My buddy and I were planning a trip to Nosara. As we looked through the hotels in the area online, we found that only L'acqua Viva offered both air conditioning and satelite television. As we have traveled through much of central and south america, air conditioning is a must for us, the television is an added bonus.

We had planned to stay at L'acqua Viva for a week, and booked a room with two queen beds. The room was great, very clean and comfortable. The bathroom was large and the shower had excellent water pressure. The style of the hotel is very modern, everything is brand new and of great quality. It seems as if no expense has been spared in its construction.

After two nights, we received a phone call from the hotel management. They wanted to upgrade us to a suite as they were planning to do some work in a nearby area and didn't want to disturb us. This is the kind of quality of service that deserves some recognition. Typically a hotel would just do the work, wait for you to complain, and then, maybe relocate you.

The suite we were given was an unbelievable duplex. The first floor was a huge living room with day beds and a flat screen t.v., and the upstairs was a giant master suite that also had a flat screen. The shower in the bathroom was as enormous and could have held a small party. There entire dwelling was airconditioned. We were impressed, by the huge windows that let you experience the natural elements outside and the modern lluxuries inside. The suite was something that must be experienced!

Throughout our stay, we got to know the hotel staff members, who quickly became our friends. They were all equally helpful, friendly and accomodating. They make you feel like you are the most important guests they have ever had, which is unusual.

The grounds are beautiful. There are pools everywhere. We had an opportunity to feed two white face monkeys one morning, which was incredible. We did check out the other hotels, L'acqua viva is the place to stay.

It was a busy weekend in the Nosara area and there no availability at the highly ranked Nosara hotels. This hotel had availability and we know why.

We came to Costa Rica to get away from the crowds and big hotels and the overall Cancun type of experience. There’s nothing wrong with Cancun, but we were searching for something much more rustic and laid back. The town of Nosara is awesome - it is the perfect place for rustic and laid back, except for the L’Acqua Viva hotel.

Apparently this is the area’s first “proper” hotel. Which, I guess, means stuffy and uptight with prices to match. We paid $194 + tax + breakfast = $236 for one night. This is by no means pricey with the Four Seasons (2 hours north) starting at $600, but a lot for an isolated hotel, right on a relatively busy and loud road, with NO VIEW where a car is necessary to get to the beach (10 min driving away).

The hotel rooms were nice and very eco/Bali/trendy. The problem was that the hotel sounded like it was built with hay and bamboo shoots. Seriously, we could hear absolutely everything going on around the hotel. From flip flops pounding up the stairs to neighbor’s conversations, to what sounded like furniture being constantly moved in the room above us to noise from the public road a stone’s throw away. I had to put in ear plugs to fall asleep and was awoken early, not by howler monkeys as is the case in Costa Rica, but people walking down the stairs to breakfast talking at normal tones.

And breakfast was funny- this was the most expensive hotel we stayed at but the “cheapest” breakfast. The room came with free continental breakfast and we had to pay $6 for two eggs. I know that breakfast rarely comes for free at fancy hotels in the states, but when the hotel in Costa Rica that we stayed at the previous night for $95 provided us with an excellent buffet breakfast, The L’Acqua Viva just felt like a rip-off.

The grounds are nice and fancy and there are several nice pools. The hotel is still in its “soft grand opening” phase so it’s still not all up and running, but the problems I had with the place don’t seem like they will go away when more people show up – they’ll get worse.

They do have private two story cabins that looked nice where noise from other guests would not be a problem but they were still close to the road.

The other guests were laughably stuck-up with nannies for their kids and all, which is cool, but definitely not what we were looking for in laid-back Nosara.

If you want luxury in Nosara go the Harmony Hotel and get a private bungalow – we tried but they were always booked!

The next two nights we stayed at a considerably more rustic place, but it was $75, walking distance to the beach and had an ocean view balcony where we could fall asleep to the sounds of the waves and not the next room’s TV.

By the way if you're near the town of Canas, Guanacaste on the Panamerican highway check out the Rescue Shelter Las Pumas. It's really great! You can see rescued pumas, jaguars, ocelots, margays and much more in their beautiful natural environment (not depressing zoos). All the proceeds go the the shelter and it's a quick and easy ecursion.