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Tripadvisor gives a Travellers’ Choice award to accommodations, attractions and restaurants that consistently earn great reviews from travellers and are ranked within the top 10% of properties on Tripadvisor.
A place to surpass your expectations of a positive interaction with the rain forest, pampered by the friendliest local staff and with fantastic organic food production highlighted with extraordinary cuisine. Rest and relax or experience all you want.
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Giata.
HOTEL STYLE
Quiet
Romantic
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Location
San Rafael, Chachagua, Arenal Volcano National Park 20213 Costa Rica
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The Chachagua Rainforest Hotel & Hot Springs garners appreciation for its attentive service and pristine cleanliness, with guests consistently noting the spotless environment. However, concerns have been raised about the hotel's value, as some visitors feel the cost is steep compared to the offered food and amenities.
While the rooms are spacious and the atmosphere charmingly rustic, the dim lighting and occasional maintenance issues have not gone unnoticed. The amenities, including the natural hot springs and quality tours, are generally praised, albeit not without some reports of needed upkeep.
Atmosphere
Rustic
Rooms
Spacious
Value
Expensive
Cleanliness
Immaculate
Service
Inconsistent
Amenities
Relaxing
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This hotel made our trip an unforgettable experience. Nothing compares to falling asleep and waking up to the sounds of the rainforest. The location just outside of La Fortuna was perfect since it put us in close proximity to daily activities but away from the business of the tourist area. It’s likely most convenient to have your own car at this location. We started our trip off with the onsite hike, which introduced us to some of the nature we would see throughout our time in the region. It was not a difficult hike, our 5 year old had no issues. The yoga class was AMAZING. Our son enjoyed the slide in the “cold” pool and swimming in the hot springs which are about 3 feet deep. Daily breakfast on site provided many great options. The Morpho restaurant was ok but prices are high. The room was comfortable, with a coffee maker and mini fridge. Very few bugs made it into our room, which was a great surprise considering we were in the rainforest. All the staff we encountered were wonderful and truly made this a great experience for us. We hope to return!
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Date of stay: May 2024
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Trip type: Travelled with family
Room Tip:Don’t skip out on the yoga class. Book the on site tours a day in advance. Hot springs get busy...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We booked Chachagua Rainforest Hotel because we wanted a rainforest experience and a location a bit off the beaten path. After driving through La Fortuna on the way to the hotel, it confirmed that we made the right decision. For us, the La Fortuna area was way too busy and commercial. When you arrive at Chachagua, you are surrounded by beautiful, lush vegetation. The plants and flowers are absolutely stunning and we loved seeing and hearing all the birds.
Now, about our room...I don't know how we got so LUCKY, but upon arrival we were told we were upgraded. We originally booked a two bedroom villa, but instead were taken by golf cart to an absolutely STUNNING and new hacienda on the property. When our family of 4 pulled up, our jaws completely dropped! This hacienda was a beautifully appointed, modern 4 bedroom (all en suite) home with infinity pool, hot tub, and outdoor bar. There was a full kitchen, plus butler's kitchen! The views were not rainforest, but pastoral, looking out over the horse paddock and fields. But we were fine with that! It was beautiful! This place was so amazing that we cancelled our plans to go into La Fortuna town one day to just stay and enjoy the house. We wished we had friends or family there to share it with! This is the perfect place to entertain if you have a larger group.
We really enjoyed the food at both restaurants. The ceviche with patacones and Birria with meat stew at Colibri were delicious! We especially enjoyed our server, Dennis! Our son is 12 years old and is learning Spanish in school. Dennis was so fun and engaging while helping him to use his Spanish. In fact, all of the staff at the hotel were very friendly and accommodating.
Overall this was one of the best hotel stays we have ever had! Thank you to Chachagua Rainforest Hotel for the upgrade!
