Costa Rica off the beaten path?
 

Hi, we plan to travel TO CR in April and would like to spend some time in the nature - hiking, kayaking, snorkeling. Can you please advice where should we go, we hope for less touristy places? Thank you.

Bolek, everywhere you go in Costa Rica is about nature. Many trips to Costa Rica and I never felt any place is too touristy. What does it mean anyway? After all you are going to be a tourist. There are so many places to visit. Do search here under Costa Rica and chose those places that most appeal to you. You will find here many detailed wonderful reports

Probably the best place to get away from it all for what you want to do is the Osa Peninsula area, Corcovado National Park etc...
Some very nice places to stay in that area.
Cheers,
Andrew

One thing to remember is that most of the lodging offerings are very small hotels and lodges that have maybe 10 - 20 rooms. There are only a handfull of large hotels in CR.

Recently we were at dinner in the Osa at Bosque del Cabo, someone at our table asked "where is everyone else having dinner", when I looked puzzled, she said, "when I booked this place, they said they were full". They were! BDC has 10 - 12 cabins and 3 houses, so total occupancy could mean 25 people, topping out at maybe 40 people.

When I think of touristy, I cringe with the idea of 500 room hotels lining a beach, body to body with no where to get away.

With that said the more touristy areas would be Manuel Antonio, Arenal, Monteverde, since this is usually the places most first time visitors can't wait to see. Still the lodgings will be small, it is just that the areas are more developed with restaurants, tours, etc.

There are so many fabulous, nearly deserted areas in CR, but if you choose those 3 top spots, you still want feel like you are in Cancun!

The Osa Pennisula, either side will offer you what you are looking for. Not sure of your budget, however we recently flew into Puerto Jimenez on the Gulf side and stayed at Bosque del Cabo and then Iguana Lodge, also Iguana has a place called the Pearl of the Osa, for a lesser expensive place.

Just to throw a few more suggestions - here are a some that I have picked up from other Fodorites that are on our to do list!

http://www.savegre.co.cr/indexeng.html

http://www.laquintasarapiqui.com/index2.htm

http://www.rafikisafari.com/index.htm

http://www.bosquedepaz.com/index.htm

http://www.haciendabaru.com/index.htm

Thank you for all your responses. After reading many posts here on Fodors it seemed that majority of the people go to Arenal, MA and maybe Monte Verde, therefore my question. Thank you again! Boleslav

We were just at Drake Bay at Osa Paninsila. The Aguella has about 10 or 12 rooms. It is quite charming. You have to take a boat to get there. It's expensive but well worth it. If you do go to Drake Bay, make sure you do the night time bug hunt thing at Aguella with Dale Morris....too funny!

After reading more posts, I am inclined to spend some time in Osa. We will go to CR for 3 weeks. My idea was - Monte Verde, Manuel Antonio- Osa, not necessarily in this order. Should we rent a car for the whole time? Once in Osa - do you recommend the COrcovado park? We are avid hikers and can rarely get tired of the hikes in the nature so we can spend more than a week just in that area. But I am not sure if to compbine Drake Bay and Corcovado. Again, I am still in the planning stage and can plan more time for Osa noly. Thank you for inputs.

I'm not 100% sure but I think there are better access areas to Corcovado than Drake Bay. Drake Bay is really beautiful but we went to the park on a guided tour and via boat. I was wondering if the park was our biggest draw if the other side of the peninsula might be better. I think that Corcovado is a must do.

Tbelgian- how much time do you recommend to plan for COrcovado and what hikes do you recommend to do? Can we do a backpacking there?

We also wanted off the beaten track experiences in Costa Rica. We discovered Vista del Valle, a coffee and citrus plantation in the countryside 1/2 hour from the San Jose airport. It was like a dream, the cacophony of wildlife, profusion of plants and wonderful seclusion all overlooking a huge nature preserve. You could spend a week exploring the area on foot. They will arrange any kind of adventure you seek. It is owned by an ex-peace corps worker from California and his wife. They came, and fell in love with Costa Rica. Here's the website:
http://www.vistadelvalle.com/index.html

Maggi- thank you for your idea.
Donna Farmer- I checked your pistures from BDC, Orosi ets. very nice, thank you.
Now my few other questions are realted to Corcovado - did any of you hike inside of the park- I mean from Sierra to San Pedrillo?