Rio Celeste Springs Blue Lodge

Speaking as a local couple, I’d tell visitors to avoid this place. Here’s what happened with the booking: they list one price on Booking, and after you arrive they claim there was a “mistake” and ask for double, blaming Booking. You can’t cancel without a penalty, and there’s no phone signal there to contact Booking, so you’re left paying twice what you booked or searching for another hotel in the middle of nowhere. We were messaging with the hotel for days before our reservation, and they never mentioned any pricing issue. They waited until we arrived, when they knew we’d have little choice but to stay. The rooms are average at best, have lots of bugs, and no A/C. They also own the restaurants across from the hotel, “Soda El Parque” and “Soda Los Pilones.” The food there was average too, and not representative of what you can eat in Costa Rica. Blue River Brewery is ten minutes down the road, with amazing food for the same price as the poor meals here. It’s not easy for us as locals to leave a review like this about local businesses, but it’s worse for tourists who travel so far and get this kind of surprise. Seriously, stay away.

The cabins were clean and nice, though there’s no A/C. In March the weather was mild, so the only thing A/C might have helped with was humidity. It’s a small family restaurant with a couple of cabins for rent. The food was tasty and affordable. Most of the family speak Spanish, but a cousin speaks English and gives tours of the national park.

You can’t get much closer to Tenorio National Park, the entrance is right across the road. It gets busy early, but we didn’t have any noise issues. The room was nice, with a patio out front and parking. We were initially confused about the cost because I hadn’t included taxes and other charges, but even after adding those, the total didn’t match the exchange rate. I asked the receptionist, who called the owner, and they refunded me a bit. They were pleasant about it. Breakfast was simple but okay. We couldn’t try dinner: the restaurant closed by 7 one evening and didn’t open the next day. I think they only open when they have enough guests to make it worthwhile, which I understand, though it was a little inconvenient. We found Restaurante Metamorphosis down the road, where the food and service were great. Nights can be chilly here, and we’d only been given a thin sheet, so the next night I asked the owner for blankets. The free springs under the bridge down the road were a highlight for me, better than seeing them in the national park since you can swim and explore the river. I’d stay here again for one night if I needed to be right by the park, since it was the cheapest place we found. There isn’t enough to do in the area for two nights, so I’d book just one.

Friendly staff, hammocks, great food, and cheap beer. For what’s available around here, this is definitely the best place to eat. I’d recommend stopping by before or after hiking in the park.