I've been asked if I'd be interested in going to Costa Rica in a couple of months...where should we stay? What are the attractions there? I know there are supposedly nice beaches and you can see an active volcano. Anything else worth checking out?

We're going in March for 10 days. The wife is planning it so I wish I could give you more details. Will be a blast though.

You pretty much listed why people go - beaches, volcanos, and jungles. You should have fun...

The Volcano is a must. there are also some hot springs right there which we loved. Obviously the beaches and rainforest.

One thing we did that we loved was we flew into San Jose, and drove directly to the La Paz Waterfall gardens where we spent out first night. It is an amazing place to stay if you get a chance. Check it out

http://www.waterfallgardens.com/

another vote for La Paz!

other things to see/visit:

cofee plantation
zip lines
white water rafting
national parks

second on white water rafting and ziplining. Do you know where you will be staying? We rented a house on the beach for a month near Jaco. Loved it just wonderful people and sights.

going to Costa Rica in March. Any more ideas would be great.

Thinking about going to Costa Rica for our honeymoon in early June.

Anyone recommend places to stay? We'd like to experience both the volcano/jungle area and also a nice beach. Are there any areas where you can do both without having to drive 5 hours across the country?

My neighbor is a native of Costa Rica and she is a travel agent who books custom trips. She knows all the cool stuff to do there and really cares about her customers.

http://www.costaricanspecialties.com/

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Thinking about going to Costa Rica for our honeymoon in early June.

Anyone recommend places to stay? We'd like to experience both the volcano/jungle area and also a nice beach. Are there any areas where you can do both without having to drive 5 hours across the country?

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I just returned from a 9 day trip to Costa Rica. We went to both the volcano/jungle area of Arenal and also did the beach. The drive in between the two was 4 hours, but it was a very scenic and pleasant drive.

My honeymoon recommendation for the Arenal area would be Arenal Nayara. http://www.arenalnayara.com/ We stayed in the Nayara Suite and it would be perfect for a honeymoon.

At the coast, we stayed at the Playa Flamingo Beach Resort, but for a honeymoon, I would recommend something more along the lines of the Paradisus Playa Conchal. This was our favorite beach that we visited while there.

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going to Costa Rica in March. Any more ideas would be great.

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In Arenal, we visited the waterfall just outside of La Fortuna http://www.arenal.net/la-fortuna-waterfall-costa-rica.htm, did the hanging bridge tour http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g309236-d631942-Reviews-Arenal_Hanging_Bridges-Arenal_Volcano_National_Park_Province_of_Alajuela.html, and we did the Arenal Volcano Zip Lines http://www.arenal.net/tour/skytram-skytrek/ We enjoyed all of these activities in Arenal.

Hope this helps.

For those that have driven in Costa Rica any advice? We're renting a 4x4 something or other in March and I've never driven in a foreign country before. Thanks.

May I ask why you are renting and driving there?

Don't want to have to ride on a rickety ass bus the whole time and also gives us more flexibility.

How many long trips are you expecting? Not all buses are rickety, there are a lot of tourist ones. Along with that, there are lot of mini buses for tourists for good rides to wherever. I just see it pointless having a car when there are so many other cheap options that are good - just so you dont need to worry about things. Taxis are cheap as well...but to each their own. Driving wont be fun...

I'm also wondering about the transportation...

How much longer would it be to take the public shuttle from San Jose to Arenal than to take a private car?

We're going to like 3 or 4 cities

If you are deadset on it, you should be fine. Just dont really drive after dark for safety reasons (drunks/cars without lights/**** in roads). If you use common sense, you "should" be fine. Make sure your hotels have safe parking as well.

My wife and I just got back from a trip to Costa Rica in December. We stayed at the the Marriott Los Sueños Resort near Herradura (about an hour drive Southwest of San Jose). It was excellent.

We went deep sea and inshore fishing, golfing, zip lining and made a trip to the Manuel Antonio National Park. I recommend all of the above.

[This message has been edited by j1s (edited 1/17/2011 11:54p).]

The wife and I are going the first week of March. We are doing a more secluded trip at Recreo (http://www.recreocostarica.com/) in northwest Guanacaste closer to Nicaragua.

Recreo honemoon package:

O Relaxing massages (2) from The Spa at Recreo
O Picnic basket for a romantic walk on the beach
O Champagne breakfast in bed
O Private sunset boat ride for 2 hours on the bay
O Romantic Day Trip to Granada, Nicaragua (volcano, restaurants, site seeing)
O Airport transfers (2)
We are also going to do a zipline and volcanic mud batch tour.
Personal chef and all meals included
Only bummer is that alcohol isn't included but they recommend stopping at duty free to stock up or the shuttle will take you by a liquor store

I'm really looking forward to it.

