Arenal Kioro

Our stay at Arenal Kioro was one of the highlights of our Costa Rica vacation! The setting is absolutely breathtaking, with incredible views of Arenal Volcano right from our room. Waking up each morning to that view felt unreal. The rooms were spacious, clean, and comfortable, and we loved having our own in-room jacuzzi. The natural hot springs on the property were peaceful and relaxing after long days of exploring waterfalls, hanging bridges, and the rainforest. The staff was warm, welcoming, and always happy to help. Breakfast had a great variety of fresh options each morning, and the food throughout our stay was excellent. What we appreciated most was that the resort felt surrounded by nature. We saw beautiful birds and wildlife around the property, and it had a quiet, authentic Costa Rican feel while still offering all the comforts of a luxury resort. If you’re visiting the La Fortuna/Arenal area, I highly recommend staying at Arenal Kioro. It’s the perfect place to relax while still being close to all the area’s adventures. We would absolutely stay here again!

As many other reviews have said before, the whole hotel is very dark and dated and in need of updating. We were constantly needing to get our phone torches out to find things in our room because the lighting is so bad. The reception area is dark and uninviting. We never saw anyone in the lobby bar and it just isn’t a hotel that invites you to relax in the surroundings. The pool area is quite nice and the pool bar is the only area that feels modern and bright and therefore more inviting. The food and service there is also very good. You’d think the hot tub in the room would be a real highlight but it just wasn’t inviting at all. It’s in a dark corner of the room with a slightly murky window next to it. We never used it. The curtains were hanging from the track in places and some of the upholstery in our room had stains on - the whole room needed updating. There is no extractor fan in the bathroom and the toilet paper bin has no lid on it which is pretty gross. We never saw anyone maintaining the grounds and that is quite evident as there are lots of leaves and branches obstructing the winding pathways that lead to the rooms. This made for a tricky journey at night as the lighting is pretty non existent. On the plus side, we had room service one night, just burgers and falafel but it was really good. The view of the volcano is amazing and The hot springs are also nice but I guess most of the hotels in the area have this too. We saw howler monkeys and some beautiful birds on the grounds. The rooms and grounds are very clean and never felt busy. Overall, I wouldn’t stay here again but I’m also not sure if the nearby hotels are much better. It certainly isn’t 5 star - not sure how they reached that rating - maybe in the 1970s!

Beautiful hotel with splendid grounds. Huge rooms with high ceilings, seating areas, floor to ceiling windows and a hot tub. It felt like a treat to stay here. Laundry service was quick and reasonable. Breakfast had a good selection. Dinner was expensive. The ‘volcano’ dessert my daughter had was tiny. We ate in La Fortuna on the other two nights of our stay. Using Uber to get there was less than half the cost of the hotel taxi ($20 dollar each way). The staff are helpful. We enjoyed the thermal pools and pool. We would recommend this hotel.