Hotel Fonda Vela in Canas

The setting was lovely, the food was great, Freddie in the bar is lovely (missing you Freddie), the rooms are good. The only downside is youre quite a way from the town but nothing a taxi cant fix

Its ok and the staff tries but the hotel and its rooms is quite old and would need some maintenance. The pool is nice! Its well located, too.

Staff on reception very helpful. Room was VERY dated and felt damp. Buffet breakfast was not the best and staff lacked the helpfulness of reception.Swimming pool and jacuzzi area was nice.Nice quiet location and only about £5 to get taxi into town.We enjoyed our stay but was no where near the same standard of other hotels on our 2 week trip in Costa Rica.

Beautiful gardens, big spacious rooms and lovely staff.

Friendly staff on reception, but thats really a given for most places. There was also some good wildlife in the area.The room was pretty poor though. It was very run down and uncomfortable - broken window fittings, dirty walls, that kind of thing. The worst part was that when we came back from some afternoon activities it was infested with bugs. We must have killed well over 50. At one point the water was completely disconnected.The location seems pretty close to the towns, but the roads are so bad in between that getting anywhere is a really unpleasant ride.Breakfast was only okay. Had much better in other places.There was also a huge amount of noise outside the room at 6am that sounded like hammering sheet metal. It was the gardeners clearing up the messy outdoor areas.Not a pleasant stay Im afraid. Maybe youll be luckier than us, but why risk it.

A pleasant hotel with expansive grounds and super friendly staff. Rooms needed a bit of TLC but generally clean. The food at the bar was amazing and really good value. I wouldn’t however recommend this hotel if you want a bit going on. Worthwhile taking a taxi into town for a bit more life if you like that kind of thing.

Lovely spot and very close to the Monteverde cloud forest reserve. The rooms are fine but the bathroom s could do with a refurb. No air con but it is quite cool in the mountains and there are grilled opening windows to let the breeze in. Food and drink in the bar and restaurant is reasonably priced. The real delight is the abundance of wildlife right next to the hotel, agouti and armadillos wander in the grounds, as does the odd deer and coati. If you want town life, youll need transport or to use a taxi.

We thought the place was great. Really nice setting. Super close to the Cloud Forest Reserve. The Restaurant and Pool were very nice. Comfortable beds and warm showers. Our room was spacious with a view into the trees. We loved it.

We stayed here for 2 nights and mostly spent our time doing other activities. Fonda Vela is tucked away from the rest of Monteverde in what feels like a cozy cabin in the woods vibe. The walking path around the resort was nice. The pool was being rented out for what looked like swimming lessons both times we ventured down that way, but there were also two jacuzzi tubs at the end of the pool. Bar drinks were pricey and they charged us $10 to uncork a bottle of wine we bought to drink in our own room. Room was outdated and a bit musty, but overall clean. Breakfast was decent and included with our room. If we return to Monteverde, we would likely find other lodging, but overall not an unpleasant experienced.

Great views but run down place; friendly staff, great nachos and cocktails. Breakfast could be pimped up a bit … just like the place.

We stayed here for two days during christmas week in 2021. I dont know how this is boutique hotel. it is in deserted location, rooms are very old with lot of creeky noise. Floors were slippery. Bathrooms were disgusting. Bedsheets had hair on it.We have request multiple times for supplies

Upon arrival we were not greeted by staff. Front desk attendant was not interested in helping us until we asked about checking in.We had to sign for everything. We were told it was a $30.00 taxi ride RT to town or more. Reservations required for their restaurant.We were given a sheet of paper with extra activities that we could book. The first four the hotel would give us 10% off.Only one small walking trail. We finished that in 30 minutes.Brochure states heated swimming pool..it is not!No one showed us to our room.Shower tub combo leaks and we almost fell in the vanity area.After breakfast we returned to our room to find it had been tidied up but the door open 😠The grounds are spacious but not we’ll taken care of.Be Sure to Bring your own soap, lotion and hair products!If you want rustic, quiet, birdwatching or book reading come to this place.If you want a clean room, attentive staff, and well kept grounds find somewhere else!I will add, the bar staff and hamburger 🍔 were very nice.We will not be back 😠

Great location, beautiful landscaping, friendly staff, mini fridge with snacks for sale in room, tasty breakfast included with room.

