Marino Ballena National Park

This was a great hotel for our stay in San Jose. The staff were friendly, accommodating, and always ready to help. Check in was smooth and efficient, our room was fine, and we enjoyed using the pool (although it is cold) and the onsite restaurant.

We had a fantastic stay loved the boat ride to the lodge, rooms were spacious, lovely big bathroom Balcony had a lovely swinging seat overlooking the river Breakfasts were fruit plus fish of your choice and was excellent Trails around the hotel were great to see frogs and birds We did a fantastic magical kayaking trip which is a must We visited national park to see turtles laying eggs, unfortunately she Borykng the hole before laying eggs but we did see the turtle going back to the sea and the hole shed dug, still a memorable experience A highlight were the iguanas lounging around the pool with us and the macaws hanging out in the trees

Fabulous stay in a wonderful location. The staff are truly top-notch. Attentive and friendly. Every request was answered with “Of course, with pleasure!”. Food was excellent. Morning coffee with steamed milk delivered to our room early morning so we could sip and watch the sunrise from our balcony. A variety of on-site tours are included. The guides are excellent. Special shout-out to Sandra for finding the small Red-eyed tree frogs during the night tour. Scarlet macaws flying all over the lodge, monkeys everywhere, all sorts of beautiful birds and interesting critters right outside your room. The grounds and views are beautiful. Hike to a waterfall within ten minutes. Pool is nice too. They will take you down to the secluded beach and set you up with chairs and cooler. The beach is beautiful but very rocky. We had the Matapalo suite. Very nice though close to the entrance and main road so the intermittent traffic noise was a minus. We had a small issue with a large wandering spider and then a bark scorpion getting into our bathroom (each just once) but they responded within 3-4 minutes both times. They installed a door sweep on the bathroom door within hours to prevent them entering the bedroom- very speedy response. The view was outstanding however. Overall Lapa Rios is an outstanding lodge with wonderful staff, and I cannot recommend it enough. Five stars.