ah ok got it

thanks for the weather warning about Celeste. I would be very disappointed if i was surprised with brown water after expecting paradise water

also if I said I was not worried about missing the 8am domestic flight, I would be a liar. I do need a back up plan. If I miss the flight I will need to take the next flight which is at 12pm. Since we last spoke I decided to book a private fishing tour (haven’t reserved or paid yet) but if I miss my flight it will be too late for that tour because I’ll arrive at 1pm instead of 9am and they might not return my deposit. If I don’t put a deposit but make it to my 8am flight, there is a chance someone else will book the tour and I won’t be able to. I guess I could find something else to do that day, worst case scenario.

im also concerned about the weather in the south in early July. If it rains hard, it’ll disturb my fishing, snorkeling, and hiking plans. I know you can’t predict the weather but can you tell me what you think June 7 to 10 will be like at Drakes Bay / Corcovado area?

I do feel like I’m cutting Manuel Antonio short in order to make it to Monteverde but I don’t want to cut out Monteverde either need at least 1 full day there

I haven’t booked my plane ticket yet so I might just add 1 more day to make a total of 12 days that way I’ll have time to visit all the regions i listed and do more of the activities . If i do that, where and how should I spend the extra time in your opinion? The truth is my work might not allow that so it’s not a guarantee I can do it, but I want to!

Today I re wrote my itinerary and fine tuned it. I know you’ve already read a lot of my writing but if you don’t mind, take a look and tell me what you think it’ll be like if I add one more day to make it 12 total and I want to hear how you would use that extra day… at Manuel Antonio? I agree it’s a beautiful place. How should I spend the extra time there? Or should I spend it elsewhere


NEW ITINERARY UPDATED 3/17/25

Day 1, 2, 3, 4 - Drake Bay - June 7 land in SJO 5:30am, get on 8am domestic flight to Drake Bay, arriving 9am, check in hotel, no plans this day maybe go on a daytime fishing tour then do something else at night (open to suggestions) June 8 get on boat to Sirena/Corcovado for wildlife hiking tour, spend the night there. June 9 more hiking in Corcovado then return to Drake Bay around 2pm, that night maybe do nocturnal wildlife tour (open to suggestions) June 10 (our anniversary day) get on boat to Cano island for snorkeling tour, return to Drake bay around 2pm, check out of Drake bay hotel, get on boat to Sierpe and arrive around 4:00 PM where we pickup a rental 4x4 SUV and drive to Manuel Antonio park

Day 4, 5, 6 - Manuel Antonio - June 10 arrive hopefully around 6pm before dark, check in hotel. That evening have a romantic dinner, celebrate our anniversary, walk on the beach or nature and sleep early, wake up early for tomorrows M.A. park tour. June 11 do a full tour of Manuel Antonio park, hiking and also relaxing beach time, then watch the sunset with drinks, then maybe some night life or night time mangrove boat tour or nocturnal wildlife walk.

June 12 - check out of Manuel Antonio hotel, but before heading to Monteverde, visit one or a couple of the following places: one hour drive South there is Nauyaca waterfalls, which looks beautiful, they offer horseback rides up to the waterfalls and back down instead of hiking, (one hour each way) it starts at 9am and ends at 1:30pm, it includes Lunch on the way down. Total cost $80 PP. From Nauyaca it’s 4 hours drive to Monteverde which means I’ll get there about 6 pm (sunset) because I will stop for 30 minutes to view Tarcoles bridge crocodiles on the way to Monteverde. This plan should work but is cutting it close if there are delays on the road. I would prefer not to drive unfamiliar roads at night but I’m not too concerned, it won’t be my first experience of the sort and I’m an experienced driver

Other than Nauyaca there are less interesting places in the Manuel Antonio region: to the South there is Uvita, Playa Hermosa, Uvita waterfall (natural water slide) to the North there is Beisanz beach, Quepos, Playa Hermosa, Jaco, and Playa Herradura. Of all the places I listed above, there are only a few that I’m most excited to see: Nauyaca waterfalls and Tarcoles river crocodile bridge. The other places don’t seem as special and/or they seem redundant compared to everything else on my 11 day itinerary. Most likely I won’t visit these places unless I have time to spare and they’re recommended

Day 6, 7, 8 - Monteverde - June 12 check in Monteverde hotel, freshen up, dinner, maybe a nocturnal cloud forest tour. June 13 visit Santa Elena cloud forest with a private guide, then do a zipline tour either at 100% Aventura, Selvatura, or Treetopia (open to suggestions) no plans in the evening (open to suggestions).
June 14 check out of Monteverde hotel. Maybe do a short activity before driving to La Fortuna / Arenal, maybe a coffee and/or chocolate tour

Day 8, 9, 10, & 11 - La Fortuna - June 14 Check in La Fortuna hotel. Depending on the time of the day, do a short activity e.g. Salto rope swing, hot springs, kayaking lake Arenal, or hanging bridges night tour (open to suggestions) June 15 do a full day group tour with shared guide to see La Fortuna waterfall, hike Arenal volcano, visit an indigenous village, and visit a hot spring resort. Another option is to do these activities without a guide (open to suggestions) afterwards maybe hot springs in the evening (open to suggestions) June 16 either do a river rafting tour, or drive to Rio Celeste(only if good weather or else it’s muddy water) for sight seeing swimming and river tubing and also visit the oldest/largest tree in CR. I’m hoping I can do all this in one day without feeling too rushed

