Greetings!

I will be traveling to Costa Rica in November for a little over a week. For the majority of the week I will be volunteering in the area around San Jose - I will be staying in someone's home during that time. I will have free time for about 2 days or so - on the beginning of the trip and the last day. Both fall on a weekend.

I am not 100% sure on the area - only know it will be the "San Jose" area - I will get the home stay information closer to the time of travel.

I would love to experience some of Costa Rica's natural beauty ~ but need to stay close to the areas that I am volunteering in.

It is possible that I will be doing the outings alone if no one else in the group is interested -

I have a Fodors guide on Costa Rica but it is currently packed away -

I would love to see some wild life, hike, waterfalls, no ziplining - I am a little scared.. I did it here in the states and that was plenty for me. I love to horse back ride...

When I find out the exact town I am in - I will share but for now I just know it is a close to San Jose area.

If you're close to San Jose you can go to the La Paz waterfall gardens and the Poas volcano (and the Doka Estates coffee tour) to get a bit of the flavor of Costa Rica on your days off. With only one day at the beginning and one day at the end, you aren't really going to be able to get into the nature that much (it's farther away from San Jose). Also you might like Zoo Ave to see all the rescued animals they have there.

Hi, D - I wish you had more time to travel outside San Jose. I think you would really like Arenal - it has the active volcano which is so neat, and a beautiful waterfall you can hike to or horseback ride to and swim at the base, nice hike at the Hanging Bridges, and the Cano Negro tour to see wildlife. There are also some beautiful natural hot springs like Eco Termales and Tabacon. Arenal is about three hours from San Jose.

Most of San Jose isn't very pretty - typical city where you'll see fast food places and a lot of bars on the windows in certain parts of the city. I agree with Monica that Poas and the La Paz Waterfall Gardens would be a nice excursion. You might like the Doka Coffee Estate too.

Thank you so much for the feedback.

Darn This is what I was afraid of. I know that the intent of the trip is not to "experience" Costa Rica - but as you know VG I have been really wanting to go and this opportunity came up @ school - it is so reasonable and I get to volunteer which I LOVE so it seems like a win win.

I get one week off from school every 10 weeks - so this is my week break. If my classes happen to fall later in the week - I can extend it a little. I really wanted to get to Arenal.

I confirmed today - my placement will be in or within 20 minutes of San Jose. I may try to fly out on Friday - so that would give me Sat and Sunday in order to enjoy further out. I have to be back by Sunday night in order to start the volunteer work on Monday. It really depends on my school schedule and other variables.

Consult a good guide book - you can find one at the library. If not, use Google to do some searching on things to do around San Jose. There are many interesting day trips.

Thanks Hs! I have the Fodors Costa Rica guidebook - wanted to see what the folks here had to say.