RIO PERDIDO
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A secluded place between Arenal and Rincon de la Vieja in a sublime setting, offering bright rooms with forest views.
In a remote location between Arenal and Rincon de la Vieja, a luxury boutique hotel with contemporary architecture. All rooms are very bright and offer a view of the forest. The floors are made of volcanic rock and all the furniture is unique and handmade. Every detail is there to perfect your stay, including the outdoor shower supplied with thermal water officially tested by scientists! The ecolodge located near a river also offers hot springs, canopy in the canyon, and a mountain bike trail.
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Members' reviews on RIO PERDIDO
The ratings and reviews below reflect the subjective opinions of members and not the opinion of The Little Witty.
We did the canyoning adventure. We thoughts it’s a lot of fun and challenging with the additional climbing rather than just ziplining.
East bungalow room is on the small side, after adding a rollaway bed there’s no sitting area but the deck was beautiful with extra sitting.
Roads lead to the hotel are rough and bumpy.
We would definitely go back in the future.
The location, first and foremost is remote but fabulous! The road to the resort is very pockmarked and some really large potholes, but once you reach the resort, all is well. You're in the middle of a dry tropical forest, and there's really very little else around except farms and an occasional home (none of which you can see on the expansive resort grounds). The resort encompasses dozens of acres, trails, multiple bridges and outlook areas, and even a small river that's heated by a natural spring. You are right in the middle of it all, and it is just awesome!
We did a nature hike and a spa massage, as well as eating in the clubhouse restaurant and pool bar throughout our stay. The nature guide was very knowledgeable and super-friendly. He pointed out numerous wildlife, interesting plants and what-not, as we made our way to the natural spring. (We drank from the spring without later issue or sickness.) The spa people are just amazing, both my wife and I enjoyed excellent massages. The masseuse checked to make sure the pressure I asked for was the right amount being provided. It was a very good massage.
But there are a few sour notes. The spa is located just above the two swimming pools (one heated by a hot spring, while the other is air temperature). Since this is not an adults-only resort, kids and families happily play (sometimes loudly screaming) just below the spa. It's supposed to be a relaxing, wellness-oriented experience. And that just really hurts the spa experience if your timing happens to be during the time a child is screaming in the pool.
Surprisingly, the food was also generally a letdown. All-around it was just plain and bland, with a lack of seasoning on anything. I was really disappointed in the blandness and the serving of a very mild red sauce (pretty sure it was the same red sauce no matter the dish, breakfast, lunch or dinner). Bacon was reliably undercooked. The steak was delicious, however. (I didn't really appreciate how bland the food was until we continued our travel to a seaside beach town and partook of the local restaurants.)
The service was generally and overall, really good. But sometimes it was hit or miss. One morning a server came by and took our order. Normally breakfast is served fairly quickly. 15 minutes later, another server comes by and asks if we've ordered or not? We had, but the server failed to put it into the computer, so we had just been waiting there for nothing. Disappointing. Another time I asked for a cart to get something out of my car, and the driver tried taking me to my cabana instead (because he really wasn't paying attention when another staffer told him what I needed). I found this to be true from time to time with various folks -- they seem to care about whatever it is you're asking about, but sometimes they seem to be only half-listening.
All in all, we would recommend and will likely be back because the remote tropical location was delightful and very peaceful. But we really wish it were an adults-only place, because while I'm sure most families are well-behaved, kids will be kids. And that kind of doesn't really fit in with the wellness-focused intentions of this place.
The attention to detail is pretty high here. Checkin is a nice experience and runs smoothly. The “rooms” are well appointed, nice, and clean. I noticed no maintenance issues. The rope chairs on the porch are nice and comfortable and the casitas feel secluded. We could see one next to us but for the most part you aren’t aware there are other buildings around you. Aside from nature it’s very quiet here at night and the grounds feel very safe to walk at night. They are incredibly well lit.
It was about a five minute walk to the restaurant and pools. We could call for a golf cart to pick us up but didn’t see the necessity.
Food prices were reasonable (around $20 a meal) but the menu was limited and the same for lunch and dinner every day aside from the daily dinner special. First night was a chicken curry, next was enchiladas and our last night was a pizza. I’d assume it rotates every 7 days or something.
Much more than three days and I’d be pretty tired of the food offerings. I wish the snack menu had a bit more snacky items and maybe a burger or something quick to grab at the bar by the pools. They have a swim up bar but that pool was warmer than the thermal river and warmer than my hot tub at home. They didn’t really come around the deck chairs and offer drink service at the pools. A real shame as this would be a nice service and probably good for business. We had to go to the bar to get drinks.
My only real complaint is the cleanliness of the pools. They’re pretty murky and have a lot of vegetation in them from the surrounding trees. This is probably unavoidable but the cold pool in particular was in real need of a deep cleaning.
They tell you on the website tubing is “weather permitting” they don’t elaborate that at points in the dry season the river is low and tubing is unavailable. That was the only activity we were interested in so we did none
We had some weird procedural issues with our account. We ate lunch and charged it to the room fine but then for dinner once we got back to the room, the waiter called us and said we couldn’t charge food to the room because we hadn’t left a credit card at check in. We had. He stopped short of accusing us of stealing, but just short. He said he’d check something or other and call back but never called. I assume he worked it out.
Then we had made dinner reservations for the same time every night with the concierge before arrival, but on the second night they called the room and said we needed a reservation. No amount of explaining cleared it up so I just made another reservation.
It feels like the front desk system doesn’t “talk” to the rest of the property. I do not know.
The thermal river was ok. We saw lots of howler monkeys, an armadillo, a small squirrel looking guy and a small animal the size of a cat I forget the name of.
I wouldn’t stay here a second time, but to do it over again id stay here again for the first time. I wouldn’t stay more than 3-4 days as there just isn’t enough to do ????♂️ but for a few days it’s very relaxing.
They say children under 12 not permitted but there were still a lot of children. Make it under 16 not permitted. lol.
Wi-Fi is good. Bring a fire stick to watch tv.
We then went and had lunch in the restaurant they had. It was good but nothing to get really excited about. The staff were great and very friendly.
After our meal we went to the thermal river for a quick walk. I took a quick dip then headed back to make it in time for the river tubing.
This was more silly and goofy than anything else. We got there and the second we got into the river it was mayhem... In a good way... In a very good way. Everyone was splashing everyone, screaming, and laughing. We hadn't laughed that hard in a long time.
We went back to the pool bar and had a nice cold drink before we left the resort. Upon leaving we were greeted with dozens of howler monkeys. They were all over the front entrance eating the flowers off the trees. It was a great way to end a fun and exciting day at Rio Perdido.