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Date of stay: February 2025
Value
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Location
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Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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It was our second time to Chachagua Rainforest Hotel and sadly the resort is showing some wear & tear, most of the staff seemed new and it was not the peaceful rain forest experience we had hoped for. Upon check in we were told we had booked the family house about a 20 min drive from the resort (impossible to get to when you have no car), thankfully he got it wrong. The front desk also told us the hiking trails were open but most of them were closed due to the rain fall. We were in the same family villa 309. The paint touch ups are terrible, the wooden doors are incredibly hard to close, they had to be slammed shut. The outside furniture is stained, ripped and falling apart. The family wooden table on the back deck had been removed and pool tiles are missing. The main restaurant had been renovated but has no atmosphere and the food is rather average. We spent lunch and dinner in the bar area by the hot springs. We can't thank Maikol Picado for caring about our stay and experience. He is the only one who told the large John Deer tractor driver by the hot spring area to stop work on day 3, so we could finally enjoy our lunch in the tranquility of the rain forest. There was a second tractor on site clearing plants of a morning, not what I expected to wake up to in the rain forest. We also need to thank Dennis for kindly allowing us to borrow his personal umbrella, since other guests had taken off with our 2 umbrellas. In hindsight we should have stayed 3 nights instead of 5 nights, perhaps tried something new. We did see a lot of wildlife in their natural habitat around the hotel without doing an expensive tour which is always an added bonus. Sadly the hotel is not promoting this tour but I stumbled across Finca La Esperanza Coffee & Chocolate Tour on Google Maps, it is a gem! The best thing about this tour, it is walking distance from the hotel, 15 minutes across the river and up the hill. If you want an authentic, non-touristy, fun, interactive experience, this is the one for you. It is a Costa Rican family run farm. They are warm, hospitable, kind and we had an amazing afternoon with the hands-on process of making chocolate & freshly brewed coffee. I have a whole new appreciation for my morning coffee. Make sure it is on your tour list if you stay here, book on their website.
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Date of stay: January 2025
Value
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Trip type: Travelled with family
Room Tip:The Hot Springs are very enjoyable and it is a lovely setting. The hotel is in a pretty remote...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
As a family we loved parts of this hotel and disliked other parts.
We are a family who have travelled extensively and enjoy being up close and personal with nature. This hotel ticked all the boxes for us with a small boutique style set up surrounded by nature.
The good points - It’s deep in the forest and you are surrounded by nature complete with animals, birds and plants all around you. The hot springs are a nice place to spend the end of each day. It feels quiet and relaxed. The staff are exceptional in trying to make your stay as pleasant as possible.
The bad points - As you are in the jungle it’s full of critters and the 2 lodges we were in were generally dark with quite a lot of mosquitoes / bugs inside - which is ok if you don’t mind these but really not ok if you don’t like them. We have stayed in Safari lodges, Jungle lodges, Beach huts in the past all of which are surrounded by wildlife / bugs but they have generally always been clean inside. Unfortunately these lodges feel old and have holes in them so no matter how well the staff clean the lodges bugs do get in. They are showing their age with the bathrooms looking more like a 2-3 star hotel standard tiling / fixings etc. The lighting was inadequate so you can’t see in the room due to dark decor etc. We went in the wet season and this probably did not help. The other issue is the food was nowhere near as good as most Costa Rican restaurants and way way over priced. As it’s a $40 trip to La Fortuna each way you end up sucking it up and paying over the odds. Some nights hardly anyone ate in the main restaurant and it felt soulless. If the hotel invested in better menus / ingredients it could have an amazing feel to eat surrounded by nature and I would imagine people would not mind paying over the odds for quality.
So in summary if you don’t mind the odd bugs in your room and happy to accept a tired lodge that has an amazing natural setting this is the lodge for you.
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Date of stay: July 2024Trip type: Travelled with family
Room Tip:Avoid this if you don’t like bugs in your room or limited expensive food choice
Try to visit...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We spent five nights at Chachagua and had the most amazing time. The setting of the hotel is really special, right in the rainforest surrounded by so much wildlife and nature - we saw so much just whilst walking round the grounds of the hotel. The tours offered at the hotel were really good quality. We did the complimentary nature walk when we arrived and it was a great way to see the grounds of the hotel and all the wildlife surrounding it. Our guide for this was Roberto, who was excellent and very informative. We also did the coffee and chocolate tour with Roberto which we really enjoyed, it was very interesting, fun and good value for money. We did the cooking class too with Nany, which we loved as well and learnt to cook a variety of Costa Rican dishes with produce grown on site. The service at both the poolside and main restaurant was great, and we felt the food was really high quality and lots of options for vegetarians. We enjoyed the complimetary yoga classes on two of the mornings we were staying there. Finally I had a massage which was amazing. I absolutely loved that you have the massage on decking area of the bungalow. The hotel is a little further away from La Fortuna (approx 30 minute drive) but we had no issue going on tours around the La Fortuna area. We would thoroughly recommend this hotel to experience rainforest.
