I am traveling to Costa Rica at the end of November for 8 days with my friend. We have previously been to the caribeen side and MA. We want to switm in calm, safe, very warm waters and would love to see monkey's and birds (any wildlife).

Which would be more swimable, nosara (pleada) or montazuma beaches?

Which combination sounds better: Arenal then Samara/carrillo area? Samara/Carrillo area and Nosara? Or Montezuma for 6 days (MA 2 days)?

How is the road from Libera to Samera for real nervous drivers (any of the above trips are by interbus)?

Thank you in advance for your replies/help.

Cat

nosara is a surfers beach- but if youre a capable swimmer its fine!
montezuma has some areas of the beach with strong rips, but the best bits are in the cabo blanco reserve that follows the beach!
but, the best place to swim in montezuma is the waterfall!!

http://costa-rica.typepad.com/photos...waterfall.html

I think 6 days in montezuma is too long.
id do arenal/la fortuna then samara/carrillo, carrillo is one of the most beautiful beaches on the pacific coast:

http://costa-rica.typepad.com/playa_...ome/index.html

the road from liberia to samara- u go thru Nicoya- is good, by CR standards

http://costa-rica.typepad.com/la_for...ome/index.html

in arenal/la fortuna make sure u do a day trip to cano negro reserve!!

Juat back from Costa Rica today. What an amazingly rich place. If you do go to Arenal, I would suggest booking a birding tour with Sunset Tours, guide's name is Giovanni. It is truly apectacular! He can show you a howler or two along the way. Also, we had an ocelot run in front of our car as we arrived. Really rare from what I can gather. We stayed at the Observatory Lodge and DID see nightly lava flow from mour hotel (stayed in the Casona).

Good luck and Pura Vida!

Hi swigswig--welcome home. Or not! If you're like me, you already miss CR before the plane even takes off!

We, too, stayed at La Casona at AOL. We were very impressed by the accomodation--what a great value! But the lava was not flowing on that side in July, and even if it had been, there was a lot of cloud cover at the time. . .except one spectacular night.

So glad you had a great time. Are you going to write more about your trip?

Hey SwigSwig,

Glad to hear you enjoyed CR as much as we did...magical place.
We had a guide with Sunset Trous named Giovanni too, great birder, etc. Took us to Cerro Chato too. Unfortunately, a gringo (I'm a gringo too) stole our bag with his contact info. Do you have any contact info for Giovanni or Sunset Tours? and if so, can I get it?

Also, what was your favorite part of the trip, if you can narrow it down?