Hotel Fondavela — Restaurant in Monteverde

The rooms are dated, and pass on staying in room #26. The showers only have cold water and the bathroom needs to be repaired, lighting updated, to dark. Tile in the bathroom needs repaired fixed, only cold water and the bathroom sink doesn't drain. When complained about the sink not draining the following day it was worse, and no hot water, either day. They said they would send someone to fix it. Next day still no hot water and the shower barley had any pressure from the nozzle. Paying $191.71, in May 2017, for a Junior suite with no hot water, tile that needs to be fixed/repaired a bathroom sink that doesn't drain, and the local ant problem in the room, and no WIFI. Not worth the drive up. Also, we found an open container of chips next to the bed, left by the cleaning crew or the handy man who came in to fix the bathroom. Not sure which person left the chips. Upon arrival a man carried luggage to the room dropped it off and left. Didn't even say hello. The doors locked from the inside and and if you haven't used it before it can be difficult to open. We had to go back to the reception and ask for help. Not a friendly non-Spanish speaking environment. Oh, and no WIFI. Or at least we were told, that due to the last storm, the only area with WIFI was the Reception area. No one, working out by the pool at night from 7:00pm - 9:30, for drinks or assistance. They have showers at the pool area/ but don't work and no hot water, towels with lockers. We had a slip and fall with a broken arm. Make sure to purchase travel insurance. It's worth it. We spent the day at the hospital and called around 8:30 to let the hotel we would be back for the last night we reserved. We were told that a security guard would be available to give us a key to get back to the room. He never showed, and we got lucky and were able to stay at the HISTORIAS LODGE, at the last minute. They did refund us $191.70 for the night no one was there to allow us back to the room, and drove over to our new location. The grounds are beautiful, the restaurant and food are pricey but excellent. The staff in the restaurant were very helpful and friendly. Go for food and hiking only. Given a choice I would head over to Historias Loge for $50.00 dollars a night and you get an awesome breakfast, excellent hospitality, clean room, hot water, and WIFI. It's within walking distance to shops and restaurants, and...

We were pleasantly surprised as we arrived! We were warmly greeted and driven around the property on a golf cart as we toured the premises. We were greeted with cool drinks (hibiscus, lemon iced tea) as soon as we walked into the restaurant on our tour. ||The property is quiet and serene. Since it's situated between two nature preserves, you feel like you're staying in the middle of nature. A variety of birds can be found all over the property. The nature trail was a nice part of the property! We didn't have a vehicle, and it's not within walking distance of the town center, but that didn't matter to us. We had drivers pick us up to transport us on our various excursions. ||We can't say enough wonderful things about the staff. Everyone we encountered was genuinely concerned about our stay and providing excellent customer service. We truly felt like they rolled out the red carpet for us. Virtually everyone spoke English and made every effort to conversate. ||Our meals at the restaurant were fantastic! They were some of the best food we ate in Costa Rica! The fruit and vegetables were so fresh and everything bursting with flavor. Some of our favorite dishes were the ceviche, pumpkin hummus, beet tartare, catch of the day, pork tenderloin, and tropical salad. Breakfast is included, and we found the menu diverse. Our two favorite breakfast items were the yuca hash brown meal and heuvos rancheros. We didn't feel the desire to go into town for food because we were pleased with the offerings on site.||Happy Hour is from 4-6 pm. and timed perfectly to watch the sunset from their second floor balcony. Their sports tavern is cozy and family friendly. My boys enjoyed playing pool, chess, and cards. ||Their spa was relaxing, and massages were very shockingly priced for the level of service received! They could definitely charge more!||The pool is heated and covered, which makes it relaxing. The staff ensured we could order delicious drinks from the pool bar while we enjoyed our time at the pool. ||We stayed in the very spacious junior suite. It appeared to be recently renovated and came appointed with comfortable pillows, mattresses, robes, towels, and an espresso machine with pods. At night, you could hear the birds, the breeze blowing, and it felt like you were sleeping among nature. ||We would absolutely stay here again! This place is an unassuming, hidden gem in the...

-As other reviews share, the room decor is a bit dated but actually, we still found the woodwork really nice. Our room was spacious and had lovely views into the grounds. The only part that did feel like a blast from the past was the restaurant area. It was made a lot worse by the music choice (pan pipes??) -The pool area looks fairly modern but it's all covered over and there was only 7 sun loungers. This wasn't a problem exactly as we sat there for nearly an hour and saw no other guests, and unfortunately no staff either when there's supposed to be a pool bar. We never received our welcome drink or got a drink there. -There's a 'dry river trail' which was a fun little walk - we weren't quite sure how long it went for as signage stopped but when we detoured into the gardens, we came across an armadillo so that was a fun surprise. -For food: The meal in the restaurant was nice but hugely overpriced. Also someone let the fire go and the whole room stunk of smoke - it meant that we did too so both us and the other guests made as quick an exit as we could. At breakfast, it was ok but a bit limited (weirdly they seemed to include leftovers from dinner the night before - chicken and veg?!). It's laid out very poorly so there was a huge queue before a trip. -For location: It was fairly close to one of the cloud forests and we did walk down into the local shops/cafe area. Stella's cafe is wonderful - delicious food, friendly staff and there were capuccin monkeys. There's also a great little bat sanctuary/conservation tour nearby as well as somewhere to taste (and buy) local coffee. -Overall we were a bit surprised that Trailfinders recommended this place for our honeymoon. Elements of it were nice (spacious rooms, very quiet place, pretty grounds) but other parts let it down (lack of atmosphere, overpriced food in a very dated restaurant, hard to find staff, poor...