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This post grew out of a discussion about Tabacon in the Hotel section, but rather than throw that into a side topic I figured I'd start a new thread here.

The Tabacon Resort is very nice but it is also very expensive (overpriced?) unless possibly you factor in the free unlimited admission to their absolutely wonderful hot springs (currently normally priced at $60/pp per day if you stay someplace else and purchase them seperately). However, the thing is that some might consider that $60 rate for the springs overpriced too. There are certainly several other hot springs in the same area that are much cheaper (if arguably not quite as nice). Some people might even say they like those other hot springs more than Tabacon because they are not as commercialized. I don't really want to get into any of those debate here, but I did want to discuss the possible alternatives themselves.

There has already been some discussion of Ecotermales and Baldi (and to a much lesser extent Los Fuentes). I recently visited the http://www.arenal.net webite and discovered several newer hot springs are now listed. Here is my latest list of all the alternatives (in order of lowest price):

1) Las Laures Hot Springs: Hours ?-? (daytime only?) Rates $7/pp all day (no restaurant or concessions available so you have to pack your own snacks and drinks). Obviously, for such a low rate you can't expect as much in the way of amenities. For example, in addition to the lack of dining and drink provisions, the landscaping in the pictures appeared much more spartan than the other springs. OTOH, you can pick up a six-pack of Imperials in town along with some snacks at the local pulperia and have a nice Tico-style picnic alongside the many local tico families that go there.

2) Los Fuentes Hours ?-? Rates $10/gringos all day ($3/ticas). This place is not listed anywhere so I'm not sure if the rates have changed but it still must be very cheap. Obviously, LF is priced primarily as a tico place so it gets a VERY different crowd than the gringo-oriented Tabacon across the street (owned by the same people). Apparently, a little more amenities than the other tico place I mentioned. For example, they have a locker room (no locks and no towels so bring your own), they also have a small snack bar (not sure if it serves alcoholics but I'm sure much more simple and cheap than the overpriced food and drink across the street). Landscaping is pretty nice though not as nice as Tabacon. Lots of K*ds and blaring salsa music in a picnicky atmosphere. BTW, Tabacon admission includes Los Fuentes so if you go there you might want to just slip over across the street to at least check this place out.

3) Eco Termales Hot Springs: Hours 10-9, Rates 10-1 or 1-5 or 5-9 $24/pp 3-4hrs for each time period ($15-23 more with meal). As with most of the other hot springs it has beautiful surroundings. Unfortunately, it is also much smaller than most of the other alternatives with only 4 pools. OTOH, they limit admissions to only 100 people so it does not get as crowded as those other places can either.

4) Los Perdidos Springs: http://www.thespringscostarica.com Hours 8-8, Rates $25/pp all day (or $45 with $20 worth of "Springs Chips" for food and beverages). (they also list a $10 towel deposit and a $5 locker charge). There is also a resort hotel here but with rate$$$$ that make Tabacon look like a Motel 6. The pics for the springs make them appear very nice.

5) Titoku Hot Springs: http://www.hotelarenalkioro.com Hours 10-9, Rates 10-1 or 1-5 or 5-9 $30/pp 3-4hrs ($15 more with meal). Pics look very nice. One somewhat different thing is that the pools are lit up with colorful ambient lighting after dark which could make it an interesting place to go if the volcano is obscured as it often is. Because all the available packages are for only for 3-4 hours, the rates PER HOUR are in the Tabacon range for their all day pass, but may work out better if you only want to spend 2-3 hours at the springs (and are still cheaper than the Tabacon evening pass). These are part of the Arenal Kioro Resort which is actually located 4 kms away. You can stay there (and use their free shuttle to get to their springs). Like Tabacon (and Los Perdidos) the room rates come with unlimited use of their respective hot springs, but those room rates are also a bit more than Tabacon (starting at $245/sgl vs. $230/nt). I couldn't say how the room quality (other than that they include a private jacuzzi) or other aspects of these hotels compare, but, as with all of these places, you don't HAVE to stay there to use their springs unless you also want to. (also no mention of any 2 nt stay requirement)

