This is a tricky review to write. First, the home is beautiful and the view?!?! Amazing. I've never seen so many butterflies and hummingbirds and heard so many bird calls and monkeys. You can feel the vibration of life around you and it is wonderful. This is one of the better appointed VRBOs we've stayed in. Everything you need in the kitchen is there. Good appliances, cookware, plenty of towels. Washer / Dryer and laundry soap! Having said that, this was not a great destination for us. If you want to stay at the house and enjoy the view, read your book and take a swim, it might work well for you. We wanted to come and go more, and that's where we bumped into some difficulty. This may be on me. I read the description as 3 miles from Uvita. I saw that we would need a 4x4. We've driven on rough (!!) Costa Rican roads before. This was not surprising to us. What I didn't expect was just how long it would take us to get from Uvita to the house. With practice we got it down to 22 minutes. And that's 20+ minutes of very difficult driving. (I thought it would be a few minutes of rocky, rutted, challenging road.) It was over 40 minutes round trip just to run into town. As a result, we didn't want to go down and up more than once a day, it was too much stress and kind of sucked all the Pura Vida out of us. Gone were my ideas that we'd jaunt into town for coffee and pastries, hop over to the beach in the afternoon, return home for showers and clean clothes and then scoot out to dinner. Instead, we made one trek each day and on two days decided to just stay in because we were tired of the difficult drive. Then there's part two. We lost power. I know this is common in CR. We had a few 5-10 minute power hits as we expected. We brought flashlights just in case so we were ready. I'd picked up a little extra water as Claire had suggested. The power stayed out for 22 hours. Without power, there's no water. No showers. No flushing toilets. No ceiling fans. No wi-fi for communication. Spotty cell service. I know the owners can't control the power grid. But having a generator might make sense. A stock of extra water. A bucket so we could use pool water to flush the toilets. I would have really appreciated a visit from a caretaker to check on us, maybe bring us a little food. We lost all the food in the fridge and an entire day of our vacation. It's a beautiful home. Claire is very communicative. But we won't return.

Casa Aracari is situated on a beautiful property that allows visitors to enjoy the most beautiful views of the area. We certainly appreciated having downtime there after our adventures. Admittedly, the drive there is rather treacherous - definitely requires a 4 x 4! The manager was wonderful - extremely responsive and helpful. She sent a great deal of information prior to our stay and connected with us during. We really appreciated getting to know the caretaker, Marvin, and took him up on his offer to take us to see the waterfalls. We also met his brother and took a chocolate tour. It was a highlight of our trip - so personal!

This house is gorgeous and has a stunning view. There is a plethora of wildlife right there on the property.

If you want to get away from it all and don’t mind a little rough road to get to the top of the mountain this is a beautiful place to be. We spent our first 5 days at one of the best hotels in Costa Rica, but the last 8 days we spent here was magic. It was just the two of us, so swimming necked was awesome! I also love to cook so all my meals were exactly how I wanted them! That being said it was nice to have a small town 20 minutes down the mountain to eat out too.

House and property are truly an amazing jungle experience. Everything you could need or want is in the home. The location is steeper and longer than anticipated and a 4x4 is certainly required, but road is in good condition. Claire, the owner, was a great communicator and Martin, the caretaker, was an awesome and friendly guy that gave us a wonderful waterfall tour. We would definitely stay here again!

I truly cannot say enough about out stay! Its actually taken a few weeks to adjust to being back home... I miss Costa Rica so much! From the moment I booked the home, Claire was in contact. She answered no only questions about our stay but also about our trip as a whole. She provided great recommendations and even helped me get some activities booked. She was very quick to respond and was so kind through it all. The house... where do I even begin?! The drive up to the house is a little difficult at times but nothing our 4x4 couldn't handle. They were doing some road construction while we were there. Two of the days the road was closed for a few hours. It interfered with some of our plans but nothing too terrible. It actually worked out nicely because we were able to meet and talk with some of the others who live on the mountain. It sounds like the road work is going to be greatly appreciated. The home itself was absolutely gorgeous. It was extremely clean and so welcoming. The gardens around the home are too beautiful for words. We immediately got into the pool when we arrived. It was the perfect temperature for the hot and humid day we were having. Like another guest mentioned, my only "complaints" (not really complaints, but maybe things to improve) would be the mattress in the upstairs master bedroom and the air conditioning unit. I didn't check out the other beds so I can't speak to their comfort. The air conditioning unit did shut off every 15ish minutes so getting up to turn it back on was frustrating at times but nothing we couldn't handle. Everything else exceeded our expectations. The view, the pool, the house, the neighbors, etc. I truly could go on and on about this property. We are very much looking forward to visiting again and will definitely be staying there! I can't imagine a more perfect spot for our family to enjoy Costa Rica! Thank you, Bud and Claire!

We stayed one week recently at this home. Location is good, owner Claire is very friendly, caretaker Marvin was super kind and helpful and we highly recommend his farm/ranch/waterfall tour that he offers during your stay. Overall we enjoyed our stay in this location, but the drive up to the property can be a slight challenge. You must have 4 wheel drive and higher clearance on your vehicle. We had a RAV4 but it would still scrape the bottom on a section of the road where they had piled up rocks, gravel and clay forming large speed type bumps in the road. Not sure if this was to slow vehicles down for dust or to divert rain running down the road when raining We found the master bed slightly uncomfortable as it had a plastic type mattress cover, so it felt warm while sleeping. The filling in the pillows were separating and lumpy. The a.c in the master room would shut off after 20 or so minutes and you would have to continually turn it back on if you wanted it to continue while sleeping. One of the two other bedrooms on the first floor does not have a full bath attached. You must go through the kitchen to us the toilet in a half bath or go outside to shower. Otherwise you have to go up to the 2nd floor to use one of the other full baths. The 2nd of the extra bedrooms is fairly small, but has an attached bath on the 2nd floor. The pans in the kitchen could use to be replaced as they were all teflon coated and scratched up as people had obviously used metal cooking utensils. We had concern of ingesting the teflon after cooking food in the pans. With a few upgrades /changes this property makes for a nice get away.

This property was a truly beautiful retreat. There is definitely a "wow" factor - the view of the Whale's Tail is spectacular, as are the sunrises and sunsets. Nature is plentiful - birds of every sort and species, even a coatimundi likes to visit regularly! The house is open and comfortable. The owners recommend a 4-wheel drive vehicle to get to the property - heed their advice! We got used to the drive, but it is very steep on gravel roads, so 4-wheel drive is a must. Great communication with owners and the grounds keeper Marvin. Overall, our family enjoyed every moment staying in this wonderful oasis.