Costa Rica-Starting to Have Doubts?
 

The central players in the adventure still in the planning stages are a couple (one 47, one 58) looking to celebrate our birthdays the 2nd week in October with a fabulous vacation.

Started doing research on CR. The information I have found so far suggests the Carribean side for that time frame due to weather. This area is described as attracting a more backpacker, "rasta wannabe" traveler. Not that we aren't up for adventure (we went to Belize on our honeymoon 18 years ago and recently went to Kauai, which from now on will be my favorite Hawaiian island), but we are an older couple (at least one of us is!!) but aren't ready for the AARP sanctioned group tours either. Will we be out of place in Puerto Viejo area? Considering the Tree House, if we can decide to splurge that much...or Shawandha Lodge. Itinerary would have us arriving mid morning at SJO and I would prefer continuing on to PV right away. Stay 5 nights in one place, just exploring the beaches, snorkeling, maybe a jungle ATV tour, bird/wildlife watching, etc. Head to SJ for the last night (looking at Adventure Inn) before a morning flight home.

Would we be better off going somewhere else in October and saving CR for the winter and going to the Pacific side? Is it a waste to stay put in that little corner of CR seeing little else of the country?

Thoughts/Ideas? I would greatly appreciate any!!!!

Thanks!!!

You might try to split your time on the Caribbean with some time in Tortuguero for 2 nights, then head to PV for the remainder. Tortuguero is a nice area. Sea turtles should be hatching in October which is amazing to witness. Then head further South. or reverse it and do PV then Tortuguero.

IMO, I am more a Pacific coast man, but that does not mean there is nothing to see or do on the Caribbean side. Plenty of fun to be had.

Will you be out of place? I don't think so. It has more of a Caribbean Island feel IMO. There is not nearly as much infrastructure on that coast, but can still make a good trip. More will chime in soon.
Cheers

The only place we've gone to on that side is Tortuguero, and we did love it, so I think Inca's rec. of doing two nights there is great if you decide to do the Carib. side. We stayed at Tortuga Lodge, and they had great food and service.

You might look at going to the Guanacaste area too; their weather would be drier than the rest of the Pacific.

Here's a popular rainfall map that you can mouse over to see rainfall by area/month just to give you an idea.

http://costa-rica-guide.com/Weather/WeatherMap.html

Our favorite area is Arenal - not sure how the weather would be that time of year there though. We've gone in rainy season, but not that late in the season.

CR is great in Winter but floats away everywhere in fall

More than 10 years ago was at Arenal.net rained deluges

for 3 straight days could not get out of my room

Eventually escaped to Guanacaste www.hotelcapitansuizo.com

2 years ago on the Carib side 50000 were left homeless

bridges washed out etc. www.weather2travel.com Climate Guide

for CR you can see what the averages are LOTS in fall so I

Prefer konaweb.com stayhawaii.com in fall Kohala Coast gets

less than 1 inch per month usually not in fall 4 hour flight

from LAX good packages direct to Kona on priceline.com

5* on Kohala Coast Hapuna Prince my fav $100 www.betterbidding.com/index.php?showtopic=1973 - Cached
Why I love Priceline.com: Hapuna Prince for $105/night ...
http://www.flyertalk.com/...love-pri...una-prince-105... -
Big Island/Kamuela - Hapuna Beach Prince Resort* in Hawaii ...

Prefer rent a car bop around go down to the volcano great
diving snorkel you can actually climb around and see the lava
at volcanoes NP.

$1k for a week hotel air car package on Priceline for me last

My wife and I had a blast romantic and adventurous and dry!

Happy Planning!

Five days of torrential rains (and its started to rain again today) have caused massive flooding and a state of emergency to be declared on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast.
http://www.puertoviejosatellite.com/...11/23/flooding

Incabod, I like your idea of spending part of our time in Tortugeuro. volcanogirl, thanks for the lodge rec. I'm going to check into it.

qwovadis, We love Hawaii (been there 3 times)...but we live in Maine...looooong flight!!

The time of the year is a huge concern...not sure if it's a deal breaker yet.

Still planning: Now maybe depart Boston on 10-11...head to Tortuguero, stay 3 nights (since the first day is generally a wash as a travel day), head to PV (but, will also check Guanacaste) stay 4 nights, spend the last night in SJ before flying out early on 10-19.

Keep the suggestions coming!

Looks like we'd need to spend our first night in San Jose in order to get a pick up to a lodge in Tortuguero?

We went to Tortuguero from Arenal, but that's not the norm. Most lodges will put you into groups and have a pickup in SJO. Tortuga Lodge will specialize packages for you, but it's pricier than some other lodges. Not sure what your budget is, but it was worth it to us to travel a little more independently. Some of the more affordable lodges are Laguana Lodge, Mawamba Lodge, and Turtle Beach Lodge if you want to check them out. I think most of those assign you to a group for touring and eating, etc.

