Hotels & Trave

Hotel Arenal Manoa: how a room with a view failed to please Hotel Arenal Manoa / San Carlos, Costa Rica

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Arenal Volcano looms large above La Fortuna, Costa Rica and the surrounding countryside. Although it frequently is shrouded in clouds, when it makes itself visible, it is truly a site to behold. Fortunately, most any of the lodgings in the area afford breathtaking views of this volcano (one of the ten most active in the world) so it’s really a matter of finding one that fits your price range and needs. I fell in love with the pictures of Arenal Manoa on their website and hoped that it would be a good place for our 3-day stay.

Property Details

Hotel Arenal Manoa is a small property located at the end of an 800 meter long gravel road. This has its good points and its bad points, the good being that it’s off the beaten track and quite secluded, but the bad being that you have to endure a very bumpy ride on this rough road (gravel roads here are more rocky) coming and going.

Each of the 40 rooms is what Arenal Manoa calls a junior suite. There are two suites to each of the small one-story buildings. These suites with tiled floors, while spacious, are really just large rooms by my definition. Each suite has two queen sized beds with an a bright orange plaid spread, a small wall-mounted TV with satellite service, unstocked fridge, small closet unit, desk, wall-mounted air conditioner, safe deposit box, phone with long distance service, and coffee maker. There isn’t a kitchenette or separate living area that would make them a true suite. What makes them unique is the large sliding glass doors which open up to a terrace with two rocker chairs with views of Arenal and the beautiful surrounding countryside.

The bathrooms are also worthy of mention. Rather than the separate standard tub type shower, this room features an open-shower type configuration, with a small tinted glass partition between the shower and the rest of the room. In addition, there is a unique planter with volcanic rock and a silk plant in the middle of the room. It gave it a nice tropical feeling and combined with the high ceiling, this large bathroom outshined the typical claustrophobic bathrooms of so many American hotels.

Arenal Manoa has a large open-air restaurant that is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, up near its main reception area overlooking well manicured grounds with beautiful flowers and tropical plants, and of course, with a view of Arenal. Breakfast is included as a part of your stay here.

The pool is small but like the restaurant, has beautiful views. It has a swim-up bar and an interesting volcanic rock fountain that was unfortunately not working while we there. Not many people appear to use the pool, however, as most folks come to Arenal for just a few days to do activities and tours. The one time we did get a chance to use it we had to retreat to the cover of the hot tub next to it after a short time because we got hit with a torrential tropical downpour.

For a small lodge, the front reception is quite fancy and spacious. Most of the front desk employees here are quite young, in their 20s or so, but speak fair to good English, in addition to being pleasant and efficient on a number of occasions when we had questions and requests for them. A small gift shop with some typical Costa Rican souvenirs is adjacent to the front desk.

We noted that there is an armed security guard always stationed by the front reception area. Here in Costa Rica this is not unusual, and in fact, we got used to seeing them pretty much everywhere, from grocery stores to banks.

Rates

Our rate was $140 per night (triple room rate, free for my 10-year-old child, but not for my 12-year-old). During the high season (winter) their rates are only slightly higher.

What we liked about Arenal Manoa

We found our accommodations here to be very comfortable overall. The beds were perfect: not too soft, not too hard. The towels were large and reasonably fluffy. And the chairs on the terrace were a nice touch as it was very relaxing to sit out front in the morning with my cup of coffee and enjoy the views of Arenal. We were also quite pleased with the housekeeping service, as our room was always made up in a timely manner with cute little towel animals and chocolates to greet us upon our return.

The breakfast service was very good, although it was a little strange the first day. We had been expecting a buffet, but as we were only one of a handful of guests there that night, they actually brought us a very short menu with the choice of Continental Breakfast (primarily fruit), American Breakfast (eggs and toast), and Traditional (Costa Rican) breakfast. Of the three, the Costa Rican was the best, with the other two being a bit small for my hungry boys. However, the next two days they had had their regular buffet since a couple tour buses made a stop here. The buffet featured an omelette station, traditional Costa Rican foods such as Gallo Pinto (rice and beans), their salty cheese, lots of fresh fruit, as well as breakfast breads and toast.

What we disliked about Arenal Manoa

Our primary issues were noise related. We came during June, which is during the “Green” or rainy season in Costa Rica, with afternoon or evening rain being a daily occurrence. The first thing we noticed was how loud it was inside our room when it rained. The stucco buildings have metal roofs and when it rained (which usually meant pouring rain) the sound was deafening and we couldn’t even hear each the TV. Fortunately, the rain didn’t last more than two hours when we were there and had stopped by bedtime.

We also noticed that while we were away from the main road, the noise from the reception shuttle bus that zipped guests back and forth to their rooms on the gravel road was rather annoying. The first night it wasn’t a problem, but when the tour buses came and the rooms filled up, I found it to be quite a problem. We were in bed by 9 each night (gets dark quite early!) and I continued to hear the shuttle bus until midnight, at least.

Another issue was the noise from our neighbor’s AC unit. We didn’t run ours at night because it was too loud, but when we had a neighbor on the second night, we were quite surprised that they ran theirs all night. I could hear it in our room as though we were running ours.

We also wished that our room had had ceiling fans or at least, the window in the bathroom had a screen. Because we didn’t run the noisy AC, the room did tend to get quite stuffy and hot at night.

Finally, the restaurant, as nice as it was for breakfast, seemed overpriced with a limited menu for lunch and dinner.

Overall rating

Arenal Manoa is a nice accommodation. It is simple and basic, certainly not a fancy resort. But it is in a beautiful location, and the rooms are large with great views. Normally I’d probably give this a 4-star rating since it is neat and tidy, with helpful employees, and a very nice complementary breakfast. However, the noise issues definitely detracted from our overall comfort during our stay. I also began to tire of the bumpy ride every day coming and going, and wished I had selected something a bit closer to the road (it doesn’t mention the condition of this road on their website!). In the end, I feel that 3-stars is a more appropriate rating, and as much as it pains me, I can’t recommend it either. Sadly, I’m a light sleeper so noisy accommodations don’t bode well with me.

Getting there

We took a Grayline bus ride from San Jose. The trip took us about 4 hours, with a short stop for lunch. If you prefer a quicker and easier, albeit more expensive way to get to La Fortuna, consider Nature Air. The property itself is about 7 km. west of La Fortuna.

If you do stay here more than a night, I recommend getting a rental car. We rented one for two days from Alamo in La Fortuna that ran us about $100. While there are plenty of taxis in the area, many of the tourist destinations are in more remote locations and getting a taxi to pick you up may be a more difficult task. Of course, you may always book tours, but most are costly and it’s just as easy to drive yourself.

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