steviegene

Hi all,

I am planning a trip in March for about a week with my husband and without our 3 kids.
Due to complicated flight arrangements, we can only fly to one of the following: Puerto Rico, St Thomas (including surrounding islands), or Costa Rica.

We are leaning towards going to St John again, which we loved. However, we also really enjoyed Costa Rica when we visited Arenal and Manuel Antonio 2 years ago.

So we have to fly into San Jose. Where else would you go if you had a week in Costa Rica, without visiting Manuel Antonio & Arenal? We enjoy the beach during the day, snorkeling, some wildlife, and nice places to eat in the evening.

Thanks!!

volcanogirl

Does the Osa Peninsula interest you at all? There are some amazing hiking and wildlife opportunities there. Also a lot of wildlife in Tortuguero and Monteverde too. The Guanacaste beaches are also popular.

steviegene

Can you drive there from San Jose?

travelingspirit

There are so many others places to enjoy in Costa Rica besides Manual Antonio. For a start, Monteverde is beautiful. Lots of do, hiking in the forest, tours such as coffee, canopy and horseback riding - an ecological playground! For a beach I can highly recommend Samara Beach. One of the safest beaches to swim, decent amount of hotels, tours and things to do, yet it remains quiet and quite lovely. For another experience completely you could try Rincon de la Vieja to see smoking mud pools, forests and hot springs. I have used [email protected] and they tailor-made a great itinerary for me at no cost, with lots of suggestions to suit my needs
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volcanogirl

stevie, if you were to go to the Osa Peninsula, I would definitely fly out of San Jose; it's about an hour via plane. We loved Bosque del Cabo. We used Sansa airlines. Tortuguero doesn't have roads, they have canals so it's more complicated to get to. You can fly in or boat in. A lot of the lodges will pick you up in San Jose. We love the Tortuga Lodge. You can drive to Monteverde, but a lot of the road is rough. I'd be more inclined to use a service. We went there from Arenal and used Desafio's Jeep, Boat, Jeep service. The Peace Lodge is also fun for a couple of nights. Check out pics and see if it's your kind of place; you can tour Poas and the Doka Coffee Estate from there, as well as the Waterfall Gardens.

volcanogirl

I meant to include some links for you.

http://bosquedelcabo.com/home/index.html

http://costaricaexpeditions.com/tortuga-lodge/

costaricaconcierge

Combining a few days on one of Guanacaste's beautiful beaches (I prefer Nosara or Santa Teresa) and a few days in Monteverde would be a good mix. If that's not of interest, you could head to the Osa Peninsula like volcanogirl said. The flora and fauna down that way are absolutely incredible. You'd definitely need to fly from SJ if you only have a week. Either way, you're bound to see lots of amazing things

sylvia3

ditto on the Osa!

volcanogirl

travelingspirit, if you read her post, she said she isn't bringing her kids. Animals are not difficult to spot at all in that area; we saw all 4 kinds of monkeys from the front porch of our cabin at Bosque del Cabo. We also saw an anteater, toucans, scarlet macaws, dolphins, coatis, etc. Wildlife is more prevalent there than anywhere else we've ever been. There's also a neat animal sanctuary you can visit; we were able to hold baby monkeys and a sloth there which was pretty amazing. Every person I've talked to has had amazing wildlife experiences there, so it surprises me that you would say that.

volcanogirl

stevie, I'm with you on St. John; we loved it there.

RAC

For the Osa, most beaches are a day trip. If you're looking for a beach with wildlife options, look at the Iguana Lodge on the beach near Puerto Jimenez.