Need help coming up with a 10 day itinerary for Costa Rica

[sjukich]

Hey guys and gals, I need some help coming up with an itinerary for 10 days in Costa Rica. First of let me give you all some background so you can get a feel for what I enjoy. My wife and I are both in our late mid 20's, no kids and live in California. We love to do all things outdoors and love trying new things and going on adventures. I feel like I just filled out an online dating profile......Anyways we have traveled a bit over the last few years, making it to a few parts in Mexico, some Caribbean islands, Belize, Fiji, and each of the Hawaiian islands a few times. Through these travels we have found many things that we like and many things that we have not. Starting off with the diving, obviously that is one of the best parts of the trips and I feel it will be hard to beat what we saw in Fiji and the Rainbow reef and shark dive. We love all of the "off the beaten path" non tourist stuff that we found in Belize and Fiji. I did find that Mexico and the Caribbean islands we went to were just too touristy and everything was overpriced because ship loads of people show up to snorkel and zipline. I loved that I was able to explore the country in Fiji and Belize and still feel safe yet have a sense of adventure because of the culture. We're not huge fans of big cities while on trips either. Hawaii has been amazing each time we have been there but we want to try someplace new. Like I said before we love to dive, fish, snorkel and pretty much do anything in the warm ocean water. That being said, we also loved spending time in the jungle of Belize and seeing all of the wildlife and doing the hikes(most of which aloud us to be the only ones on the trail). So a good mix would be awesome. Lodging should be nice but doesn't have to be 5 star. Pretty much we want to do lots of stuff besides just sit on a beach and have a great adventure doing things we will be talking about for years to come! Anybody that has good experience in Costa Rica please feel free to chime in. We don't care whether we fly into Liberia or San Jose and most likely we will be renting a car to allow us to move around at our leisure. We will most likely be staying in the north since we are limited on time but I'm curious if Manuel Antonio could be a possibility to drive to. So anything really helps here guys…….Hotels, places to eat, great dive spots! Thanks!

 

[dolesorchard]

The Arenal/La Fortuna area is very touristy, but also a must on your first trip to CR. Arenal Observatory Lodge is our choice for that area. There are some other places nearby if AOL is full. The white water trips with Desafio are wonderful and the zipline at the Skytram is also great and just next door to AOL. From there I would make a choice between going west to the Tamarindo/Playas Del Coco area, or our choice would be to go south to Uvita/Ojochal area, or even farther south to Drake Bay. From Uvita Mad About Diving offers trips to Isla Del Cano, its a long boat ride, but I think its the best diving in CR. We like to stay at Club Fred in Ojochal. There are lots of fun things to do in the area Don Lulo offers a horseback trip into a spectacular waterfall including lunch and breakfast, there is a new zipline on the way to Palmar Norte, Diablo Sportfishing is based in Dominicalito and is outstanding, last year we took a group of people down and two of the guys went with Diablo and caught three skipjack, six tuna, a 6' dorado and three sailfish from 8-11' and Fred offers kayak rentals and guided trips. This is an area with deserted beaches, lots of wildlife and is about as non touristy as you will get in CR.

The Tamarindo area is much more touristy, but there is great diving nearby at the Catalinas. There are way too many really cool things to do in one trip all as day trips from here. Palo Verde NP is a great boat trip down the Tempisque river, Hacienda Guaichipelin has ziplines, a white water tubing trip, a spa and horseback trips, Buena Vista Lodge has ziplines, a huge ground level waterslide 1/4-1/2 mile long, a spa, mud baths and horseback trips and Barra Honda NP has a cavern that you can do a guided tour of. If you go to the Tamarindo area, I would recommend staying in Flamingo or Potrero, both are much less busy than Tamarindo or Playas Del Coco. We have been very happy with Costa Rica Diving on the way into Flamingo. A really nice place to stay in Potrero is hotel Sugar Beach you didn't mention your budget, but its around $150/nt. We have had good luck with Service Car Rental, rates are good and service has been very good. Its always cheaper to fly into San Jose (SJO) than Liberia (LIR), but LIR is close to the Tamarindo area and about the same time from either airport to Arenal.

