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During our recent visit to Costa Rica, we planned two and a half days at the Arenal volcano area. My wife wanted to relax in some hot spring pools and hike some trails. We searched the internet for lodging that would be reasonable and close to the activities surrounding the volcano. We came across Los Lagos resort. Miwa (my wife) said it looked familiar from a trip she took with her children back in 2005. Once we arrived, it turned out that this was exactly where she had previously stayed.

Being on a self-imposed budget, we were very surprised at the value Los Lagos presented.

The Resort is about 6 km from the town of La Fortuna. They have a great view of Arenal volcano. The amenities include five natural spring fed pools, a large spa, an excellent Las Palmas restaurant, a 2 km walking trail to a lookout of the volcano, canopy tours, horseback riding, a frog pond exhibit, crocodile exhibit, butterfly exhibit, a turtle pond and to top it off the rooms are modern and very clean. The landscaping is way above average. What really makes Los Lagos a top spot is the staff. Everyone treated us as if we were special. During our stay, we ran into our restaurant waiter several times in the lobby and he acted as if we were his best friends. What makes that so different? We did not tip him the first night, because we left our money in the hotel safe, which we rectified the next morning.

Wednesday morning breakfast at 6:30 a.m. saw a large iguana on a tree just outside the restaurant. We headed out for 2 km hike Mirador (lookout) of Arenal volcano. We saw many birds including a Toucan, which was too far off to photograph. The hike was all up hill and the view at the top was cloud covered. Back at the hotel, we asked the tour desk how far it was to Baldi hot springs. She told us we would need to take a taxi and called one for us. Once we were on our way the driver Alberto told us since he had to come from La Fortuna that the rate would be $8. It turns out it was only one km away from our hotel. He apologized and gave us his business card.

We used Alberto for the rest of the day to go to La Fortuna and back to our hotel, of course at a better fare. The hot springs were nice. One pool was 43 degrees Celsius, which is 109.4 Fahrenheit. I put on sun tan lotion before we left, but the minerals in the water washed it away and after three hours of sitting in various pools, I looked like a lobster. We next headed for La Fortuna, a great town with a nice park and many good restaurants. At an information center, we asked where the best Tico restaurant was. She told us to go a couple blocks north and we would find Nene’s restaurant. It was exactly as advertised, Sea bass for Miwa, an unbelievable tuna salad for me with two fruit drinks for $18.

Thursday morning we were up at 5:30 am, so we could hike to Mirador again. Miwa wanted to see if we could find another Toucan hopefully to take a photograph. As our luck continued about half way up we heard their unique sound and ended up taking pictures of three of them.

We found the strange looking nest of the Oropendola bird, which looks like a sack hanging from the tree. They had eluded us for two days and we spotted them high up above the nests. They are black, brown with large yellow tails and a red tip on their beaks.

When we reached the look out, the sky was completely clear and we were able to take some magnificent pictures of the volcano. When Miwa was here seven years ago, the lava was constantly flowing, now there is only a slight smoke rising at the opening. After our hike, we had breakfast at the hotel restaurant and then headed to the resort hot springs.

Los Lagos hot spring pools were much deeper that Baldi’s. We spent about two hours soaking, then went to the frog pond exhibit and caught our van at 3:30 for Santa Ana in the San Jose area. 

You can even take a daytrip from San Jose and the Los Lagos (506-2479-1000) all day pass is only $17. We highly recommend Los Lagos as a stop off point when visiting the Arenal area.