Hotel Arenal Xilopalo — Attraction in La Fortuna

In my opinion, this is the best place to stay in La Fortuna for people who like a good deal and a great experience.

Rooms: Each basic room comes with 2 beds, an attached kitchen, and a washroom. The room is spacious and relatively well insulated from the bugs. Hotel rooms face nature, we've seen crested guans, toucans, parakeets, and other animals outside our room. There is also the morning bird feeding that if you can see from a top floor room or the restaurant! The bathroom is good, with hot water (but bring your own shampoo!). The rooms are cleaned regularly and the staff was kind, accommodating our timing. There is a small discount for hotel cost at checkout if you pay by cash instead of credit.

Amenities: The hotel offers many amenities including a common room, which had a pool table, chess, and other fun things. There is an upstairs viewing area where you can see the volcano. It also is a restaurant you can enjoy breakfast for $6 USD.

Packages: The hotel offers many amazing activities such as nature walks, coffee tours, and passes to local attractions. Payment for activies is by cash only. I cannot emphasize what good prices they offered. There were many things we showed up to where others paid $10 more to twice more than what we paid Hotel Xilopalo. I would recommend the sloth tour, it was $20 per person and included transport to the sloth area, a wonderful and kind tour guide (Armando), and a bonus frog night walk!!! We recommended to everyone we met to register for activities at our hotel. They use English if you don't speak Spanish.

Location: The location was fantastic, 8 minute walk from the downtown main strip but out of the way from all the noise.

Food: The breakfast was a great - price and view were unreal. I also hear their dinner is fantastic but did not have it. Also the restaurant view of the volcano...

We stayed two nights at the property and would not hesitate to go back next time we are in La Fortuna.

We got to stay in new rooms that had just been completed and they were immaculate, and had private balconies that faced Arenal and offered great views.

The breakfast was good and the bird watching while eating was worth a trip to the hotel all on its own.

Armando (the owner) took us on a night walk through the property's grounds and with flashlights, showed us frogs, lizards and birds we had only seen in zoos while visiting Costa Rica. He is a photographer himself and held lights on the various animals to ensure I could get good photos. I was able to get a great photo of a red eyed tree frog.

Angela (the owner) brought us freshly cut pineapple in the morning to our room, and one evening offered us delicious cake. She was very friendly and helpful and great to talk with. She suggested another stop on our way to Poas Volcano that would be good for seeing birds. It was a perfect recommendation, as we were able to get some amazing photos of hummingbirds and Toucans.

We travel often, and very seldomly do we get to meet such genuine, friendly and hospitable hosts.

We cannot recommend a stay at their...

Our time at Xilapalo was the perfect way to start our stay in Costa Rica. José Andres was a wonderful attendant at the front desk and made our stay much better with his superb recommendations for local activities. They have a special concern for ethical nature-focused adventures. We recommend staying here particularly because of Armando. Armando took us on a sloth tour and night walks and is enthusiastic and radiates joy and pride in his work. He is kind, knowledgeable, and professional. We LOVE Armando! The room was spacious, air conditioned, and all the amenities were great. Breakfast is a steal for 8$USD and it is a large portion if you’re not a big eater so my partner and I shared our meals for the last two nights. You can walk around the property at night to view armadillos, frogs, and insects. The view of the volcano in the morning was the best we had our entire time in La Fortuna. The only drawbacks are the somewhat stiff mattresses and the noise from the local nightclub Kemko. It did not disturb us in our sleep, however, but if you are particularly sensitive to noise we recommend a location on the other side of town (2km from Kemko should be enough,...