I need help planning a trip to Coata Rica in March. My wife and I have 6 days and have never been to costa rica. We want to see volcano, hike, water falls, wild life ect... We are planning on renting car and do not mind changing hotels. She wouldn't mind if we had some beach time as well. Looking for help. Thank you all who respond in advance.

The Arenal area offers everything you mentioned. Many nice hotels in the area...we stayed at Lost Iguana and really enjoyed the property.

Arenal was great for the active volcano, hiking (private reserves, national park, hanging bridges) and La Fortuna waterfall. No beach though. Not sure where the closest beach area to get to would be, since this area in the central area. My guess the closest beach would be a few hours away. And driving from the airport to Arenal would be a few hours as well, so with six days you might have to decide how much time you are willing to spend on the road and if you want to stay in one area or try to hit two areas. I think Poas Volcano is closer to San Jose and if you wanted to do a beach, hiking, wildlife type destination like Manuel Antonio (national park has a lot of wildlife and beach, rainmaker reserve, horseback riding, mangrove tour, waterfall hike) you could go there for most of the days and stop at Poas at the beginning or end of the trip so you aren't on the road as much. I guess it depends on your priorities.

I forgot to post this before. If you look into Arenal, a good comprehensive website with information on the area, hotels and popular tours available is www.arenal.net
We went to Manuel Antonio and used a great guide named Henry ([email protected]), his website has a good overview of some of the popular tours that are available in this area http://costaricanaturaltours-henry.blogspot.com/ There is a popular horseback riding tour in the area, I think through Finca Valmy http://www.valmytours.com/, and a butterfly garden with tours at Fincas Naturales http://www.wildliferefugecr.com/.

Six days is a short trip. It does sound like Arenal is well suited for you. If you don't want to do a huge amount of traveling, you could spend part of your time in Arenal and then pick another central spot such as Peace Lodge. I'm guessing you plan to fly in/out of SJO. Many don't advise staying in or around San Jose, but there are quite a few things to see/do within a couple hours of SJO.

I love the planning stages. We recently returned from our third trip to CR but there are still so many areas we haven't seen.

I would do 4 nights in Arenal and 2 nights at the Peace Lodge and save the beach trip for when you have more time. In Arenal, we always stay at the Lost Iguana.

www.thespringscostarica.com

www.arenal.net

and

www.ylangylangresort.com

www.playamontezuma.net

for your beach back to San Jose.

www.mapcr.com most important

Have Fun,

Wow, that was fast. Thank you all for the info I will share it with my wife. Fodorites are awesome.

Certainly hope you get a chance to go down to the Caribbean coast, as that's were you'll find the best beaches, and the best food. Don't let anyone scare you with all that garbage about crime, etc. You'll find crime no matter where you go. Hopefully, the bridges and roads have been repaired from the flooding last month. Check out Ms. Edith's in Cahuita, or Maxi's in Manzinillo. Cahuita also has a national park, with howler monkies within ear shot of the beach.

bratsmom, you and I are of the same mind--we love it over there. It's been 2 years since we have been, and I miss it!

buckeye45, volcanogirl has given you some good advice. You'd love the Arenal/Peace Lodge combo. Get on that PL reservation right away--March is a busy time. Good luck and have fun!