The staff is amazing, very courteous. But its a run down place.Limited menu in restaurant. Very old and not clean hotel rooms. Too many bugs. Bathrooms are really bad. We had sorry water coming from it. They changed the room but other room had a bad bathroom and bugs too.

Excellent hotel with great location and superb amenities! We loved Fondavela, and stayed 2 nights while exploring the Monteverde area. The location is super close to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve, while also being within a short drive to Santa Elena. The property has spacious rooms, walking trails, a spa, a pool and hot tubs, on site restaurant, and on site tavern. We tried out all these things and found them a to be great.

Loved staying at this hotel near the Monteverde Cloud Forest Botanical Reserve. Nice amenities: restaurant, sports bar, pool and hot tubs, spa, and nature trail.

This hotel is very nice. Beds were very comfortable, rooms very large and pretty and the grounds beautiful. The food was delicious and staff some of the best I have seen. Very professional and helpful. I had a massage while here that was awesome!

Amazing hotelThe chfe Jhon was the best 👌Great food.And Great location!!!!Super nice and friendly for my family.The reception (Eugenia)Was great and Super professional 👏You have to go to this hotel!!!!!You will tank me later🤩🥰🤩🤙🤩🥰🤩🤙

Great food. Temperates pool. Incredible jacuzzi

The grounds were beautiful and the room had an amazing view. Reception was super helpful and made a couple reservations for us. The bed was probably the most comfortable we had our whole trip. The covered hot tub was a life saver after days of horseback riding and hiking. We got back late and they left the pool lights on for us about an hour after closing hours. The restaurant was pretty good for the free breakfast. You would probably do better elsewhere for dinner.

Just left there this morning. Great value with spacious rooms in perfect nature ambience. Big plus is the chef — every dish was amazing. Perfect location. Very COVID conscious to boot. We would stay again!

Booked spa and massage therapist. The spa - was a home style tub with jacuzzi jets so shallow that was not possible to cover entire body with water. The massage therapist refused to apply more pressure and it felt likes baby patting instead of massage. Total waist of time and money

Was fantastic, a place where you definitely have to come and experience.If you are looking for adventure you are in the right place.Theres a pool where you have the possibility to change the temperature as needed.

Positives: Nice grounds with outdoor (covered large pool and two large jacuzzi tubs and bar. Restaurant was spacious with nice view and complimentary breakfast was good with omelette station, some hot foods, and some pastries and fruits. They also had small hiking trail and staff was very friendly. Best part was a monkey came up to the breakfast area. Convenient parking to room. Just a couple of minutes drive from Monteverde Cloud Forest and about 8 min drive to Santa Elena.NEGATIVES: No climate control in rooms which made it a bit cooler than what I preferred. Windows tilt open and close but are not sealed when they are closed so insects could get in. Weak/spotty WiFi signal. Very dated and not well maintained (tiles in shower were cracked). Hair dryer didn’t work.This is our first time in Monteverde so I’m not sure what other hotels are like but I wouldn’t stay here again. 2-star hotel at best and overpriced for what you get.

Luxury, high end, exclusive...not really!Spent four nights here. Before I start with the negatives, the positive was definitely the friendly and lovely people who work here, really!!!Spent almost $1000 for admittedly a larger room that had that 70’s feeling with only the lava lamp missing. To say the bath was tried would be generous as it was in definite need of renovation. The safe was locked and remained so throughout our stay even though we twice asked about having it unlocked. The breakfast buffet was decent but with the exception of the omelet or eggs stand, nothing special. No yogurt!The bar and restaurant are both very expensive with prices compable to a major metropolitan city in the US.It should be mentioned that the hotel caters largely to BUS TOURS and I’m afraid that this is really what this hotel has become, a TOUR GROUP HOTEL. A better than most in Monteverde but not worth what we paid.

