Hotel Arenal Springs Resort & Spa

We had a great stay, the hotel is beautiful luxurious, and the rooms have parking at the door, with a view of the volcano. Hot springs are superb we went a lot, and the swim up bar is great for a cool down drink. Breakfast is a vast buffet, great choices and you can even make your own smoothies with fresh fruit and vegetables, we couldnt fault it. We eat at the Italian restaurant, very disappointed, starter bread was stale and the pizza wasnt nice and the pasta was salty, nothing authenticity Italian, you must do better with this restaurant and it was the most expensive meal in La Fortuna. The gift shop was great with the prices no different to shops in the town. Would go back without hesitation.

The hotel and staff did an amazing job in preparing the suite for our daughter’s 12th bday. We also planned ahead and purchased a cake. They made an incredible cake that was gorgeous and delicious. We also had an awesome dinner in a cabana like table that was also decorated. Our daughter felt like a princess and we made sure to share the cake with 2 other guests and sent the cake back to the staff to eat including their children. It was a magical place for us and the staff were awesome, friendly and kind. Our daughter enjoyed the Shirley Temples with extra cherries. Everyone knew it was her bday and made sure she felt special. It was difficult leaving and we hope to come back someday. We know exactly which room to stay in for our next visit! The view of the volcano from our room was breathtaking.

We loved this hotel as lovely bungalow room with view of the volcano, excellent breakfast choice and the hot springs on site were fabulous addition. Excellent service from all the staff who were very friendly, helpful and efficient. The only downside was its location 8km outside of La Fortuna so had to get a taxi to the town if you wanted to visit. Good points – the welcome drink when we arrived was a choice from the main drinks menu i.e. cocktail, wine, beer or soft drink which was a pleasant surprise. They also give you a waterproof wrist band on arrival which was your room key plus two towel cards which you are used to obtain towels at the pool. They then take you and your luggage to your room in a golf buggy which is also available to take you to and from your room at any time, not that we bothered as we were in easy walking distance of the main reception, restaurants and pools. Our room was a semi-detached bungalow with a terrace that had a perfect view towards the Arenal volcano (although sadly we never saw the very top of the volcano due to cloud). All the bungalows (& other rooms) faced the same way and had hedges around so making them more private, the hedges being an attraction for lots of hummingbirds. The room had a huge, comfortable bed plus A/C & ceiling fan, efficient Wi-Fi, TV (we didn’t use), coffee machine and minibar containing 2 x beers, 2 x cokes and 2 x waters topped up each day. Not that we knew it was refilled until my husband had one of the beers. They also bring along chocolates each evening at turndown. There was plenty of hot water for showering with a limited number of toiletries in the bathroom. The only downside to the bathroom was there was no plug in the sink for rinsing swimming gear etc. although they do provide a line across the shower area for drying clothes (we dried them outside on the patio chairs). There were four restaurants in the hotel plus bars both by reception and by the pools all of which were expensive compared to eating in La Fortuna. We discovered you can order from any of the menus while sitting in any of the four restaurants which was useful as wanted a light meal from the Iguana Restaurant which is next to the pool bar but sat in the Italian restaurant to eat but still the most expensive meal we ate throughout our whole holiday. The breakfast choice was excellent, everything you could think of and more. The only shame for us was we only got to use it two mornings as the third morning we had to leave before breakfast started although they did give us a breakfast box (fruit, yoghurt drink, cake). The best part of the whole hotel was the pools. Not only did they have the main swimming pool, but they had a number of hot spring pools (the hottest being 37oC), one of which was a jacuzzi. Be aware: there are warning signs all around the thermal pools warning you not to put your head under the water as there is a risk of picking up amoeba that thrive in hot water. We saw several children puttin