My husband and I are planning a trip to CR in April. We fly into Iberia and go to Monterverde first for 3 nights. Then the plan was to go to Samara Beach for 4 nights. That leaves 3 nights. We thought about going to Arenal. Is that too crazy to be driving back and forth? Any other suggestions for our last 3 nights? We are 60 and love to hike and want a feel of CR but don't want to spend all of our time in the car. Thanks for your help!

We love the Arenal area and have been there several times. I'd go for it. If you need to travel between Arenal and Monteverde, Desafio has a Jeep Boat Jeep service that only costs about $30 per person. Arenal has some nice hiking at the Hanging Bridges, volcano, and the waterfall - tons of adventure activities too and the natural hot springs like Tabacon and Eco Termales.

Thanks, volcanogirl, but is having Samara Beach in the middle, a problem?

It will be about 4.5 hours drive from Samara back to La Fortuna; if you could adjust your stays to Monteverde, to Arenal, then Samara, it would make more sense.

That's what I thought, but cannot do. Any thoughts about what we could do after Samara for 3 nights before going back to Liberia?

mn, if it's not possible to move Samara to the end of your trip, then yes, you're going to have lots of back and forth. Do you already have something booked in Samara? I don't mind a lot of travel time in CR, to me it's just par for the course, but if you want to avoid it and already have reservations you can't change, then I'd just take a look at another Guanacaste beach area.

That's what I was thinking. Coming from Minnesota, more beach time may be nice. If anyone knows of a nice beach area closer to Liberia and a budget friendly place to stay, let me know.

The Flamingo Beach area is lovely; and if you want a very reasonable place to stay, but a couple of miles away, check out http://www.vrbo.com/255673
(you can get them for less than $100 if you do a little looking)
Much more in the area:
http://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals...ate=2014-05-01
The beach of Brasilito in between Flamingo and Conchal isn't great for swimmming, but Conchal is gorgeous (drive over the beach to it). Lots of small towns in the area to explore, a nice area to spend more time.