Idahospud

Before I book this trip I will run it by some of my faithful travelers to CR. We are going in the summer which I have never done before so sure there will be some new experiences. We have about 10 days for this trip. We are somewhat at a disadvantage since we travel out of Boise ID. There are no decent flights & they take all day so most likely we will fly to Florida & fly from there which means an overnight in Florida since I don't like arriving at night in CR. So that means leaving June 30th & then spending July 1-10 for our adventures. I have been in touch with Fran Watson for our Torteguero tour. She advised putting Torteguero at the end of our trip since the turtles showed up so late this year. I don't want to waste time overnighting places to make connections if we don't have to. And realize that we need to drop off car in SJ before we head to Torteguero so we don't have to just park it. Make any suggestions you feel would help us maximize our trip with our 18 yr old granddaughter.
Day 1-4 Arenal (hanging bridges, ziplining, hot springs, volcano, etc)
Day 5-7 Manuel Antonio (monkeys, jungle tour, ocean, boat cruise)
Day 7 San Jose (overnighter prior to going to Torteguero)
Day 8-10 Torteguero
Day 11 Fly home

One things we were hoping for was a day trip on the Pacuare river but the only way I see that happening is doing Torteguero first in hopes that we can make the connection with Rios Tropicales at 11am for a raft trip & then heading back to SJ. It's a full agenda but want to show her the best of CR & places we have been. She's a very amazing, very athletic & smart gal that deserves this trip & we are happy to still be able to keep up.

Ready to book once I get your welcomed feedback. Thanks so much for being there on my journeys.

MichelleY

To break up our drive to the Carribean coast, we stayed overnight near Guapiles at Casa Rio Blanco

http://www.casarioblanco.com

If you keep the car, you could do this and perhaps leave the car at Rio Blanco? And get picked up there. We loved staying there and wished we had done more than one night, just to relax. They also gave us a short cut way back to the airport, avoiding downtown San Jose. Just another idea.

volcanogirl

If you want to get a rafting trip in, we did ours in the La Fortuna/Arenal area with Rios Tropicales and loved it. We didn't have time to fit the Pacuare in, but what we did was great. Tabacon is nice for fancy hot springs and Eco Termales if you want smaller and charming and locally owned. Sky Trek is nice for ziplining. There's not much happening with the volcano these days, no lava flow, etc. Sometimes it's so enshrouded in fog that you can't even see it. Hope you get to. We also really like the Proyecto Asis animal rescue center - got to feed the sloth, monkeys, etc. and get up close.

When you say "jungle tour" in Manuel Antonio, are you talking about a guided tour of the park? If so Manuel Antonio Expeditions is a good group to go with; the beach inside the park is very pretty. Their Damas mangrove tour is fun too; monkeys boarded our boat when we did it.

I'd recommend bringing books, games, or something similar for your Tortuguero portion. We also went in July and got pouring drenching rains. Still got to see turtles though.

emmajm

If you are overnighting near the San Jose airport, take a look at Toucan Rescue Ranch for more animal immersion.

Idahospud

Volcanogirl thanks for the new ideas. I never thought about doing a raft trip near Arenal. We stayed at Arenal Paraiso last time & really enjoyed their zipline as well as their 10 or so hot springs. At MA we hired an amazing guide that took us through the jungle & found so many animals for us to see but it was blazing hot so we didn't stay to watch the monkeys come down to the showers. Our Torteguero tour is being done by Fran & Modesto Watson who we have kept in touch with over the past 4 yrs. We didn't see the turtles last time so really hoping to see them. We kept pretty busy there & had the most amazing tours through the canals.
Must say we stayed at Casa Rio Blanco & don't share your same excitement Michelle. The road to the place was so bad that no one wanted to go there. We didn't have a car so were very isolated & nothing to do there. It was a bit too rustic & I don't mind rustic.
We are prepared for the rains at Torteguero. It will be a new experience for us going in the summer. Hoping to do a few new things that we haven't done before so appreciate the suggestions.

volcanogirl

We stayed at the Tortuga Lodge. I really loved it there. I liked that they don't put you into a big group like some of the other lodges do. We were there around the 4th of July. Only saw one turtle on the night hike out since the season had just started, but our guide found two more the morning we left. We were waiting at the airport and walked down to the beach to see them. They were engaging in romantic time, so it was a little weird!

Idahospud

The nice things about going with Fran & Modesto Watson is that they only take small groups. We stayed at Laguna Lodge & had great food & wonderful tours with them. Love the rocking chairs they have. Hopefully will have everything booked shortly after Christmas. I'm hoping the Springs has another Groupon coupon. Would like to spend the last night in a nice place but still relatively close to the airport.

volcanogirl

We stayed there on their Groupon deal too - that was a great deal. You might check out Xandari - it's close to the airport and really nice - great views and a good open air restaurant, a spa, some trails and small waterfalls on site. We loved it. It's set in the hills outside San Jose.

volcanogirl

Forgot to mention that The Springs has tubing on a beautiful river as part of their Club Rio - we loved it. They also have kayaking, but to me tubing was a blast, something your granddaughter might enjoy. We had two guides all to ourselves when we did it.

Idahospud

Well let's just hope that the Springs or Xandari put a great deal on Groupon. They are a bit pricey otherwise. We now have a friend joining our granddaughter so things get a bit more costly. Is the Springs close to the airport as well? The tubing or kayaking would be right up their alley.

volcanogirl

The Springs is in the Arenal/La Fortuna area, about three hours from the airport. But they have a sister property The Peace Lodge that's about an hour from SJO. It's pricey though.

Grano de Oro is a neat hotel for a night close to the airpot. It's built in an old mansion and has a great restaurant, as well as rooftop hot tubs.

Idahospud

Thanks for the tips. I will check them out. Want this trip to be super fun & do a few new things we didn't do our last two visits. Nothing like showing a young person something that we loved. Looking forward to the return. Would never thought to go in July but that's about the only time before college so will enjoy it no matter what the weather is like. Good memories are coming.