If you are looking for a good hotel to sightsee in San Jose, look elsewhere. The Parque del Lago, while in a reasonably safe neighborhood, is distant from every major attraction the city offers. If you are looking for a decent lodging fairly close to the airport, this hotel might be a good choice. This hotel is designed for business travelers and unless you are on business, I advise you to stay somewhere else.

The Parque del Lago is not a bad hotel, overall. The property is clean and fairly modern. A free drink, turndown service and buffet breakfast included with the stay were a nice touch. The standard rooms are clean and modern, but very small, (something to really keep in mind if you are traveling with children or in a group larger than one or two people). Internet access is available on every floor. Look elsewhere for dinner unless you want to pay fifteen dollars for a hamburger (seriously). There is a nice soda a couple blocks away that serves beer and huge sandwiches for a much more reasonable price, with friendly staff.

If you intend to use the hotel's advertised free airport shuttle, you should think again. The entire reason we chose this hotel was because we were scheduled to arrive into San Jose late on our last night in Costa Rica and we intended to use the shuttle early in the morning. The staff, upon check-in, were incredibly rude and told us that we did not qualify to take the shuttle because we booked through a travel agency and not directly through the hotel. I still do not fully understand their reasoning. This initial insulting treatment tainted my entire experience at the hotel and placed an unfortunate damper on our last night in the country. The following morning, we watched their shuttle van pull away with empty seats, while we had to ask the desk to call us a taxi. The cost of the taxi from the airport will cost you twenty dollars each way.

Overall, the hotel is decent, restaurant highly overpriced (the most of any hotel we stayed throughout the week) and they need to learn how to properly treat every paying guest.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any question or would like any tips and suggestions. Aside from the Parque del Lago, Costa Rica is a fantastic place to visit.

I stayed in this hotel, prior to doing a bike tour with Experience Plus in the interior of Costa Rica. I found the hotel to be very clean, accomodiating. The rooms were very nicely furnished and very clean. They had 24 hour internet access on the second floor, only one terminal, but I didn't have trouble getting on. The bar and dining area off the lobby provided a limited menu, but I thought the food was very good.

It took 25 minutes by airport taxi from the airport to the hotel during peak travel time. Took a taxi to the airport at 11:00 p.m. to catch a flight, and it took about 15 minute. Staff at the front desk speak very good english and were very helpful in making arrangements and giving directions.

I stayed at the Parque del Lago for 3 nights in Feb 2008. Other reviewers seem to have had better rooms than I did. This seemed like a standard non-US business travel hotel, and my room was nothing special. (I say non-US because when traveling outside of the USA the rooms are automatically smaller and in general I find fewer amenities). I had a small room at the end of the hall. The bathroom did not seem clean, and had a musty/damp smell. I also had to move the coffee maker to another part of the room to plug it in. Other than that though, this was a reasonable hotel, felt secure with the gates, very friendly staff, Loved the free internet access (!!), lots of TV channels (not that you come to CR to watch TV, but...), okay breakfast, convenient to airport. There was a nice view of the mountains from my room.

I would probably not stay there again, just to try something else. But if I had to stay there, I wouldn't mind. We went over to the Grande del Oro for brunch one morning and the restaurant and one room I saw were great! I might try that the next time.

I met my boyfriend in San Jose. He had been budget traveling for a week already and was blown away by this place. Flat screen tv, comfortable bed, free internet, big clean bathroom.
Lovely view. we couldn't really get a handle on the neighborhood, as we were only there one night. But we ate at a nearby Brazilian steakhouse and the area seemed safe, if not commercial and therefore pretty empty on Christmas Day.