Arenal Vista Lodge
En El Castillo de la Fortuna 1000 metros al norte de la escuela de El Castillo, El Castillo, Arenal Volcano National Park 5717 Costa Rica
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Avg. ₹10,158 /night, 2/18 - 2/19
₹17,190
per night
₹13,674
per night
₹10,158
per night
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Reflects recent average nightly prices reported by our partners, and may not include estimated taxes or fees. Price at checkout may differ.
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About
#5 of 5 lodges in El Castillo
Location
Rooms
Value
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Located in the northwestern region of Costa Rica, 30 minutes away from La Fortuna, in the BiologicalCorridor between Monteverde Reserve and Arenal National Park, our lodge rests marvelously in one of the surrounding hills of the Arenal Lake, enjoying a unique view of the Lake and the Volcano. Coming to our lodge, you will be surrounded by a dense tropical forest, where more than 300 species of birds can be seen, as well as 100 species of mammals and 2500 species of plants and orchids. The Hotel Arenal Vista Lodge was conceived from a prevailing necessity derived from the deficiency of facilities in the Arenal area. We felt the need for a place that took advantage of the natural beauties the area, while offering the national and international tourists the commodities they require in the Biological Corridor between Arenal Volcano National Park and Monteverde Cloud Forest FEATURES: • 25 comfortable rooms, each lodged up to four guests. • Every room includes a private hot water bathroom, walk-in closet and a balcony with spectacular view of the volcano and lake area. • Facilities equipped to care for disabled people. • Restaurant and salad bar with costarrican and international recipes. • Swimming pool, wet-bar, souvenir shop and a meeting room, natural forest trails. Internet facilities. Parking area with 24-hour security • Restaurant, which fits 90 guests, Bar and Souvenir shop • Conference room for 30 people and swimming pool with wet bar • Optional tours: hot springs, canopy, horseback riding, boat rides, transfers to Monteverde. We offer laundry service as well. Special offers for honeymooners, students, families and cycling groups.
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Property amenities
Free parking
Pool
Outdoor pool
Free breakfast
Bar / lounge
Restaurant
Children Activities (Kid / Family Friendly)
Non-smoking hotel
Room types
Non-smoking rooms
Family rooms
Good to know
HOTEL CLASS
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Giata.
HOTEL STYLE
Lake View
Mountain View
Location
En El Castillo de la Fortuna 1000 metros al norte de la escuela de El Castillo, El Castillo, Arenal Volcano National Park 5717 Costa Rica
Getting there
Juan Santamaria Intl Airport
77.9 km•
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29 Restaurants
within 10 kilometers
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Detailed Reviews


Great location to see the volcán
Needs renovation on rooms, and a better cleaning detailing. More pillows and update the blankets and towels. We received the room with one empty bottle of water left by the previous guest, a couple of holes on the towels.
Needs renovation on rooms, and a better cleaning detailing. More pillows and update the blankets and towels. We received the room with one empty bottle of water left by the previous guest, a couple of holes on the towels.
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Date of stay: July 2023Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Wonderful views, great location in a lovely town right on the lake with a few basic services and restaurants nearby, and about a 30 minute drive to the main touristy area of La Fortuna (Sky, the main place for canopying is, however, just 10 minutes up the road and there are two good activity centres right by the hotel).
The hotel itself is pleasant. Certainly not luxury but it works. Rooms are decent, need upgrading/improving in quite a few areas, but do the job. Internet hardly works and we often needed to ask for the hot water to be turned on. Service is a little sloppy in places but effort is made. A decent enough option which could be really lovely with a bit more work. 3.5 stars would be the most accurate rating.
If returning to the area, I would choose to stay in the El Castillo area again as it is lovely and peaceful place to be.
The hotel itself is pleasant. Certainly not luxury but it works. Rooms are decent, need upgrading/improving in quite a few areas, but do the job. Internet hardly works and we often needed to ask for the hot water to be turned on. Service is a little sloppy in places but effort is made. A decent enough option which could be really lovely with a bit more work. 3.5 stars would be the most accurate rating.
If returning to the area, I would choose to stay in the El Castillo area again as it is lovely and peaceful place to be.
