Hotel Fuego Arenal

Monkey tour dumped us at this hotel. This hotel had been shut down but Monkey Tours at the last minute bought out all the rooms and dumped us there instead of another better hotel that we had been promised.
This place has no internet, No TV, Bugs,poor functioning toilets, and no hot water and towels like sandpaper. Also, unswimable pool and hot tub.
Best to avoid this place. Needs a lot of renovations to reach a minimum standard.
Owners tried their best.
Cannot get a hold of Monkey tours as if they would care.

Monkey tour dumped us at this hotel. This hotel had been shut down but Monkey Tours at the last minute bought out all the rooms and dumped us there instead of another better hotel that we had been promised.
This place has no internet, No TV, Bugs, poor functioning toilets and towels like sandpaper.
Best to avoid this place. Needs a lot of renovations to reach a minimum standard.

The receptionnist Danielo was very nice, helpful and attentive to our requests. The room was very clean and we had all we need in the bathroom .
It was not luxurious but we enjoyed the calm surroundings...The young receptionist didn't speak English (only Spanish) but he made efforts to understand us.
We recommand it to everyone ....
Rachel from Canada

Me gustaria decir que cuentan con buenas instalaciones, el personal muy atento, el lugar donde se encuentra muy bello y muy tranquilo, cuenta con un paisaje pura vida, muy limpias y ordenadas

I came here on a school trip with 43 other students. This was by far the most welcoming, authentic and best experience I can say i had on the trip. We stayed at multiple hotels but this hotel rose above all others with its authentic food, welcoming staff and owner and beautiful scenery. The owner and his family went out of their way to make our stay amazing and on the last night we were able to throw a dance and invite them and dance under the stars. i can honestly say I made some of the best memories of my life at this place and was devastated when i had to leave.

Todo estuvo bien en el lugar

Good staff, is a nice and simple hotel but it was clean.

Personnel très sympatique, superve vue directement dvant le Arena,. Propre, bon déjeuner, personnel sympa nous recommandons

No me gusto. Las sabanas de las camas estaban húmedas. En el baño el lavatorio tenia unas jugas de agua. Tienden la ropa de camas en las afueras del hotel.

I came here with a group of 12 students and we stayed for two nights at this hotel. We all loved our experience here. The owner and his family are so kind and are willing to help with anything. Not only did they run the hotel but they also prepared some of the best and most authentic meals for us during our stay. The hotel is modest and exactly what you would need for an adventuresome vacation near the volcano. If you are looking for a real Costa Rican experience this is the place to go! All of my students wanted to go back and stay at Hotel Fuego even after staying at the nicest Best Western in San Jose because of the kindness they were shown here.

This place is a wet hole. The room wasn't ready when we came. The owner called the service to clean it up. The room smelled like a wet moldy closet. The beds were dirty and nasty. We didn't like anything about that place. There are many other and nice places you can stay in La Fortuna area. Even our adventure guides said that they never picked up anybody from this hotel. Go somewhere else.

We booked another hotel. When we arrived they said they were overbooked and placed us in here at HFA. One day we had no water all. We regular had to ask for more towels as the cleaning staff was unaware that 4 people were in the room. The bathroom shower was dirty and had mildew/mold. The picture on the wall had cracked glass exposed. They never took a passport (even when I prompted them) which indicates they are probably not reporting/paying their bed taxes to the gvt. About all I can say nice is that the staff was friendly.

We were not the only ones with this experience. A couple from NY had the exact same bait and switch pulled on them. You are better off sleeping in your car!

Be affraid, be very affraid!

My family came to visit us in Costa Rica for Christmas and we wanted to take them to see the Arenal Volcano and do the zip line because we did it here before and it was great.

We know that Christmas is very busy and did our best to book something ahead of time with no luck. We had another company also helping and everytime we found a hotel with availability, it seemed to fill up right away so we were left with Hotel Fuego.

