunity to swim. We didn't expect this to be a hike (at least 30 mins) down steep steps (and back up for the return) to get to the waterfall. We were prepared for a short walk but not this level of difficulty. The walk also didn't bring us to the waterfall, whilst it was visible at the end of the walk. For those who had opted to swim, they can cross the water with a further short walk to get to the waterfall. For those who had opted not to swim, there was no way to get to the waterfall and there was nowhere to stand/sit and wait for the rest of the part. We collectively felt that this detail need to be reflected in the activity description.

What a finale activity for us. Once again, our guide was brilliant, knowledgeable, full of humour and chat thank you Martin. We had to do a little bit of work but not a lot given the flow of the river. Our activity was made some what more exciting by an unplanned rescue of a couple of stranded kayakers (both were rescued, unharmed and laughed about their experience).

PROS - great location in central downtown San Jose - Customer service and staff were great and very helpful - The room was well stocked and prepped - Breakfast buffet was very good and enjoyable - The 5th floor and view from the top floor is really nice and wonderful CONS None

This resort is THE place to stay if you can fit it into your budget. AMAZING place PROS - BEAUTIFUL resort - Customer Service was absolutely amazing and the BEST. They took care of you from the moment you arrived to when you left - The food options and service at the pool was fantastic - The rooms are BEAUTIFULLY stocked when you check in - It is very easy to get around the resort - The staff is fantastic and they are very efficient in their work - The WIFI is absolutely insane. We tested it at various points in the resort and it averaged over 45 mb/sec which is MORE than enough for great video conferencing even - The restaurants and morning buffet is fantastic CONS - NONE We would come back here and stay in a HEARTBEAT. If you have the chance and dont stay here then you will be making a HUGE mistake

Overall. i think, objectively it is way too hyped. I would probably pick another hotel in the area to stay at if we come back again. PROS Property that we saw was quite beautiful Reception desk and staff are very friendly and helpful Food at the main restaurant for lunch was pretty good Bathroom in the room was well stocked and nice CONS - Wifi is SUPER SUPER poor. Measured it and for the rooms of 500-525 I was seeing at MOST 1-2 mb/sec. That's atrocious. You would think that they would setup wifi extenders at each building to boost their wifi signal but nope. i tested the wifi speed and uploaded the results to show for proof. The wifi at the resort in La Fortuna where we stayed before coming here was 45 mb/sec... more than enough for video calls and it was that speed throughout the ENTIRE property. - Fridge didn't work to keep things cool - The vents above the patio doors could not be closed so we had constant cool air coming in - Roach found - Property is huge and the roadway between sections is VERY poorly lit. It's VERY dark. - Main desk closes at 10p. Seriously???? - TV signal and TV picture for most channels was not even HD - The bathroom sinks are REALLY shallow. Because of this the water drains very very slowly because there's not a high degree of slope and it's very frustrating

The property is so vast - as are the rooms, which is a good thing, and buildings, but very dim and dark. The staff was wonderful. Gorgeous views!!

Quaint, gorgeous views, amazing staff.

First class all the way. Loved the modern feel of the rooms, the hot springs were the best, and the restaurants simply delicious! Small and inviting, you feel like you’re in your own corner of the jungle.

Franklin, our guide was the best!!

This hotel was perfect for our vacation to the cloud forest. The rooms were beautiful. We enjoyed being in the rainforest so much. The service and attention to detail was amazing. The food was some of the best we had in Costa Rica. Both my husband and my teenage son made sure they had the name of this hotel written down. Both apparently plan to return here specifically! :)

Hotel was ok, but the bar was closed or had private parties. I tried a couple of times, but was not successful. The spa was wonderful.

Very nice little hotel! Excellent dinner.

Excellent hotel, nice bar and dinner room

Good for family and couples

Great tour if you want to learn chocolate and coffee

Looks like a 5 star resort but behaves like a Motel 6. Rude front desk staff, no spa, room service not available.

Go some where else

Great Hotel, good location. Beach activities by the locals right on the beach so can book an activity as soon as you step onto the beach(10 yards)

Watch out for the Howler monkeys. They are entertaining.

Scary and fun at the same time

Party Boat with great staff.