6) Baldi Hot Springs: Hours 10-10, Rates $32 all day, $51 10-4 w/lunch or 5-10 w/dinner. They also now have a hotel if you want to stay there and their rates start at $200 (INCLUDING tax). Like Tabacon, they require a 2 nt stay minimum which, unless you want to spend multiple days at their springs) might argue towards staying somewhere else cheaper and just visiting their springs for the day.I keep forgetting things, BlueDevil's post below reminded me that MANY of the hotels in the area can get you discounted tickets to Baldi for just ~$20)

7) Tabacon: http://www.tabacon.com/hot-springs Hours 10-10, Rates $45 4hr evening pass ($70 w/dinner), $60 unlimited pass ($70 w/lunch or dinner or $80 w/both). It appears from their website that they'll only be offering passes that include meals in 2009. The evening pass w/dinner will still be $70 but the unlimited passes will go up yet another $15 (ie $85-95). Incidentally, Tabacon is not mentioned anywhere on Arenal.net anymore, even on their map. Not sure what that means (probably just that they're popular enough that they don't feel they need to pay for advertising), but I found that interesting.

8 ) To keep this list complete, I'll add in El Viejo's recommendation even though it is not really in the immediate Arenal area (it is actually located about 7kms on the other side of San Carlos/Ciudad Quesada). Termales del Bosque: http://www.termalesdelbosque.com/english Hours ?-?, Rates $12/pp all day. Its hard for me to tell too much about this place (other than what El V tells us) since the photo gallery is not working properly, but the thumbnails look better than the 1st tico spring I mentioned and seem at least as nice as the other "tico spring" (Los Fuentes). You could visit this place as a day trip for the Fortuna area if you have a car, but otherwise (IMHO) it would probably make more sense just to go to one of the more local places. OTOH, if you wanted to avoid the tourist circus that the Fortuna area has become you can stay there for $60/nt sgl or $75/nt for you and your chica.

Finally, as long as we're going a little further afield I should mention a couple of other hot springs that I have been to ELSEWHERE in CR (and I'm sure there are probably many others scattered about the country).

9) Simbiosis Volcanic Mud Springs & Spa (in the Rincon de La Vieja area in northern CR): http://www.simbiosis-spa.com Hours ?-? (daytime only?) Rates $15-25?/pp all day The hot springs were nothing special (actually a little murky) but being able to paint yourself up with mud like an african pygmy was pretty cool (I didn't try any of the spa treatments which cost extra). There are also lots of nice short hikes in the area that take you to beautiful usually private swimming holes underneath large waterfalls (cold water). This spa is actually part of the Hacienda Gauchipelin Lodgehttp://www.guachipelin.com (where you can stay starting at $51/nt sgl or $73/dbl). And, rather than just going to their hot springs, the best deal is actually to go for Gauchipelin's "All day Adventure Pass" for $80 which entitles you to go on as many of their tours as you can fit in. I started with their Canyoning Canopy Tour, did a little horseback riding, whitewater TUBING, lunch (also included), hiking to 2-3 different waterfalls and finally time at the hot springs at the end of the day to soak my tired muscles. You don't have to stay there to take their tours (I stayed at an even cheaper place in town). There was even a group of 20-something langauge students that came up from Playa Coco for the day, though I doubt they managed to get in as much as I did.

10) Aguas Termales (located at San Gerardo de Rivas neat Mt Chirripo): Hours daytime, Rates $3/pp as long as you want (probably free for locals). This is so informal a place it doesn't even really have a proper name. It is really just a hot water swimming hole on some guys farm, but believe me it is an absolutely heavenly stopover if you've just got off of Chirripo.

Prolijo,

Excellent post with very useful information. Thanks for taking the time to put this together!

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Los Termales Del Bosque is a fine typical hot spings at $10 per day. Very natrural,and 35 miles from La Fortuna. The hotel charges about $59 per night for a couple including a full cooked breakfast and that includes a full day at the termales. I hesitated to mention it cause, it one of my secret places unkown to most but Tico families. Screw Tabacon.

