Meant to post this on the Costa Rica site originally, but put it in Latin America.....sorry for the duplicate:


After much reading, surfing and gnashing of teeth, I finally settled on what I thought would be a good itinerary for my family (which includes two boys 15 and 13) this coming August. We are an active family and hope to do the ziplines, hiking, rappelling, beach, etc.... So, I thought this would be pretty good:

Arrive SJO

2 nights Poas area - drive to Arenal

4 nights in Arenal - drive to Puerto Viejo area

3 nights in PV area - beaches, etc

raft trip back to SJO
overnight in hotel then depart for home.

After I thought it was settled, I continued to read everyone's trip reports and thought, hmmmmmm, should we go down to the Osa Peninsula for a few nights, but then again the Nosara Guanacaste regions sounded pretty awesome. What to do? What to leave out?

We would like to stay in each area long enough to soak up the local culture and not spend all our time travelling from spot to spot. Money though is always a factor as we are not on an unlimited budget, we would rather stay in clean, mid-range places and spend the $$$ on activities.

Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated. Once I fix the itinerary this time, though, I'm sticking with it and sending in the deposits!!

Thanks again.

There is not a separate forum for Costa Rica, all posts go together into "Latin America"... that's why it's a good idea to include the country name in the title of your post.

Thanks for the info suze...sorry about that.

You have a very nice itinerary. I would stick with it unless you are really second guessing about Osa, and if that's the case (and if it were me) consider 3/n Osa, 3/n Arenal, 3/n PV. Osa is wonderful, but the other areas you mention are as well. PV is one of our favorites and I think your boys will like the beaches and biking around. Also, you might experience more rain in Osa that time of year, compared to the other areas.

thanks hip.....

I really think it looks good!

Thanks for the input girls. I read on one of the posts, volcanogirl, that you were at BCD in July. What was the weather like then,,,very rainy?

You would think so, and we were prepared for it, but we didn't get any. Maybe one 10-minute shower one evening, and that was it. We felt really lucky. There were some late-night lightning storms, but they didn't turn into any rain. We did Arenal and MA the previous July, and it rained on us just about every afternoon there.

And I was at BdC the week before volcanogirl. No rain for me either--except during the night, which I always enjoy. It does make for some muddy trails, though. And I had to cancel plans for horseback riding because of that. However, there were no disappointments whatsoever--always something fun to do there.

July is actually a fine time to go as it is cooler! Have also been in March and there is a WORLD of difference with the comfort level. There are some very nice breezes up on top of that bluff during July!

Our plan this year is to visit there a little later in July. I'm hoping it won't be too rainy!