Pool view at the Prodeo Hotel.

“Sightings from the Veranda in Costa Rica”

Cows resting in the pasture as seen from the veranda.

Note: Today, many of our photos are of a smaller size in an attempt to avoid blurring when I borrowed them from various sites.

Whenever we need to book a hotel, we use the link here on our site for Hotels.com. We receive a tiny commission using our own links (and we hope you will too). 

The commissions we earn are never enough to cover the cost of managing our site, but every little bit helps. If you can, please use our links which have identical pricing and features as if you went directly to the same sites from your choice of browser. We so much appreciate it!

Lounge at Prodeo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Whenever a traveler desires a 30-night or more booking, the inquiry from the Hotels.com link on our site will take you directly to “corporate rates.” If you choose, a representative will contact you by email after you’ve decided on the criteria for such an extended stay.

Within a day or so, you’ll start receiving lists of possible hotels that will accommodate your criteria including pricing, location, and amenities. We’ve used this feature only on two occasions since, in most cases, we stay in vacation/holiday homes. 

Staying in hotels for 30 nights or more isn’t our first choice of accommodation. However, most recently we stayed in the Minnesota at a hotel for 42-nights and will need to do so upcoming from December 23, 2017, to January 23, 2018, and again one more night after the Antarctica cruise on February 8, 2018.

We were overlooking the tub area in bath.

Finding a hotel that would accommodate both dates, 31-nights in December/January plus the one night in February with one reasonable price, would be the ideal scenario. In doing so, most importantly, we’re able to store our luggage for no additional cost while we’re off on the Antarctica cruise, the entire reason we chose a hotel as opposed to a vacation home.

Sure, we would have preferred a vacation home, able to cook our meals, having more space to maneuver, along with a greater sense of freedom and mobility. But, this particular instance, not unlike in Minnesota, provided us with features and amenities that make it all worthwhile.

Once we received the list of hotels, all of which included offers for better-than-average-pricing (and there were dozens), we narrowed it down to our top two based on price, location, and amenities, finally deciding on the Prodeo Hotel and Lounge after contacting both hotel managers.

Complimentary breakfast is included in the nightly rate, which, after inquiring, it was explained contains eggs, cheese, and meats which works for us when pastries and bread products don’t.

The staff at Hotels.com suggested that once we find hotels, we find it suitable to contact them directly via a listing link to make inquiries for any additional questions we may have. In our case, we asked the following questions:

5. What is the total rate with taxes? How much is the deposit to hold it? When is the balance due?

Dining room located in Prodeo Hotel.

Thank you very much for your interest in Prodeo Hotel + Lounge.

Alessandro

Operations Manager

alessandro@prodeohotels.com“

Pool area located in the hotel including an outdoor bar.

Firstly, I was impressed with Alessandro’s mastery of the English language, especially in writing. Secondly, we were thrilled with his answers, all of which made this particular hotel work for us in every way. Also, in a later email, he included a free shuttle to the airport. based on our long term stay

During our multiple email messages over the next few hours, we finalized the 20% deposit. Doing so required that Alessandro and I speak on the phone. (We used our Skype account with a clear connection at around two cents a minute). We never send credit card information via an email (not secure).

We paid the US $512, (CRC 295,176) and received an online receipt and booking confirmation. We couldn’t have been more thrilled to not only have this task accomplished but to have done so with this great pricing and terms.

Sure, in Buenos Aires there are hotels priced slightly lower. However, we were searching for a relatively well-rated property (4 stars), a good location and the above-stated amenities.  It couldn’t be more ideal for us.

A typical room in the hotel.

We don’t consider such an extended stay in this and other hotels as a “vacation/holiday.” For us, this is a stopping point along the way in our continuing world travels. The fact that we’ll have an opportunity to explore Buenos Aires, its sights, sound, smells, and tastes, is purely a bonus.During the 42-night stay in Minneapolis, our goal was to spend time with family, as was the case during the 25-night visit at son Richard’s home in Henderson, Nevada. Sightseeing wasn’t on our radar.

Now, here in Atenas, Costa Rica, I’m chomping at the bit to get out, but we’ve found the taxi service cost higher than in some other parts of the world. For instance, when we stopped at the health food store and MaxiPali for groceries for a total turnaround time of 75 minutes for taxi fare of US $15, (CRC 8648) and discovered the cost to go to Walmart in San Jose (35-minutes each way) at US $35, (CRC 20,178) plus tip, we decided we’ll rent a car every so often.

This way, when we have the rental car, we can make longer sightseeing trips, go to the dentist and explore on our own. We’ve scheduled a car for five days for the week of August 21st, Monday through Friday, which will be delivered to our door.

In the interim, we’ll continue to work on our taxes, financial, and business stuff and, hopefully, have that out of the way by the time we receive the car.  We’re just like you…at times we have business-related tasks that take priority over pleasure.

Instead, we spend our days working on the veranda, reveling in the sights and sounds of Atenas with the roosters crowing, the cows mooing, the birds singing and myriad other sounds we can’t reasonably determine as yet. A stop for a bit of sun and pool time is usually on the agenda as well.

The evenings? Purely delightful! We enjoy a fabulous meal with a few choice shows to watch on the giant HD TV in the comfortable and spacious screening room, all the while chatting, laughing, and treasuring this life we live.

May you treasure your today and always!

Photo from one year ago today, August 10, 2016:

This style of Buddhist statue is commonly seen in Thailand which was located in the vacation home we’d rented in Rawai, Phuket Thailand one year ago. For more photos, please click here.