Cabins El Sol

We stayed at El Sol for 2 nights in late August and very much enjoyed our stay. El Sol is located 5km south of Santa Elena on the road to San Jose and takes 10 or 15 minutes actual driving time from Santa Elena. While there we stayed in the small cabin which was a treat. The cabin includes a bathroom with shower, a kitchen with sink, dishes, fridge, propane burners and a very large and very comfortable bed. Overlooking a gorgeous valley, the cabin sits by itself on the owner's property so you have ultimate privacy. As mentioned in other reviews, there are bugs here and there in the cabin, but it is a cabin...on a farm. It would have been more surprising if there weren't bugs.

Elisabeth, the owner of El Sol was an extremely gracious host and made our stay in the Santa Elena area as pleasurable as possible. She arranged for a delicious dinner of tortillas and fixings to be delivered to the cabin on our first rain soaked night and also had an amazing breakfast spread prepared for us the next morning (neither, however, are included in the cabin rental). She also arranged for us to go horseback riding ($60 a person) from the property with two guides and the family staying in the large cabin. The riding was certainly not beginner's horseback riding as it was down to the base of the valley and back up on rocky and muddy trails. However it was very fun and included brunch in the middle of the river at the bottom of the valley overlooking a waterfall.

The property overall is beautiful and also has a pool and sauna which we didn't used but looked inviting enough. It does get dark very early but the sun also comes up early as well...so we got early starts and were asleep by 9pm both nights. One final note of caution: Elisabeth only accepts cash. Plan ahead so you don't get delayed on your way out of town waiting an hour and a half in line at one of Santa Elena's two banks like we did! For more info about our trip to Costa Rica visit our travel blog at http://patrinadoestheglobe.blogspot.com/