Villa Lapas Jungle Village

Rough road in but luckily we had a high clearance vehicle. It looks scary, but it’s fine. A pair of macaws nest on site! The tours were fun, the pools were nice, breakfast was great, tons of birds and lizards! Loud cicadas lol! Our first room was awful, big gap around the door, and the door was very difficult to open it would get stuck halfway open, then part of the moulding around the door fell off, leaving a 1 inch gap for bugs to come in. The toilet seat was loose and too small for the bowl so you had to be very careful, and it wouldn’t flush completely. The shower was a precarious step down and had no hot water. Changed to a better room with a functional door and less dangerous bathroom. Still had cold showers, but if you work at it you can get some warm water once you figure it out (turn on the cold then very slowly turn on the hot, if you turn the hot on too fast, somehow the cold water overpowers it and you get an ice cold shower - this seems to be a standard thing in this part of Costa Rica). Rooms are clean, but you’ll still get a few bugs coming in from outside since you’re in the jungle. Totally worth it for all the wildlife.

I had a recent stay here on a Titan/Saga holiday and we had a fabulous time. One of tn4 things which made the stay special were the staff and the fact that a lot of Costa Ricans visit the hotel at weekends to get away from the towns and cities and just have fun. It was lovely to see children and families in th4 pool having fun. |Our group were all over 50 and we were well cared for from the welcome drink onwards. |The grounds are beautiful and the pool areas lovely, at the weekends there is a karaoke evening across the bridge which many of us went to to the amusement of the local visitors. The staff game;y put on Dancing Queen by ABBA (the universal language of music) and I was so -.eased that we and the Costa Rican visitors danced together and enjoyed each others company. It was a very special evening of the stay for me and I can honestly say that in the whole two weeks we were welcomed everywhere by people. |On our final day we were sad to hear that the hotel has been bought by a big hotel chain who are going to pull the old hotel down and build a new one. Having found all the staff very lovely we asked our tour guide about what would happen for them. Turns out there are many other hotels around and they will all have contracts with the new hotel once built. The new hotel doesn’t know how fortunate they will be with such lovely people. |Thank you Villa Lapas, you will always have a special place in my heart as will Costa Rica and its people.

We enjoyed our time here. Very much in the jungle, lots of opportunities to see and do things or just relax. Good buffet food, many nice servers and staff. Great pool, lots of birds on the grounds. ||With an extra infusion of staff and energy the areas where this hotel’s infrastructure is weary, could come up to ‘speed’ but we found it to be comfortable and welcoming.

Danilo was great he was very nice. Some of the waiters and waitress has an amazing service and always friendly and looking for the needs of the guests. Thank the place has amazing green areas, and pool was great as well. Food could improve. But it was good as well

The positives - lovely breakfast and good wi-fi. The room was OK but a sign on the door says please keep closed so wildlife does not enter. However goodness knows what could get in via the gaps around the door. Luckily no issues but did make us concerned. We do not consider this to be a 4 star hotel. Staff were indifferent. When we went to check out in the morning - nobody on the desk. Found someone who said the receptionist was having his breakfast and would be back in 10 minutes - unacceptable. Dinner buffet was pretty awful - not at all appetising. Desserts were tiny and on one night it was rice pudding and no other choice. We could not understand how they could charge $7 for a small can of beer and $6 for a bottle of Coca cola. On a tour of Costa Rica this was the worst food and the most expensive drinks.

This has got to be one of the worst places I have ever stayed. I was with a photography group so had no choice over the accommodation. I would have left straight away if I was with my husband.||I was originally assigned room 143 and it was so grotty I complained to the group leader. The bed base was sat on visible serrated plasterboard, filthy and the furniture just fit for a bonfire. This was apparently one of the non -refurbished rooms.||After complaining I then got 147 which was apparently refurbished. It was very marginally better but no electric sockets - just one behind the bed and when you moved the bed to plug in to the socket a huge screw came out of the wall. It was still filthy!||There were huge gaps all around the door and I blocked off the bottom as best I could with towels but a multitude of creatures could have got in! I was very nervous.||However, I didn't expect to be sharing the room with a bat that unknown to me, when it had finished defecating on my bedsheets whilst I was sleeping, took refuge in my rucksack to sleep which was open but off the floor on the other bed.||I had no idea and put my hand in the next morning and was bitten by an angry bat. ||Since then I have had three days of extreme stress and anxiety because of the rabies risk. Was swiftly taken to a private hospital by my tour guide at my expense but they and 6 other hospitals in San Jose didn't have any rabies boosters!!||Now flying back to the UK i have to visit a Tropical Disease clinic in London asap missing my connecting flight home to make sure I am rabies free... Quite frankly I am terrified.||I know I didn't bring the bat in as I am meticulous about closing my rucksack as I am insect phobic. It must have already been in the room.||If you value your health don't stay here!!!

Food is buffet, both for breakfast and dinner. Dinner costs 34$ per person and I think it’s a bit expensive. Food is good but not great. Rooms are clean with hair dryer. Territory is nice and have several pools but not heated tho. You are able to see some nightlife there (we saw many frogs). Staff is friendly and helpful. You need to walk a bit from parking to room (just info)

Despite being an amazing location, it managed to be the worst place we stayed in Costa Rica (out of 9 places!). Hard to know where to start but essentially:|- loud renovation work every day meant that the view from our room was basically lots of blokes in hi-viz and hard hats. And it was VERY noisy. We complained but the man on reception just shrugged his shoulders.|- no hot water for two nights, so no working showers. Our repeated requests for it to be fixed were met - mostly - with indifference. The man who came to look at it simply lied.|- pretty grim room. Very damp with lots of mould and rain water seeping into the bathroom from the ground up.|- quite a long walk on some rough-ish roads with your luggage to get to some rooms. It was fine for us, but some people with mobility issues might struggle. They refused to help.||On the positive side: |- the food was quite nice (although if you're not paying all inclusive I'd go elsewhere, it was largely functional)|- the laundry service was excellent (fast and good value)|- the surrounding area is lovely and the iguanas lounging about are a treat.|- they did give us a full refund. Although this was only after we complained to our tour operator. Had the reception staff been more responsive and reacted to what was clearly a bad experience things might have been different.