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3.5
#39 of 63 hotels in La Fortuna de San Carlos
Location
Rooms
Value
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Enjoy of cozy & comfortable rooms surrounded by tropical gardens, with the best view of Arenal Volcano. Discover the wellness of our hot springs and our Mayin Spa. Taste the Costa Rica flavor, international cuisine and the best steak house in the area. Feel the adrenaline on our Canopy Tour, and take the best shots of Arenal volcano on our horseback riding.
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Giata.
HOTEL STYLE
Park View
Mid-range
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Location
Ruta Nacional Secundaria, 142, Arenal Volcano National Park, La Fortuna de San Carlos Costa Rica
Arenal Paraíso Resort Spa & Thermo Mineral Hot Springs
1,808 reviews
Getting there
Somewhat walkable
Places to stay are graded on a 0-100 scale. The higher the grade, the easier it is for travellers to find restaurants and things to do within walking distance.
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Nestled in a picturesque setting, Arenal Paraíso Resort Spa & Thermo Mineral Hot Springs offers guests scenic views of its surroundings, with the serene atmosphere enhanced by volcano vistas and the presence of hummingbirds. While the hot springs are a highlight, some guests feel the resort doesn't provide good value, pointing to the costly amenities, average food quality, and the need for facility updates.
Opinions on service and room quality vary, with commendations for staff friendliness but concerns regarding maintenance and comfort. Cleanliness is generally satisfactory, though recommendations for bathroom improvements are noted.
Location
Remote
Atmosphere
Serene
Rooms
Dated
Value
Expensive
Cleanliness
Mixed
Service
Inconsistent
Amenities
Relaxing
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We rented 2 superior rooms (which were really bungalows). We arrived on a very rainy day and spent most of the day in our rooms or on the nice covered porches. The rooms were roomy and clean. The humidity of our sons room(bungalow) seemed good but all the papers in our room felt moist, no matter how we set the thermostat. We were at Arenal for 2 days and our clothes from river rafting and zip lining never dried (at all). We ended up wrapping everything in our rain ponchos to pack for the next place. The bathroom was roomy and the water pressure and temperature was good. They provided shampoo, soap, conditioner, and a hair dryer. The included breakfast was plentiful and varied. For our evening meal we liked the pizza at the pool area better than the food at the main restaurant. The thermal pools were a nice way to end the day. The hotter pools are at the top and get progressive cooler as you get close to the pool area. They give you a towel to use just for the thermal pools and pool area which you have to return or they charge you $20. The people at check in and check out were very friendly.
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Date of stay: January 2020
Value
Location
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Valery C, Director de Relaciones con Clientes at Arenal Paraíso Resort Spa & Thermo Mineral Hot Springs
Responded 19 Feb 2020
Dear guest, we love to receive your comments with great details to better understand the message and improve more and more. Thank you for giving us your experience at the Arenal Paraíso Resort & Spa Hotel, for us it is very important to provide a quality service. We are glad you enjoyed our food service and thermal mineral pools. We hope see you soon
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Stayed comfortably for four nights in a standard cabin. It was very roomy and the porch view of the volcano was nice. It is an older hotel and the shower could use a new shower head, as ours only had trickling water due to the calcium buildup.
Daily the breakfast buffet was a tasty variety. This hotel is located in an area not too far from La Fortuna but riding Uber to and from is best...don't use the taxi's unless no other option since they charge incredulous amounts for short drives.
The hotel staff were friendly and helpful. The food at their restaurant was not good and it was very pricey so plan to eat at Jalapas (best gourmet and views of any place in this are you will find) or other restaurant in town.
This hotel has several hotspring pools which were enjoyable. A wet bar hotspring was cool to experience, and a very cool water pool was also available.
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Date of stay: July 2021Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Valery Córdoba, Revenue Management at Arenal Paraíso Resort Spa & Thermo Mineral Hot Springs
Responded 11 Feb 2022
Dear, for us it was a pleasure to meet you, we are glad that you had a good experience. We wait for you soon.
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We stayed at this hotel for 3 nights. When we first arrived it was a little busy as it was Good Friday but after that we had it all for ourselves. If you are lucky and the weather clears up, the views of the volcano are outstanding. The resort is located on a hill facing the volcano, There is a lot of nature around. We could hear toucans, macaws, howler monkeys. We also spotted lots of animals during our stay. The hotel has several hot springs and they were a highlight of our stay. The restaurant and the bar served great food. Breakfast was okay. The first night we stayed in a standard room which was in a poor condition. These rooms need to be better maintained and they require some refurbishment, specially the bathrooms. We could also hear our neighbours talking and listening to music next door. We had a few issues in the room and requested at the front desk to get a new room. Ruben was very helpful and got us an upgrade for a superior room. Generally, the staff were friendly and helpful. The superior room was a much better experience. It was clean, comfortable and the cabin does not share any walls with other rooms. It was also elevated from the ground and this keeps the crawling bugs away. We definitely recommend this hotel but only if you book a superior room (this is a common issue in Costa Rica).