We have a small business offering tours to CR, if you are interested in a guided tour you can PM me.

 

[ibj40]

Check this thread for more information.

 

[sjukich]

Hey guys I have a rough idea of what we are going to do in Costa Rica now. Please let me know what you think and feel free to chime in about any part of it. The only things that I'm still not 100% sure about is whether we will do both La Fortuna and Monteverde or just one of them. So here would be the two different itineraries. The second one is if you guys feel like we would be too rushed in the first one. Thanks!


Option 1
4/25 Leave Sacramento at 7pm
4/26 Arrive in San Jose at 540am, Get a flight down to Puerto Jimenez at 821am, check in one of the resorts in Osa area. (One question here, would it be better to fly into Drake Bay and stay in a resort there or stay at resort closer to Puerto Jimenes. For the most part we just want to go into the park, see cool things and possibly dive but it's not a must)
4/27 Osa area
4/28 Osa area
4/29 Leave Osa on a flight sometime in the morning, rent a car in San Jose and then drive up to La Fortuna(I've heard it take about 3 hours or so), check into a resort in that area.
4/30 La Fortuna, possible go rafting, zip lining, hot springs or hiking to Rio Celeste
5/1 La Fortuna, do whatever we missed the day before
5/2 Drive to Monteverde (we could leave later in the day if there were more things that we wanted to do in La Fortuna before we left.) Drive takes about 4 hours????
5/3 Monteverde, Zip line
5/4 Monteverde, do whatever we missed and then drive to San Jose late, check in a San Jose hotel for our flight out early the next day
5/5 Fly back to Sacramento at 715am


4/25 Leave Sacramento at 7pm
4/26 Arrive in San Jose at 540am, Get a flight down to Puerto Jimenez at 821am, check in one of the resorts in Osa area. (One question here, would it be better to fly into Drake Bay and stay in a resort there or stay at resort closer to Puerto Jimenes. For the most part we just want to go into the park, see cool things and possibly dive but it's not a must)
4/27 Osa area
4/28 Osa area
4/29 Osa area
4/30 Leave Osa on a flight sometime in the morning, rent a car in San Jose and then drive up to La Fortuna(I've heard it take about 3 hours or so), check into a resort in that area.
5/1 La Fortuna, possible go rafting, zip lining, hot springs or hiking to Rio Celeste
5/2 La Fortuna, do whatever we missed the day before
5/3 La Fortuna
5/4 La Fortuna, do whatever we missed and then drive to San Jose, arrive early or late depending on things to do in SJ, check in a San Jose hotel for our flight out early the next day
5/5 Fly back to Sacramento at 715am

 

[sjukich]

Ok we have another update! We've decided to just do 2 destinations so that we're not so rushed. We are going to do the first 4 nights up in La Fortuna and we are looking at the Hotel Arenal Springs, seems to get pretty good reviews and has a good selection of hot springs on site. Anybody have any history with this place? We will then head back to San Jose and catch a flight to Osa were I think we will stay at the El Remanso. Your thoughts on this place? Is it close enough to the park to make a day trip and see some wildlife? Also, what else is there to do around the El Remanso besides hike? Let me know your thoughts.

 

[dolesorchard]

Have not been to Hotel Arenal Springs, but most of the places in the area are OK. One thing to keep in mind is that most of the "hot springs" are just geothermal water pumped into swimming pools. I would plan one spending an evening at Tabacon Hotsprings which is a river that may be as warm as 104F. Also don't know El Remanso, but I don't believe you will find any diving there. There is good diving from Drake Bay at the north end of the Osa Peninsula, also lots of cool places to stay.

 

[jonnierowe]

Are you going to make it diving at all? Have you already booked? There is all kinds of things to do in Guanacaste. (North west). Great diving, really cool riverboat tours, hot springs, waterfalls, good surfing, volcanos, etc. You cant go wrong though. Arenal is beautiful, especially if you manage to catch it on a day where you can see the top. We went there for just one night and saw the whole volcano.. I know many others who have gone and waited a week and didnt get to see it.. Whatever you decide to do in Costa Rica, Im sure you will enjoy. If you need any help planning or suggestions shoot me a PM...

