The Arenal/La Fortuna area is the prime tourist destination in Costa Rica. There is something for everyone here-volcano viewing, hot springs, zip-lining, nature hikes. Birding here isn’t as good as other places in Costa Rica but Arenal made a nice rest stop in between birding trips.
The lodge is a fair ways out of town but that won’t matter if you use tourist shuttles as they drop you off and pick you up.
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The Volcano Lodge has amazing views of Arenal and beautiful gardens and hiking trails. I chose this place because it was the halfway part of our trip and thought we could use a time-out to relax in the jacuzzi and enjoy some light bird watching on the grounds. The rooms were fairly large and we got a great one near the reception with a volcano view from the window!
We saw some Hummingbirds, Oropendulas and Greater Kiskadees in the garden and the flowers were gorgeous!
I really liked the artwork in the restaurant/bar/pool area and the food was really good too! We had lunch, went for a swim, then relaxed in the jacuzzi for awhile. We were planning to go birding in the afternoon but our plans got rained out. We still had a good time chatting with other tourists as we hung out in the bar for happy hour watching the rain pour down.
The next morning, the weather was nice but we had already booked the onward transportation so only had time for a short walk. We didn’t see any new birds from the day before, just the usual Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds so we headed down for breakfast which was included in the price and very good!
You can easily book this lodge on their website or use an online hotel booking site such as Pointshound, Expedia, Hotels.com.
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