Baldi Hot Springs, Province of Alajuela, Costa Rica

5OakRunner 5:00 PM Mar 10, 2020

Awesome, so many pools!
We went there for an excursion specifically to hang out in the pools, we did not stay at the resort. So ignore any ratings related to rooms and service. My wife and I had been to a bunch of hot sprins around the U.S. on our many road trips. They've never really impressed us, usually the smell of sulphur only allows us to enjoy the temperature of the pools for so long. Given that, we had totally ruled this out as far as excursions go. On another excursion we asked our guide which thing would be his personal preference to recommend and he recommended the hot springs at the Baldi resort specifically. He indicated it was very beautiful and didn't smell at all. So we took him up on it and we sure were glad we did. This place was awesome. They had 12 pools I think of varying temperatures. My favorite place was the top one where all the water enters the resort (pumped in from their underground wells, warmed by the nearby volcano) the worker there said it was about 67 degrees C. It was too hot to stand under for very long, but I enjoyed walking through it constantly to get that "ohh, so hot" followed immediately by a cooling effect. Any ways, the pools tier downward feeding into one another, sometimes in obvious ways and other times through pumps and pipes. The tiering was interesting to see, and we just slowly made our way down through each pool. Because there were so many pools, the place was pretty quiet, most times we had the pools to ourselves which was great. We were there during the day, our guide said that the place gets really busy at night time. Being up in the mountains and an overcast day, it wasn't too hot outside so made for a great balance to be in hot springs in such a hot climate. Some of the pools are fully covered, all of them had areas you could catch shade if you want and some of the pools had a "cool" pool in it that you could easily bounce between to get that nice shock effect. The main waterslide was closed when we were there, so couldn't comment on that. The one in the kids zone was open though. That thing was quick, maybe its slower for a kid, but it was pretty fun. Aside from all that, the gardens in this place were amazing. There is lush gardens all over the place that really added to the overall presentation of it all. The pools were all very clean as well. The only negative I'd have about this place was that there wasn't really many spots to leave your stuff. If you are walking the pools (it's a fair distance the 12 or so pools are spread over) , you'll likely want to have your stuff move with you as you transition from pool to pool and many of them just had 1 or two benches to set stuff on. Given how empty the place was while we were there it wasn't a problem, but if it were busy I could have seen it being annoying. They have lockers you can rent to leave your stuff in, if you were like us and wanted to take pictures you'd still be bring some stuff with you from pool to pool. So having a clearer area to set your things by some of the pools could be handy.

4Holly H 5:00 PM Jan 23, 2023

Definitely go again even though it’s not mega cheap.
We came as a family with an 8 year old and had a great day. We took our own towels and used the lockers which were about $7. The pools and all facilities were clean and varied and we had a great time. Loved the sauna pool and cave sauna. Staff were really friendly to us. The children’s area is great for younger kids and the bigger slides you may do at your own risk but the one that winds around is the safest one. We had lunch here too as day guests and whilst it’s not the cheapest it was fine and included soft drinks and teas and coffees and desserts buffet style. We parked on-site and you can come and go as you like so we went in the morning and then returned in the evening for the nighttime experience which was really fun. The very last pools at the top are really nice.