Costa Rica Trip Report!
Feb 21st, 2008, 03:41 PM
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Costa Rica Trip Report!
Hi Everybody-
Just got back from a wonderful vacation to Costa Rica. Thanks so much to everybody who helped us make our trip perfect!
Itinerary:
Flew to San Jose
3 nights at Orquideas Inn
Interbus to Arenal/La Fortuna
2 nights at Silencio del Campo
Interbus to Manuel Antonio
2 nights at Mango Moon
Interbus to San Jose
1 night at Vina Romantica B&B
Things I wish I knew before I left:
San Jose:
-The whole country accepts US dollars. There is no need to exchange money. You can even get US$ out of the ATM machines. It's great! Bring enough cash with you if you don't want to get money out of the ATM because many places offer discounts for using cash versus credit cards and some only accept cash.
-Book the 2 night rafting trip!
-Departure taxes: $26/person only cash essentially. If you use your credit card, they will charge you as a cash advance. Also, there are two lines, one in front of the Continental desk and one in front of the American desk. The American desk seems to have the shortest line. These taxes need to be paid before you check-in. ATMs are available at the airport.
Arenal:
-Book Eco Termales well in advance because we were unable to get the times we wanted once we got there.
-We didn't rent a car so we used some tour companies to visit local attractions. Aventuras Arenal seemed to have more spacious vans than Canoa Adventures and Sunset Tours
-The lava is coming down right now on the side that Arenal Observatory Lodge is. We called the Lodge to ask if we could do dinner there to see the lava flow and they told us that dinner is now only for guests and their gates close at 5pm so non-guests cannot enter at night.
-The Hanging Bridges have a private shuttle which you need to book in advance for $12/person. They also have a student discount and a naturalist tour at 10AM that you also need to book in advance.
Manuel Antonio:
-Mango Moon does not provide free shuttles to the beach whereas other hotels such as Si Como No and La Mariposa do. Taxis were about $7 each way to the beach
-We had no idea that the park was on the beach so we should have packed our swimming gear to spend the day at the beach after we hiked around
-If you want a private guide to see animals through telescopes, get the guide before you enter the park. Once you get into the park, you can no longer hire a guide, though you can exit and come back in, but it is a fairly good walk.
Our adventure started as soon as we landed in San Jose. We arrived in San Jose late on Saturday night. We confirmed that day with Orquideas Inn to pick us up at the hotel but once we got outside there was no one there to pick us up. We waited for about 15 minutes, during which numerous taxi drivers offered us to take us wherever we wanted to go, and then one of the drivers offered us his cell phone. We were skeptical at first but he told us that people in Costa Rica are all about helping. So we took him up on his offer and were able to get a hold of a driver at Orquideas. The nice man with the cell phone did then proceed to persuade us to let him drive us because the hotel van wouldn't be there at least for another hour because after all it's "Tico Time" around there.
By 11:30pm we were finally in our hotel room ready to hit the sack. The hotel was very nice, the room quite bright for my eyes, but very clean and spacious.
Day 1: The next morning we woke up to a beautiful view of the mountains from our room. We had a fantastic breakfast at the hotel (by far the best gallo pinto we had the whole time we were there) and then left for our day with Luis of Wady tours. He was awesome! We went to Doka coffee plantation which was very interesting. It reminded us of being on a winery tour. Got very caffeinated and then decided to spend our energy hiking at Los Churros waterfall. We originally were going to go to Doka, Poas Volcano and La Paz Waterfall, but it was very foggy so Luis didn't think we could see the volcano. We also mentioned that we're not really into the touristy thing so we suggested going to Los Churros instead of La Paz. All of the locals were at Los Churros with us on Sunday and it was absolutely beautiful. Next Luis took us to lunch at a great local restaurant. My husband fell in love with Casado's, the local specialty, also with the local salsa, Lisano salsa, we bought a big bottle to take home with us, and the natural drinks that all restaurants make with fresh fruit and either water or milk, yummy!!. After we walked around the little towns of Sarchi and Grecia and then Luis even took us to his house...the view was beautiful! We had a great dinner at the hotel restaurant.