We went on our honeymoon there in '09 and then made a return trip last summer as part of a mission trip, so here are my recommendations based on those 2 trips

where to stay
for our honeymoon, we spent half our time up in the mountains outside San Jose in Heredia and half our time on the beach near Quepos/Manuel Antonio at 2 different sister resorts

Quepos/Manuel Antonio - great place for honeymooners called Arenas del Mar. Has it's own secluded beach (don't be surprised by dark gray sand if you're on the Pacific side of island) and they offer a ton of reasonably-priced tours

Heredia - we stayed at the Finca Rosa Blanca. Real nice place with great views. Only issue was random small insects that get inside your room - it's up at elevation so all cooling/ventilation is natural flow through open windows.

what to do
1. canopy-tour - do not leave the country with zip-lining through a rainforest. We used Canopy Safari. Highly recommend. It takes almost an hour to get to from Quepos, but they keep you pretty entertained during the ride.

2. white-water raft - we used Amigos del Rio. Great group of guys. We rafted the Naranja River, which was challenging

3. sunrise/sunset sailing - water isn't very clear, especially during rainy season, so don't expect great scuba/snorkeling, but i love being out on the water

I would also recommend not going the all-inclusive route for 2 reasons
1. you might be tempted to over-eat or over-drink and not be as active
2. the country is worth exploring. don't spend most of your time on the resort. find every reason you can to get out there and get your hands dirty, mix-n-mingle with the locals. you can also cut down on costs a lot of the time.


how to get around

***DO NOT RENT/DRIVE IF YOU CAN AVOID IT***

-a friend of mine took his girlfriend to Costa Rica, and I strongly recommended not driving yourself around. He refused, said he wanted it to be part of the adventure... long story, short - the decision to drive themselves single-handedly ruined their trip

-taxis are cheap... and you can often name your price. read up in a fromer's or other travel guide about typical cab fares around town. if you are educated, you can get around for a nice price, but if you walk into a situation uneducated, you can get gouged pretty quickly.

-for our mission trip, we used public buses 1-1/2 hour each way - the roads can get rough, and the buses are not always on time, or even running that day, so I would avoid using public buses as your main mode of travel

-they don't have street addresses like we do (and practically everywhere else in the world does), so going out on your own has the chance to become quite the ordeal every single time

-if you don't speak spanish relatively well, i'd recommend having the front desk give you return directions (or atleast a phone # and address) to help with the return trip. we had a tough time getting back to the Finca Rosa Blanca because it was so secluded and many taxi drivers had never heard of it

overall, great country, affordable and enjoyable.


[This message has been edited by wacarnolds (edited 1/23/2011 10:20p).]

I drove from San Jose up to the Liberia area and it wasn't that big of a deal. Roads around San Jose are fine, crazy, but fine.

If you go up to Monteverde (which I loved) be prepared for some spectacular views and interesting roads. 1 1/2 lane dirt roads up a mountain with no rails or anything. Mid-size SUV is minimum requirement. There are some huge potholes/rocks.

Also, make sure to get a GPS. Worth every penny.

Just got back from an 11-day trip! I love the country and the Tico culture! We had a wonderful time!

We stayed in San Jose for our first and last nights at Hotel Luisiana - super cheap (paid $65 first night, $50 second) but nice (although their rooms are very different - 1-8 are MUCH nicer than the other rooms!!).

We took the Grey Line bus to Arenal (took about 4 hours or so, but fun to watch the scenery and small Costa Rican towns). We spent 3 nights at the Volcano Lodge and Gardens. This was a beautiful place - the room was just average, but you had your own private balcony overlooking their beautiful gardens, and they have a really good restaurant there too. We enjoyed our stay very much.

While there, we didn't get to see much of the volcano at all, because it was cloudy/rainy the whole time we were there! We were also told that it has been inactive for a while now - one woman even said they are not sure if it will even become active again! We think that if we come back to CR, we probably won't bother with coming to Arenal, although we did enjoy a couple activities - Canyoning with PureTrek and the gondola/zip line tour at the Sky Tram and Trek. We've done two other zipline tours, and this was easily our favorite! Long, high lines with excellent views of the lake (and probably volcano, if it wasn't so cloudy!).

Then we took the taxi-boat-taxi combo to get to Monteverde (our taxi to the boat dock was only 10-15 minutes, the boat ride was 30 minutes, and then the taxi took 90 minutes). Here we stayed at the Arco Iris hotel for 3 nights. We loved this place - our only complaint is that they have dogs that barked and woke us up a few times! You get your own little cabin. They have an EXCELLENT breakfast for only $7, and if you get there early, there are a bunch of the white-faced capuchin monkeys that come right by the window. The staff will feed them bananas and they are quite fun to watch.

While in Monteverde, we went to the Cloud forest one day, and the Selvatura Park the next. I highly recommend signing up for a guided tour of the Cloud forest. These tour guides are amazing in spotting things that we would have never seen on our own! Thanks to them, we got to see a quetzal, which are apparently rare this time of the year! Also, the hummingbird gallery is AMAZING and free and just outside the forest. We saw 6 or 7 different kinds of hummingbirds, all beautiful and like nothing I've seen before!

At the Selvatura Park, we did their zipline tour as well, which included 13 different lines, plus a Tarzan swing at the end (kind of almost like bungee jumping). They also have some hanging bridges that you can hike around, and we got to hear and see some howler monkeys here.

