Arenal Paraíso Resort & Thermo Mineral Hot Springs

"1. toilet in bathroom was broken. It flooded.
2. was told that there was wifi throughout property. It was only in the lobby, and didn't even work for part of the time we needed it.
3. a bat attacked my friend in the lobby. The people working in the hotel just laughed about it. Reminder: bats carry rabies.
4. Breakfast ended at 9:30. We showed up around 9:45ish and they refused to even make us a cup of coffee. "

"We stayed at the Hotel Arenal Paraiso as the first night of a family reunion. It was wonderful and we regretted not planning to spend more time there. The grounds are beautiful, accomodations comfortable and the staff were pleasant and very helpful. It was the perfect start to a long awaiting family gathering. My husband and I will return to spend more time at the Hotel Arenal Paraiso!"

"We visisted the hotel from May 31st to June 5th. I have to say that the hotel itself is very beautiful. It has a nice relaxing environment. The hotel rooms were nice and up to date with everything needed to feel comfortable. The hotel even provides a fruit plate, which is put inside the refrigerator. I thought that was nice.

If you go to this hotel, you absolutely have to do the canopy in the back part of the hotel. The canopy was amazing, with spectacular views.

The food was great. I think the food was a little expensive, but definitely worth the price. There is an amazing view from both restaurants.

Everything is excellent, except for one thing. I felt that some of the employees were rude and discourteous. I would say that about half of the employees were really nice and the other half not so nice.

Overall, I definitely recommend the hotel to anyone. "

"My wife, 8 year son, and I stayed for 3 nights beginning Dec. 29th. We had a standard room which was OK, except the bathroom was a little small. The view of the volcano was great, with the exception of the clouds that obscured the top of it during most of our visit. The hotel grounds are beautifully landscaped and very lush. We spent a lot of time in the warm pool at the swim-up bar, the very chilly main pool, and exploring all of the thermal pools. There is a hiking trail around the back of the resort that leads (way) down to a river below. It was quite steep and had become muddy due to recent rains. We hiked about 1/4 mile of it before turning back, but saw army ants, leafcutter ants, and some interesting plant life during that short trek.

We enjoyed the complimentary breakfast buffet at the hotel and the one dinner that we had there. The other two evenings we took a cab into La Fortuna ($5 each way) for dinner. The hotel front desk had recommended the Las Brasitas restaurant. The service and food were very good and reasonably priced. Our last night in Costa Rica we ate at the Salta Mar restaurant which is located along the main highway just before you reach town. It was immaculately clean and the service and food were excellent. We had the "special" for two, which was a huge platter that consisted of two lobsters, crabs, and fish fillets, in addition to shrimp, mussels, and a separate vegetable tray. The town itself was very enjoyable and even in crowded areas we always felt safe.

All in all we felt that the Arenal Paraiso was a very good value and would definitely stay again."

"We stayed in Feb. 7 for 2 nights and loved it there. The views from our room were fab and also great from the 2 restaurants. I can’t believe some people hated the food; it was lovely and so cheap too. We had great service all round and really enjoyed the hot springs, the top one was so hot i couldn’t get in it! Even though it was full it was never crowded and was very relaxing. We took a lovely horse ride to the base of the volcano which i wouldn’t have missed for the world. A fantastic place."

"Maybe I’m easily impressed, but this place impressed me. Part of it was the series of progressively hotter (or cooler – depending on which way you were headed) pools of mineral water to lounge around in, or maybe it was sitting on the private, large front porch of our individual cabin, kicked back in one of the ubiquitous leather rocking chairs watching the volcano erupt virtually all night long sending rivers of sparks, lava, and red hot glowing boulders the size of Chevy Suburban’s bouncing down it’s slopes. I don’t care who you are or what you’ve seen, that’s some impressive stuff right there. The restaurant is a large open-air affair that served good food and has a large breakfast buffet with great variety. The canopy or zip line tour they have on the property was our first (ever) and seemed to be very well run, as well an exciting introduction to the sport? As it is not too hair rising and one of the runs takes you flying right over some river rapids for about a hundred yards or so, way cool! There is also a great big regular pool and another large heated pool with a swim up bar and a super friendly bartender who makes a killer Bloody Mary. We talked to a couple of people who went to Tabacòn Resort just down the road. Not to stay there, but to lounge in the hot springs. The word was the springs are great, but don’t bother paying to eat there as the food was bad. This is second-hand info so take it for what it’s worth.
A bonus adventure, if you are so daring, is to walk the “trail” behind the hotel down to the waterfall. I used quotation marks because trail is a pretty generous description. “Path of lease resistance” is a better way to put it. Make darn sure you are wearing good shoes with prodigious traction on the soles before you half-rappel down the hill a few hundred yards or so to get to the waterfall. Then stand in the pool underneath it to get one of those stereotypical “here I am standing right under a waterfall in Costa Rica!” Pictures like you see in every travel brochure. At this point you will notice that you are on a tractor trail that the zip line uses to haul people back to the hotel, and an easy walk. So I suppose you could also get down to the waterfall via the same route, but that would kind of spoil the adventure. If there was any knock I would give this hotel it’s that they wanted an extra 2 dollars a night to use the room safe! Now, c’mon it’s not like they need to hire Brinks to deliver a safe, it’s already there, in the room. Just how much wear and tear can some one subject a safe to? Why not just automatically charge me an extra 2 bucks for the room, and give it back if I don’t use the safe? It just seemed petty to charge extra. So of course, I didn’t use the safe."