This was our second pleasant stay at Hotel Fonda Vela. The room was spacious, grounds were beautiful and staff were helpful. I would also call attention to the excellent breakfast included with the room. A number of hot items rotated each day and it also included made to order omelettes, and great fruit and pastries.The only issue we encountered with the hotel was the quality of the dinner we ate in at the onsite restaurant. I ordered the veggie burger and the fries were quite under-cooked and the quality did not match the higher price.The location comes with more space and a quick ride to a number of reserves, but those arriving without their own car like us should be prepared for few restaurants or attractions within a quick walk and getting nearly everywhere by cabs which are easy to call but the cost can add up quickly.

The hotel is in good location, the facility has an amazing potential but it is not maintained well.The breakfast buffet is very good with fresh eggs and fruits.The pool is warm and friendly.Overall it was OK but the room are not well maintained

We had an amazing apartment with a bed upstairs and one downstairs in the living area. The only downside was the toilet didnt flush, but we were only there for one night at the end of our tour.

Not really ready for guests. Pool area was undergoing work... might be nice for future guests. Not very helpful staff. Not water pressure. No real amenities to enjoy. Very disappointed with my stay.

This is hotel has an amazing location near the cloud forest. They are under a new management from a very reputable and great customer service oriented company so you can definitely expect amazing things in the near future. Beautiful wooden rooms and spacious with amazing views. Their service is great accommodating any request.

This hotel was part of a week long vacation package we purchased through a trip planning company. Staying here was by far the worse part of our vacation and we would not recommend this place to others.The rooms are pretty nice looking, but the bathrooms need to be updated, smell like a latrine, and have mold issues. The grounds are beautiful in some spots, but unkept in others. There were definitely some things that looked like they needed updating, removal, or repair.The location of the hotel isnt the best. You are not exactly in walking distance of town. So when we wanted to go into town to eat or explore we called a taxi.During our 3 days in Monteverde it was extremely windy, which made it feel like it was in the 40s overnight. We were told by the hotel staff that the rooms did not have air conditioning or heating. If this is the truth, that is horrible that a hotel doesnt have any way for their guest to make themselves feel comfortable in their room depending on what the temperature is. If this was a lie, that is horrible that the staff would lie to us about this.Also, the food was absolutely terrible!!! Nothing we had tasted good at all, not even the drinks. We disliked the food so much so, that we skipped breakfast our last day in Monteverde, because we did not want to eat their continental breakfast before our driver was to arrive to take us to our next location.Monteverde was my favorite city to visit while in Costa Rica, because of the awesome activities we did and sites we saw, but I dreaded coming back to our hotel room overnight because it was so awful.

Very relaxing once you get past the rough dirt road. Very nerve-racking especially at night if you bring a car up there.

-As other reviews share, the room decor is a bit dated but actually, we still found the woodwork really nice. Our room was spacious and had lovely views into the grounds.The only part that did feel like a blast from the past was the restaurant area. It was made a lot worse by the music choice (pan pipes??)-The pool area looks fairly modern but its all covered over and there was only 7 sun loungers. This wasnt a problem exactly as we sat there for nearly an hour and saw no other guests, and unfortunately no staff either when theres supposed to be a pool bar. We never received our welcome drink or got a drink there.-Theres a dry river trail which was a fun little walk - we werent quite sure how long it went for as signage stopped but when we detoured into the gardens, we came across an armadillo so that was a fun surprise.-For food: The meal in the restaurant was nice but hugely overpriced. Also someone let the fire go and the whole room stunk of smoke - it meant that we did too so both us and the other guests made as quick an exit as we could. At breakfast, it was ok but a bit limited (weirdly they seemed to include leftovers from dinner the night before - chicken and veg?!). Its laid out very poorly so there was a huge queue before a trip.-For location: It was fairly close to one of the cloud forests and we did walk down into the local shops/cafe area. Stellas cafe is wonderful - delicious food, friendly staff and there were capuccin monkeys. Theres also a great little bat sanctuary/conservation tour nearby as well as somewhere to taste (and buylocal coffee.-Overall we were a bit surprised that Trailfinders recommended this place for our honeymoon. Elements of it were nice (spacious rooms, very quiet place, pretty groundsbut other parts let it down (lack of atmosphere, overpriced food in a very dated restaurant, hard to find staff, poor breakfast setup).

