La Choza Inn

Terrible!
Absolutely do not book any tours with the tour company that runs through La Choza! The tour company is called Eagle Tours. We paid them $88 to go to Monteverde for a canopy tour and they failed us every step of the way. They forgot to hire enough vans to drive us to Monteverde on the "Jeep-Boat-Jeep" part of the tour so were stuck sitting on the dirt road for an hour waiting for one to come and pick us up. Then they forgot to book the canopy tour and we had to accept a time that was two hours after our arrival date in Monteverde. After it was over they didn't pick us up from the canopy tour office and we had to wait another two hours in the dark for another van. (We were hungry but told that there would be no time to grab food because the van would get there "any minute.") When we were finally dropped off on the side of the lake there was a man with a flashlight who helped push our boat onto the water while our driver navigated back without any lights on the boat! It was pitch black and he used his cell phone out the window for the small amount of light it gave him. It was so dangerous I could not believe they would illegally endanger our lives! When the boat docked there was no one waiting at the other end of the lake to pick us up. We waited until 9 p.m. by the side of the highway on the bridge. I mean, how much more can a tour company make mistakes? When we got back to La Choza thirteen hour later we politely asked for a full refund, completely deserved, and were refused. We argued with the tour operator for over an hour and he not only wouldn't tell us what had happened with the vans, he even refused to tell us the name of his superior. It was terrible. He even stooped as low to call us "Sweetie" in the most diminutive way imaginable. Don't book with them! Other people in the hostel reported similar experiences.

One of the best hostels I've ever stayed in!
This place is great. It's extremely clean. (It didn't matter what time of day I was in the reception area, there was always someone sweeping or cleaning the kitchen. They're a little fanatical, but it was much appreciated!) The rooms come with linens already on the beds and the community bathroom is huge (and also very clean)! The staff are the best though. They helped us arrange a canopy zipline tour and a night tour to the Arenal Volcano and got us a super cheap cab back to San Jose. All this for $5 a night! (We stayed in a three-person dorm with no a/c. We didn't need the a/c though cause it gets cooler at night.)

I highly recomend La Choza Inn, just outside the balcony you can watch incredible birds who live in the nearby trees. The tours are good except the horseback riding tour to the nearby waterfall was done with sickly and overworked horses, so avoid that one if you can. But do go to the waterfall, it's amazing!

A really nice budget place to stay! The rooms were very clean (although there were a couple of cockroaches) and the owner was very friendly and helpful. The view of arenal from the hostel is spectacular, and you can organise tours through the hostel to visit it at night (as well as for other activities). I would also highly recommend these tours!