My husband and I had a wonderful relaxing getaway to Iguana Lodge. We chose to stay in one of the air conditioned club rooms. It was very nice and comfortable. Our only wish was that there had been a blanket on the bed, not just sheets. I'm sure if we had asked they would have provided one, but we just made do. We enjoyed sitting outside our door on the lounge chairs and hammocks. The rooms are directly above the restaurant with gorgeous views of the beach. One night the restaurant guests were loud until about 10pm, otherwise it wasn't a problem. The resort is breathtakingly beautiful. Keep your shoes on, you are bound to step on a lizard, crab or frog, especially at night. The pool is beautiful and there is never anyone there. The water was the perfect temperature. Unfortunately the jacuzzi was not much warmer, we were hoping for more of a hot tub. (I know it's 80-90 degrees outside, but still love a hot tub) The jets also did not seem to work. At night all the crabs take over the pool. We thought we would go for an evening dip, but found the pool full of critters I did not want to swim with, my husband hopped in and had fun with the crabs.
At night the resort is not well lit. We were provided a flashlight in our room. Make sure to wander after dark, you will hear and see new things including the glowing fluorescent trees that sparkle at night. It was just like the movie Avatar.
We both had a massage in the open air room. It was the best massage I've ever had. Something about the humidity, and listening to real rainforest sounds. The masseuse was fantastic, I asked if I could give her a hug, despite Covid, because I loved it so much. I will go back here one day just for the massage.
Before our trip there we had corresponded several times with the resort. We wanted to reserve a tour, but were assured that we didn't need to book it until we arrived. Well when we got there we could not do the waterfall/tree rappelling tour on the day we wanted to. It turned out our only option was to do the tree climb the morning we checked out, we could not fit in the waterfall rappelling. This was disappointing and made our arrival day a little stressful. The resort allowed us to check out a little later so we could get cleaned up after tree climbing. We did absolutely love that experience, just wish we could have done more.
We did enjoy the tennis court one morning. We also used the provided kayaks and went out past the waves to a reef. We hoped to snorkel there, but the water was to rough at that time. We did however see dolphins. We also used the resort boogie boards for several hours. The beach is beautiful, and we were almost always the only ones within sight.
We had several meals at the Pearl restaurant below our room. The food was good, but nothing special, we felt it overpriced and enjoyed local food in Puerto Jimenez more. We were ready for breakfast each morning about 630am and that seemed to be a little early for the restaurant, even though they were open. By the time we got service at 7, we only had time to grab some fruit and go. Another morning we just asked to get some eggs and tortillas to go because there was no way they would serve us in time for us to make our tour. The room included breakfast, and it would have been nice if we could get our moneys worth and a nice full breakfast, we just never had an hour to wait for it. The lunch and dinner meals were provided for much faster.
We were very glad we had a vehicle here. We went into Puerto Jimenez (15 minutes) almost daily for food, souvenirs, our Covid tests, and we did drive ourselves to Matapalo for the Tree tour. I don't know what a taxi would have cost, but we were glad to have the flexibility.
Everyone that worked here was very helpful and kind. The day we checked out we were hours away when we realized we had left behind something very important in our room. We emailed the resort and they made arrangements to send our item on a Sansa flight to SJO airport, where we could pick it up before our flight home. This worked out perfectly and we so appreciated their help.
*About the tree climbing tour. We drove ourselves to Matapalo to meet the tour guide, it was about a 50minute drive. They told us a restaurant to meet at and Leo was standing on the road waiting for us. We parked there and walked through cow pastures up into the hills. It was a very leisurely walk, nothing strenuous. Once we were in the trees we began to see wildlife. Leo pointed out snakes, frogs, spiders, and we saw 3 types of monkeys. It was less than an hour to the tree. After you have on your harness, gloves, and hardhat you climb inside the tree up the tunnel of roots. We guessed it was maybe 70 feet up. Not a hard climb, took us each less than 5 minutes to get on the platform. It is quite narrow at the top. My husband and I are both small people, 130-175lbs. More than that would be difficult to get through. Kids would love the climb. Once ready to slide off the platform the height is a little intimidating. Unfortunately It wasn't the type of rappel where you can kick off and swing and fall fast, it was just a very slow descent. But we really enjoyed it. Hiking back we were given the option of going straight back to our car or doing a small detour to see a waterfall. We chose the waterfall. It was two small falls with pools we swam and cooled off in. That helped make up for missing the waterfall tour. In all it was just over 3 miles.
