Hotel Villa Lapas

We stayed at the Villa Lapas for two nights in July, 2005. This is a lovely hotel, with its adobe architecture and beautiful grounds. The highlight, for us, was searching out the frogs and toads that emerged by the multitudes at sunset. Our children enjoyed the swimming pool, and the pool table and foosball tables were big hits as well. The food was very good, but our enthusiasm was dampened a bit at breakfast time by swarms of insects (termites?). The dinner buffet was across the river, with no insect problems. The artisan shops had slightly higher prices than we saw elsewhere, but this was probably balanced by the large variety of goods, much better than anywhere else we visited! We enjoyed hearing the howler monkeys at dawn, seeing an anteater in the forest one morning in the forest near the hotel, and spotting the Scarlet Macaws traveling between the forest and coast at dawn and sunset. The rooms were comfortable with inviting benches overlooking the grounds. We skipped the A/C and opened the windows to hear the forest sounds at night. We would love to stay here again one day.

“Lovely”

Hotel Villa Lapas

We stayed at the Villa Lapas for two nights in July, 2005. This is a lovely hotel, with its adobe architecture and beautiful grounds. The highlight, for us, was searching out the frogs and toads that emerged by the multitudes at sunset. Our children enjoyed the swimming pool, and the pool table and foosball tables were big hits as well. The food was very good, but our enthusiasm was dampened a bit at breakfast time by swarms of insects (termites?). The dinner buffet was across the river, with no insect problems. The artisan shops had slightly higher prices than we saw elsewhere, but this was probably balanced by the large variety of goods, much better than anywhere else we visited! We enjoyed hearing the howler monkeys at dawn, seeing an anteater in the forest one morning in the forest near the hotel, and spotting the Scarlet Macaws traveling between the forest and coast at dawn and sunset. The rooms were comfortable with inviting benches overlooking the grounds. We skipped the A/C and opened the windows to hear the forest sounds at night. We would love to stay here again one day.

 

“Beautiful Setting!”

Hotel Villa Lapas

I stayed here for 2 nights and was happy I did but probably would have been restless if I had stayed longer. Food was medocre but setting splendid! I was on the all-inclusive and it included alcoholic drinks which a previous reviewer said was not included. Definetely go on the SKYWALK tour. Feel free to e-mail me as I will gladly share any details about my stay with you.

 

“A relaxing end to a tour”

Hotel Villa Lapas

The location of this hotel is spot on for birders, and with a free bar, good food and fantastic rooms it is no wonder why it is difficult to get in! It is really close to the Carara NP and Tarcoles Estuary which are two of the regions birding hotspots.

 

The food was lovely and the location of the hotel in the forested valley is really beautiful, especially with a King Vulture gliding over!

 

The bathrooms were fantastic, large, clean and the bedrooms had aircon and ceiling fans enabling you to relax in comfort. This hotel is head and shoulders above the rest in the area and is probably one of the best in the country

 

“Jungle retreat”

Hotel Villa Lapas

This was a sort of last minute decision. I read about this place while on the beach in Manuel Antonio and then booked three nights en route to Monteverde.

 

The drive up to the hotel is beautiful. It's a small dirt road off the main road and it winds up through secondary rainforest. I drove past the hotel for a scenic few km and really enjoyed that. 4WD was helpful. My first impression walking into the hotel and seeing my room was one of disappointment. The room is not very impressive at all but some would find it charming for it's Spanish colonial style. The pool is very small. Once I settled in and unpacked and the evening set in I started to have a change in opinion. This place is teeming with life. First of all the surrounding forest is beautiful and lush. In the daytime you can see scarlet macaws flying overhead. There are toucans and all sorts of lizards. At night there is a symphony of frogs and crickets that totally lifted my spirits. Just looking around the place at night you find a vast array of frogs and toads lurking on the walls, in the grass and on the leaves. I thought I was the only one that noticed that until today when I read other reviewers here noted the same. The staff are very friendly except for the kitchen lady but she's charming in a cafeteria lady kind of way. The food was decent - buffet style but fresh and tasty and the dining area is outdoors with great sights and sounds. I went on the skywalk tour (bridges and forest walking on hotel property - really spectacular), the canopy tour (zip line - kind of silly but fun and the group of Canadian horse back riders I met on this tour were awesome), and a private tour of Carrara Park arranged by the hotel staff (the guide was a beginner but enthusiastic and you can't go wrong there because the park is so rich in wildlife and so picture perfect - the real jungle).

