Just returned from our 5 day family tour of Costa Rica - Learned so much from this talk site I felt obliged to share - Prior advice that 5 days is too short was correct - Was very glad to have only chosen 2 spots and skipped the beach - The transfer from San Jose was a breeze, and the $100 for my family of 4 was well worth it - In Arenal, Los Lagos was ok - Not Tabacon, but clean and cozy, with great hot spring pool and slides our teen-agers loved, and wet bar for drinking while in the hot pool my wife and I loved - The restaurant was great for breakfast, and included - but the dinners were weak, and even without a car, taxis are dirt cheap and it is easy to get around to some of the other spots - Even staying 3 days at the base of the volcanoe, we never saw great lava flows, but it really didn't ruin the fun - The shear warmth of the natural springs convinces you of the heat inside - The hike up to the private observation point was fun, but didn't change the view much - The best part of our stay were the side tours - The Cano Negro boat tour was well organized and easy - We had a guide who pointed out so much we would not have seen - Monkeys, sloth, multiple birds, caymans, bats.....All from a covered power boat which actually took us up to the Nicaragua border - Then we stopped for lunch at a delicious local spot in Los Chiles, near the town with the pier for the start of the boat tour - Also bought some beautiful kitchen items handmade from the local woods - The next day was even more exciting, with a sea kayak tour on the Rio Arenal - It was class 3 rapids, and even with the end of dry season timimg, it was all we wanted - I fell several times into the rapids, and I suppose could have been hurt, but the guides were great, and even my scared wife (who went with the guide), and our teen-aged sons all loved it - The river meanders through a breathtaking gorge, with lots of trees and wildlife - There was a rest spot where we swung off giant natural vines to jump into the warm water, and again a great lunch at the end of the tour - Some of the people on the tour were upset that they hadn't seen enough frogs on their trip, and our guide ran off into the woods for a moment and returned with a small, poisonous red frog to look at - Later he found a green and black one for pictures and general amazement - Incredible!!!! We didn't have 2 bags for the first night, and 1 bag for the second night, but it didn't matter much - The first day after the tour we wandered around La Fortuna shopping for t-shirts, shorts, undies and blue jeans, enjoyed meeting the local townspeople, and had no trouble getting what we needed for $50 - My family quite enjoyed my look in Costa Rican style speedo undies! The food was very good - Lots of beans and rice with cilantro all day long - Great fresh fruit and fruit juice everywhere, abundant fresh fish, and even pretty good local steak, courtesy of the cattle ranches everywhere - We drank mostly bottled water, but when we had the local water it was clean and none of us ever got sick - We did the Desafio horse transfer from Arenal to Monteverde, and it was very nice- Organized, easy to manage, and especially nice that they transfer all your luggage - The horses were very easy to ride, obviously well cared for, and happy - The guides didnt speak much English, but were so fun and nice it didn't matter much - The views around Lake Arenal and the green hills were very nice - We encountered birds, pigs, horses and cattle along the way, and had a great stop for fruit and trail mix - Also met very nice travelers on every tour - The bad news is there was still a 3 hour tortuous van ride to finish the trek to Monteverde, which is worth the hassle to get to - We had a stop half way for lunch and beer - My family of 4 ate as much as we could and had six beers for $20!!!! Also bought very nice coffee sacks and six packs of local coffee for presents for another $25! The coffee was delicious everywhere - Monteverde is a beautiful cloud forrest which has remained simple and full of fun loving types - Not exactly a hippy town, but definitely not as built up and commercialized as I was led to believe - Our hotel, El Sapo Dorado, was clean and charming - very quiet - We were so beat up from the kayaking, hiking, hoseback riding and bumpy car ride, my wife and I had massages in our room - His name was Jimmy, with 10 - 15 years experience, from Massachusetts, and he came to our room with a table and gave us each more than an hour for $45 a piece - Same thing in Atlanta costs me $125 a piece - The restaurant was vegetarian and very nice, but a bit pricier than other spots around Costa Rica - We liked it - my wife is a vegetarian - and didn't mind spending a bit more for the convenience, but Monteverde offers enough other options for the budget minded - Our tour of the reserve was a high point - Federico was the ultimate guide - He knew everything about everything - weather, plants, birds.....It was a nature tour like no other we have had - topped by great views and pictures of giant snakes, toads, and the holy grail of birders, lots and lots of quetzales - Yes, they are as beautiful as advertised - The cloud forest is not the place for seeing wildlife as much as for enjoying the wonders of the trees and birds - We saw more monkeys on the Cano Negro than in Monteverde, but it didn't matter - Of course we did the Canopy Tour, and all of us enjoyed it - I felt very safe with the Original Canopy Tour staff, and it was plenty high enough and scary enough - I have heard that the Sky Trek is a bit higher and wilder for the thrill seeker types - The ride back to San Jose was again bumpy and slow for the first half - and you are never so happy as when you see the paved roads again - The views leaving Monteverde where spectacular, and our driver was very nice, allowing us to stop in Puntarenas for a nice cheap local breakfast - All in all it was a power packed 5 days, full of great memories, leaving us with 3 256mb cards of great pics, and all eager to get back to Costa Rica as soon as possible - Those folks we met in Monteverde who had flown and driven up from the Osa said Lapa Rios was indeed expensive and fantastic, but they were absolutely fried from the travel - Thanks to all for the posts that allowed my family to get the most out of our trip - and me be a hero to them for planning it all - My overall impression of the country is that you would have to try hard to have a bad time - Everyone was nice, with the exception of San Jose, which is an urban jungle we were happy to leave ASAP - I can't make sense of the ubiquitous advice to stay a night or 2 in town on either end of the trip - I guess it depends on your preferences and your flight schedules, but we didn't regret doing it our way at all -Got to catch up on life back in Atlanta - Happy travels - Byron