The company assisting us had pictures of the hotel inside and out on their website and it looked decent enough for 2 nights. When we got there the managers were very nice but that did not make up for the rooms. First they gave us 2 rooms, 1 with a double bed and the other with a double and single bed but we had 6 people with us and they knew that ahead of time. We had to explain that we could not fit 2 teenagers on a single bed and asked for either a room with 2 double beds, or another room with a double and single bed.
They were accommodating and got us another room. Then we had to ask for towels for 1 room. Then we had to ask for towels for the other room. After further inspection the tv in 1 room didn't work but not that that mattered as there was only 1 channel. There was no place at all to put your bag muchless to hang any clothes. The washrooms were not clean and there were dead bugs in the showers and when you moved the shower doors, there were dead bugs up in the track. The room that I stayed had a broken window pane in the bathroom and we had to hang a towel to cover the hole.
There was no hot water in the building we happened to be in and that was the final straw. It was raining and cool and a hot shower would have been nice. I had to use my tshirt as a pillow case as I just did not feel it was clean. It rained all night and I fully expected the roof to leak but luckily it did not.
We made jokes for the remainder of the night in an attempt to mask our discomfort and said we would only be sleeping there and that we had all stayed in worse places but we were just fooling ourselves.
We tried to make the best of it but the next morning when we all had to take cold showers with our sandals on to avoid getting any type of foot fungus, we decided to go and look for something better, which we found.

They charged us $90/night and we found 2 hotels not far from there, 1 was $110/night and the other was $125/night. We took those rooms immediately and promptly left.

For that price, we did not get what we paid for considering other hotels in the area were not much more money.

I would highly recommend that if you are planning to visit Arenal and if all the hotels are booked except for Hotel Fuego, change your dates and visit when you can find other accommodations. In 2008, there should be no hotels charging $90/night in that condition. With some TLC and proper management, things could have been so much better.

Service was very friendly, location is excellent if the weather clears enough to see the volcano. Room was without character and a little icky. Bathroom was sort of clean. We were ready to leave early which is unlike us, we usually have fun wherever.

We stayed at the Hotel for 2 nights and found the Hotel clean, the location great and the owner terrific.
The hotel is very unique in that it has a front porch viewing the Volcano and a wonderful back deck overlooking the gardens which are full of trees and birds. We saw Toucans, parrots, vultures and too many different birds to mention.
The owner Adrian was very friendly and helpful. He booked us on the Cano Negro tour at a great price which was very enjoyable. Helped us find good places to eat in La Fortuna. The breakfast offered at the Hotel was good.
Unfortunately it was cloudy and we did not see the volcano but if it was clear you would get a great view.
Recommend this for a budget traveller looking for nice accomedation and personal service.

Location: Close to the volcano, right by the road but not noisy. You can view the volcano from the porch and even from the beds (not that we saw it; Arenal was shrouded by clouds the two days we were there.) Nice view of jungle in the back porch.

Room: Hotel is still pretty new, room is clean, staff is friendly. We had a basic room, with a TV and a fan, with no Air Conditioning (some rooms do but you pay more), no bedside lamp, no phone, no fridge, no closet (just some hangers), no safe, no pictures or decorations of any kind. Like the previous reviewer I first thought the sink has only cold water, but after running a hot shower (in the huge 3' x 6' shower stall) the water at the sink will come out hot. No Internet but you can go to Lavas Tacotal across the street for that.

Food: Only breakfast is available, but at $5 it's a little more expensive than what you would find in La Fortuna. If you do go to the "cowboy" restaurent right next door, stick to the steaks. I had "Rice with shrimp" and it was horrible!

Value: We stayed at hotels in other parts of Costa Rica at the same price and got much better rooms, with all of the things I mentioned that are missing from this room. Therefore we felt it's not quite worth it. But I guess the Arenal area is expensive and this is one of the cheapest ones already. Unless you get the $5 rooms in La Fortuna!

Stayed 2 nights at Hotel Fuego Arenal. Nice, not noisy, clean place. Located about 5 minutes from La Fortuna on the way to Arenal. The owners are very nice, helpful. Using the opportunity to communicate with English speaking guests as practice to improve their English. One of the women was even writing down words that we used that she was unfamiliar with.
Each room has views of Volcano on one side and the other overlooks some greenery. We had second floor and it had like a balcony on the back. Every morning we could see some wild birds from that balcony.
There are few things that could be done better (like having toilet paper holder, rather than placing a roll on top of the toilet). Hot water was only in the shower, but not in the sink.

Overall, for the money it was a good place.