Its not five star luxury in the traditional sense - but its five-star pampering! Very clean, and Bernal and Marlene make it the best place we stayed in Costa Rica! Amazing food! The best we had in Costa Rica - it set a standard for us that we couldn't replicate anywhere else in the country. Very clean place - lots of monkeys, iguanas and such raoming the facility. We had a wonderful Kayak trip with Bernal - he really makes it enjoyable - go if you get a chance!

the owners - Bernard and Marlene are very gracious owners. They made our stay a remarkable, even though we stayed for only 2 days. You immediately feel differently treated there. From the get go - Bernard has shown us a fridge staffed with all sorts of drinks. He said "take anything you need, and just at the checkout tell us what you too, and we'll bill you". It was nice dropping by to the fridge at 2am for a bottle of cold coke.

Their food is very good, and is actually a good value, which is unusual for a hotel.

There is not much to do in the hotel itself except a small pool and the kayak trips in the river with mangroves. However, a short 10 min ride away there is Quepos and then the Manuel Antonio national park, together with hundreds of tourists attractions.


The lodge itself is built in a Morocco style, which is a lovely departure from square boxes of other hotels or from Costa-Rican typical shanti towns.

Our stay was very lovely and the owners treated us like we were very special. The food was very reasonable at the lodge although limited in variety. The room and bathroom were very clean along with everything else at the facility. This facility is geared toward visitors who want to experience the real Costa Rica and who are outdoors oriented. I would recommend it for families or active couples. My wife and I appreciated our time with Bernal and Marlene and their efforts to make us feel welcome.

I thought that nothing could beat our stay in Monteverde (check out the other review I posted - also an excellent experience). I have been proved wrong.
Marlene and Bernal have immediately become like an extended family, literally within the first 15 minutes they made us feel like we have come back to our second home. It is the small things, gestures and general feel that count, so I won't list it all here, but from what we saw and seen on TripAdv we are not the only ones who noticed that :) The hosts love what they do and they do it with passion.

On a more hard data side:
The hotel is in a remote location, but someone will usually give you a lift to town or Manuel Antonio..
The kayak tour - personalized and run specially for us by Bernal was outstanding. We have seen tons of animals including a baby croc.
As for animals - monkeys, iguanas, crabs, hummingbirds - you can all see it on the property.

Rooms are not the most spacious out there - well, we had a tiny one to tell the truth, but it didn't detract from the lotsa fun we had at Kayak Lodge.

RECOMMENDED!