Day 2: Whitewater rafting here we come! I woke up with butterflies in my stomach as I had never rafted before and I had visions of myself streaming down the river with no raft in sight. We used Rio Tropicales and had a fabulous time. It turned out that the river was quite a bit slower than normal (5 hours instead of a 3 hour trip) due to dry season but we still had 3 class IV runs and 3 class III runs. The guide was very professional and the scenery was extraordinary. It kind of misted the entire day and it was perfect. They even made us this amazing lunch in the middle of the river. We only wished we had booked the 2 night adventure and hiked around a bit in the park. Next time...
Day 3: Off to Arenal with Interbus...our driver was great...explained a lot about the area we were driving in...only spoke Spanish though. We arrived at Silencio del Campo around 11:30am and it was quite rainy and cloudy. No volcano to be seen...the staff at Silencio were so incredibly friendly, though very English was spoken. They did have a new kid who spoke pretty good English but didn't know much yet since he was new. He became mesmerized with the word Hot Tub, felt great that I could teach him such a luxury!
We were very indecisive as to what we wanted to do, but we ended up booking the night volcano hike with Canoa Adventures. Our guide was Carlos and he was great! Although, not great enough to stop the rain from downpouring during our entire hike. Found out the hard way that our rain jackets weren't so rain proof. The rain also scared most of the animals away. We tried to see the volcano at night but all we saw were clouds. We began to wonder if Arenal even had a volcano, let alone a mountain since we saw nothing! We did eventually see 1 second of lava falling but it seemed like only a dream. Our tour group did have fun tricking some poor Canadians into thinking we saw the lava that night after we showed them a picture of lava from another volcano in Guatemala but they were too smart to believe us! Went back to the hotel and went into town to have dinner at Las Brasitas which was a Mexican restaurant. Not bad...
Day 4: Volcano, where art thou?
Cano Negro Tour. We were supposed to go with Sunset Tours so when Pedro showed up with Canoa Adventures we thought he was mistaken, tried to convince him but he was adamant we were supposed to be with him so off we went with Pedro. Apparently Sunset Tours didn't have enough people so we were sold to another group. The van was very small for all 12 of us and very bumpy at that! The river tour was great...we saw lots of monkeys, birds and Cayman's. The lunch was great too! After we got back from the river tour, we went to Eco Termales which was heaven. I'm trying to convince my husband to build one in our backyard but he claims there's no volcanos in WI. The owner of Silencio del Campo is brothers with the owner of Eco Termales. The springs were great! We came back and went into town to eat at Chausco de Laurel (spelling??) and it was only okay. We had heard such great things about it but were a little disappointed. Oh yeah, still no volcano sighting.
Day 5: Volcano what volcano???
Had the morning to spend here before leaving for Manuel Antonio so we decided to go to the Hanging Bridges. We debated between that and La Fortuna waterfall but decided on the Hanging Bridges. Saw Howler monkeys on the way there. I think the rain was following us because the moment we got into the park it started to downpour. Saw some capuchin monkeys but that was it...the other animals laughed at us as we got drenched with our non-rain proof rain jackets. Still a beautiful place and glad we went.
Went to lunch at Lava Cafe which was a great lunch before we left. Well now comes our death-defying moments in Costa Rica. We had a crazy driver with Interbus. He went 90KPH all the way from Arenal to their stopping point. My knuckles were completely white and I was sick to my stomach. The 3 women from Italy looked like they were going to cry. I decided to say something to the man and after I did the three Italian women clapped and said Bravo. He was a little bit better but for most of the time did 120KPH. It took us 4.5 hours door to door to get to Manuel Antonio. We started to question our decision not to rent a car at this point.
Once again, the rain followed us...it hadn't rained for 22 days until we arrived...
We stayed at Mango Moon and got an ocean view room. The room was pretty small, no privacy because they had transparent curtains on it and really not a great view of the ocean. The new owners seems really nice and John the bartender rocks!
We went to dinner that night at a restaurant that serves all types of food including Thai food. It happened to be Valentine's day, which my fantastic husband seemed to have forgotten but the tables were decorated beautifully with fresh flower petals. The food was pretty good.