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Date of stay: April 2021
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Room Tip:Go for the superior room only.
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Valery Córdoba, Revenue Management at Arenal Paraíso Resort Spa & Thermo Mineral Hot Springs
Responded 11 Feb 2022
Dear, for us it was a pleasure to meet you, we are glad that you had a good experience. We wait for you soon. And thank you for your recommendation.
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The hotel is very touristic, the hot springs and pool area are nice, yet they are always lacking clean towels and make you wait for a very long time. The standard room is of extremely low quality the bed sheets are very cheap, so is the bed and the rest of the room. We could hear the neighbors as if they were in our same room. The door got blocked twice because the cards didn’t work, once they had to replace the batteries of the door locker when we returned after dinner. There were ants in the room and for the price paid it was simply unacceptable. The rooms are very far away from the reception, pool, main entrance etc. luckily we were by car. I would rather recommend a hotel further away, without hot springs etc. but with nice and clean rooms!
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Date of stay: January 2020Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from VentasArenalP, Director de Relaciones con Clientes at Arenal Paraíso Resort Spa & Thermo Mineral Hot Springs
Responded 07 Jan 2020
Dear customer, receive a great greeting from the Arenal Paraíso Resort & Spa Hotel, for us it is a pleasure to serve you, we are very grateful that you have shared your experience that you had in our hotel. Thank you for your comments, both positive and negative, as this will help us improve every day. We hope to see you soon.
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My children and I we stay at this location for 4 nights! First thing first, this hotel is amazing, The staff are amazing, super friendly and professionals. Everyone take ALL COVID precautions, they have hand wash stations throughout the facilities and everyone wears their mask at all time!
The room are amazing with perfect view to the volcano! The rooms are traditional with everything you need! They clean our room everyday! The hotel landscape is beautiful, I felt like I was in the jungle.
The hotel food is AMAZING! We ate breakfast everyday and dinner two times in the hotel because we found the food to be much better than the food out in the town. Our server Jose (breakfast) and Isaias (dinner) are amazing people!!! I stay in many places and I recommend to all my family and friends this location! The price was just right! Pura Vida!
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Date of stay: December 2020Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Valery Córdoba, Owner at Arenal Paraíso Resort Spa & Thermo Mineral Hot Springs
Responded 11 Feb 2022
Dear greetings, for us it is a pleasure to have had your presence, it was a pleasure to serve you. We are waiting for you soon
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We stayed 4 nights at the resort and loved it. The location is great and the view of the Arenal volcano mountain is great from every one of their rooms. The two restaurants on site have good food. We are vegetarians and ended up eating there all 4 nights as it would start raining around 4pm and we did not feel like taking a taxi back and forth to La Fortuna. They had decent variety of food, good taste and we were able to eat different things each day. The hot springs on the property were very handy after coming back from activity each day. The nice thing about them is 7-8 small pools instead of 1 big hot spring pool. This allowed multiple groups to spread out in different pools and relax and feel private while in there. Since they are in the open and surrounded by so many trees, they do get some tree debris in there. But they are cleaned regularly to keep them clean. In our 4 days stay there, we saw 2-3 different pools being drained out, cleaned and refilled. They do put in effort to keep the property updated. I am not a big fan of pillows at the hotel, but found their beds and pillows very comforting. We loved out stay there and would definitely return if we come back to costa rica.
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Date of stay: June 2022
Value
Cleanliness
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Valery Córdoba, Marketing at Arenal Paraíso Resort Spa & Thermo Mineral Hot Springs
Responded 27 Jun 2022
For us it was a pleasure to serve you, we are very grateful for your excellent references, we are glad to have been able to satisfy all the needs.
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Beware of their in room safe. It is battery operated. It is tricky to use and ours stopped working….the batteries were dead. Read the directions very carefully. Grounds are beautiful. The individual cottages are nice and clean. Lots of towels. AC and TV. Their hot springs are relaxing. The pool was too cool and the hot spring bar didn’t look too appealing, but there is seating on a side not on the water. We had a group dinner there that was not very good; chicken was very tough. The next night we had dinner on our own in the restaurant and that was better. There is wIFI only in reception and at the restaurant. If you get anything at the gift shop, bring money or credit card as you can’t charge to your room there.
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Date of stay: December 2019
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from VentasArenalP, Director de Relaciones con Clientes at Arenal Paraíso Resort Spa & Thermo Mineral Hot Springs
Responded 07 Jan 2020
Dear customer, receive a great greeting from the Arenal Paraíso Resort & Spa Hotel, for us it is a pleasure to serve you, we are very grateful that you have shared your experience that you had in our hotel. Thank you for your comments, both positive and negative, as this will help us improve every day. We hope to see you soon.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
This was a beautiful property with lots of trees, shrubs, flowers, and plants. There is a fantastic view of Arenel volcano from the lodge. The reception area was attractive, and the people who were working at the front desk were very friendly and helpful.