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Date of stay: December 2022
Value
Location
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The place is surrounding by nature, great for people who want to have a unique experience. The front desk people are extremely helpful, nice, and welcoming. The restaurant food was delicious, and the breakfast is great, specially the traditional plate. The hotel is old with a lot character, if you want to experience a traditional Costa Rica life this is the place for you. It is a little isolated, but for this reason you can see monkeys and birds everywhere. The only down side is that the Internet just works at the restaurant or reception area. The transportation leaves 3 times a day and take you anywhere you want to go. The shuttle service people are very nice and affordable.
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Date of stay: December 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Close to Arenal Volcano National Park and next to the lake, this beautiful hotel provides an space to relax and enjoy the views of the lake and the volcano. Rooms were well decor and very clean. The staff members were great. We enjoy live music at dinner and also play pool. Highly recommend for couples and friends looking for a time to relax.
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Date of stay: July 2024Trip type: Travelled with friends
Room Tip: Bring extra towels and bug spray, beyond this enjoy this beautiful hotel with its pool. Also they...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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Our reserve was left on alert for rains and floods and CNE indicated to avoid traveling to the area.
The place is beautiful and the service is good. Nothing else should be cautioned with reservations, as our experience in this area was very negative. This area was identified as a risk area on 9 June and CNE indicated that no travel to the area was possible. The CNE is the expert body in the matter, 30 hours before the situation is communicated by the media we proceed to tell the hotel that we are not going and that we will look for another destination where there are no such drawbacks where it is clearly a nature issue and not the hotel, but also not caused by us. It is a fortuitous case and the law for the issue of reservations has regulations that hotels must comply with. The annoyance of the manager of surname Mendieta because we mentioned the laws and regulations did not wait and to date they do not answer the emails and clearly do not intend to refund the reservation that by law must do being that the north zone was on alert and it was not possible to reconcile simple 109,000 colones. We are filing a formal complaint with the MEIC and ICT, as these entrepreneurs if I am not mistaken foreigners insist on pretending to impose their rules on us and ignore the law. Otherwise the hotel other times we have visited and we were very satisfied, experience that does not weigh for Mrs. Mendieta. Unfortunately, in the crises, domestic tourism there was supporting them and when they are well they are forgotten and ignored.
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Automatically translated
Date of stay: January 2025Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip: No hacer reserva, hay muchos otros hoteles que no la piden y están mejor que el Hotel Arenal...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
So bad I don't really know where to start. Animal poop all over the beds, mold all over the bathroom and no hot water seems like a good start. The pictures on this site are a terrible representation of the actual hotel. Couldn't pay me any amount of money to stay here ever again. The only redeeming quality is that the staff was nice, except for the manager. Raul Blanco promised us a refund of about 60% of our money and he never followed through. He even had the nerve to complain to a tour company about one of their employees who was helping us translate our unhappiness with the hotel.
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Date of stay: December 2019
Value
Rooms
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The photos show a very nice place, but the reality is different, currently the Facilities are very neglected. But what was really disappointing is the customer service. It is questionable how there are people in positions focused on providing a good guest experience who do not care in the least about comfort or satisfy the minimum needs of the client and on the contrary turn the stay into a complete martyrdom.
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Date of stay: August 2024Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
I had a terrible night and very bad serivce experience. food was ugly too.
The first night was ok, and the view is nice, but the second night there was a lot of noise and they did nothing to stop it. The service was very very bad.
The first night was ok, and the view is nice, but the second night there was a lot of noise and they did nothing to stop it. The service was very very bad.
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Date of stay: July 2020
Rooms
Location
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
First of all, let me say that the view from the lodge is just wonderful, you can see the volcano perfectly as well as the lagoon. The natural surroundings are also beautiful, lots of birds, monkeys, rivers and beatiful trees.
The problems my family and I perceived are within the lodge itself..
Rooms: There was no TV (even if they claim in the Yellow Pages that they have), no A/C (and it gets REALLY hot during the morning and early afternoon), there were no railings on our balcony, and no chairs (even if some rooms did have both of them), no phone, no fridge, you can hear everything that goes on in the rooms next to yours through the walls, even if they speak in low voice (the night we stayed there, there was a big group of american young students who stayed about two rooms away from ours, and were very noisy until about 1 or 2 am... there was no privacy, in all, it seems that the rooms maintenance is very poor..
