Wife is treating me to a quick trip to Costa Rica. First time there. Speak limited spanish. Read pretty well and can figure things out. Just 2 adults. Probably 5 days total - 1 day to fly in - 3 days open - 1 day to fly out.
Doing some research and it's hard to sort the tourist trap spam from the good stuff.
Anybody who has been there, any suggestions?
Not necessarily looking for a beach thing, although not excluding it. Would like to see a bit of the country and experience the culture. Don't want to go too far off the beaten path however - not the young, reckless buck I used to be.
Any thoughts appreciated.
Just went in April with the family. You can skip San Jose. Rent a car. The roads are good. They’re not interstates, but I could navigate with Google Maps.
We were there a week. We spent a couple of nights near Manuel Antonio National Park near the town of Quepos. It’s on the Pacific coast ~3 hrs drive from San Jose. The park is small but has tons of wildlife crammed into it. We saw sloths and lots of monkeys. There were also snakes, frogs/toads, coatimundi, and more. If you go, get a good local guide for the park. They will point out all kinds of things you never would’ve seen and will have a scope to give you a good look. Ours let us take photos through his scope. We went to the beaches in the park too. Very nice. Just keep an eye on your backpack, especially if you have food in it, as the monkeys will try to take it. We saw them get one lady’s. They took off into a tree to go through it. She had a box of tampons. The monkeys pulled them out one at a time, unwrapped them and tried to eat them. Hysterical - since it wasn’t ours. The distances in the park are pretty short, so I wouldn’t even call the walking a hike really. We also took a snorkeling trip. The boat and crew were great. The boat had a slide and a platform for jumping into the water. The food served was good, and the drinks were nice. The snorkeling itself was meh. But it was our kids’ first time, and we all had fun.
We then trekked 4-5 hours inland to the volcano Arenal. It was active about 7 years ago, but is dormant now. It does feed hot springs in the area. Our swanky resort (Tabacon) had pools and many grottos heated by the springs. You can also visit the spa and springs for the day. There is tons to do for the active vacationer in the area. We did a hike that crossed several hanging bridges in the rainforest. It was about 4 miles and fairly strenuous in the heat with lots of up and down. We also went zip lining with an awesome company - forgotten the name already. You take a tram up the mountain, then take 7 zip lines down crisscrossing a valley. The longest line was 1/2 mile long. You hit 85mph and are over 600’ above the jungle for long stretches. Views are awesome. You can also take horseback tours or ride ATVs. We also went to the La Fortuna waterfall. You walk down about 500 steps to it. You can swim at the bottom. It’s worth a couple of hours. You can combine it with a stop at one of the many restaurants in La Fortuna for lunch or dinner.
We did not go to the Gold Coast area in Guanacaste province. It’s well north on the Pacific coast. It’s supposed to have nice beaches and is a bit more built up. A local who helped us plan our trip said it is drier up there, more like SoCal or Mexico Pacific beaches and not the lush green people expect. Try to fly into or out of the Liberia airport if you go rather then making the long trip back to San Jose. Having only 7 days, we also did not try to get to the Caribbean coast. It’s quieter and more remote, but supposed to be beautiful with some great little beach towns. It was just too far. While the roads are good, it is slow to get from place to place by US standards. You cross mountain ranges on 2 lane roads wherever you go.
I speak some Spanish, but pretty much everyone involved in tourism speaks English. If you do fly out of San Jose (especially an early flight), try to stay in Alajuela the night before. It’s closer to the airport than San Jose.
Bring rain gear. It’s rainy season now in a rainforest!
Have fun. We loved it. Most of the people were very nice. And outside of San Jose, it all felt very safe. Pura vida!
