Paradise Lodge — Hotel in Barú

Warning: Mattress full of BEDBUGS (see photo)

JungleHouse has a lot of promise, but it unfortunately was one of my worse AirBNB experiences. If I could summarize it, think about a car you buy (new or used) and then you never bother to maintain it. We borne the brunt of deferred maintenance. Pablo did meet us, and checked us in, and told us he was there 24/7 and he would show us the property common areas the next day. (we never saw him again) Well, just hours later when my wife went to take a shower, we found that the valve/diverter to send the water up to the shower was stripped. I reported it to Pablo. No response that day.. Then I sent Peter the owner a message about the shower. No response from Peter until a day after we left (7 days later) in which he asked me to stop complaining about not having a working shower. Pablo finally did get the shower valve fixed after 2 days. 2 hot sweaty days. There is supposed to be cooking oil in the kitchen (per the listing) which Pablo conformed. There was an oil container and as we started to cook with it we found it was rancid. Had we poured it on a salad and eaten it without the clues of rancid smoke, we could have gotten sick. Guess nobody changes the oil in the Junglehouse car. The kitchen has a blender. We bought items to make smoothies and then found the blender did not work. I sent Pablo a note and he send me a voicemail that he was out to dinner but the blender was very tricky and you had to line up three things--I finally got it to work after about 20 minutes of fidgeting, but it is a piece of junk blender left in the kitchen for guests to struggle with. The kitchen is also missing several items--eg a scissors, a spatula, it is as if when things break or get thrown out, no inventory is ever done. The mattress had bedbugs. But after struggling with the shower and blender, it seemed easier just to spray the bed with DEET than to bother contacting Pablo. The toilet is fragile. When it started to flush slowly, I looked around for a plunger. There is none. Had to leave a msg for Pablo to plunge, which he did later that day. How can there not be a plunger in a bathroom with a rickety toilet?? The lighting within the house is very low, so if you drop something on the floor or don’t have great night vision, it will be a challenge. Now, there are also things you should know which have little to do with service or maintenance, in particular The JungleHouse is very close to the road and the truck noise starts around 630AM and goes all day and it is LOUD. Like you are in truck depot. Saying this house sleeps 6 is conflating the possible with the practical. If you open up the sofa bed, you lose the LR and Kitchen. The loft upstairs is very tiny and slept 1 OK. So this place sleeps 3 reasonably and I suppose you could sleep 8 or 10 if you wanted to, but you would be stepping over everyone. In summary, JungleHouse suffers from a boatload of deferred maintenance, lack of inventory management and poor service. There are other places in the area for less money that could only be better. Try Hacienda Baru. I would look elsewhere for your...

Location is convenient if you intend to spend time in both Dominical/Uvita and also want to go inland to the Diamante Valley or to the city of San Isidro. The bad of the location is really no fault of the property but more the very loud truck traffic engine breaking all the way down the hill. The Casa Romantica is really anything but romantic as I think had my partner been with me the stay would have been a little awkward as it is the least private room on the resort. Additionally, it is open air with screens so you really cannot block out noise, which is pleasant to hear the birds and monkeys, but annoying to hear the constant chainsaws and weed whackers (perhaps just unlikely timing on my part that so much maintenance was happening). Another consequence of the open air is when the wind is unfavorable you will get the sweet smell of cigarettes wafting down from the owner's house and there's very little to do about keeping the smell out of your romantic room. The outdoor bathroom is charming and functional, but again you feel a little exposed as other resort guests, workers and the owners often walk past as the Casa Romantica is on the shortest path between other parts of the property and the main house/reception area. The outdoor kitchen is similarly charming but the stove/burners were not working so far as I could tell, but you do have a coffee make fridge and basic cutlery, plates, etc. A nice rustic room for an interesting jungle experience for a couple of nights, but for longer stays I would either look at other rooms on the property or better yet find a Tico neighborhood and rent a...

I have stayed at the Paradise Lodge twice - once last year in the poolvilla, and this year in the new accommodations. Both types of rooms were spacious and perfectly clean, beautifully decorated and with super comfortable beds and a big shower with perfect water pressure.

Breakfast was fresh and tasty, and we  enjoyed it by the pool, watching all kinds of birds. There is also a new walking trail to spot more wildlife down by the creek, but even just the valley views from the terrace and pool area are amazing.

The location is extremely convenient (situated within walking distance to the Nauyaca waterfalls and the fantastic hiking trails and waterfalls of Hacienda Ebano, only a short drive down the hill to Dominical and other beaches). The owners are lovely, great hosts who will make you feel so welcome, and are super knowledgeable of the wider area and helpful - they shared so much valuable local information with me and helped with arranging any kind of activities (hiking, hotseriding, transportation, local markets etc). Thank you for a wonderful experience, and your heartfelt, wonderful hospitality. I had an amazing time and hope...