Day 6: Rain, rain go away...
It was finally a great day with no rain!! We went to the park in the morning and absolutely loved it! We forgot to get a guide before we entered and then didn't feel like getting one so we did it on our own. Sometimes pretended to be with other groups with guides but got caught...saw a 3-toed sloth, a mutant squirrel thing and a bunch of white-faced monkeys. We absolutely loved the park and wished we had stayed there all day, although there is no food available there so plan for that if you're going to go for the whole day.
We came back to hotel and I was ready for beach time. Mango Moon has its own private beach so we attempted to go there. Not possible with flip flops!! Very rocky and slippery. At one point I almost stepped on a long, green snake so we decided it was a sign not to go any further. We came back and decided to go to Bisan Beach which was very nice and private also, just a $14 cab ride.
At night, Mango Moon had a private dinner with a band and it was fabulous. I'm a vegetarian so they ordered pasta out for me which was amazing pasta, just like Italy! My husband had the Tuna they were serving and said it was incredible, all for the price of $7. Great!
Day 7: Bye bye beach!
We had just a few hours in the morning to enjoy the beach. We went to the Public beach and rented some chairs there. It was very nice. I seemed to have developed an ocean allergy so I only dipped my feet in and it was like bath water. The hotel didn't allow us to have a 30-minute late checkout, so we hurried back, showered, and had pizza at the bar. It was a great morning.
We prayed that we didn't get another crazy driver and we were granted our prayers. We arrived in San Jose safely and were picked up by the owners of the Green Turtle. No rain, but quite cold at 60 degrees at 5:30. The owners were fantastic and their place was very nice. The restaurant was incredible! The only downside is that the place is next to a place with very loud dogs so they kept us up for a good portion of the night. We had a very early flight the next morning and the owner even woke up to make sure we got some coffee and muffins. Very nice!
It was a lovely trip and we hope to return to go to Osa someday. Sorry for the long-winded report but I hope you found it informational.
Just got back from a wonderful vacation to Costa Rica. Thanks so much to everybody who helped us make our trip perfect!
Itinerary:
Flew to San Jose
3 nights at Orquideas Inn
Interbus to Arenal/La Fortuna
2 nights at Silencio del Campo
Interbus to Manuel Antonio
2 nights at Mango Moon
Interbus to San Jose
1 night at Vina Romantica B&B
Things I wish I knew before I left:
San Jose:
-The whole country accepts US dollars. There is no need to exchange money. You can even get US$ out of the ATM machines. It's great! Bring enough cash with you if you don't want to get money out of the ATM because many places offer discounts for using cash versus credit cards and some only accept cash.
-Book the 2 night rafting trip!
-Departure taxes: $26/person only cash essentially. If you use your credit card, they will charge you as a cash advance. Also, there are two lines, one in front of the Continental desk and one in front of the American desk. The American desk seems to have the shortest line. These taxes need to be paid before you check-in. ATMs are available at the airport.
Arenal:
-Book Eco Termales well in advance because we were unable to get the times we wanted once we got there.
-We didn't rent a car so we used some tour companies to visit local attractions. Aventuras Arenal seemed to have more spacious vans than Canoa Adventures and Sunset Tours
-The lava is coming down right now on the side that Arenal Observatory Lodge is. We called the Lodge to ask if we could do dinner there to see the lava flow and they told us that dinner is now only for guests and their gates close at 5pm so non-guests cannot enter at night.
-The Hanging Bridges have a private shuttle which you need to book in advance for $12/person. They also have a student discount and a naturalist tour at 10AM that you also need to book in advance.
Manuel Antonio:
-Mango Moon does not provide free shuttles to the beach whereas other hotels such as Si Como No and La Mariposa do. Taxis were about $7 each way to the beach
-We had no idea that the park was on the beach so we should have packed our swimming gear to spend the day at the beach after we hiked around
-If you want a private guide to see animals through telescopes, get the guide before you enter the park. Once you get into the park, you can no longer hire a guide, though you can exit and come back in, but it is a fairly good walk.
