Heading to San Jose on November 2nd. The plan was Arenal for 3 nights, Monteverde for 2-3, Manuel Antonio for a couple then a night in San Jose before flying out.
I'm starting to think Monteverde might be too much the same at Arenal. We are renting a car and I'm up to driving the bumpy roads but since the activities are much the same, I would like to entertain another option. Even if it's one night in one place, another night in another place.
Any recommendations for 3 nights? I can handle a 5 hour drive to get there. We will have already zip-lined and kayaked so maybe another place with good hiking/bird watching/...?
Thanks!
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Would Osa Peninsula be worth it or just way too rainy?
The Osa is amazing, but you'd still be in rainy season in early November. You could explore the Sarapiqui area - I'm not sure how the weather would be then, but it has nice wildlife; we saw a lot of toucans there and some macaws, howlers, etc. La Selva is a great place to look for wildlife.
Although Monteverde shares similar activities with Arenal and is built up as a tourist destination like Arenal and Manuel Antonio it's actually about as different as you can get from either one in terms of ecology. It's also one of the best birdwatching destinations in Costa Rica and there are great hiking trails....so....the best place to go given your stated goals is probably actually Monteverde.
Since you're resistant to that the other two places in the neighborhood with fantastic birding and hiking are Rincon de la Vieja and Bijagua/Celeste/Tenorio.
Unfortunately the Osa is more like a ten hour drive from Fortuna and can be VERY wet (roads flooded so you can't get in or out) in early November so that's probably not a good choice.
Thanks so much to both of you! Great help! Is there not much to see along the coast of Guanacaste and on the southern point of the peninsula? I like to get off the beaten path a bit, but only if there's something worth seeing.
If I were interested in wildlife, that's not the area I would go to. I'd stick with Monteverde or go somewhere like Selva Verde, or you could consider Tortuguero. Rainy season would be beginning there though. We saw a ton of wildlife when we did it. Does the Poas area interest you at all? It's cool to see, and you could do the Doka coffee estate tour and the Waterfall Gardens.
Pretty much everything interests me. I know we will be happy no matter where we go but since we only have 11 days, I'm trying to see as much of a variety as possible. Poas does look good, hadn't researched it before. The original plan was to drive along the Guanacaste coast but I don't know if there's much diversity there, especially since we will see the coast plenty in MA.