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Date of stay: January 2025
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The people at the hotel are friendly and always wanting to be helpful. Loved spotting animals and wildlife at the hotel. This included seeing howler monkeys—they were always our alarm clock in the morning, and though I would have thought I’d be aggravated by that, it was a fun, unique experience. The hot springs were nice, and my family enjoyed them every night. We also had dinner at the hotel all 5 nights, and between the 2 restaurants and room service had a variety of food. Our room was a rainforest bungalow and had 2 queen beds and was quite spacious. The beds were comfortable and it was an easy walk anywhere within the hotel or to the car. The only thing I’d change is having better lighting in the room, so the phone flashlight often was quite helpful. This was a minor detail, and did not take away from our visit at all. Though many of our activities were around arenal area or from La Fortuna, my family did not mind the drive as they all enjoyed the hotel so much.
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Date of stay: March 2025Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Our room wasn't ready at check in at 3pm. The front desk told us it would be ready at 6pm because they were remodeling the room and were still finishing the remodel. They gave us a different room to use until ours was ready, but suggested we not unpack, leaving us in a bit of limbo. When our room was ready, it smelled strongly of paint. We were in the 2 bedroom villa with 2 full bathrooms plus an outdoor shower adjacent to the larger bathroom. Unfortunately, the bathrooms had no doors so the bugs came into the bedrooms via the outdoor shower. We expected bugs given the location of the hotel, but we felt like we were sleeping outside. The bathroom in the other bedroom was very close to the bed so using the toilet became an issue with no door. There were no chairs in the room so the only place to sit was on the beds. The room simply wasn't ready for guests. They did move us to another 2 bedroom villa the next night when there was a vacancy (and after we complained). This new room had doors to the bathrooms so the bugs weren't an issue.
The hotel has tons of potential. The location is beautiful, the hot springs were wonderful, and the staff was friendly and very apologetic about our room. We didn't love the food at the onsite restaurant. The nearest town area with a couple of restaurants is a 10 minute drive away, so you do need a car or a taxi to eat elsewhere. This hotel is about 20-30 minutes from La Fortuna which is closer to most of the tourist attractions (volcano, hanging bridges, waterfall, etc).
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Date of stay: August 2022
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Overall, this is a wonderful, secluded and highly beautiful hot spring resort on the outskirts of the Arenal Volcano area. A perfect spot for a small family or a cpuple looking to escape to nature and away from the business of a large resort. There isn't 5 star amenities but this comes very close.
If you are looking for the beauty, peace and tranquility that comes with an immersive rainforest/hotspring escape, then this is it. If you are looking to wake up to volcano views or be close, this is not it.
There is technically 2 restaurants on site, one of which they request reservations but realistically wasn't necessary. The prices were typical of an American night out ranging from $18-40 with median being around $25 per dish. Just down the road there were many soda restaurants if you so chose to wander. The reserve was beautiful and full of wildlife, birds and highly reccomend spending some time walking around. The staff were exceptionally welcoming and friendly. The start of your experience is a very well received tour and complimentary drink. The hot springs were decadent and relaxing. Although we didn't travel with children, the resort had a few young family's that seemingly enjoyed the stay, especially the spring with water slide. The beds were VERY comfortable. Falling asleep to the gentle sounds of the jungle were divine. Our room, although slightly dated with boards around the shower being worn/punky, we're very comfortable and secure.
Again, beautiful resort with appeal towards the secluded nature lover.