Our adventure started as soon as we landed in San Jose. We arrived in San Jose late on Saturday night. We confirmed that day with Orquideas Inn to pick us up at the hotel but once we got outside there was no one there to pick us up. We waited for about 15 minutes, during which numerous taxi drivers offered us to take us wherever we wanted to go, and then one of the drivers offered us his cell phone. We were skeptical at first but he told us that people in Costa Rica are all about helping. So we took him up on his offer and were able to get a hold of a driver at Orquideas. The nice man with the cell phone did then proceed to persuade us to let him drive us because the hotel van wouldn't be there at least for another hour because after all it's "Tico Time" around there.
By 11:30pm we were finally in our hotel room ready to hit the sack. The hotel was very nice, the room quite bright for my eyes, but very clean and spacious.
Day 1: The next morning we woke up to a beautiful view of the mountains from our room. We had a fantastic breakfast at the hotel (by far the best gallo pinto we had the whole time we were there) and then left for our day with Luis of Wady tours. He was awesome! We went to Doka coffee plantation which was very interesting. It reminded us of being on a winery tour. Got very caffeinated and then decided to spend our energy hiking at Los Churros waterfall. We originally were going to go to Doka, Poas Volcano and La Paz Waterfall, but it was very foggy so Luis didn't think we could see the volcano. We also mentioned that we're not really into the touristy thing so we suggested going to Los Churros instead of La Paz. All of the locals were at Los Churros with us on Sunday and it was absolutely beautiful. Next Luis took us to lunch at a great local restaurant. My husband fell in love with Casado's, the local specialty, also with the local salsa, Lisano salsa, we bought a big bottle to take home with us, and the natural drinks that all restaurants make with fresh fruit and either water or milk, yummy!!. After we walked around the little towns of Sarchi and Grecia and then Luis even took us to his house...the view was beautiful! We had a great dinner at the hotel restaurant.
Day 2: Whitewater rafting here we come! I woke up with butterflies in my stomach as I had never rafted before and I had visions of myself streaming down the river with no raft in sight. We used Rio Tropicales and had a fabulous time. It turned out that the river was quite a bit slower than normal (5 hours instead of a 3 hour trip) due to dry season but we still had 3 class IV runs and 3 class III runs. The guide was very professional and the scenery was extraordinary. It kind of misted the entire day and it was perfect. They even made us this amazing lunch in the middle of the river. We only wished we had booked the 2 night adventure and hiked around a bit in the park. Next time...
Day 3: Off to Arenal with Interbus...our driver was great...explained a lot about the area we were driving in...only spoke Spanish though. We arrived at Silencio del Campo around 11:30am and it was quite rainy and cloudy. No volcano to be seen...the staff at Silencio were so incredibly friendly, though very English was spoken. They did have a new kid who spoke pretty good English but didn't know much yet since he was new. He became mesmerized with the word Hot Tub, felt great that I could teach him such a luxury!
We were very indecisive as to what we wanted to do, but we ended up booking the night volcano hike with Canoa Adventures. Our guide was Carlos and he was great! Although, not great enough to stop the rain from downpouring during our entire hike. Found out the hard way that our rain jackets weren't so rain proof. The rain also scared most of the animals away. We tried to see the volcano at night but all we saw were clouds. We began to wonder if Arenal even had a volcano, let alone a mountain since we saw nothing! We did eventually see 1 second of lava falling but it seemed like only a dream. Our tour group did have fun tricking some poor Canadians into thinking we saw the lava that night after we showed them a picture of lava from another volcano in Guatemala but they were too smart to believe us! Went back to the hotel and went into town to have dinner at Las Brasitas which was a Mexican restaurant. Not bad...
Day 4: Volcano, where art thou?
Cano Negro Tour. We were supposed to go with Sunset Tours so when Pedro showed up with Canoa Adventures we thought he was mistaken, tried to convince him but he was adamant we were supposed to be with him so off we went with Pedro. Apparently Sunset Tours didn't have enough people so we were sold to another group. The van was very small for all 12 of us and very bumpy at that! The river tour was great...we saw lots of monkeys, birds and Cayman's. The lunch was great too! After we got back from the river tour, we went to Eco Termales which was heaven. I'm trying to convince my husband to build one in our backyard but he claims there's no volcanos in WI. The owner of Silencio del Campo is brothers with the owner of Eco Termales. The springs were great! We came back and went into town to eat at Chausco de Laurel (spelling??) and it was only okay. We had heard such great things about it but were a little disappointed. Oh yeah, still no volcano sighting.
