Arenal Poshpacker — Hotel in La Fortuna

Hmm… no. #1, Not safe in private rooms. #2, Wifi is really the worst.

This place could be SO much better with some very simple improvements.

The good: This place has a sweet vibe and some very cool outdoor/open-air spaces. I adored the porch outside a private room. Air-con worked great. Some of the staff were really friendly.

But the standard should be higher for private rooms over $70/night. First, the door key was a terror to get in and out of the lock – sometimes I needed a staff person to help. Neighbors said the same thing of their private room lock.

More seriously: Spare keys hung at the often-enough untended front desk, where anyone off the busy street might grab them – there’s no gate to stop anyone from wandering onto the property at all hours. Then there is NO chain lock or any other security measure available from inside the room… so as a solo female traveler, I actually grabbed all the extra keys to my room before I went to sleep – rules be damned – as nobody was there to stop me anyway! There is no safe nor a locker inside for valuables, which is absurd with no other security.

The Wifi here is really the WORST. If they would simply invest in Wifi as good as EVERY other place in town has (I’ve stayed all over), they would have had my business 3X as long. Internet was totally out for hours my first evening, and I thought it was just the weather – until I wandered down to a neighboring hostel (where I had the password) to get an emergency online errand tended to late at night; the Wifi there was fast. I met other remote-work travelers who were leaving Poshpackers early for the same reason. Even though I was polite about changing my booking, not blamey, some staff turned cold after that.

There was a weird grainy substance on the floor on my first day, which I wiped away. Somehow it kept returning on the same area even though I never wore shoes inside. Then for some reason, the housekeeper also introduced some kind of black filth to the shower floor. (Wasn’t me – I hadn’t even used the shower yet but had checked it when I arrived.) Also, my perfectly good bar of used handsoap had been removed from the sink on my second day… replaced with two new bars wrapped in plastic… and discarded on the rug outside the front door.

My bed was comfy. The air conditioner was quiet and worked well but cast a bright light in thr dark. The room was quite spare, with no lamps for a gentler atmosphere – just an overhead bulb. The bathroom was extremely cramped – not even a place to hang toilet paper, so if you’re sitting down, you have to reach behind you where there’s hardly room enough to do so. No shelves for soap in the shower. No water glasses; you have to go upstairs to the outdoor kitchen to fill a bottle. No chairs.

The location is fine if you have to get some errands run in town for a day or two – but there are far better hotels at comparable prices in the area (and much quieter off the main drag – the noise from outside wasn’t extreme or unpleasant, but it was relentless until about 10:30pm on a weeknight).

Reading other reviews, I notice you can fully expect an irresponsible reply from the...

The hostel itself was fine but the staff were really rude and frustrating. The night we were due to arrive, our bus into La Fortuna was in an accident and we were unable to get to the town. I emailed and sent an instagram message to the hostel advising of our situation and asking if there was any other way we could get to La Fortuna. I received no response and assumed it wasn’t received, however the following morning (we ended up unable to get to La Fortuna so had to come the next day) when we finally arrived, I explained who we were and how I’d tried to get in touch the evening before, the receptionist simply smiled and nodded and said ‘yes I got your messages’. I have no idea why they never responded to them. I assumed we’d be charged for the previous night, which is standard policy, but then they said we had to wait until later for check-in time. I asked why our beds aren’t available now as we had booked them for the night before and she said she put someone else in them. It was a very unfriendly and strange interaction. We ended up pushing back saying we’re happy to check in later if we don’t have to pay for the previous night (especially as I’d tried to reach out to them for help), but if they wanted to charge us then we should be able to access our room then and there. They grumpily agreed to not charge us. Additionally, one of the staff sold us a very expensive tour to Rio Celeste with the ‘100% guarantee’ we would see a sloth (turns out this was totally unfounded and he was clearly just trying to get the commission for the sale.) When I advised him afterwards that our guide had advised this was actually very unlikely and he should never have made this false promise he laughed and shrugged. I suggested he doesn’t set these false expectations for future guests as it’s really disappointing - he couldn’t care less. Finally, when I was asking another staff member for guidance on the local buses to get to my next destination they were very snappy, rude, and forceful that I buy a shuttle ticket with them instead. I ended up buying one from another tourist office as I was so frustrated at the staff by this point. The pool was lovely and the rooms were basic but fine (bathroom wasn’t cleaned daily), but the staff of any hostel make or break a hostel experience and this one left me feeling really annoyed and disappointed. I hope they can take this feedback on board and be more helpful / honest / friendly to...

Our family (2 Adults 7& 2 kids, 11 & 12) stayed here in Aug 2023 in one of their private rooms and loved it. The landscaping alone makes this feel like a luxury resort. The courtyard is an L - shape. On one side there is the pool, bar, hammocks and dorm style rooms. The other side has the private rooms and is quieter. We stayed on both sides and the rooms around the pool/bar do hear the music in the evenings. It was usually only loud on the weekends and the staff enforced quiet after 10 pm.

The rooms were clean and the staff was very friendly and helpful. (Edith, who was in charge of cleaning was a marvel!) When one of my children became ill, the ladies at the front called the clinic and then drew us a map on how to get there.

They did have a large kitchen and that was the only disappointment. They had numerous plates, pans, pots, etc, but only 2 forks. The toasters were not working well and neither was one of the fridges. It also was not very clean, although most of the blame for that was the guests not cleaning up after themselves. I wish they monitored this area more and then had a staff member wipe down the counters, stove and fridges regularly. A covered trash can would also help keep the local wildlife from coming in and making a mess. Although we love cooking, we ended up eating out or having a picnic in the courtyard so we did not have to endure the kitchen.

Overall, we would recommend...