Beautiful location with fantastic views. Food fairly expensive and might be good, but we couldnt get a table when we stayed

Fonda Vela is a nice hotel in the awesome mountains of Monteverde. Staff is very welcoming and there are a pool and not one but two jacuzzis! I recommend this place if you can afford it!

Old world class. Wood floors and furniture. Stunning views. Who needs in room WiFi when youre literally sleeping in the clouds. We had to pause for an armadillo on the way back to our room one evening.

Hotel was very nice .room was huge but bathroom needed a little fixing up.The hotel property is beautiful. And has little walking river trails you can explore in.The staff are extremely nice and helpful. My husband and I were the only ones in the hotel so that was a fun experience but the only thing to do there was a pool and only one of the hot tubs were hot. Staff leave at around 8pm so if you need anything there is no one there to help.Bar was not even open for us to get a drink. :PWe walked to dinner both nights which took us 30 minutes. Nice lookout view from the walk.Wi-Fi is also only available in the restaurant and lobby. Not in the rooms.

Very isolated. Too far away from town to eat anywhere else. No internet in rooms that are very far from restaurant. Nobody to attend you in bar when you get there. Food OK but expensive. Stay closer to Santa Elena and pay for a good breakfast.

Passable, but we wouldn’t stay here again. The Hotel has a neglected and understaffed feel to it with decor that would be very at home in the 1970s. The pool area is clean, but in a municipal way and although there’s a pool bar we never saw anyone staffing it.

Kitchen staff needs some work, food was reasonable but pricy server never asked if I wanted another drink. Very nice hotel rooms but go for dinner somewhere else.

Not only is the hotel only 2 km from the Cloud Forest National Park, but the rooms are amazingly roomy and the service very friendly. The restaurant provides amazing food for reasonable prices.

We stayed at Fonda Vela for two nights during our stay in Monteverde for our honeymoon. The reception desk was very helpful with booking a horseback riding tour and helping with dinner reservations. We stayed in one of the bigger rooms of the hotel and it was nicely furnished yet dated. Only problems we encountered was the sink not draining properly and the Doberman on the property who was tied up outside that was barking nonstop throughout the night (which made for a poor nights rest after hiking all day). If you want to walk to the cloud forest from the hotel prepare for a small hike to the entrance. The welcome drink they provide is wonderful however we would not suggest staying on the property for dinner. This hotel is not walking distance to the downtown area of Santa Elena.

The staff of this hotel are truly beautiful and accommodating, much like Costa Rica itself. I wasn’t very satisfied with wifi as it didn’t work in either room I stayed in (the first room isn’t displayed in the pictures). I wasn’t happy after the first two nights in my first room as it smelled weird and it was very cold but the manager was quick to rectify my disappointment and upgraded me to a much better room. I wouldn’t stay here again.Restaurant food quality: 3/5Hotel: 3/5Staff: 5/5

It has very large rooms with nice views of the forest. No WiFi in most areas including rooms... restaurant is ok. No espresso coffee. Service is great.

e were in a junior suite. We came in on a rainy evening,on horrible roads. Drove out to room- had to walk in rain up ramp to room which was steep and slick. Opened door to room and was hit by a very heavy musty and moldy smell. Opened windows as there is no air conditioning or fans. Room was dark, half the lights did not work. No Wi-Fi, phones or cable because of the storm. Turned on water in bathroom sink and shower which ran brown and stunk for several minutes. Was told at front desk they have no wash cloths. Dead flies all over room. All linens were worn and damp because of the lack of climate control in room. Black mold on inside of windows. Went to make coffee and creamer in pouch was so old it was like carmel. Front desk did give us more coffee, hand towels to use as wash cloths, and told us the building had been closed up for awhile to just run the water. When we told the desk about the horrible smell in the room she didnt even respond. We were supposed to stay 3 nights but checked out the next morning. Being told they will not refund us for the two nights we did not use.

