Hotel Casa Turire

“A serendipitous find in the mountains”

Due to a change in plans, we were looking for accommodations in the Turrialba area. We stopped at a local restaurant to ask for a recommendation and one of the staff members recommended this hotel. He called and was able to secure a room for us on short notice. We were completely unprepared for … more

Due to a change in plans, we were looking for accommodations in the Turrialba area. We stopped at a local restaurant to ask for a recommendation and one of the staff members recommended this hotel. He called and was able to secure a room for us on short notice. We were completely unprepared for how completely charming the hotel was- a renovated art nouveau style lodge with lush grounds and beautifully maintained period rooms and lobby. The restaurant was lovely and opened onto the pool area. We enjoyed a great dinner and a relaxing evening. The hotel provides horseback riding, massages, and other amenities but we were there only briefly and didn't take advantage of these amenities. We're not certain what there is to see in the area as we were only passing through but we could certainly envision coming to Casa Turires for a relaxing retreat with friends. We definitely recommend it.

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“Ambivalent Impression”

The location is a dream, the house has kept its charme, but the whole thing starts to be shabby. The service isn’t very elaborate and they cheated me at the reception when I bought stamps for Switzerland. Let’s hope the postcatds arrive at least.

“Could be amazing, but I don't get the impression anyone cares enough to make it so”

The hotel and grounds are fabulous looking, and although the building is in need of some updating/ decorating its actually the rest of the experience that lets it down. We arrived slightly before 2pm and were asked to wait till our room was ready, but we could unload the luggage as the car park is… more

The hotel and grounds are fabulous looking, and although the building is in need of some updating/ decorating its actually the rest of the experience that lets it down. We arrived slightly before 2pm and were asked to wait till our room was ready, but we could unload the luggage as the car park is a slight way off. We were eventually given the key and told how to find the room. I had to ask for a hand with all the luggage as it was up two floors. We started to unpack but couldn't find lots of things - we found the head of housekeeping checking rooms on the floor below and she was able to answer a lot of our questions. Given we'd booked a suite it would have been very helpful for someone to show us to the room, offer to deliver our bags and show us the "hidden" wardrobe and safe, as well as the laundry basket - and to include a laundry price list. All of which we had to hunt out. Again the small things - we had a coffee machine in the room, but only 4 pods; I asked for a couple more as we were staying 3 nights and was told we could buy them at $5 for 4. The room itself was fine - classed as a suite I guess because it had a massive bathroom with jacuzzi bath, the room just had one comfy chair and a single bed made up as sofa, but by the window so not really where one would choose to sit. The soft furnishings were a little dated but overall it looked OK. The balcony had great views over the lake and unlike others we had no noise from the kitchens below. Oh, the included dressing gowns were rather tatty. There's nothing close by, and the roads are too potholed to drive easily in the dark so it has to be the hotel restaurant for dinner. Every room is allocated a table although we managed to move ours for dinner so we didn't sit in the route from the kitchen. There are 2 tables outside for breakfast and lunch but you need to ask the day before to get them! It is much nicer to eat breakfast outside than in the dark restaurant. The menu is the same for both lunch and dinner all the time. The only "special" for the 3 days we stayed was salmon - which suggested it was a special until it was used up. One night we even had nearly cold food and had to send it back. Oh and this hotel had the most expensive drinks of our entire stay in Costa Rica, surprising. There are a number of excursions the hotel offers, but there' s no hard sell - in fact you've got to ask to look at the brochure! Also such a shame being on the lake that there's no kayaks/ canoes or boat trips offered from the hotel. The grounds are lovely and the birdlife is amazing, we saw a couple having an early morning guided birding walk - it would have been interesting but we were trying to get away from early starts! We did explore a lot on our own. It cries out to offer a nightly package with dinner and some activities included - plus a staff makeover to ensure they are customer focused. I believe I read it was Swiss owned, but I assume that's no longer the case. Whilst I am ashamed my Spanish is very poor, many of the staff had poor English, yet the majority of the guests were English speakers when we stayed.

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