Then we took the Interbus to Manuel Antonio (about 3-4 hours), and here we stayed at Issimo Suites for 3 nights. Absolutely beautiful rooms, very luxurious, but not too expensive. The service left a little to be desired, but the rooms made up for it. Our first afternoon, we saw some rare squirrel monkeys on our balcony and at the pool!

We spent the next 2 days at Manuel Antonio park, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Especially on the weekends, you have to get there early because they only let a limited number of people in, and the locals like to go there for the beach. The first day, we dressed in hiking clothes and got a guided tour that we thoroughly enjoyed. The individual tours are twice as expensive as the group tours, so we paid for a group tour. We got very lucky though, because no one else joined our group, so our guide took us out on our own anyway. It turns out that he was the first tour guide there ever, and was born and raised in that area. He knew EVERYTHING, and could even call birds by imitating their sound. His name was Leo and we HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend him! He was just awesome.

Unfortunately, due to a recent hurricane, more than half of the trails are closed, but there is still a lot to see.

The next day, we went in our swimwear and tried all the beaches. The most popular beach (#3) is the best for swimming, and seeing the white-faced capuchins is easy to do. They usually come around lunchtime, since people feed them, although they're not supposed to. We enjoyed watching them play - so entertaining! Our favorite beach though was next to it, a little way down the trail. It was much less crowded, I thought the swimming was just as good, and the sand here was amazing - felt like velvet.

We saw so much wildlife these two days - about 10-15 howler monkeys (including a baby - and we got to see them jump from tree to tree - an amazing sight!), probably 20-30 capuchins, crabs, turtles, coatimundis, agoutis, and several sloths, including a mom holding a baby.

We didn't rent a car, and didn't really see a need to. Most of the roads are in pretty bad condition (LOTS of potholes), but the bus drivers and taxi drivers know them well and know how to drive on them. We found the buses to be very much on time (early most of the time, actually!), and the taxis were very easy to get, and inexpensive. They were all really friendly, too.

What are the buses like that take the longer runs between cities? Are they nice? AC? Restrooms?

What are the buses like that take the longer runs between cities? Are they nice? AC? Restrooms?

The buses we took often weren't really buses - one was, but another one was more like a big minivan. So, no restrooms, but they do have A/C and are comfortable enough for a few hour ride.

We just got back from our trip a week ago and we did the exact same trek as AggieSarah only we drove and loved every minute of it! Such an amazing place.

I just booked a hotel in Playa Conchal, Guanacaste, Costa Rica (cashing in a bunch of reward points for a long overdue escape for just the two of us) in September. We're also using points on Continental to get down there, so our only option for airport is San Jose. Looking at the map, it appears to be a long freaking way to get to the resort (3 hours or so). Does anybody know of a reputable shuttle service that we could use? I'd rather not rent a car as the hotel will likely be able to shuttle us around for free to some of the attractions so a rental car would likely be a waste.

But, assuming the care rental option is the only real way to to go given the airport into which we're flying and where our destination is, is driving in Costa Rica recommended and if so, easy to do?

[This message has been edited by Texas Aggie '99 (edited 4/18/2011 9:58a).]

OSA Penninsula 8 d in Aug 2012. Scuba worked class, 80 foot vis, sharks/ rays/ octopus/ seahorses/ moray eels, pelagic fish. Jungle exploration epic, 4 species monkeys, scarlet macaws, toucans, parakeets, parrots, etc etc. Fishing was awesome, wahoo, tuna, snapper, pompano, jack sailfish. Great guy adventure spot.

CTD2500:

Did you do your excursions through Nayara? We are staying there for 4 nights at the beginning of September. How was the weather? Any other little details to keep in mind?

We rented a small 4x4 suv for our honeymoon in CR. The roads are completely fine for a car (pavement, marked roads, some divided highways) everywhere we went except our hotel at arenal and the entire area around monteverde. The only things you have to be worried about on the main roads are other drivers and speed limit changes every 0.5 mile or so. The ticos don't follow the speed limit (or really any driving laws, for that matter) but the police target tourists and it's an outrageous amount of money ($500?) if you get caught speeding.

That all being said, we'd take buses if we had to do it again. Driving made for some fun stories and we had a lot more freedom, but it would have been a lot less stressful and the buses we saw looked pretty nice.

We are heading to Costa Rica in late February with 4 other couples. We will be staying in Playa Flamingo.
Any suggestions for that area?

nancydeedavis said:

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We are heading to Costa Rica in late February with 4 other couples. We will be staying in Playa Flamingo.
Any suggestions for that area?

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Wife and I and another couple are also going to Playa Flamingo Feb 2. They won the bid on a week at the Palms at a benefit. We're renting a car at Liberia airport. Looking forward to it.

Go to Playa conchal near brasalito! Restaraunte coco Loco is very good, good location. Horseback riding was fun on Conchal bit definitely wear a helmet and be careful. There was a tourist killed in brasalito several years ago when the horse spooked.

Take your own cigars. All the cigars on the beach and in Tamarindo are fakes. There could be a guy on conchal that rolls his own just outside the resort there.

If you want to check out an interesting spot that is new, hit up Las Catalinas.

Going in a couple of weeks. Will report back.