marionrogers

Hello!, me and my boyfriend(20&29 yo) will be traveling to Costa Rica in late July and early August for 20 days. We love beaches and just chilling there, and we also like all kinds of activities! like raffting, canyoning, ziplining, parasailing, hiking, etc, Anything that gets our adrenaline kicking!

We have come up with a possible itinerary but we will like to hear your opinions as well!

Day 1-2: Spend the night in San Jose
Day 2-5: 3 nights in Manuel Antonio(were we would like to parasail, go to the beaches and the NP)
Day 5-10: 5 nights in La Fortuna ( this is were we ideally would be doing most of the adventure activities and visiting waterfalls and hot springs)
Day 10-13: 3 nights in Tamarindo( we are planning on relaxing here and having fun!. I'm also interested in Diamante park because of their zipline, do you think it's worth it to spend a day there? and it is possible to get there on public transportation?
Day 13-15: 2 nights in Monteverde( to do maybe one fun activity and see the cloud forest(?)
Day 15-19: 4 nights in Puerto Viejo( to enjoy the beaches that are in that area punta uva, cahuita NP)
Day 19-20: Last night in San Jose

My questions are: Do you think this itinerary is doable? we will be depending mostly on public transportation and maybe some shared shuttles.
Will you change something? add a place or omit some?
Our budget is pretty restricted, around 100-150 usd per day for the both of us.( not counting the flights)We don't mind not traveling in luxury and eating cheap food.

Thank you! all your comments will be greatly appreciated!! as well as suggestions!

volcanogirl

If it were me, I wouldn't spend two nights in San Jose unless there's something in particular you want to do there. For the most part it's not a very attractive city - lots of razor wire, traffic, etc. We love Manuel Antonio - tons of wildlife in the area, lots of monkeys and sloths, and the national park has a beautiful beach inside. Manuel Antonio Expeditions is good for tours if you decide to do any. We used them for a guided tour of the park and for the Damas mangrove tour. La Fortuna has tons of great adventure activities; we did rafting with Rios Tropicales, waterfall rappelling with La Roca/Sunset Tours, and ziplining at Sky Trek. We like Tabacon for fancy hot springs, and Eco Termales for smaller, charming, and locally owned. In Monteverde, we loved the guided hike in the Reserve to see quetzals, and the night hike at Hidden Valley. Also went ziplining with the Original Canopy Tour. Again for last nights, I wouldn't bother with two days in San Jose; you may have to stay a first or last night of your trip due to flight times, but other than that I'd spend the extra days elsewhere that's more beautiful, has wildlife, and nature. Check out sodas for cheap CR food, good but affordable.

november_moon

I am planning a 2nd trip to CR now

Your itinerary looks pretty good. I agree with volcanogirl about only spending 1 night in San Jose unless you have something specific - and I think that may be your plan - arrive Day 1, stay in SJ, depart to Manuel Antonio on Day 2. My sister and I were in San Jose for a day on my previous trip and razor wire and traffic pretty much sums up my memory of the city too. We were visiting some friends there, so they took us around a bit - did some shopping, did some eating. I think most visitors just use it as a convenient place to fly in and out of.

For cheap food - we had our best meals at sodas on my previous trip, so definitely check those out.

marionrogers

Yeah we are not really interested in San Jose we are only spending the first and last night there because of our flights!
And Thank you so much for your answer!!

volcanogirl

Looks good, have fun!

samschaub