stotz

We are a party of 7 adults (and young adults) who don't want to spend all of our time in a car. We fly into Liberia Airport on May 26 and depart June 2 mid-afternoon.

Our 4 college age kids want a fun town and beach for part of the time so we are considering Tamarindo for the first 4 nights and the Arenal area for the last 3 nights. Does this make sense or should we reverse it? Is there plenty to do for 3 nights near Arenal? Or should we stay the last night close to Liberia?

guanacaste

<b>plenty</b> to do in &lt;a href=&quot;http://costa.rica.typepad.com/la_for...html&quot;&gt; <b> LA FORTUNA</b> &lt;/a&gt;, hot springs, waterfalls, day trip to cano negra reserve- highly recommended- and of course the &lt;a href=&quot;http://costa-rica.typepad.com/photos...html&quot;&gt; <b> volcano</b> &lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://costa.rica.typepad.com/tamari...html&quot;&gt; <b> TAMARINDO</b> &lt;/a&gt; is a good spot,-about 45 mins drive from Liberia- be aware that it is popular with 'college kids' and the bars late at night are not short of drugs and working girls.
as long as they're not stupid there's no problem!

guanacaste

oops, sorry i forgot Fodors doesn't take HTML

guanacaste

plenty to do in La Fortuna! hot springs, waterfalls, day trip to cano negra reserve- highly recommended- and of course the volcano

http://costa.rica.typepad.com/la_for...ome/index.html

http://costa-rica.typepad.com/photos...taricajpg.html

TAMARINDO- http://costa.rica.typepad.com/tamarindo/home/index.html - is a good spot,-about 45 mins drive from Liberia- be aware that it is popular with 'college kids' and the bars late at night are not short of drugs and working girls.
as long as the 'young adults' r not stupid there's no problem!
e.g: <b>don't walk on the beach at night</b>

shillmac

Tamarindo is a LITTLE longer than 45 min. from Liberia. Our experience, closer to one hour. Depends on the road conditions.

I think you have good choices. There are some enjoyable things about Tamarindo. You'd enjoy Playa Flamingo area as well, but more night action in Tamarindo. It is a good area because you can visit lots of beaches near Tam and further north all the way up to Playa Potrero. Of course, you'd need to be in the car to do it! But the drives are short ones. . .

Have you thought about starting out in Arenal and ending in Tamarindo? Either way, your last night needs to be near the airport--consider one of the hotels (recommend El Velero) in Playa Hermosa, 20 min. from airport.

guanacaste

shillimac- i live here, so i drive like a Tico

but, an hour is about right!

guanacaste

oh, and i recommend el velero as well, in fact i asgree with shillimac, start in arenal and finish on the beach.
and playa hermosa is <b> definitely</b> 30 mins from liberia i've driven it 100 times

http://costa.rica.typepad.com/playa_...ome/index.html

the 'young adults' can party in Playa del Coco:

http://costa.rica.typepad.com/playa_...ome/index.html

there's a great bar on the beach- owned by an american friend of mine, Jimbo- www.costaricabeachbar.com- he'll look after them
and they do the best sailing tour in the area on board a 65ft french built motorsailor - www.costaricasailingtours.com- to a deserted beach, playa huevos for a bbq. i was on it last month the best day out on a boat i've ever had in CR!

guanacaste

god this monteverde coffe is strong

the link for the sailing tour is:

http://www.costaricasailingtours.com

guanacaste

<b>and</b>....the link for la vida loca bar is.......

http://www.costaricabeachbar.com

i'm going home now, too much coffee!

shillmac

Glad I'm not the only one! I got accused of driving like a Tico a few weeks ago when I said the drive to Arenal from the airport was 2.5-3 hours! I swear it is! And I thought we drove as fast as we dared. . .

We've found that driving like a Tico kind of comes naturally after awhile when the roads don't seem strange at all any more.

Haven't tired that Monteverde coffee--perhaps I shouldn't. . . .I'll bet it's wonderful though!

guanacaste

it's great that's the problem though