Pool: extremely small, there were no chairs or whatsoever to sit by the pool. Theres something next to the pool that seems to have been a wet bar, and looks terrible and abandoned. There is no shallow pool for kids. The showers outside the pool barely work and throw water unevenly...
Getting to the lodge: The road is a total mess.. Its just made out of dirt and big rocks, that will give you a hard time if you are not traveling on a 4x4... It will take you about 30 to 45 to get from the main road to the lodge....
Food: This was the worst! The schedules were very tight, (Breakfast: 7am-8:30am, Lunch 12 to 1:30 and Dinner: 7 to 8:30). They told us that they serve buffet meals at every time, and we assumed so because of the price ($7 for breakfast, $10 for lunch and $12 for dinner), we got really dissapointed when we found ourselves with no buffet as they claimmed it to be... The lunch consisted of rice, beans, pork beef, chicken and salad... There were no choices besides that... and for $10? excessively abusive... The dinner consisted of spaguetti, with two choices of sauce (white or red), salad and white bread... FOR $12??? And then the breakfast, which we had to have since it was incluided on the rate, was similar, unsalted and unseasoned rice and beans, white bread with cooking margarine and jelly, dry scrambled eggs WITH EGGFSHELLS in them!!!! and coffee (which was absolutely delicious).... All in all, the food was not worthy of the prices, it was definetely not a buffet, and it gives you practically no other options since restaurants are almost an hour away... My family and I had to go to La Fortuna to get some groceries (for sandwiches since theres no way to cook in the rooms and theres no fridge) for lunch and dinner, and went for lunch once also, paying about $10 per person at an Italian restaurant... It was a lot more worthy...
In general, the hotel maintenance is very very poor, and its a shame since it has such a great view of both the lake and the volcano, and is located in such a beatiful place... But when you think about the price and the quality of the hotel, the truth is insulting...
Wont recommend it...
The problems my family and I perceived are within the lodge itself..
Rooms: There was no TV (even if they claim in the Yellow Pages that they have), no A/C (and it gets REALLY hot during the morning and early afternoon), there were no railings on our balcony, and no chairs (even if some rooms did have both of them), no phone, no fridge, you can hear everything that goes on in the rooms next to yours through the walls, even if they speak in low voice (the night we stayed there, there was a big group of american young students who stayed about two rooms away from ours, and were very noisy until about 1 or 2 am... there was no privacy, in all, it seems that the rooms maintenance is very poor..
Pool: extremely small, there were no chairs or whatsoever to sit by the pool. Theres something next to the pool that seems to have been a wet bar, and looks terrible and abandoned. There is no shallow pool for kids. The showers outside the pool barely work and throw water unevenly...
Getting to the lodge: The road is a total mess.. Its just made out of dirt and big rocks, that will give you a hard time if you are not traveling on a 4x4... It will take you about 30 to 45 to get from the main road to the lodge....
Food: This was the worst! The schedules were very tight, (Breakfast: 7am-8:30am, Lunch 12 to 1:30 and Dinner: 7 to 8:30). They told us that they serve buffet meals at every time, and we assumed so because of the price ($7 for breakfast, $10 for lunch and $12 for dinner), we got really dissapointed when we found ourselves with no buffet as they claimmed it to be... The lunch consisted of rice, beans, pork beef, chicken and salad... There were no choices besides that... and for $10? excessively abusive... The dinner consisted of spaguetti, with two choices of sauce (white or red), salad and white bread... FOR $12??? And then the breakfast, which we had to have since it was incluided on the rate, was similar, unsalted and unseasoned rice and beans, white bread with cooking margarine and jelly, dry scrambled eggs WITH EGGFSHELLS in them!!!! and coffee (which was absolutely delicious).... All in all, the food was not worthy of the prices, it was definetely not a buffet, and it gives you practically no other options since restaurants are almost an hour away... My family and I had to go to La Fortuna to get some groceries (for sandwiches since theres no way to cook in the rooms and theres no fridge) for lunch and dinner, and went for lunch once also, paying about $10 per person at an Italian restaurant... It was a lot more worthy...
