The story
Tabacón was built around a river. The Tabacón stream emerges from the base of Arenal already hot and mineral-rich, and in the early 1990s the resort landscaped its course into a chain of pools, cascades and waterfalls under the trees — untreated, unaltered, constantly renewed. Everything else came after: 105 eco-designed rooms, a spa in open-air bungalows each with its own thermal jacuzzi, and Shangri-La Gardens, six mineral pools nearest the volcano (and therefore hottest) reserved for hotel guests over 18, with butlers and lounge beds.
Nearly eight thousand TripAdvisor reviews make it the most-reviewed hotel in the country, and it still holds 4.6. The resort runs reforestation toward carbon neutrality, makes its own fertilizer, and heats with the volcano and solar. Hotel guests get the river to themselves from 8 to 10 each morning before day-pass visitors arrive.