 

[chrisneilson]

Couple things i would suggest.

1- We drove all over. The roads are awful. Get a small 4x4 suv.
2- DO NOT drive at night. bad roads, no signs, people and animals on the roads.
3- I found the GPS useless. Wasn't at all accurate. I would suggest a good quality map.
4- be very careful about river crossings. In teh rainy season (may-nov) roads can be and are often washed out and rivers high. some rivers have NO BRIDGE, so crossing them is a big risk. Ask locals if you can.

I spent all my time in and around the Northwest and Nicoya Peninsula. We don't like touristy either. We did the drive in Santa Rosa NP and on the dirt path to Witches ROck which is famous for surfers. cool spot. Stayed in Playa del Coco, which was ok. slightly touristy.

Checked out Rincon Del la Vejera volcano area. was cool but i found the entire hot springs thing a bit tired. its an experience but i wouldn't die to go back.

Drove down to Tamarindo and high tailed it out of there. Tourist central.

Spent a night in Samara. it's touristy but cheap and cool spot. Can do diving there.

Then we rented a house on the beach further down the coast in a completely non toursit location. There were a few hotels and places to eat and a place to get groceries and we LOVED it. Private beach essentially.

WE also drove around the "Horn" and hit Curu wildlife refuge. Great spot for Monkeys and diving/snorkeling. Highly recommend.

We stated in Montezuma a night and hiked the waterfalls (hire a guide, they are very very helpful and help with safety) the town is touristy but very granola. I liked it.

Also went through Santa Teresa and Mal Pais. Very big surfer areas. I would have liked more time there. great beaches.


AS for your plans.

I know Arenal is a popular location. But most guide books don't mention it stopped erupting a couple years ago so there are no more cool lava flows to watch as it was when it developed. I was disappointed about that and didn't go. It's a popular spa area though.

Manuel Antiono might be nice, i've wanted to go but have heard it's fairly overrun by tourists.
Drake bay on the other hand is great for diving (in terms of CR) and not overrun. But i've heard that driving there is NOT a good idea. Very dangerous road and once there it gets tough. Might want to look at skipping a car for that part and flying the cheap local airline. you can arrange pickup through a lot of the "resorts" (not big all inclusive kind... more small dive/park oriented ones)


If I were going back i'd probably do a few days in Drake bay, then Fly back to San Jose and head to Manual Antonio Area, head north to Puntarenas, Ferry to Nicoya and do Curu, Montezuma, and the Mal Pais/Santa Teresa areas.

But that's just my 2 pesos.

 

[dolesorchard]

As far as Arenal not erupting regularly, it really doesn't matter much because, in spite of the pictures you see all over the place, the top of the volcano is not regularly seen, it is usually buried in clouds. I always recommend that first timers to CR hit Tabacon Hotprings, very touristy, but well worth it, there are not many other places where you can sit under a 100+F waterfall.

I would not drive to Drake Bay, but there is water taxi service from Sierpe that is quite reasonable and it costs about $4/day to park in a gated lot.

I avoid Manuel Antonio, it is a tiny park completely surrounded by intense development. The last time I was there, there was a line about ten people wide by at least 100 yards waiting when the park opened. This was in 2011 and they were talking about closing the park due to fecal contamination of the surrounding water!

Most of the roads are not nearly as bad as they were ten years ago. If you are adventurous, you will definitely want fwd. The roads are also now fairly well marked, even in San Jose there are street and directional signs. I highly suggest the International Travel Map of Costa Rica, our son-in-law had his ATT phone with gps when he was there with us in 2011 and said it worked quite well, we have no personal experience with gps. Sansa and Natureair are quite expensive and have a 40lb total baggage limit, so be aware if you are planning to fly. I would not plan on doing the Osa area and Guanacaste in the same trip unless you are staying at least three weeks, too much ground to cover.

 

[sjukich]

Has anyone had any experience with Casa Bambu in Osa?