This is my review of Tabacon Grand Spa and Thermal Resort. If you are the inpatient kind, I will get straight to the point. This resort is freaking awesome man!
As we were pulling up, you go thru gates, so its very secure ad you dont feel unsafe at all. Then you go into check-in and they greet you with a nice refreshing drink to welcome you. We got their early, so our room wasn't ready just yet, but we were starving because we drove from San Jose so we just drove down the street (about 10 minutes drive) to eat. When we got back our rooms were ready, so we decided to head to the room.
The rooms are very nice size and had patios that you could sit outside on, if you just wanted to relax and enjoy a coffee or cocktail and good conversation. It had the standard amenities and was very clean. They also provided us with free bedroom shoes - which i'm still rocking at home now... :)
We booked this hotel because we definitely wanted to enjoy the hot thermal springs. The thermal springs are actually across the street from the resort, and you can walk. But we chose not to since we were in the back of the resort. You just call the concierge desk and they will bring the van to come take you (along with any other rooms that requested a ride to the springs).
When you get to the springs, you register in and get a locker, key and towel. I think the daily fee is like $50 or something to enter, but its included if you are a guest at the hotel. Believe me if your not a guest, spend the money (and this is coming from a certified cheap skate). The springs are ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!!! I've never seen anything like this in my life.
So when you enter you see a cafeteria to your left then you go down the stairs and see the first of maybe 3 cold pools. And this one has a slide....so much fun.
bring your cameras because at every nook and cranny there is a beautiful picture taking area. Or you can do like I did, and leave your camera in the lockers and actually ENJOY your time at the hot springs.
and at night time, the lighting is really romantic. Lots of romantic nooks and crannies that if my husband was there with me....
The temperature of the hot springs is naturally created by GOD and it is an awesome sight in itself. Its just perfect. Since its naturally heated by the volcano and is essentially river run-off water, they have the "natural" pools - where there's rocks at the bottom. The girl scout in me was prepared with water shoes, however my girlfriends complained that the rocks hurt their feet. Then they have the "upgraded" version, where the bottom floor is paved, we tended to wade in those waters.
after spending a few hours here (be careful - it is a MAZE - we kept getting lost - mind you we are ladies with juris doctorate degrees and mba's), your skin will feel amazing and you will sleep beautifully.
Whenever, I travel I like to see the "real culture" and not just the resorty type stuff, so while we were eating lunch earlier, we were talking with some of the locals, and they informed us of their own hidden hot springs......thats F.R.E.E. since it was directly across from the Tabacon springs, we walked on over to check it out. The security guards were trying to flag us down to let us know we were heading in the wrong direction, but we told them we were goin to party with the locals and they let us be.
It was nice to see that the locals come out and enjoy the hot springs too. If you go at night...its not lit, but the locals bring candles and hats with lights on them and the party continues. lol.
Ok, back to the resort.
We decided on our last night there, we would go do a fancy dinner at the resort. They had live jazz music playing and a really nice ambience. However, our meals were EXPENSIVE!!! That was the only time we ate at the resort restaurants, and we were glad that we decided to check out the local soda's down the street.
Overall, we had a GREAT time at this resort and doing the excursions while in Arenal. When we were checking out, i looked at one of the books on the table and it said they were one of the leading hotels of the world (top 1000 i think - idk - shrug) I think this would be an incredible location to bring back my husband for a romantic R&R vacation.
I will do the rest of my reviews of costa rica....but since it took me almost a year to post this....please be patient with me :)