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Date of stay: December 2023
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:If staying for a long time, consider saving some money and eating off-site
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
My husband and I stayed at Chachagua Rainforest Hotel for 4 days. The property is very remote and beautiful. As you would expect with buildings in the rainforest, constant upkeep is required but we had no issues with our room (309). I will note that it can be very loud at night. Those little frogs have big voices! Central Costa Rica is super hot and humid. I had hoped the plunge pool would be a cool and refreshing spot at the end of the day but it was heated so I didn’t use it. We enjoyed their focus on natural habitats to support wildlife. Everyone was friendly - the guides were knowledgeable and the front desk staff were very helpful (big thanks to Fabian, Nany and Yara!). There are two restaurants on the property. Both restaurants offer a good variety of menu items but the prices are US prices ($$$) which was surprising. We found that to be true of most resorts in the area. The natural hot springs in the area do not run through this property but my understanding is that water from the natural mineral springs on site is heated in 3 pools near the grill. One pool is cold. There are slides into the river and into the cold pool which are refreshing after a hot day of trail hikes! We had fun sliding into the cold pool then having delicious drinks in the warm pools before snacks at the grill. We recommend a stay here if you are into nature. We saw countless tropical birds, lizards, bugs (on walks, not in the room!), and howler monkeys. We took the zip line tour, chocolate/coffee tour, night walk, and had in-room massage set up through the front desk. All great!
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Date of stay: September 2024Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We had a wonderful stay here and would recommend this hotel to anyone. It is very comfortable, has many amenities, and is good for families. We traveled from the USA and we’re so glad we chose Chachagua Rainforest Hotel. It truly is IN the rainforest. The way that they used the grounds to maintain an authentic rainforest experience while providing modern day luxuries was very impressive. Although there were a few minor problems during our stay (no hot water on day 1, power went out in our bungalow, etc), management responded quickly to all concerns and resolved problems with courtesy and professionalism, going above and beyond to make things right. All problems were solved within 30 minutes. The bungalows were comfortable and we appreciated the courtesy of the staff during our visit. Our waiter, Tony, was very friendly and entertaining. It was convenient having breakfast included and provided on-site (so we did not have to leave the resort to find breakfast every morning) and the hot springs were excellent. The short hiking trails on property were well-maintained and easy to navigate.
If you are considering renting the basic Jungle room or upgrading to one of the bungalows, you should definitely upgrade. It is absolutely worth the extra money to get a bungalow.
(One side note: if you are traveling in the rainy season, regardless of which room you choose, you should be prepared to walk a short distance from the parking lot to your room, as the main parking lot can become inaccessible due to road flooding. This is no problem if you are healthy and active, but if you are elderly or handicapped, the slippery road and the stairs may be a challenge for you.)
Over all, this place was absolutely 5-stars and we would recommend it to anyone looking to stay outside of the busy La Fortuna area. We all agreed that it was one of the best hotels we have ever stayed in. We will be recommending it to all of our friends and would not hesitate to stay here again.
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Date of stay: July 2021
Location
Service
Sleep Quality
Room Tip:Worth the money to upgrade to the bungalow instead of the basic Jungle room
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Manchester, United Kingdom182 contributions14 helpful votes
I guess it would depend of how physically fit they are. The hotel is quite large and there is a bit of a walk between the breakfast restaurant, pool and rooms depending on which you’re allocated. It can be quite slippy when it rains and it will require some uphill walking.
I have just stayed six nights here. It’s moderately pricey for two people, main course without alcohol and a dessert it’s close to 50. I’d say an average meal for two people is around 50 bucks. Obviously if you drink more or get more food it’s more. In my review, I mentioned that it is a half hour away from town-La Fortuna. The roads are curvy and treacherous especially after dark. People walk on the streets, there are dogs, there are chickens, people stop sporadically and suddenly if they need to pick someone up. I tried to limit my driving after dark. It became a factor in eating my dinner as I didn’t want to hassle with getting back to the eco-lodge too late after dark, it gets dark by 6 PM. I may be able to get a picture in the morning if I don’t forget before I check out.
There are a couple of sodas between the eco-lodge and La Fortuna. The one I ate at is within 10 minutes on the right hand side and there are signs on the road I can’t remember the name of the place. It was cheap really cheap. Lunch for two people with as much as I could eat was about 10 bucks.
There are more places to choose from in the Chachagua area.
PRICE RANGE
S$280 - S$707 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
ALSO KNOWN AS
chachagua rainforest hotel and hacienda
LOCATION
Costa RicaProvince of AlajuelaArenal Volcano National ParkChachagua
NUMBER OF ROOMS
28
Prices are the average nightly price provided by our partners and may not include all taxes and fees. Taxes and fees that are shown are estimates only. Please see our partners for more details.
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