What a surprise when we arrived at the Hotel Jaguar in Cahuita, Costa Rica. It was nothing like the guide books or listing on Costa Rica.Net or Costa Rica Travel Web described. These descriptions are 10 - 20 years old.

This place has not been maintained since the current owners, a Canadian and his Tica wife, bought the place 13 years ago. If anything works, it doesn't work well.

The place is dirty, rusty, and literally falling apart.

The only reason we stayed the two days was because our travel companion was tired and sick and the on-line reservation service had already charged the full amount to our Debit Card - use a Credit Card instead! We were afraid we would not get our money back. A "superior" double room cost us $70/night and it would have been over-priced at half the price.

I read the previous review, which is negative, just a few weeks after I visited it myself. It is true that the place saw better times, but it was not the dark site the previous reviewer perceived. The rooms are large and airy, the beach is a few meters across the road, and I paid US$40 per night: that is $10 per person (wife, children and myself). Service is not worse or better than at most small places in Cahuita, and once they get to know you, they staff are really helpful and pleasant.
So, if you don't mind the staff wearing shorts and an old t-shirt, and want to have both the hotel and the beach in front almost all for yourself, Jaguares is acceptable and cheap. I have been visiting for 7 years in a row and my only worry is that there are so few guests that next time I go there the place may be closed, or under a new administration that will make it shinier and much more expensive.

The website for this place (---) has some nice looking photos, the price was right, and it's owned by a Canadian so I thought it'd be OK. Not. I checked out 20 mins. after I checked in.

The place just felt sketchy. There was no one around - and not in a nice secluded serene kind of way - more like dark alley kind of way. The room I was given was dark and dank. The pool was sad. The front desk guy wasn't helpful and had a bit of an attitude. I had made a reservation but they didn't seem to know that when I got there - although it probably never matters since nobody stays here. The grounds were overgrown in a bad way - not cool jungle-like, but more like somebody's weed-infested backyard.

Stay away. Stay at the Atlantida Lodge instead.