Arenal Springs Resort and Spa

Arenal Springs looks like a planned community in some tropical suburb -- each room has its own driveway, and the bungalows are laid out in straight lines like a Edenic Levittown. The guests run the gamut from young couples looking for romance to Costa Rican families to busloads of older tourists from Europe. They're all dressed to relax, and can be seen in casual wear and bathing suits, migrating back and forth from the restaurants to the hot pool and its swim-up wet bar. Though the peaked, vaulted roofs on both the bungalows and the main buildings are a nice touch, the aesthetic is strictly tropical-international, and the real beauty comes from the lush (but strictly maintained) greenery and plant life dotting the property at regular intervals.

The hotel is a 10-minute drive north of La Fortuna, making for an easy getaway for travelers who want easy access the town's adventure outfitters and restaurants. It's about a 25- to 35-minute drive to Arenal National Park in the other direction, the other major destination in the area. Travelers with their own transportation will find it all incredibly convenient for day trips -- there's a driveway in front of each room -- but folks who come to Arenal Springs tend to spend most of their time on the property in any case.

Sharing sturdy, clay-colored bungalows with peaked roofs, rooms are attractive with lots of light (both natural and artificial). Decor includes tile floors and vaulted ceilings with partial or full wood beams, paintings of local fauna (frogs, hummingbirds), and a green and brown palette that reflects the colors of the rainforest. Bathrooms are large and well-lit and ventilated, and include fragrant soaps and lotions the hotel makes itself. Another eco-conscious detail is the lighting system; lights are turned on with room keys (and go off automatically when guests leave the room -- good for the environment, but a bit annoying for those hoping to use the digital clocks). Rooms are either Junior Suites with a king or two queen beds, or Master Suites, which include two bedrooms that can be booked separately, one with a king and one with two queens (the king room has the rock-lined hot tub). Bathrooms in these units have jetted tubs.  

All rooms have terraces or patios with volcano views, AC, cable TVs, and minibars with free libations -- two Imperial beers, Cokes, and bottles of water in the Junior Suites, plus mini liquor bottles in the Master Suites. Though the rooms are spread out across the property, they're all within a five-minute walk or so of the main building and features -- though at night when the grounds are dark that can still feel a bit far to some, and golf cart rides are available. Room blocks also have driveways for those renting a car. The higher the room number, the farther it is from reception, and many guests recommend staying as close to the main building as possible for a better chance at connecting to the free Wi-Fi. 

The heart of Arenal Springs is its hot-spring pool, which has an artificial waterfall with sitting ledge to let the falling waters massage your scalp and shoulder; a large, U-shaped swim-up wet bar with boulders as stools; and an attached sushi restaurant. There are also pools on a couple levels above the main spring, allowing for varying views and degrees of privacy. The soul of Arenal Springs, however, is its mission to respect the environment (of personal importance for the owner, who hails from La Fortuna). The golf carts and minibuses run on biofuel recycled from the property's restaurants; the soaps and fragrant bath products in the bathrooms are made by the hotel itself; and the hotel uses a greenhouse to grow herbs used in its restaurants. On a lighter note, there's also a mini-volcano in the Italian restaurant that offers you an opportunity to see an eruption of some sort even if the real thing's been dormant for years. (No one could figure out how to turn it on on our visit, however.) There's also an international restaurant where the free extensive breakfast buffet is offered.