Rustic hotel with beautiful grounds and excellent views. Theres an on-site restaurant which serves good food though prices are on the higher end, about $25 for a main during dinner. Breakfast is included and quite good. Theres an omelette station. Path from reception to rooms requires a little walking and the part of it is usually muddy.

The rooms are dated, and pass on staying in room #26. The showers only have cold water and the bathroom needs to be repaired, lighting updated, to dark. Tile in the bathroom needs repaired fixed, only cold water and the bathroom sink doesnt drain. When complained about the sink not draining the following day it was worse, and no hot water, either day. They said they would send someone to fix it. Next day still no hot water and the shower barley had any pressure from the nozzle. Paying $191.71, in May 2017, for a Junior suite with no hot water, tile that needs to be fixed/repaired a bathroom sink that doesnt drain, and the local ant problem in the room, and no WIFI. Not worth the drive up.Also, we found an open container of chips next to the bed, left by the cleaning crew or the handy man who came in to fix the bathroom. Not sure which person left the chips. Upon arrival a man carried luggage to the room dropped it off and left. Didnt even say hello. The doors locked from the inside and and if you havent used it before it can be difficult to open. We had to go back to the reception and ask for help. Not a friendly non-Spanish speaking environment. Oh, and no WIFI. Or at least we were told, that due to the last storm, the only area with WIFI was the Reception area. No one, working out by the pool at night from 7:00pm - 9:30, for drinks or assistance. They have showers at the pool area/ but dont work and no hot water, towels with lockers. We had a slip and fall with a broken arm. Make sure to purchase travel insurance. Its worth it. We spent the day at the hospital and called around 8:30 to let the hotel we would be back for the last night we reserved. We were told that a security guard would be available to give us a key to get back to the room. He never showed, and we got lucky and were able to stay at the HISTORIAS LODGE, at the last minute. They did refund us $191.70 for the night no one was there to allow us back to the room, and drove over to our new location.The grounds are beautiful, the restaurant and food are pricey but excellent. The staff in the restaurant were very helpful and friendly. Go for food and hiking only. Given a choice I would head over to Historias Loge for $50.00 dollars a night and you get an awesome breakfast, excellent hospitality, clean room, hot water, and WIFI. Its within walking distance to shops and restaurants, and some exhibits.

We were at the hotel for a couple of days and enjoyed our stay there. Our rooms were spacious, clean, and had large windows facing the garden and forest. You will hear birds chirping throughout the day and at night other noises - frog, insects, etc - replace birds chirp.The complementary breakfast was buffet style with various food items that will likely satisfy most guests. We ate dinner in the restaurant once but was bit disappointed they dont have authentic local cuisine. That said the Italian dishes we had were delicious but bit pricey and we waited more than thirty minutes for our meal and our appetizer came after the meal. We recommend trying local food in town that is delicious but much cheaper.The hotel is only about twenty minutes walking distance from the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. And it took us about thirty minutes to walk to the town and may be forty minutes to walk back. Walking is fairly safe and an enjoyable experience. Taxi is about seven dollars to the town.

This hotel is a mixed bag. The furniture in the room was old which was nice but the bedding was equally old which was not great. The views were great (watching the sunset on the hill behind the office was truly a sight to beholdbut the dragging your luggage to and from your room across the gravel was not. The formal dining was nice and the food was good but the service was so so. They had just reopened the hotel when I got there and perhaps has not ironed out all the bugs. It is also the furthest hotel from town which made the star gazing great but walking to town not really an option.

Good but the room we were in was a bit buggy. Great breakfast buffet and overall nice food.