The hotel La Condesa is an older hotel located near Heredia, Costa Rica. Heredia is about a 1+ hour drive from central San Jose. The grounds are beautiful with greenery, trees and vegetation. The residential neighborhood surrounding the hotel is safe and a private park is located across the street.

The food and service at the restaurant was very good. Free wifi and internet service was available as well as a pool and not-so-warm jacazzi. Housekeeping in the room was below average. Upon returning to the room on the second day, no towels or bathroom linens were available. Bed linens were thin and below a quality expected in a nice hotel.

Be aware that the La Condesa is not located near shopping or other tourist activities. Heredia is approximately a 15 minutes drive from the hotel by taxi which costs about $8US. Make sure the taxi in on the meter as a flat rate will cost $15 - 20.

La Condesa is in the suburbs of Heredia and well up on the mountain, giving it a great view and cooler temperatures. The grounds are like a large park, with trails around the hotels and adjacent vacation villas. In the evening, a jacket is needed. We stayed there three separate nights in January, 2012. The room was average, but good size. All the rooms face the valley. At night, you could look down upon all the lights twinkling below. Some suites have their own fireplace. We were part of a small group, and one evening, had our meal in the bar in front of the fireplace. We had excellent service, but that could have been because there were not a lot of other people staying there. Breakfasts were a very good buffet. Overall, the food was very good. It is not the Ritz, but is a comfortable place to stay in the San Jose area.

This was my third time staying at La Condesa, and some things remain as beautiful as the first time: the gardens and the fresh air. The concept of this hotel: a comfortable stay surrounded by all the green you can get in the high mountains of Costa Rica. Temperatures in this time of the year (December) range from 10 to 20 Degrees C (50 to 70 Fahrenheit), and as rooms don't have any kind of air conditioning you need to sleep closely to your loved one to make up for the lack of heating air system.

If you are looking for a piece of nature up in the mountains, this is a nice place to start. It is not wild, but a large and well maintained garden, with some small trails where you can walk for a while. The surroundings invite you to stay quiet and still, enjoying the view in almost every place you stay at. The common areas inside of the hotel are also well maintained, and they look very nice. Rooms are simple, with not much furniture. They seem a little old, but clean and very well illuminated through large windows. All rooms face west, so you can experience the sunset from your bedroom if you want to.

The low points of my stay were related with food. Restaurants look nice, but the food is not up to the same level as the hotel. I am familiar with the area, and there are some smaller places downhill to Heredia where food is tastier. Food prices is not expensive, but it definitely has room for improvements.

There are also some small touches that make you wonder: why they do this? The hotel looks like a 4 stars place, but some details make it go lower, down to the 3: squeaky wooden floor (in Junior suite 2nd floor), lose bathroom handles, hot water missing at midmorning, cheap looking blankets, few pillows, few towels. I called the service number, 777, multiple times and got no response. I got really good response from the Main Desk, 502, which I kept calling afterwards.

Employees were attentive, and made you feel welcome. I would stay there again in the future, just hoping they take care of the small details.

The location of the hotel is amazing, I loved the cold and fog that I could see while I was there. The attention at reception was average, they just did their work. It was supposed that the package I paid includes a welcoming cocktail but we didn't receive any, and I think that the worst part was the room, it had good space but looked old, the blanket had holes, in the bathroom you could find spider webs, I mean it seems that they don't care too much about the state of the rooms.