Arenal Travel Forum

Hi
My husband and I are going to be travelling to CR end of Jan08. For the Areanal area we choose the 'Arenal Observatory Lodge' as our base! Can anyone, who has recently stayed there, let me know what they thought of it. Also, is it very out of the way and far from the surrounding 'towns' and things to do? We were thinking of staying at the Tobacon, but I thought that's a bit too 'Manicured' to choose as a place to stay in CR.
I will welcome any comments.
Thanks,
J

We didn't actually stay there, but we visited the observatory lodge as it was a very good spot to see the volcano and the surrounding area is beautiful to walk.
It is very far away from everything indeed, but it is so nicely located that you probably won't mind.
The lodge itself looked very nice too and peacefull.

The road to the lodge is a dirtroad but not too bad for Costa Rican standards.

Its definately out of the main town area. It would be best to rent a vehicle . It is a beautiful lodge with spectacular views though.

I have stayed there but not recently. I do travel to Arenal periodically and try to keep up with changes. It is a ways out on a pretty rough road. The place itself is nice. Some good hiking there. We did the old lava bed hike. It was pretty tough but worth it. We stayed in one of the Smithsonian rooms and loved having a birds eye view of the volcano when it went off in the night.

Some of the tours are more expensive because it is out of the way. Keep in mind that if you want a taxi it will cost (and this is true for anyplace there) way more than you would think. The taxis now charge for the cost of driving from town to pick you up as well as your trip. We went to dinner from the Arenal Paraiso to El Novillo this past summer. A distance of maybe a mile or so. it cost $15 round trip.

Tabacon doesn't excite me. I have been to the hot springs there. Very pretty but very crowded. For a quieter time, have your hotel call Eco Termales and set up a dinner reservation and hot spring time. They only allow a certain amount of people at a time and it is very pretty. Reservations are required even if just going to the hot springs.

Hi;
We stayed at the observatory lodge in December 2007. I highly recommend it!

It is far out but you don't really need anything else while you are there and if you have your own car I can see no reason to go elsewhere. We stayed three nights but if you will be staying longer I do suggest to rent that car (don't use POAS). The restaurant charges are reasonable and you can do nice hiking. If you're up to it you should really go to cerro chato, it is a difficult but lovely hike.

The best part of the observatory lodge is off course the proximity of Arenal. The Lava has changed direction about 150 days ago and now flows again towards to observatory lodge so if you stay in La Fortuna you will probably not see any unless you're very lucky during your visit at the lodge. We opted for the shared bathrooms and picked the room with lava view and saw lava every evening.
It is about 500mts walk to the restaurant but it is the best place to relax in the evening as you have a good view of Arenal volcano and of the lake (and it is a bit cheaper which is also handy ;-)

Enjoy!!
Jelle