The room was comfortable enough with reasonably good Wi-Fi. There was air-conditioning, but we didn’t use it because it was not very warm outside. We had plenty of closet space. We liked the outdoor personal balcony of our single-unit lodge.
I do not like the food very much. The scrambled eggs were watery and not very good tasting. They also had hard boiled eggs. They serve the typical Costa Rican foods of rice and beans with watermelon and pineapple. It appeared as if there were some pastry treats on one side if you like eating carbs.
The hotel is not near town, but if you want to go to town you can get an Uber or taxi. It was fairly cheap.
I might have given this place a better rating than I did if the food was better. They did have a lot of amenities, including gym, swimming pools, restaurant, and spa.
I would not hesitate to stay again.
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Date of stay: November 2021Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Valery Córdoba, Revenue Management at Arenal Paraíso Resort Spa & Thermo Mineral Hot Springs
Responded 11 Feb 2022
Dear greetings, we appreciate your not so positive comments too, to help us improve our weaknesses.
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We stayed here for two nights during our Costa Rica roundtrip in June/July 2022.
Positive: The location and complex itself – especially the volcano view – are great. For people having trouble with walking, however, it is only suitable when bringing a car or constantly using the shuttle due to really steep paths uphill. The hot springs are nice too, although they're not really hot - we found the top ones at least comfortably warm. Check in/check out and bookings/requests at the front desk went smoothly.
Negative: The concept with many small bungalows close to nature is actually nice. The rooms would urgently need a refurbishment though. Furnishings seemed cheap and very worn. In my opinion, it is completely normal for a few insects to be in the room in such an environment, but in our case there were simply a few too many, especially in the beds. You can stay in the rooms for a few nights, but overall it's not really comfortable.
Unfortunately, the food was by far the worst of our two week trip. The breakfast was okay, but the dinner in the main restaurant was really bad in terms of choice and quality. What bothered us the most was the atmosphere – a large, uncomfortable hall with bright floodlights and relatively dirty after a few groups had already eaten before we came. All in all, it seemed primarily designed to get large travel groups through as quickly as possible and with minimal effort. So on the second day we ate by the pool in the evening, which was a bit better but very expensive for the average quality offered. The hotel is not within walking distance of La Fortuna (taxi $10 one way), which limits the options here a bit.
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Date of stay: July 2022
Value
Location
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Valery Córdoba, Marketing at Arenal Paraíso Resort Spa & Thermo Mineral Hot Springs
Responded 12 Sept 2022
Greetings, thank you for sharing your opinion, we are sorry we did not meet your expectations, this is not usual in our service. We are going to work on it.
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Positive: - Staff in the bar and restaurant: very courteous and attentive - Garden: is beautiful with lots of beautiful plants and animals - Food in the pool bar/pool restaurant: was really good and there was a bit of everything so there was something for everyone - Tap water was absolutely drinkable, no chlorine taste etc.
Negative: - Reception staff: not a warm welcome - very cold and no information was given about how things work in the hotel with regard to wristbands - Room: very old, in a correspondingly poor condition and shabby. Therefore not at all comfortable. The bathroom feels as old as the hotel complex itself and therefore a bit "worn out". The roofs of the huts are also partly in very poor condition with lots of water damage. - Thermal landscape/pools: the paths and entry points to the pools were partly very dirty with animal droppings (no staff cleaned it away) and the water in the thermal pools and the pool was partly very dirty (grease film on the water, hair floating everywhere). There were also some broken loungers by the pool. - Prices: the prices at the bar and in the restaurant are on a par with the US prices. We asked for an extra guacamole and were given a tiny little bowl for $5(!!!!). That was a bit outrageous for us considering the condition and category of the hotel.
Conclusion: We were really looking forward to the stop - especially because the reviews and pictures looked really great. Unfortunately, we were very disappointed here.
With a few small changes, the hotel could make so much more out of the complex, then the prices would be justified. The cleanliness of the complex needs to be addressed urgently, as does the renovation of the rooms.
We cannot recommend it at the moment and would definitely choose another hotel
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Date of stay: May 2024Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
There are more places to choose from in the La Fortuna de San Carlos area.
PRICE RANGE
R 2,196 - R 3,231 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
ALSO KNOWN AS
arenal paraiso hotel la fortuna de san carlos, arenal paraiso hotel resort and spa, hotel arenal paraiso
LOCATION
Costa RicaProvince of AlajuelaArenal Volcano National ParkLa Fortuna de San Carlos
NUMBER OF ROOMS
118
Prices are provided by our partners, and reflect average nightly room rates, including taxes and fees that are fixed, known to our partners, and due at time of booking. Please see our partners for more details.
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