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GREAT stuff Prolijo. Thank you very much for taking the time to put that all together

Also, Los Lagos. They have a fairly cheap day pass as well, though I don't know how much. They only have one hot spring pool, but they have several regular pools as well. I enjoy it actually, not usually a ton of people there.

I wasn't aware that Los Lagos had any day pass program and couldn't find anything about it on their website http://www.hotelloslagos.com/Hot-Springs-Hotel-Spa.htm. When I stayed there, I just figured it was only for hotel guests (especially because, like MadGerman said, no one else was using it). If anyone can verify that it is open to the general public, I'll add it to the list. My own take on the Arenal scene is that there are a LOT of hotels that have hot spring fed swimming pools for their guests of various levels. Los Lago's were alright, but I found the surroundings around the pool area to be pretty stark, a lot of hard surfaces and badly in need of more landscaping (either artificial or natural). Of course, they may have improved that since I was there. However, my own take was that while their "hot springs" were perfectly fine to take advantage of for free (as long as you're staying there) and is not a bad bonus for hotel guests, IMHO if I was paying seperately to use them there'd be many others in the area that I'd go for first. Obviously YMMV.

Agreed with Prolijo on Los Lagos and their srping fed pools, well pool. It is a very nice adder to a great hotel, but would NOT go there just for the pools. There is one large sring-fed pool with a swim up wet bar. There is also a cold pool(74 degrees) with slides. I say cold as Im from Florida and anything below 78 degrees is too cold for me! 74 is SHRINKAGE, and since you are with a favorita, not exactly whast you are looking for!

I also did not know seperate day passes for Los Lagos. Of curse it is possible, but saw no information about it at all while there a month ago.

Like I said, I don't know how much. The only reason I know they offer it is that i've talked to backpackers who were in the pool and told me they weren't staying there, and were just on a day pass. They were there because it was significantly cheaper than Tabacon and others.

They may have changed this policy for all i know, this was about a year ago.

I like Los Lagos simply because the drinks aren't too outrageous (compared to other hotspring swim-ups) and if i'm gonna hang out at the hot spring, i don't need to go to a bunch of different ones. One is fine for me. And I like the cold pools to "cool off" for a bit when i get too overheated at the hot pool.

They actually have 2 or 3 (don't recall) cold pools with slides and what not, plus they have a decent restaurant and some other amenities (like a butterfly and aligator garden, which is nice to share with a favorita).

I fully agree, it's not the most fancy hot spring on the strip, but it has it's own charm for me.

During my 2nd or 3rd trip to CR, I booked a day trip to Arenal. I believe the price 4 years ago was around $70. The trip included 4 hours at Tabacon Hot Springs and included dinner at the restaurant. I was blown away by the hot springs. I shook my head in disbelief when our tour guide told us the price tag for an afternoon and dinner at Tabacon if we walked in off the street. It was almost as much as the cost for the entire day-tour.

On subsequent trips, I've stayed at Villas Vilmas for $50 per night. Villas Vilmas offers nice budget efficiency accommodations with a spectacular view of the volcano. The motel has a nice pool and jacuzzi where you can relax and take in the view of Arenal. Villas Vilmas also offered discounted entry ($20) to Baldi Hot Springs if you purchased the ticket at the front desk. Baldi is not Tabacon, but at $20, I can't complain too much. For $70, the Villas Vilmas / Baldi combination proves to be a cost-effective alternative to staying at the high-end resorts like Tabacon.



My buddies and I thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon at Aguas Termales in San Gerardo. It was fun to spend the afternoon with tico families, sipping cervezas and soothing sore muscles in the shadow of Mount Chirippo. It is a good place to meet unattached ticas as well.

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Blue Devil

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Excellent post Prolijo!!

¿Can one get to any of these hot springs on a Tico bus?
Thanks for the hot springs lists and reviews Prolijo.

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Buses leave for Fortuna (Arenal) from a bus station near the corner of Calle 12 & Avenida 7. I don't recall the fare, but bus transportation in general is very inexpensive. Another quicker, and more comfortable option, is to use the Interbus shuttle service: www.interbusonline.com . It is a 3hr 15 minute trip for $39 one way.

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Blue Devil

Pura Vida...enjoying life to the fullest...