Do you have any interest in rafting? Rafting the Pacuare is supposed to be amazing. We haven't gotten to do that yet, but we loved the rafting trip we did in Arenal.

We're very close to getting ready to book this trip. I'm waiting for Tortuga Lodge to respond to my email.

Any feedback on this possible itinerary?

10/11 Leave BOS 5:25 am Arrive SJO 10:40

(It is unknown whether I could arrange for transport to Tortuga after arrival (my preference) vs. spending the afternoon/night in SJ and starting for Tortuga the next morning.) This is part of the questions in my email to the lodge.

10/12 Tortuga Lodge

10/13 Tortuga Lodge (so...3 nights if we can get to Tortuguera on 10-11 otherwise 2 nights)

10/14 transfer to Puerto Viejo. I imagine we are going to have to arrange to have Tortuga Lodge get us to the place where they launch the boats and hopefully have a private car arranged through Shawandha Lodge to pick us up there? Or we might have to go all the way back to SJ for pick-up to PV?

10/14 through the night of 10/17 at PV. Relax, beach, pool, jungle hikes, bike rides or taxis to PV for dinner 1 or 2 nights. Night life? How safe are the bars in PV?

10/18 Transfer by Shawandha to SJ. Spend the night @ Adventure Inn (thoughts?) before 9:30 flight the next morning.

Feedback appreciated! Thanks everyone!

Tortuga Lodge gave us the option of flying in or boating in. We boated in and flew out. Boating in was so cool. We had the whole boat to ourselves and saw tons of neat wildlife. We decided to fly out in the interest of time. They have their own air service, but we decided to book on Sansa because it saved us money, and they were okay with that.

Adventure Inn seems to get good reviews. We like Grano de Oro and Xandari if you need any other options.

Sansa nor Natureair have flights to Limon (other than charters...$$$$).

I was thinking you might fly in from SJO, but boating in is fine too.

Seems like I looked at the Adventure Inn prior to our trip, but for some reason I ruled it out. Had our anniversary dinner at Xandari and we loved the views and the food was quite reasonable. The lodging can be expensive, but they do run specials.

If you like B & B's, I highly recommend Casa Bella Rita in the Santa Ana hills. They will transport you one way (to or from the airport). Check it out on TripAdvisor.

Heed qwovadis' advice about the weather issue in fall. I was there last year early November when Tomas hit. You pretty much had to stay where you were, there were very few routes open, and those that were had massive delays.

Jet Blue is starting service into Liberia, Costa Rica (Pacific Coastline). We are early 50's; husband's wish to surf Pacific; we used VRBO and found a piece of heaven at tip of rainforest on beach. If you fly into and out of San Jose, just plan right now to get lost....it's the worst airport to get out of and back to and my husband speaks Spanish or we'd have missed our flight and still be there!! We just got back, yes it did rain but only 1 day for the full day; then it cycled and rained at night. Rain didn't interupt anything we did; from Zip-Line to Horseback riding in the rain forest. I never plan a vacation around weather, I plan what we want to do and just go for it...especially right now....the weather is very unpredictable anywhere you go. It's 110 in Florida right now and that just doesn't happen, I was born and raised here. Plan what you want to do and just go for it. We use VRBO a lot; we found a casa and saved a lot by doing our own cooking for some meals. Our daughter stayed at the Tree Houses one year and loved it. It is an "eco-minded" Tourist accomodation and that is not what we were looking for. Just saying....

Looks like we've nixed CR due to weather concerns...explored Mediterranean cruise (still on the list) vs. St. Maarten (again nixed due to month of travel) vs. Hawaii (still on the list...Kauai).

Will save CR for the spring or summer....and will keep all of yours recs in mind.

Well Hawaii is always nice too. We loved Kauai. Have a great birthday!

Maybe you want to consider two countries?
Tortugero in Costa Rica and Bocas del toro archipelago in Panama! Fantastic places, both in the caribbean but different ambiances.
If you want to stay in Costa Rica I suggest then Tortuguero in the Caribbean and Manuel Antonio in the Pacific. Just beautiful very different places next to the Ocean.

flint, did you see the update above?

We actually went with Plan D...now it's Barbados!!!

I'm curious as to what pushed you in that direction since I'm also not sure of our vacation destination next year.

Deb,
It was mainly about finding a warm destination with good beaches and good food that was relatively hurricane resistant in the fall. Barbados just popped up when I Googled "October vacation ideas"!!!

Funny! I keep wishing I could just wait until the last minute and book a trip based on great deals, but I'm too anal for that!!!