Costa Rica is the perfect destination for a family vacation. It offers many kid-friendly activities, opportunities for adventure, beautiful beaches, waterfalls, animal sanctuaries and more. When we were planning our Costa Rica family vacation, we searched for the best places to stay in Costa Rica with kids. We discovered the Peace Lodge in Costa Rica and enjoyed 2 enchanting nights there as a family. We are here to share our review of this luxurious boutique hotel hidden in the cloud forest amongst lush tropical rainforest, breathtaking waterfalls, and stunning vistas of Poas Volcano. Peace Lodge is located on the grounds of La Paz Waterfall Gardens, which has an animal sanctuary, butterfly observatory, hummingbird garden, traditional Costa Rican casita, and more! Kids and adults will LOVE the Peace Lodge, one of the most magical places we’ve ever stayed. In fact, the resort was featured on Travel Channel’s Honeymoon Hotspots International as one of the eight most romantic honeymoon destinations in the world outside of the United States. Find out more about why we think the Peace Lodge is not only romantic, but one of the best family resorts in Costa Rica!

Review of the Peace Lodge in Costa Rica

**Our WTA score represents our own views based on our personal experience with the entity being reviewed.

Location of the Peace Lodge Costa Rica

The Peace Lodge and La Paz Waterfall Gardens Nature Park are about an hour’s drive from San Jose in the Heredia Province of Costa Rica. The proximity to the airport makes the resort a much better place to stay than the crowded city of San Jose. For a tranquil end to your Costa Rica vacation, stay a few nights at the Peace Lodge and get one last taste of sublime Costa Rican nature to renew your mind before returning home. That’s what we did and we were feeling so zen on our way home!

The Peace Lodge is located between two large national parks, the Poás Volcano National Park and the Braulio Carillo National Park. The nature park and lodge are at an altitude ranging from 4,200 ft. to 5,225 ft., allowing for both rainforest and cloud forest vegetation. It’s surreal to stay inside a cloud forest, and one of those experiences we’ll never forget!

We rented a car in Costa Rica because we like having the flexibility to go wherever, whenever we want. We had no problems driving to the Peace Lodge and enjoyed the scenic views along the route from their sister property The Springs Resort and Spa, another family-friendly luxury resort in Costa Rica. We highly recommend staying at both properties for a vacation your kids will talk about for years!

Reception at Peace Lodge

The reception office is small at the Peace Lodge but boasts beautiful views of Poas Volcano and La Paz River Valley from the balcony. Staff gave us a warm welcome with fruity cocktails and a complimentary 10 minute chair massage on the balcony. Even our kids were treated to a back massage, and we couldn’t help but giggle as they got their first real massage. We sure hope they don’t get used to this kind of royal treatment. They were even practicing their massage techniques on each other, which consisted of rough karate chops! LOL

Standard Double Guest Room at Peace Lodge

Staff helped us with our luggage and showed us to our room. We stayed in a standard double guest room, which had 2 double beds to comfortably sleep our family of four. Each room has a river stone fireplace that turns on with the flick of a switch. We appreciated how the staff turned on our fireplace before we entered our room so it would be extra cozy and inviting. Talk about romantic!

Our room had a mini-bar area with a selection of liquor, wine, soda, water, juice, beer, and snacks for purchase.

Our room, and all guest rooms at Peace Lodge, had a private balcony with rocking chairs, a hammock, and jacuzzi tub. We fell in love instantly with the views from our balcony of Poas Volcano and the surrounding cloud forest and rainforest.

The kids’ favorite part about our balcony was the hummingbird feeder, which provided endless entertainment for our little bird lovers. They were enthralled at being so close to hummingbirds! One hummingbird even took a seat on our balcony and let us get shockingly close. It wasn’t scared of us, and the kids thought it was so cool. Just wait though until we tell you about feeding the hummingbirds straight out of our hands later!