Glad to hear you had a very memorable experience.

You certainly took great advantage of the short time you had.

Thanks for the great details. My family of 4 are going July 1-16. We want to do the horse transfer and you are the 1st person I've seen that's actually done it. Did you book it through the Arenal website? I think we will have a rental....do you know if they transfer your vehicle for you? I thought I read somewhere that they do. Thanks

I did it online through Desafio before we went - Don't know about transfering the rental car, but they are pretty good to e-mail correspond with - Have fun - Byron

Hi there... We did the horseback trip with the same company last December and had a fantastic time! I posed a trip report eons ago, but here is an excert on the horseback section for you. Hope it helps! Have fun! Let us know how you like it!

Malia

TRANSPORTATION: We didn’t want to drive between Monteverde and Arenal, so we opted for the van/horseback/boat/taxi transfer instead. At $65/person this was a great way to turn a travel day into an adventure! We were picked up at 8 a.m. and then driven for about 1 ½ hours to our horses. We had the same driver who picked us up in San Jose. As was the case with this tour company, he was exactly on time. The journey included myself, my boyfriend and two German-speaking girls from Switzerland. We left our bags with the driver and then rode horses for about 2 ½ hours! The Spanish-speaking guide and his 10-year-old son took up the front and rear. We stopped for a break along the banks of Lake Arenal to eat pineapple and watermelon. Our guide supplied bottled water. We rode for another hour or so and were allowed to let the horses trot or gallop - such fun! We were then met by another guide who had a pink boat docked on the lake & our bags were on the boat. We took a short 20-minute trip across the lake, which included a brief stop at an island where we saw huge orange and black iguanas perched atop trees! On the other side of the lake, we were met by a taxi who drove us to our hotel. Arrival was about 1:30 p.m. Tour company that booked the horseback trip: http://www.monteverdetours.com and E-mail is [email protected].

Thank you, the trip sounds great. I am waiting to hear about transferring the rental....anyone out there know if there is such a service?

Thanks, Kim

hi can you tell me who you used for private transfer from airport to arenal? Did driver speak english? Did you tip?

Thanks
Judy