Day 5: Volcano what volcano???
Had the morning to spend here before leaving for Manuel Antonio so we decided to go to the Hanging Bridges. We debated between that and La Fortuna waterfall but decided on the Hanging Bridges. Saw Howler monkeys on the way there. I think the rain was following us because the moment we got into the park it started to downpour. Saw some capuchin monkeys but that was it...the other animals laughed at us as we got drenched with our non-rain proof rain jackets. Still a beautiful place and glad we went.
Went to lunch at Lava Cafe which was a great lunch before we left. Well now comes our death-defying moments in Costa Rica. We had a crazy driver with Interbus. He went 90KPH all the way from Arenal to their stopping point. My knuckles were completely white and I was sick to my stomach. The 3 women from Italy looked like they were going to cry. I decided to say something to the man and after I did the three Italian women clapped and said Bravo. He was a little bit better but for most of the time did 120KPH. It took us 4.5 hours door to door to get to Manuel Antonio. We started to question our decision not to rent a car at this point.
Once again, the rain followed us...it hadn't rained for 22 days until we arrived...
We stayed at Mango Moon and got an ocean view room. The room was pretty small, no privacy because they had transparent curtains on it and really not a great view of the ocean. The new owners seems really nice and John the bartender rocks!
We went to dinner that night at a restaurant that serves all types of food including Thai food. It happened to be Valentine's day, which my fantastic husband seemed to have forgotten but the tables were decorated beautifully with fresh flower petals. The food was pretty good.
Day 6: Rain, rain go away...
It was finally a great day with no rain!! We went to the park in the morning and absolutely loved it! We forgot to get a guide before we entered and then didn't feel like getting one so we did it on our own. Sometimes pretended to be with other groups with guides but got caught...saw a 3-toed sloth, a mutant squirrel thing and a bunch of white-faced monkeys. We absolutely loved the park and wished we had stayed there all day, although there is no food available there so plan for that if you're going to go for the whole day.
We came back to hotel and I was ready for beach time. Mango Moon has its own private beach so we attempted to go there. Not possible with flip flops!! Very rocky and slippery. At one point I almost stepped on a long, green snake so we decided it was a sign not to go any further. We came back and decided to go to Bisan Beach which was very nice and private also, just a $14 cab ride.
At night, Mango Moon had a private dinner with a band and it was fabulous. I'm a vegetarian so they ordered pasta out for me which was amazing pasta, just like Italy! My husband had the Tuna they were serving and said it was incredible, all for the price of $7. Great!
Day 7: Bye bye beach!
We had just a few hours in the morning to enjoy the beach. We went to the Public beach and rented some chairs there. It was very nice. I seemed to have developed an ocean allergy so I only dipped my feet in and it was like bath water. The hotel didn't allow us to have a 30-minute late checkout, so we hurried back, showered, and had pizza at the bar. It was a great morning.
We prayed that we didn't get another crazy driver and we were granted our prayers. We arrived in San Jose safely and were picked up by the owners of the Green Turtle. No rain, but quite cold at 60 degrees at 5:30. The owners were fantastic and their place was very nice. The restaurant was incredible! The only downside is that the place is next to a place with very loud dogs so they kept us up for a good portion of the night. We had a very early flight the next morning and the owner even woke up to make sure we got some coffee and muffins. Very nice!
It was a lovely trip and we hope to return to go to Osa someday. Sorry for the long-winded report but I hope you found it informational.
Feb 21st, 2008, 06:15 PM
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Sounds like you had a fun and eventful (although somewhat rainy) trip! It's funny all those things you wish you knew beforehand, but now you do for your next trip. 
Thanks for the tips! We stayed at El Silencio as well and really enjoyed it there. Agree the staff is not to be beat. Can you tell me more about Los Churros? Is it a hike to a waterfall? I like to stay I don't like the touristy stuff too, but fact is many of the tours offered in CR are terrific! And, La Paz is absolutely gorgeous so no wonder it's highly visited. Thanks for posting your trip.
