Hotel La Isla Inn

The breakfast was delicious. The hotel is in a nice location close to the beach and restaurants. Our room had a few bathroom issues at first, but we got help.

Diego, the owner and host, is amazing. He cares about guests being happy and goes out of his way to help if anything comes up. You can easily book tours at the hotel, and the staff are attentive. Breakfast and lunch are available with amazing views, but I wish they served dinner too. The little hotel sits right across from the surf beach, just outside the busy downtown area of Puerto Viejo, with beautiful forest around it.

The staff were good, and breakfast was adequate, though coffee drinkers said it was weak. The location right beside the beach is hard to beat. But over two nights, there was a long list of problems. In my first, ground-floor room, the walls and ceiling were so thin I could follow the next-door conversation, and the floor upstairs creaked with every step. At least the restaurant music stopped by 8. The WiFi was slow and unreliable, taking two hours to send a few pictures. Some outlets didn't work. The TV worked, but its maximum volume was so low that I could hear the neighbors better. The next morning, after hearing that someone's toilet had overflowed, I returned to find it raining inside my room. The bed was soaked and the floor wet, though luckily my electronics were on the other side. I packed up and was given a room they said hadn't been used for a while because it needed repairs. They had made those repairs by the time I got back, but near dusk I saw the two dim CFL bulbs in the ceiling were the only light. They had no lamp. Staff tried three replacement CFLs, but all were dead. They said they'd ask the boss about buying bulbs, but I never heard back. The TV didn't work, so I used my laptop and my phone's flashlight to arrange my bag and get ready for the next day. The A/C worked in both rooms, but the fan in the second room sparked when I plugged it in and didn't work. Since that room had been unused, it also seemed to have mildew on the walls in the bathroom and part of the room. I'm allergic to mold, and within a few hours my eyes were itching. I first thought it might just be dust, but it was mold. The creaking upstairs floor meant I heard every step until around 11 p.m. Later, around 1 a.m., I spotted a cockroach and trapped it under the garbage can. Other people I spoke to had found cockroaches in their rooms too. One person found a dead one; another accidentally stepped on one and killed a smaller one. It was the first cockroach I'd ever seen. There's plenty of craziness here, but the location next to the beach is unbeatable. The place needs upkeep. It feels like management is dropping the ball. What hotel doesn't have a single LED light bulb in the supply closet?

Our first room had a mold problem, so we switched rooms for the second night and that one was much better. The food was pretty good, especially the homemade bread. With its ocean views, this place could be a real gem if it got a little attention.