We stayed here from Jan 27 2012 to Feb 10, and to sum it up in a sentence.. This hotel is awesome! I am not one to write a review, just because i never think about doing it, however, after our two weeks there, i thought that other people should know that if they are in the Samara area and would like a smaller, more intimate, personal hotel experience then they should cart their butts on over to Lodge Las Ranas because it will not disappoint!
Location: As you have read, it's slightly out of town, on a huge hill, with an awesome view. It is super quiet, peaceful, a real getaway experience. We didn't have a rental car for the first week, and walked to town/beach which took about 25 minutes. We weren't in a hurry to get anywhere, so i would think you could do it in less time. And a cab ride back was a measly 4 dollars. If peace and quiet are your thing, this is it.
Rooms: VERY clean, we had a small kitchen, well stocked with a bar fridge, microwave, pots pans, dishes, etc. Didn't cook at all, but you easily could if you chose to. The patios are super private, with awesome views, Ask for Room 1, it was great. The housekeeping did a great job every day. As you can see, my rating on sleep quality was only a very good and not excellent because the mattress was too firm for my liking, but not terrible by any means, i guess I just prefer a softer bed, but who cares, it was fine just the same.There is AC which was awesome at times, cause if you've never been, Costa Rica is hot hot hot!
Food; Breakfast is included if you get the typical Costa Rica breakfast, which was great and a lot of food. If you want a different kind of breakfast( french toast, American style, pancakes) it was a few bucks. No big deal. On a side note, Costa Rica bacon is fantastic, and this coming from a Canadian...
Service: What can i say? Cody and his gang, were beyond words in terms of accommodating and helpful. Cody was a jack of all trades around the hotel, manager, serves breakfast, answered my stupid questions, pointed out monkeys around the hotel, showed me weird bugs I've never seen, recommended local bars (What a time that was..!!!), recommended hideaway beaches, Google mapped our way to different locations, all around a funny, awesome dude, that is doing a great job with his little piece of paradise.

To sum it up, stay here. You won't be sorry.
See you soon!

The rooms are clean and attractive, the setting is magnificent (great sunset viewing) and the staff beyond helpful and pleasant. The breakfast menu needs a little tinkering (no protein in the veggie breakfast)
All in all, one of the best hotel experiences we've had anywhere.
Michael.

I honestly feel that what made my last trip to Costa Rica so special was Lodge Las Ranas. The location is ideal....on a wonderful bluff overlooking Samara Beach and the jungle. The rooms were perfect....wonderfully designed with a nice balcony. The best part of the place is the staff. Cody is a true gentleman and helped me more than once with rental suv issues personally....(to the extend of helping me get out of a real bad situation where my rental suv failed on me and in the process got stuck pretty badly). He came down from the resort to help rescue the truck on his 4 wheeler. He also helped find some perfect beach locations outside of just Samara Beach. Just a great guy and for someone that doesn't know the area well, you can really count on him to make it easy. He personally made my first trip to Samara very carefree and relaxing.

I cannot say enough about this place. I look forward to many return trips to Las Ranas in the years to come.

My only issue...being awakend on my last morning there at 6:30am with a family of monkeys yelling outside my balcony as they passed through the trees. : ) Amazing stuff.....

My husband found this hotel on Trip Advisory...it has a 5 star rating and they lived up to that rating. What a wonderful property. There are 2 buildings with the rooms...we stayed in #5 and the view was perfect...Samara Beach and the cove on one side and Tropical "jungle" on the other. I was told that sometimes the monkeys come around, but we were not fortunate enough to see one. By the registration desk, Walter was extremely helpful and always had a smile. This is connected to the restaurant. We only ate breakfast there, but it was very good, with a couple of different choices each morning. Rooms are very clean, with no tv or phone...perfect to get away from it all. Great balconies on all rooms. Pool is very clean and nice.