Thanks for the tips! We stayed at El Silencio as well and really enjoyed it there. Agree the staff is not to be beat. Can you tell me more about Los Churros? Is it a hike to a waterfall? I like to stay I don't like the touristy stuff too, but fact is many of the tours offered in CR are terrific! And, La Paz is absolutely gorgeous so no wonder it's highly visited. Thanks for posting your trip.
Feb 21st, 2008, 07:34 PM
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Thanks pgshorty for the report! We are headed to Arneal and MA next weekend and cannot WAIT!
We have most of our itinerary set, but had a couple of questions.
(1) We have reservations at Eco Termales for 5-9pm one evening on the advice of a fodorite who recommended the hot springs at night when it was bit cooler? What was your experience? Is it better to go during the day when we can enjoy the surroundings, or is it well lit at night as well?
(2) We're still a bit torn about whether to rent a car from SJO to Arenal (for 2 full days) or book a driver. The rental will be more expensive b/c we'd need an automatic, but of course we'd have the flexibility of having a car for a couple of days. I should mention that we arrive at SJO at 2:30pm so we're unable to catch a bus.
I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed your time so much despite the rain. Way to go.
We have most of our itinerary set, but had a couple of questions.
(1) We have reservations at Eco Termales for 5-9pm one evening on the advice of a fodorite who recommended the hot springs at night when it was bit cooler? What was your experience? Is it better to go during the day when we can enjoy the surroundings, or is it well lit at night as well?
(2) We're still a bit torn about whether to rent a car from SJO to Arenal (for 2 full days) or book a driver. The rental will be more expensive b/c we'd need an automatic, but of course we'd have the flexibility of having a car for a couple of days. I should mention that we arrive at SJO at 2:30pm so we're unable to catch a bus.
I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed your time so much despite the rain. Way to go.
Feb 22nd, 2008, 03:58 AM
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Site-
We rafted the Pacuare river. It was beautiful. I have heard that another river, I believe it begins with an S, but unfortunately I don't remember the exact name, is a bit higher than the Pacuare right now.
We rafted the Pacuare river. It was beautiful. I have heard that another river, I believe it begins with an S, but unfortunately I don't remember the exact name, is a bit higher than the Pacuare right now.
Feb 22nd, 2008, 04:00 AM
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Hipvirgochick-
Los Churros is part of a protected area, though not owned by the government. It has two waterfalls and the hike isn't really that bad. You can actually also hike to the hydroelectric plant also which was pretty interesting to see. There were many people swimming at the base of the waterfall which is something Luis told us you can't do at La Paz. So we did wade through the water which was very warm.
Los Churros is part of a protected area, though not owned by the government. It has two waterfalls and the hike isn't really that bad. You can actually also hike to the hydroelectric plant also which was pretty interesting to see. There were many people swimming at the base of the waterfall which is something Luis told us you can't do at La Paz. So we did wade through the water which was very warm.
Feb 22nd, 2008, 04:03 AM
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Bostonjenn-
We were very glad that we went to the springs at night because they were quite warm. I believe the warmest spring is at 104 degrees. I couldn't imagine being there during the day. It was fairly well lit but if there pretty flowers we didn't see them. Also, Silencio del Campo just added a little hot springs on their property. It was also very nice.
As far as renting a car...we were glad at the end that we didn't rent a car. I believe we spent less money with Interbus and cabs than we would have renting a car. At some points we missed having one, we generally always rent cars in foreign countries, but it was also quite relaxing.
We were very glad that we went to the springs at night because they were quite warm. I believe the warmest spring is at 104 degrees. I couldn't imagine being there during the day. It was fairly well lit but if there pretty flowers we didn't see them. Also, Silencio del Campo just added a little hot springs on their property. It was also very nice.
As far as renting a car...we were glad at the end that we didn't rent a car. I believe we spent less money with Interbus and cabs than we would have renting a car. At some points we missed having one, we generally always rent cars in foreign countries, but it was also quite relaxing.
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