We stayed 2 nights at Hotel Belmar in a peninsula superior room. These rooms offer stunning views (especially sunsets) and feel quite luxurious with an elegant design, massive comfortable bed and an open plan bathroom. Food at the hotel is delicious. The a la carte breakfast can be served on the beautiful balcony overlooking the grounds and included complimentary fresh fruit. The lunch and dinner menus offer good variety and although dinner is not cheap, we ate some of the best food our of trip here. Staff are very attentive and friendly. We especially appreciated the hot towel and welcome drink after the hair-raising journey up the mountains to get to the hotel. The hotel grounds are lovely and full of beautiful birds. It can be quite steep down to the pond and back up, but you will be rewarded for your efforts with seclusion. I would recommend using the hot tub which is in a wooden conservatory down a quiet path - you can watch gorgeous humming birds whilst enjoying a relaxing soak. Towels are provided in the conservatory itself. The hotel is set in a quieter part of town, but the reception will organise reasonably priced and helpful local taxis at your request. The area of Monteverde itself is an interesting wildlife haven and we wish we had stayed here longer to explore more and to benefit longer from the wonderful experience we had at the Belmar.

This hotel is in a beautiful location and the rooms are very nice indeed. We only had a basic room but it looked out across the gardens and had a small balcony with chair and hanging seat. There are mosquito screens across all windows and doors to enable you to sleep with the doors open which was something we particularly enjoyed and a very nice touch. The al a carte breakfast was a real treat after breakfast buffets everywhere else we had stayed and was of an exceptional standard. The restaurant was also extremely good food and a very high standard of service. The hotel has recently opened its own private reserve and we enjoyed an incredibly memorable tour around it. The tour started in the afternoon, with a walk around the reserve, we then climbed a tree (not for the fainthearted) before watching the sunset from the top, and climbing a further ladder to put our heads above the canopy. What a truly memorable experience - and a bit of a once in a life time thing. To make it all the better, our guide, Walter was one of the nicest and most passionate guides you could hope to make, and the guys that helped us with the tree climb were equally friendly, very patient and good fun (I was very nervous about the tree climb and they put me totally at ease). At the top of the tree we were giving food and drink and it was very very special. You descend in the dark and then have a further tour around the reserve at night. They have a sensory garden and night vision scopes so have really thought about everything. If you stay here and have the time you really have to do this tour - it isn't cheap but it is absolutely worth every penny and you will have a very special memory to take away. This is a very special hotel and a wonderful location and you really cant go far wrong visiting here.

Our experience here was spectacular in every respect. It’s described as an “elegant lodge” and this seems accurate. We stayed in the Sunrise Room in the chalet across from the main building, with floor to ceiling windows along two walls and a big balcony, overlooking the treetops out to an inlet on the distant Pacific coast. The whole room is wood paneled with cedar (?) as is the entire hotel. Our room was spacious and located on the corner of the building, 3rd floor, and (if it wasn’t cloudy) then you’d have a full view of both sunrise over the hills to the left behind the hotel and sunset straight ahead. The large windows also encompassed the bathroom and jacuzzi areas but there are blinds you can pull down for privacy - though there’s nothing outside your windows except the trees. Note that it was very windy almost all the time, so if wind noise is an issue bring small ear plugs for sleeping. It was also misty or raining lightly a lot of the time, so bring rain gear. The staff was friendly and efficient, especially in the restaurant where they were very diligent about my husband’s food allergy. Try to take advantage of “Tico Time” (happy hour) in the restaurant from 4:30-5:30 pm every day. Its balcony had the same view as our room and the sunsets were amazing. The hotel is at the top of a steep, rough hill and then about a 15 minute walk (mostly downhill, mostly with a sidewalk) into the small town of Santa Elena. For the return (mostly uphill) we took a taxi, US $5 and well worth it. Many excursions in the local Monteverde area, eg The Cloud Forest Reserve, are close at hand. Overall, this was a memorable hotel and we’d love to stay here again.