Rancho Margot Sustainable & Self Sufficient Eco Lodge

I wanted to love this place. The good: very wild, beautiful setting, dogs on the grounds, other families aplenty, a little playground my child enjoyed. The bad: hard beds, gaps in doors that let bugs in. We requested mosquito nets but one was too small, another fell on us during the night. Cold showers, broken coffee press, mediocre to ok food. No hospitality or knowledgeable employees in site. Room felt kind of dingy. We love to camp but we’re not looking to do that here, and for what we paid, it felt like a rip off.

We did largely enjoy our time in Rancho Margot, but did not feel the was sufficient correspondence between price and quality. We enjoyed the farm tour but it was very evident that the place is nowhere near the self-sufficiency that is their key marketing claim. The farm largely depends on young volunteers for the customer facing operations- we did not have interaction with anyone over 30 and while that in and of itself is fine, we did find that the service mindset of the people was lacking - taking the cost in consideration. We spend 5 nights - 3 would have been sufficient

Wow, what an experience at Rancho Margot! It is located literally at the end of the road in the jungle by Arenal Volcano. It is kind of hard to get to but once there you enter a different world. It is close to Sky Adventure park, the butterfly conservatory, and Lake Arenal. Be prepared to drive about 5 km down a rutted dirt road to get there but our 2WD sedan made it with careful navigation around potholes and downed trees. Super friendly staff. Can't wait to go back!

We stayed at Rancho Margot for 2 nights as part of our honeymoon. The rooms are an excellent size, with a fantastic balcony view. Recommend you take the lift up to your room with your luggage, it's quite a walk (fine with no bags, harder with bags!). We spent an afternoon reading and listening to the birds on the balcony as it was raining very hard. This was a super relaxing experience and we heard so many different birds (recommend using Merlin!). The facilities in the room are great and the beds are very comfy. The highlight of the trip for us was the farm tour - our guide was so knowledgeable and we learned so much about the sustainable ethos of the farm. It is really impressive work they are doing here and we left feeling inspired to get out in our own garden. A special thanks goes to our guide for this tour - he was fantastic. The food is served buffet style at all times - it was always tasty, particularly the salad which was all homegrown. We also really enjoyed the speciality cocktail at the bar! The facilities are good - we enjoyed using both pools, but the pictures are slightly deceiving as the swim up bar is not currently in operation. We also took the kayaking tour and the night tour - both were slightly disappointing unfortunately. We saw very little on the night tour (one frog and a hummingbird nest) which was slightly disappointing given the location and the fact it was $50 for 2 of us. I appreciate that is nature, but given the cost, we were hoping to see slightly more. It was pouring with rain whilst we were kayaking (can't be helped!) but our guide didn't give us any explanation on technique for the kayak, we just got in and headed off. We had kayaked before so no biggie, but one to be mindful of if you are a beginner! It's also not much of a tour, you paddle straight out and back. On our final night, we were sat between two couples celebrating (we were also celebrating our honeymoon and had noted it on our reservation). Both other couples were brought cake and celebrated by the staff, but we were left out. It's not a problem as it wasn't something we had arranged specifically, and you can't expect a free celebration! Just was a slight shame, given we had made the same note in our reservation and we happened to be sat next to them both. The staff were incredibly friendly and helpful, and you really get a communal feel here. We enjoyed our stay despite the rain. 2 nights was the perfect amount of time for us here.

I came here for 3 days and rented a deluxe cabin. We had the most amazing time at rancho Margot. The photos don't do it justice! It is stunning. It is so relaxing and mind altering. I would highly recommend taking them up on the farm tour. It is so informative and you can just feel how much the property means to everyone who works/lives there. You could certainly bring a light raincoat however they provide umbrellas which we found more that sufficient. There were some mosquitos but being from canada they were do where near as bad as we are used to.

We loved our stay at Rancho Margot. The staff was so kind and accomadating. The property was lovely, it was so nice that food was included. We loved going to see the animals. The Pook is warm and fun for kids to swim in. It was more adventurous as the drive in is on a dirt road. I definitely recommend driving to La Fortuna first and coming on the road from La Fortuna. We drove straight from Liberia and it was a rough road where we crossed several rivers, including a VERY large one at the very end. I highly reccommend this ecolodge. The rooms you stay in are separate little bungalows with a porch and hammock, which is fun!

The surrounding area is beautiful but the place does deliver the bang-for-the-buck that one expects for the prices we paid. The rooms were very basic; the beds not that comfortable; the mosquito nets didn't fit snuggly; we had no hot water in our shower (they claimed to have fixed it but they did not) the food was very disappointing; the so-called mineral pool was not heated well. If it were half the price we paid then I'd gve it 4 stars but at te prices they charge it is not a good option.

Very interesting and educational tour. We did not stay here just came for the eco tour. Fascinating and our tour guide was great. Pro: great tour, helpful and friendly Con: pricey for just a tour. I was under the impression that our lunch was included (this was the fault of the company who booked the tour for us) and found out at the end it was not. No big deal at all, but honestly $50 per person is an awful lot.

While we certainly enjoyed our stay, there are a few things that could be improved. Pros: really nice place, very friendly staff, good food Cons: 1. after a long day of traveling, we had to carry our luggage a pretty long way up a steep hill. We were told that normally the luggage would be handled by the staff, but the day we arrived the cart was broken (reading some reviews, we were not the only guests who had the bad luck of a broken cart....) 2. there was no hot water in the bungalow; after bringing it up with the reception, we were told to open the warm water faucet "just a little bit" to get warm water - well, it didn't work. This place is not exactly cheap, so you would expect to have at least warm water during a 4 day stay. Had we known this before, we would not have booked there. 3. Being charged $5.00 for a domestic beer and $8.00 for a small glass of wine left a very sour taste...... this is several times more what local restaurants charge. Despite this, we enjoyed our stay there, but would not come back