Standard Room Bathrooms at Peace Lodge

The bathrooms at the Peace Lodge are very unique and themed to feel like you’re inside the rainforest. The light fixtures on the ceiling look like jungle vines, the cave shower turns into a waterfall, the bathtub is made of river stones, and wood is featured throughout. The rainforest themed bathroom was another hit with the kids, who thought it was fun to shower inside a cave. They also were really excited about taking a bath in the outdoor jacuzzi on the balcony.

The bath products at Peace Lodge are very both luxurious and eco-friendly. They are handmade in Costa Rica from organic ingredients to reduce the carbon footprint. Water run-off from the resort fertilizes native plants on the property thanks to all-natural ingredients in the bath amenities. To minimize waste and save over 45,000 bottles from landfills every year, the products are supplied in large bottles that are refilled. Guests can purchase their own Raw Botanical luxury amenities to take home in the reception lobby.

I have a slight obesssion with luxurious bath amenities, and I absolutely loved how these smelled! Each product comes in a different scent, including mango body lotion, citrus hand soap, papaya tangerine body wash, ylang ylang shampoo, and banana conditioner. My skin felt incredibly soft and smelled delicious after using these bath products.

All-day Access to La Paz Waterfall Gardens

Our favorite part of being a guest at the Peace Lodge was the all-day and complementary access to La Paz Waterfall Gardens, which is open to the public from 8am to 5pm. If you are an animal-lover, nature-lover, or you have children, then you will go absolutely nuts over La Paz Waterfall Gardens. You can simply walk down to the gardens from your guest room, so it couldn’t be any easier to explore!

When we finished checking in to the resort around 4:30pm, La Paz was getting ready to close but we had free reign over the park. We took off to discover the animal sanctuary and had it all to ourselves! La Paz includes 3.5 km of hiking trails, 5 beautiful waterfalls, an animal sanctuary with over 100 species including monkeys, jungle cats and sloths, butterfly observatory, hummingbird garden, orchid garden and more. There’s also a petting zoo, traditional casita to show how Costa Ricans used to live, and numerous educational programs throughout the park.

La Paz is self-guided, but we decided to book a guided tour which we highly recommend for extra information and behind-the-scene looks. We’ll never forget when our guide pulled out a tarantula and asked if we wanted to hold it!

La Paz Waterfall Gardens is so extensive that we will write a separate post about it because we have so many photos and experiences to share. Check back soon for that. The highlight for our family was feeding the hummingbirds out of our hands, which happens twice at day at the Humminbird Garden at 9am and 4pm.

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The look of marvel on the kids’ faces at the @peacelodgeandwaterfallgardens. Who knew feeding #hummingbirds could be so fun! #WorldTravelAdventurers

A post shared by Bertaut & Alexis (@worldtraveladventurers) on Aug 13, 2018 at 10:04am PDT

Another highlight was the butterfly observatory with over 4,000 live butterflies fluttering around the sun-filled atrium. One butterfly landed on our son’s head and stayed with him all day long. It was an experience he’ll never forget! As you can see, he was smiling ear to ear and overflowing with joy!

Peace Lodge Pools and Hot Tubs

After a day full of discovering animals and hiking through the rainforest, we were ready to relax in the heated pool. The Peace Lodge has 2 pools, one of which is heated, and several hot tubs. This first pool below is located by the Trout Bar and Trout Lake. We did not swim in this pool because it was not heated, but appreciated its natural feel with waterfalls and tropical vegetation. The small pool in the foreground of the photo is a hot tub on the deck of the Trout Bar. Soaking in there while sipping a pina colada sounds like the perfect way to end a day at the Peace Lodge.

The second pool is located by the guest rooms, is heated, and covered by a roof so was where we decided to swim. There’s also a hot tub next to the heated pool, where we enjoyed some down time while the kids splashed around in the pool within our sight. The tropical landscaping surrounding this pool make you feel like you’re in the rainforest. A button on the wall turns on the waterfall, which was another huge hit with the kids. We spent a lovely evening relaxing in the heated pool and hot tub while the rain poured down around us.

