Advice desired for a family trip to costa rica

Old Apr 20th, 2015, 04:39 AM
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Advice desired for a family trip to costa rica

I am planning a trip for 9 adults (ranging in age from 30 to 75) and 1 10 year old child to go to La Fortuna(3days), Monteverde(1 day), and Manuel Antonio(2 days). We are looking for activities that can include most or all of the family. Any reccomendations for rafting, ziplining or other outfitters? This is my first time to travel to Costa Rica, so I am operationg dark.
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Old Apr 20th, 2015, 10:35 AM
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With that amount of time, I would limit your trip to 2 locations. Cut out Monteverde. You would need 2 days there to enjoy as it takes a lot of time to get there. It takes a lot of time to get most anywhere. Arenal to MA takes almost 5 hours.
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Old Apr 21st, 2015, 12:08 PM
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I agree with MichelleY. Cut out Monteverde. We just got back April 1. We had four adults. At La Fortuna, we stayed at Volcano Observatory Lodge. We really liked the hotel but the road up to it was very rough. You don't want to go up and down too many times. We went to the Hot Springs at Eco Termales.which was very enjoyable. We also did the little hike that the hotel leads each morning. The hotel pool was wonderful. We then went to MA. We used Juan from Manuel Antonio Expeditions to take us on a tour of the park. You really need a guide to be able to find anything worth looking at. We used the same company for the Mangrove Boat tour. Juan also booked the zip line tour for us at El Sanctuario which we all enjoyed. We had a 10 year old and a 67 year old in our group and we saw people much older doing it, so you should all be able to zip.
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Old Apr 23rd, 2015, 08:13 AM
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I agree; Monteverde is not worth going to for just one night. It's a long bumpy road to get there, and best saved for another trip unless you can spend at least two or three nights there. We did La Fortuna/Manuel Antonio for our first trip and thought it gave us a great overview. Sky Trek is great for ziplining in the La Fortuna area, Rio Tropicales has nice rafting; we also like hiking at the waterfall and the Hanging Bridges. The Cano Negro tour is a fun boat ride to see wildlife, kind of an all day adventure, and you can pair it with a night at the hot springs - we like Tabacon for fancy and Eco Termales for local charm. Tubing at the Springs Resort and Spa is also fun and visiting the Proyecto Asis animal rescue center where you can help feed monkeys and sloths and get up close to rescued animals. We've stayed at the Lost Iguana, Nayara, and The Springs Resort and Spa and enjoyed all of them. Silencio del Campo is another popular spot. In Manuel Antonio we love Tulemar Bungalows, right on their own beach. Also fans of Manuel Antonio Expeditions like sd mentioned - the guided tour of the park and the Damas mangrove tour. The Villa Vanilla spice tour is interesting, and you get yummy dessert samples at the end of your tour, some nice views as well.
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Old Apr 24th, 2015, 07:36 AM
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Agree with everyone who said to limit your trip to two locations. We also stayed at Tulemar in Manuel Antonio. They have a variety of accommodations from bungalows to large homes and there's a lot of wildlife on the property.
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Old May 31st, 2015, 07:34 AM
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Great help...we are a family of 10 with 4 children from 9 to 15 (boys and girls)and are planning on a trip over Thanksgiving week in November of this year. We like the idea of two locations for the trip - as suggested in this forum.

We have two requests/questions - first, would anyone suggest a villa in the area of La Fortuna or Arenal? and, second, we are looking for a recommended location for the second half our 8 day trip on the ocean and had heard that Tamarindo is a great location (vs Manuel Antonio).

Thank you so much for your input/help!

Skippie1
Port Washington, WI
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Old May 31st, 2015, 12:09 PM
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If you are flying in/out of San Jose. Stick to MA.
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Old Jun 1st, 2015, 07:11 AM
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There aren't a lot of villa type accommodations in the Arenal area. You tend to see those more in beach communities like Manuel Antonio, but I have read positive things about Villa Hermosa if you want to explore that one. Otherwise, popular hotels include Silencio del Campo, The Lost Iguana, Nayara, The Springs Resort and Spa, Los Lagos, and the Arenal Observatory Lodge - the farther you are from town the more likely you are to see wildlife. For me personally, I would take Manuel Antonio over Tamarindo.
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