Costa rica 9 night itinerary help!!!!!
 

I am going to costa rica with my fiancé in December for 9 nights and can't seem to plan it!!! Basically, my priorities are beautiful beaches with a little but of beginner surfing, scuba diving and jungle wildlife. I want to go to arenal, nicoya and drake bay Corcovado but I think it might be too much travel time for a short time. The problem is I can't handle really small planes. We were planning on renting a car. Can anyone tell me if the beaches on the southern nicoya are worth it? Does anyone know the uvita area or if there is any reason to be there instead of drake bay? Is arenal a must? Any help would be wonderful. There is no way to o from nicoya to drake bay by boat?
Thanks!!!!

In 9 days pick 3 areas you like for me

www.arenal.net

www.tabacon.com

www.playamontezuma.net

www.ylangylangresort.com

Osa/Drakes www.jinetesdeosa.com

www.servicecarrental.com

www.mapcr.com

Have actually done this journey in 10 days

Down the coast to Osa/Drakes will take a full day

then back up the Panamericana to SJ...

Have fun,

Try a mix of Arenal and Manuel Antonio. You can either rent a car or hire a driver for these locations. Enjoy!

With only 9 days, I'd do a split of two places - Arenal and either the beach location of your choice or the Osa.

Thank you all so much!! So, for beautiful beach and wildlife do you think nicoya (north or south?) or osa? Sounds like everyone thinks arenal is a must see.

The Osa is hard to beat for wildlife. We saw all 4 kinds of monkeys, a sloth, toucans, an anteater, and scarlet macaws. Beach access wasn't all that easy where we stayed, but the views were gorgeous, and we loved it.

If you stay in drake bay by the beach, are the beaches as nice as nicoya? And do you know anything about the uvita and marino ballena area? This travel agent I have been talking to keeps suggesting arenal, then uvita bc of this amazing oxygen hotel, and then drake bay. But none of them are really total beach areas right? I live the beach but want something not too touristy, with wildlife. So confused!!!

I have not been to Costa Rica yet myself, but I did post a number of questions on this board and I think the answers might be helpful to you as well. If you search by my sign in name you can pull up my questions and answers. I think the advice to me will be helpful to you as well.
Good luck - I know how hard this is. I have not even fully booked yet and we going in August!

Since you are driving and not flying, here is a helpful link with estimated drive times.

http://www.yourtravelmap.com/costari...hp?&width=1280

I hope that I am not accused of any wrong doing in this post...

Let's see... 9 nights. My first recommendation is to extend it to two weeks. Once you're done there you won't want to return :) You are making a great, GREAT choice by not getting on the small planes. Flying over costa rica will all it's micro-climates can be intense. If you've ever seen a 8 year old with a new toy airplane... you get the picture.

Here's where I've been and what I recommend:
beautiful beaches: playa carmen(south on the nicoya peninsula), playa hermosa, montezuma, manuel antonio, puerto viejo, uvita, dominical

beginner surfing: best place is playa carmen if you're looking for the least amount of tourists. Next best is dominical then manuel antonio (listed in order starting with the best waves and least amount of tourists)

scuba diving: caño island on the osa peninsula near corcovado. Absolutely amazing. I've stayed in drakebay wilderness resort and scuba dived out there. Here's the location of that resort and nearby ones as well:
http://www.costaricabeauty.com/ViewM...3.674113&bid=1

jungle wildlife: corcovado, it is like the worlds largest zoo. I went get into the details, but there are good hikes with amazing animal viewing.

arenal, is it amazing?: yes, but beware that is a 50/50 chance of seeing something. I've been there on some trips and the volcano is exploding in front of my face and it is amazing. Other trips, it was cloudy for three days and I never saw the crater. Arenal can be amazing. But, given the amount of time you have, I would recommend Poaz instead of arenal.

nicoya, are the beaches amazing: Yes. I love the beaches out there. The weather is great and the waves are great and the hotels are priced well. I usually stay in montezuma. This is the map tool that I use to find hotels and restaurants in montezuma:
http://www.costaricabeauty.com/ViewM...734863&BID=172

drake bay Corcovado: It is always a must in my list. There's something about that place that I haven't seen anywhere in the world. It is so relaxing.


uvita area versus drake bay: Drake Bay. I've been to uvita and it is great, but drake bay is unbeatable in my book. It is so remote and there are so many adventure and wildlife. I would go out on a limb and say that drake bay is almost a spiritual experience especially if you live in the city.

Going from drake bay to nicoya by boat: no, there's no boat. But, there are small boats from nicoya (town on montezuma) to jaco (near Manuel Antonio). There is also a large ferry from nicoya (town of paquera) to punterenas and vice versa. You can take your car on this ferry. This is the fastest, cheapest way of the peninsula.

Here's the service for taking a boat from montezuma to jaco. It is a small boat compared to the ferry. If you have a rental car you wont be able to use the service.
https://www.montezuma-hotels.com/fer...erry-montezuma

If I had nine days, I would do this:

day 1: arrive and head to Volcan Poas. It is close enough to the city where it can be a day trip. And it's probably the most amazing thing near san jose.

day 2: head over early morning to puntarenas and take the ferry to paquera. from paquera take the bus or taxi to montezuma or playa carmen. Enjoy two days here.

day 5: take off on the early morning and use this day to get to drake bay. If you rent a car, you'll take the car back to puntarenas from paquera. Drive along the coast to pass through manuel antonio and uvita and other beach towns. There is the main road along the west coast that you can take. The drive will probably take 5-7 hours starting from puntarenas. It's really pretty and well maintained. Arrive at your hotel in drake bay.

day 6: enjoy drake bay. enjoy a tour in corcovado.

day 7: take a tour to scuba dive at cano island.

day 8: enjoy another tour or start heading back. Go to the hotel near the airport, etc, and try to avoid thinking about the plane ride back.

Man, that sounds good. I miss costa rica just writing about this.

Pat, if you read the entire thread before it was deleted, if anything the accusations were made towards me IN CAPS. The deleted poster works with tour companies and in that case you're not supposed to be offering to help people get discounts, in turn promoting their business. It's nit an accusation it's Fodors policy.

thanks, I didn't realize he worked with tour companies.

I'm going to come back to this post in the next couple days when I have more time to respond, but for the moment, I must say DO NOT go to Dominical for a beginning surfer. I don't know about Playa Carmen, but my husband has been surfing for over 35 years and I have been following him for 20, and trust me, although I don't surf myself, I showed him this post and he agrees, Dominical is way too much wave for a beginning surfer. Manuel Antonio is just the opposite. Not enough wave to really learn!
For beginners, Jaco, Tamarindo, Samara and Nosara are best. Nosara has the most consistant beach break of them all.

Manayiotos, are you still out there?