In general, the hotel maintenance is very very poor, and its a shame since it has such a great view of both the lake and the volcano, and is located in such a beatiful place... But when you think about the price and the quality of the hotel, the truth is insulting...
Wont recommend it...
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Date of stay: March 2005
Value
Rooms
Cleanliness
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This place is absolutely disgusting. The place is run-down and nasty. We walked into our room and immediately found poop. The floors were grimy, dirty, and the room looked like it hadn't been cleaned since last week. They only gave ONE towel for our shower AND pool use. They gave us ONE dirty soap bar and our shower was no where near pleasant. The curtains are beyond ugly and our bed covers are Christmas colors and the when you walk into the room, the presence of bed bugs are upon you. We went to dinner, which was consisted of lettuce and fruit combined, rice, beans, chicken (with more bones than meat) and cheap super market sandwich bread. We came to the room with the horror of finding fresh poop on our floor and in the bed. WE HAD ENOUGH! We had the room checked, and surely enough, there was animal in there. We relocated to another room to find no poop, but a salamander on our wall. We will only stay here one night, sleeping inside our bean to protect ourselves from bed bugs, AND SURELY ENOUGH, we will most definitely NEVER stay here again.
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Date of stay: June 2015Trip type: Travelled with friends
Value
Location
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Arenalvista, Director de Relaciones con Clientes at Arenal Vista Lodge
Responded 5 Dec 2016
Buenas tardes Car0will. Realmente sentimos que las molestias del camino y el cansancio y principalmente , diera usted su injusta opinon , muy lejos de la verdadera realidad del hotel. Somos un hotel de montana rodeado de nuestra reserva ecologica, en el margen Sur del Lago Arenal, el cual forma parte de Corredor Biologico Entre la Reserva de Monteverde y El Parque nacional Volcan Arenal. Uno de los habitantes del bosque es el famos GECO o lo que usted llama SALAMANDRA. Desgarciadamente al dejar usted las luces prendidas llamo insectos voladores a su habitacion, y claro al haber insectos los GECOS llegan a comerselos. Como usted bien sabe si usamos quimicos para matar los GECOS, romperemos el equilibrio natural y entonces con justa razo se quejarian de los insectos voladores que les harian imposible dormir y descansar durante su estancia Como usted bien sabe, el mes de julio por la influecia del Atlantico , en la zona del Arenal llueve mucho, y si por efecto de la lluvia y las hojas caidas le parecio sucio, lo sentimos mucho. Nosotros solo recomendamos a gente amante del descanso y que realmente aprecie y viva de la mano con la naturalez
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
"Bring extra towels and bug spray, beyond this enjoy this beautiful hotel with its pool. Also they have rooms pet friendly and a playground."Read full review
PRICE RANGE
₹10,158 - ₹17,538 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
ALSO KNOWN AS
arenal vista hotel arenal volcano national park
LOCATION
Costa RicaProvince of AlajuelaArenal Volcano National ParkEl Castillo
NUMBER OF ROOMS
25
Prices are provided by our partners, and reflect average nightly room rates, including taxes and fees that are fixed, known to our partners, and due at time of booking. Please see our partners for more details.
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Frequently Asked Questions about Arenal Vista Lodge
Which popular attractions are close to Arenal Vista Lodge?
Nearby attractions include Sky Adventures - Arenal Park (2.8 km), Butterfly Conservatory - Arenal (1.2 km), and El Choyin (7.7 km).
What are some of the property amenities at Arenal Vista Lodge?
Some of the more popular amenities offered include free breakfast, a pool, and an on-site restaurant.
What food & drink options are available at Arenal Vista Lodge?
Guests can enjoy free breakfast, an on-site restaurant, and a lounge during their stay.
What are some restaurants close to Arenal Vista Lodge?
Conveniently located restaurants include Essence Arenal Restaurant, La Ventanita, and Restaurante phoenix.
Are there opportunities to exercise at Arenal Vista Lodge?
Yes, guests have access to a pool during their stay.
Is Arenal Vista Lodge located near the city centre?
Yes, it is 0.7 km away from the centre of El Castillo.
Does Arenal Vista Lodge have any great views?
Yes, guests often enjoy the mountain view available here.