 

In short this is a quiet retreat in the jungle with comfortable but far from luxurious accommodations. It's the location here that makes this place. You have the option of just vegging with a book or going on arranged tours or if you're adventurous going on short or long hikes by yourself. There's even the option of getting in the car and taking a short drive to the beach (Punta Leona is about 7 km away).

 

I do notice though that the rates online are much higher than what I paid. In terms of value I thought at $65 per night this was excellent. Online I see prices two to three times that high and I would have to think twice about paying that much. I think it ought to be more luxurious to be charging 3 digits.

 

“Unusual setting, fun and entertaining”

Hotel Villa Lapas

Our family of 4 (son 17, daughter 14) spent less than 24 hours here and wish it had been longer. The setting is unique and special. The rooms weren't great but were adequate. The buffet food was OK. The toad that greeted us on the way to dinner was a fun surprise. The entertainment was excellent. The shops were full of Costa Rican artwork. The guides for the zip lines made them fun. The scarlet macaws are beautiful and definitely worth seeing.

 

“Nice quiet retreat”

Hotel Villa Lapas

We stayed at the Hotel Villa Lapas for 2 nights on our way back from Manual Antonio. Lapas is the Spanish word for the macaw, which are native to the area. We saw macaws from the nearby Carara Biological Reserve and from the Rio Tarcoles bridge. Even better were the 3-4 toucans flying around the hotel.

 

The rooms were smaller and more plain then the other hotels we stayed at but adequate. Some mangos loudly dropped on the roof at night. The pool was refreshing. The indoor / outdoor restaurant was very attractive and the buffets hit the spot.

 

There is an artisan villiage adjacent to the property which was charming.

 

We took one of the crocodile tours on the Rio Tarcoles which was a highlight of the trip. The river itself is beautiful and what you imagine Costa Rica will be. The dramatic moment is when they entice a crocodile next to the boat and feed him a whole frozen chicken.

 

The hotel is attractive and in a good location for exploring the area. We'll happily return.

 

“Great if you're on all inclusive...”

Hotel Villa Lapas

We stayed at the Villa Lapas for two nights, May 25-26, 2007.

 

Our tour was accomodations only, so we were not part of the all-inclusive plan that is offered at Villa Lapas, and boy, we wish we were. Since we got such a fantastic rate on our tour, we originally didn't mind that we had to pay for our own meals, which, in our experience prior to Villa Lapas, had been very reasonable (we always had a choice no matter where we were in Costa Rica in regards to food - and it was good, cheap and nutritious).

 

Since we were not on the all-inclusive, we paid for our meals. No problem. The lunch we had the first day was very reasonable as it was a la carte and there were lots of choices. For example, I got a cheeseburger and two beers, and my boyfriend ordered pasta and two beers. Tab was $18 - which we thought was great! Dinner, however was a different story.

 

When we got there - a buffet was laid out. We took a quick look, saw very little selection, and asked for the a la carte menu. They told us there is no a la carte available - just buffet. Since we had never

had an unreasonably priced meal in Costa Rica in the entire 8 days we were there, we decided to go with it. When the bill came, we were

floored...$20US per person not including alcohol, which was $6 per cocktail. That doesn't sound like much - but considering we had previously enjoyed four course meals including beer for less than $20

TOTAL elsewhere at VERY nice restaurants in San Jose even, we were a little peeved.

 

The next day we decided to scope out the area to see where else we could go. The answer is NO WHERE. Jaco is 30 minutes away by car, and

the nearest town is Tacores, which is a little sketchy and had one soda. We were stuck eating the buffet or we could starve.

 

Other than the food issue - we were VERY pleased with Villa Lapas. Room assignation is VERY IMPORTANT. We were lucky in that they gave us the master suite even though we paid for a standard...king bed, sitting area, little dining table, everything. Plus it was HUGE. We walked by and saw the other rooms and all we can say is that we lucked out bigtime! (We also lucked out in other places too since they automatically upgraded us to the master suites or deluxe rooms - must be because it's the low season or they just like us :P heh heh).

 

The grounds were beautiful but watch out for the road when it rains! The bricks become covered in some sort of slimy algae and we were slipping down the road all over the place. We ended up taking the route around the other rooms to get to the main building instead.

 

The canopy tour was very nice - but since we had just come from Monteverde and its glorious Skywalk, it was a little bit of a let down. But it's a haven for great birdwatching and wildlife...we had little poison dart frogs stuck to our door at night!

 

All in all we had a great time - just remember to go with the all inclusive plan - $40 more per person per night - but worth it as there's no where else to go!

 

 

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