lfm75

Hey all,
Leaving next Wed. 2 families, 4 adults and 4 kids age 11 - 20.

A few last minute questions:

-I know not to leave anything unattended on the beach - what about at hotel pools? Will anyone steal your sunglasses/hat/etc. if you leave it on a chair to go swim? Of course we would keep room key on us.
-Anyone who stayed at Montana de Fuego done the zipline they offer that leaves from the hotel (people from other hotels are transferred in)? How does this one rate? It would certainly be convenient.
-Debating whether to rent car or just use taxis in Arenal, trying to figure if we would spend more on taxis or tour transfer fees than we would on renting one or 2 cars for the 8 of us, which is at least $100/day. Seems to me like we could take a lot of taxi rides for that but maybe not?
-Correct that we're OK to wait until we're there to book our activities this time of year? That way if it rains in the morning we wouldn't be stuck w/ a tour we'd paid for.

Here's the itinerary, if anyone happens to be at same place/same time, let me know!
July 2 Arrive SJO late afternoon, stay at Orquideas Inn.
July 3 - Wilson takes us through Grecia and Sarchi, we end up at Hotel Villablanca, which we are hoping to get a little cloudforest experience since not doing MV.
July 4 - transfer to Arenal, Hotel Montana de Fuego.
July 7 - Wilson drives us to private home we are renting in Punta Leona. (This home was what started our idea to visit CR, as my SIL has a connection to the owner and we got a good rate. Otherwise may not have chosen this area, know it's controversial since the private reserve discourages general public from accessing beach, but that is where the house is and it looks beautiful and has a cook.)
While here we will rent a car since things are pretty spread out, and we will use it for day trips to the MA area.
July 13 - back to Orquideas
July 14 - fly out of SJO

Thanks to all the great info in your posts and reports, and to the others who have asked most of my questions already, I feel well prepared. Will post details when we get back, hopeully to help others as I've been helped.

Lisa

flapenny

On renting a car vs paying for cabs and using tour transfers at Arenal - Montana de Fuego is fairly close to town; depending upon which tours you were planning on doing, I would think a total of $300 for the time you are there is way more than you'd spend with taxis and tour transfers. We were recently at Lost Iguana and did not spend more than $125 for the 3 days we were there for transport - did Hanging Bridges, Sky Trek/Sky Tram, Arenal Volcano Hike, and Eco Termales (that cost us a total of $36 cab fare because LI is so far out).

You should have no problem booking activities once you get there for the most part. With 8 people, if you think you want to do Cano Negro boating you may want check with your hotel on need to book ahead.

qwovadis

Theft of small items while swimming
not likely.

For me carrentals.com SJO big vehicle would save and be more
convenient over 2 taxis.

Monteverdeinfo.com for me good trip
better cloud forest canopy tour but
Arenal is more convenient.

Have fun

shillmac

My experience as a solo traveler to Arenal for a weekend last year was that I would have been better off with a rental. I stayed at Arenal Paraiso Hotel (just east of Montana de Fuego), and paid about $32 in taxi rides. Because I was dependent on taxis, I ventured out a little less than I would normally have, but had been there a few times and was content to hang at the hotel hot pool and pool bar!

Since the taxis come out of La Fortuna, they charge you extra for their time/gas to the hotel--then the taxi rate. I think I paid about $16 every time I went somewhere. For example: to Tabacon, $8 there, $8 to return to hotel. So $16 bucks per location. Adds up fast.

You should be able to find a rental car for about $35-$40 bucks for a 24 hour period. That's what I'm paying with Tricolor for a one day rental in July.

I like the convenience of having the car to explore whenever I'm ready--and Arenal area is SO spread out.

Didn't realize Montana de Fuego had ziplines. The ones at Arenal Paraiso have been in place for a good while and get rave reviews.

Good luck and have a great trip!

lfm75

Shillmac, I wonder if Montana uses Arenal Paraiso's ziplines since they are nearby and I seem to remember reading that the owners were related. I guess I'll ask when I get there.

Thanks all for the car rental opinions. If we did rent one, it would just be for local use, we already have transfers booked, mostly with Wilson Rojas, for our longer distances. Nobody felt like driving the manual transmission 12 passenger van we'd need to fit 8 plus luggage. When we're in Punta Leona we have an 8 person Prado we're going to probably fit tightly in, but we won't have luggage and we want to be together.

So if you have your own car, do you just call directly to the zipline, hot springs, etc. rather than arranging it thru a tour company, or does the tour company charge you less if you don't need their transfer?
If we do end up renting cars, will we pay a lot more just walking up to one of the local Fortuna car rentals vs booking ahead online?

shillmac

I've never booked in La Fortuna, so am not sure about the best way to rent. I think you could walk up and do okay, though. Less than $40, all inclusive of insurance, etc. You could always decide against it if you think the price too high.

You can still book the tour (such as zipline) and drive yourselves over there (I think). All you need is to know what time to arrive, and AP is easy to find.

For example, when we did the Cano Negro tour a couple of years ago, we booked it through our hotel, Arenal Observatory Lodge. It was up to us to get ourselves to the tour desk in La Fortuna for the tour at 7:30 the next a.m. In that case, no tour company is going to drive out to AOL to pick up. I think others who stayed there were having to arrange transportation into town at about $20 per transfer vehicle.

It was the only tour we did--everything else was on our own. We could have driven to Hanging Bridges for a tour and paid onsite (for example). We did drive ourselves to La Fortuna waterfall and hiked down. Hope that helps you visualize how it might work.

No need to book tours to the hot springs (whichever you choose) when you have your own vehicle. Just drive yourselves there and pay to get in. You might ask your hotel to reserve whichever springs you are interested in ahead of time. . .

lfm75

Thanks again, Shillmac. You have given me a picture of how it works and I do think we'll have a little more freedom with a car, either way I know we're gonna have a great time.

Kinembe

Do not leave ANYTHING unattended ANYWHERE unless you want it to disappear, it's just that simple.

sumi

You might check with your hotel about arranging a local rental car for a day or two. That way, they will probably deliver it and pick it up at the hotel, making it convenient for you.

As for your belongings and theft issues, we've only been to CR once and I'm honestly not trying to dismiss the bad incidents other tourists have experienced but we were pretty lackadaisical about it all and had no problems and felt "safe" everywhere we went. We broke all the "rules" -- left luggage in the car, left things on the beach, poolside, riverside, etc. Pretty much how we go about at home and wherever we travel. We're always careful with our passports and we don't travel with anything we can't live without, but that's about it. I fully admit that we've probably been "lucky" but I wanted to give you a different perspective.