June 17 - our final day in Costa Rica but thankfully we have the entire day since our flight is after midnight. San Jose doesn’t interest us too much (open to suggestions) so we will probably spend the morning and early afternoon in Arenal / La Fortuna. Maybe we’ll visit the Mistico hanging bridges, or do another activity we didn’t have time for. Maybe we will use our final day for pure relaxation, hot springs, massages, etc (open to suggestions)

We should leave La Fortuna by 2 or 3 PM so we can get to San Jose by 5 or 6 PM before the Sun goes down. Our car rental guy said we can return the car at 10pm, the office is located 10 minutes from the airport, or we can return it earlier if driving in the city is more of a hassle than a convenience, but in this case we will need transportation to the city and back again to the airport, and we won’t have anywhere to keep our luggage full of clothes while we explore the city. We want to enjoy the city for a few hours before our midnight flight back to Los Angeles


I’ve been researching and planning for almost a week now, changing the itinerary multiple times, but I think it’s getting close to being ready, maybe I’ll make some more changes based on your advice and suggestions, but I’m ready to start reserving hotels, rental car, and activities

I wouldn't drive between cities at night. Things are not well marked at all, and you can encounter heavy rain and fog. Try to get to your destinations before the sun goes down. Also San Jose isn't a very attractive city - lots of bars on the windows, traffic, etc. There are a few museums and a national theater, but we generally just use San Jose for a first or last night's sleep. The road to Monteverde is a pain in the butt. We used the Jeep Boat Jeep service to go there. I believe it's better paved than when we went, but it had huge pot holes and was very bumpy. You don't need 30 minutes to see the Rio Tarcoles. You just park right next to the bridge, walk out, and look down. Most people stay 5-10 minutes or so, just long enough to snap a few photos. We did a fun river boat tour on one of our trips called Jose's Crocodile Tour, not sure if they're still around, but we enjoyed it.

We stayed at Fonda Vela in Monteverde, and it was fine. In the Arenal/La Fortuna area, we've stayed at the Arenal Observatory Lodge, Nayara, The Lost Iguana, and The Springs Resort and Spa - the last one was on a Groupon deal where we got half price; it's pretty pricey.

I agree we will avoid driving at night. Yes we’re not too excited about San Jose, that’s why on the day we check out of La fortuna. We are going to spend as much time in LF as possible before we drive to San Jose (before dark)

Jeep boat jeep service? Where was your start point when heading to Monteverde? What body of water did you need a boat to cross?

Yeah 30 minutes is overkill for viewing crocs, I wasn’t sure how long it would take to park, walk to the bridge, walk back to the car so I factored in a total of 30 minutes for the entire thing

i looked up Jose’s crocodile tour and it looks like an interesting quick activity we can do on our way from Manuel Antonio to Monteverde. The tour is only one hour and 45 minutes long. Can you tell me what you enjoyed about it? I like that we can get up close to the crocodiles and I like that it won’t take up half my day

It's a narrated boat tour along the river; they tell you about the area and about the wildlife. We saw lots of big crocs up close and some cool birds. At one point the guy got out of the boat with some raw chicken meat and lured a big croc right over to the boat so everyone got great photos. I was a little worried about the guy; the croc came right up to him, and it was huge. That day we ate lunch at a cool hotel called Villa Caletas I think? It had a pretty view, and the food was good. It's been a while so not sure how it is now.

We used the Jeep Boat Jeep service to go between Arenal and Monteverde. I believe we used Desafio for that. It takes you across the lake.

Regarding ziplines, to me the views are better in the Arenal area if the weather is good. We could see both the lake and the volcano when we did it. In Monteverde we just saw trees. Both were fun though. Sometimes Arenal has a lot of clouds and fog that can block the volcano so you never know.

that sounds pretty cool. in all my years, I’ve never done anything like that and I may never do it again, so it has to be done! Maybe we can grab a bite to eat too at the restaurant hotel you mentioned

Oh ok no, I understand instead of driving around the lake you took a boat across it, that’s cool , we’ll have the rental car though so most likely we will be driving around the lake according to Google maps, unless there is some sort of pontoon or ferry that we can take, which will save us time

good to know, at the moment I’m leaning towards going with 100% aventura in Monteverde for zip lining, if we pull the trigger on that idea then we will do a canopy Tours or hanging bridges in Arenal for the volcano and lake views as a bonus

Hi, do you think the river/water will be muddy if it has been raining the day before? How long after the rains have stopped should we wait to visit to experience that famous light blue water?

thank you

Yes I think it's likely that it will be muddy if it's rained the day before.

Darn, it could rain every day in June, or skip some days, when it does rain it could be short afternoon showers… this is from what I’ve read

I guess I’ll have a backup plan for if it rains… anything you can recommend for rainy days? Thank you

We did a fun cooking class with Costa Rica Cooking. Most activities go on rain or shine. We've had days of pouring rain where the guide picks us up to go bird watching. I think the only time we've had an activity cancelled was ziplining due to lightning.