Dining at Peace Lodge

Breakfast at Tortillas Restaurant

The Peace Lodge has several dining options for lunch but only one restaurant open for breakfast and dinner. For breakfast, guests can choose from the sumptuous buffet or order off the menu at Tortillas Restaurant. We opted for the breakfast buffet and found it delicious and bountiful, although it can get expensive for families. We paid about $75 for breakfast for the 4 of us, which seems high for Costa Rica although is in line with what you’d expect at a 5 star hotel.

The breakfast buffet included fresh fruit, yogurt, cereals, fresh juice (including strawberry juice!), pastries and bread, made to order omelettes, pancakes, waffles and french toast. The view of La Paz Waterfall Gardens and Poas Volcano is a great way to start the day. Tortillas Restaurant is also open for lunch.

Dinner at Vista Poas Restaurant

Vista Poas is the only dining option for dinner at Peace Lodge. It is a formal restaurant with stone fireplaces, romantic piano music playing in the background, and volcano views before sunset. We ate there with the kids early before too many other guests arrived. Our meal was delicious and beautifully presented.  The ambience was very classy, but we felt slightly uncomfortable with our young energetic (and sometimes loud) children. Bertaut walked out of the restaurant for awhile with our son when he started getting antsy while waiting for our food.

We found out later that the resort has a game room right next to the restaurant, which would have made dinner there a much better experience. So ideally kids could play games while waiting for food or after they are done eating to give parents some peace to finish their meal. However, we wish Peace Lodge offered another option for dinner that is less formal for families with young children. All the other restaurants close by 4:00 or 4:30pm.  You could squeeze in a super early dinner at Tortillas, Collibries or Big Trout Bar if you don’t think your kids will do well in a formal restaurant setting or order room service for dinner.

Big Trout Bar

The Big Trout Bar is open for lunch and cocktails. We did not eat or get drinks at the Big Trout Bar but snapped a photo. It is located next to the lower pool and the catch and release Trout Lake, where guests can go fishing for trout.

Collibries Restaurant

The last dining option is Collibries Restaurant, which offers a buffet lunch that was awarded the highest rating by the Costa Rican Tourism Council. Collibries is located in La Paz Waterfall Gardens next to the hummingbird garden. The buffet is $14 per adult and $8 per child (age 3-12), which is a pretty decent value and includes unlimited fruit juice, coffee and tea. The buffet offers Costa Rican specialties and a full salad bar as well as kid favorites like pizza, french fries, garlic bread, fruit and dessert.

Last Words on the Peace Lodge

We had an amazing time at the Peace Lodge and highly recommend it for families or even couples looking for a romantic getaway. We met one family there who comes every year from the United States! Having all-day access to La Paz Waterfall Gardens (which is included in the room rate) makes the Peace Lodge stand out as one of the best family resorts in Costa Rica. There are so many fun (and complimentary) activities for kids, including petting a goat, milking cows, fishing in the trout lake, feeding hummingbirds and toucans, and getting kisses from newly-released butterflies. We will be talking about our stay at the Peace Lodge for years to come! We had so many memorable and magical moments, so it’s a great place to visit if you’re after quality time as a family.

If you liked this post, please share it and pin it for later. Sign up for our email newsletter for more travel tips and inspiration to explore the world. Also check out our Review of The Springs Resort and Spa (their sister property), which has the best hot springs in Arenal and is another fantastic family resort in Costa Rica. You can also read our posts about What to do in Guanacaste, ziplining and the Animal Sanctuary at Diamante Eco Adventure Park, and staying at Andaz Peninsula Papagayo. There is so much we love about Costa Rica and we’re sure to be back!

 

**Disclosure- We were guests of the Peace Lodge, but as usual all opinions are our own.

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