Hello, we are planning a trip to Costa Rica next month and I am just starting to look into things to do. I'm traveling with my fiancee, my dad, and two brothers and we'll be staying very close to the Coco beach area. I figured I'd come here for some suggestions on itineraries and activities.

First - how is the area around Coco beach? Is there anything to do around here to stay occupied for a couple days?

We are all in relatively good shape and like to stay active so we definitely want to get out and do some exploring and experience some adventures. So far we're thinking La Fortuna (Volcano), Rincon de la Vieja, and Rio Celeste. What types of activities/tours are recommended in these areas? My fiancee really wants to zipline and I'm interested in the ATV tours and hiking. Anything else that's a "must do"? Any tour companies we should consider or avoid?

We thought about just getting down there a winging it but I'd like to at least have some direction.

Thanks a lot!

The La Fortuna area is wonderful, one of our favorites, but it's not something you would do as a day trip. Most people go and stay there for three or four nights. It takes a long time to get from place to place in CR so day trips aren't really practical. There's tons to do there if you can stay - zipline at Sky Trek, hike the Hanging Bridges, visit the natural hot springs like Tabacon or Eco Termales, do the waterfall hike, do the Cano Negro tour to see wildlife, visit the Bogarin Trail to see sloths, also rafting, tubing, and other adventure activities, ATV tours as well. Desafio is a very good company in the area.

We recently spent 4 nights in the Arenal/La Fortuna area and loved it. There is a ton to do and see there. We could have probably stayed twice as long and still not gotten to everything we wanted to.

We had a car for our trip, which made winging it a lot easier. We had our lodging reserved, but we didn't reserve any activities ahead of time - just reserved a few things when we arrived (like EcoThermales hot springs and ziplining). The other stuff, we pretty much just showed up for.

Thanks for the replies! So, it seems like we'll need at least a couple of days in La Fortuna so we're looking at some Air bnb's and hotels in the area for a night or two.

We'll also have a car so plan on winging it as well.

The Rio Celeste hike you mentioned is beautiful - a blue waterfall, but it's only that color if the weather is good. If it's raining, give it a pass because it will just be muddy and not worth visiting imo.

We stayed at the Arenal Observatory Lodge when we were in the Arenal/La Fortuna area. We really enjoyed our stay there. It's right at the base of the volcano, so you have great views, and they have hiking trails on the property that link to trails in the national park. They have a good restaurant and bar on site, swimming pool and jacuzzi, and really nice gardens. Its a more remote location at the end of a gravel road, which means that it is really quiet, but also that it takes a little bit to get to. The road is in decent shape, but you do need to take it a bit slow going in and out. It's also very close to SkyAdventures, which is where we went ziplining. Mistico Hanging Bridges isn't far either.

We've stayed there a couple of times too and really enjoyed it - best wildlife location in the Arenal area for us, and they have a free guided hike every morning.