My husband and I are planning a trip in June, we have been looking and liked the idea of this pkg. Can any one give us tips? It is through JD's WATERSPORTS in Costa Rica. Thanks for your help!
Day 1 San Jose- Hotel Bougainvillea
Day 2 Drive ourselves to Tabacon Resort, visit arenal volcano, tabacon hot springs
Day 3 Canopy tour (we are not sure at all about doing this) Visiting La Fortuna Waterfall, lake Arenal
Day 4 Drive to Central Pacific Coast to Hotel Club del Mar
Day 5 Jungle River Cruise
Day 6 Drive back to San Jose, Hotel Bougainvillea in the afternoon, stay there the remainder of the trip.
Day 7 Poas Volcano, La Paz Waterfall, butterfly gardins etc.
Day 8 Pacuare River rafting all day
Day 9 Depart in the am back to US

We have also seen good reviews for Peace Lodge in San Jose, should we request to stay there at least one night? The price for this pkg is approx. $1000 w/o airfare. Is this a good deal? It includes all breakfast, some lunches, all entrance fees & expenses, and car rental.

We appreciate your help!

I can reply to some of your itierary and hope it helps. I no nothing of the Peace lodge.

Bougainvillea is beautiful. Good Choice.

Tabacon Resort- best place in the area. Do not book dinner at the Hot Springs. Buffet and marginal plus lots of package tours for it. The hotel has much better dinner. Lunch is good at the Hot Spirngs.

The La Fortuna Waterfall is great. Especially if you do the horsebackriding to it. A highlight! Did not go to the lake. The 7 hanging bridge hike is amazing from what we were told.

Canopy Tours are great fun.

Where is Hotel Club del Mar?

Hello, see pictures of La Fortuna and the waterfall on www.costaricaweb.<font color=red>de</font>.
Saludos
costaklaus

The only part of your itin that isn't clear to me is day 4-5. Not sure where on the Central Pacific this is, nor the quality of the jungle river cruise. I'm sure it is fine. It is just more common to spend 2-3 days at Manuel Antonio, visiting the excellent park there.

Is that $1000 per person? It's not a bad price, comparable with some other packages I've seen. There isn't much beach time--I guess that is okay with you? The central valley time (last 2 days) is nice--this is a great area.

As for Peace Lodge, that is just up to you. It is very expensive (haven't stayed there--would like to sometime just to see what all the hoopla is about!), and you are booked at a very nice hotel already. Are you looking for a little more of a splurge? If so, then that would be your place to do it in the central valley!

Thanks for all your input. Central Pacific area is along the western side of Costa Rica in the middle. We are looking at staying at Hotel Club de Mar. We are wondering if there is any beach access at all?

Has anyone ever booked through JD Watersports online?

jakeaspen,
Most of us are familiar with the central Pacific side; however Hotel Club del Mar isn't a familiar name on this board, and we were just wondering where specifically on the central Pacific coast it was. Is it a new hotel in the Quepos/Manuel Antonio area, or a little further north near Jaco (still central Pacific) or south of Manuel Antonio near Dominical (also central Pacific)?

The most popular central Pacific locale is Manuel Antonio Parque Nacional. There is a lot to do there with the rainforest and the beaches together. I'll do a Google and see if I can get a better idea. Perhaps the hotel website will describe location and proximity to the beach. Have you e-mailed them?

I know Club del Mar. It's in Jaco and it's very nice. The rooms are beautiful and there are many different styles of rooms/furnishing. You can walk right out to the beach.

Although I think everyone should see the hot springs at Tabacon, I'm not a fan of staying there. I'd pay for a half day visit. I much prefer Arenal Lodge, Arenal Paraiso, or the new Kioro, but that's my personal opinion. I'd definitely do the canopy tour -- there's a nice one at Arenal Paraiso and you can do the horseback ride to the waterfall on the same day.

Your itinerary is pretty busy -- you'll be on the move a lot -- but the price is great. I think you'll have a lot of fun.

Sandy

Thanks, Sandy, for clearing that up. I intended to search for it last night, but decided on sleep instead!

We are not big fans of Jaco, but if the hotel is nice, I agree the price is a good one. And one can always venture south of Jaco on a daytrip.

Also, I agree that Tabacon would not be our choice of places to stay. We, too, would prefer to pay the entrance fee to the springs and stay somewhere else. However, since it is included in the package, we'd probably go with it.

jakeaspen, when you get back, do a review of your package on this board. Tell us how it turned out for you--pros and cons. June will be a good month for travel in Costa Rica, and I hope you have a great time!

We have 9nights and are planning our trip from Feb. How does this sound:
Day 1 fly into SJ at 2:20 , rent car and drive to Lost Iguana Lodge (Is this out of the way and a better choice is needed.
Day 2 and 3 do ctivities in the area; zip lines, hiking, hot springs, etc maybe jeep/boat/jeep tour to Monteverde and back. Is that a day trip
Day 4 head to Manual Antonio stay at costa Verde or Si Como no(any ohter suggestions)
day 5-7 activities in tht area
Day 8 drive to San Jose (how do you go..same way we came on on around)
Day 9 go to La Paos and maybe stay the last night at Peace Lodge
day 10 drive back and catch 3:30 flight home

What do you think?

Sounds like a nice itinerary to me, heyjude. I'd skip Monteverde--it isn't a daytrip and really needs a minimum of 2 nights--with 3 being much better. You'll have plenty of fascinating things to do in the Arenal area. Consider a daytrip to Cano Negro.

Returning to San Jose from Manuel Antonio, I'd come through Orotina, Atenas, Garita, then Alajuela. It's a beautiful drive and will give you a nice sightseeing loop in addition to being the most expedient route. Once in Alajuela, you'll make a left hand turn (at the cemetery, I believe), then head right out of town up toward Peace Lodge.

We loved Hotel Bougainvillea in June 2005 and if you want to book it directly with the hotel it's only about $80 per night. Terrific garden. Nice rooms. Great staff. Would definitely stay there again. Also nice pool and sauna.

Arenal: We loved the Lost Iguana hotel in Arenal. Every room has a volcano view (which isn't true for TAbacon hotel.) Hubby and I loved our luxury suite on the first floor with dual-shower heads in our bathroom with a garden growing in the shower room and a screen overhead, so you can turn out the lights and shower by moonlight literally! also private jacuzzi on your private patio. Bathrooms may vary a bit , ours had the dual-shower-head lava rock shower. This was the luxury suite, I'm rambling a bit here but the regular rooms (I think they are called deluxe) are still nice but smaller, and bathroom is not as large, though certainly still a well-decorated room.

Monteverde was one of my favorite places but I wouldn't even consider going back for fewer than 3 nights. In fact we are planning to go back, and will stay 3 nights again!

Have fun.

Oops, forgot to add to my reply above, I&quot;m not an expert, but I did want to share my info, as we were just in Costa Rica in June 2005 and we loved it!

Thanks so much. I will look in Cano Negro for a day trip and also the Bourgainvillea hotel in SJ. I know Peace Lodge is expensive.
Some posters have said to do Monteverde instead of Manual Antonio, but doing that would mean not being at the ocean. right?

Correct .....

Thanks for responding so quickly. I had posted a new message and it has had no response so I am pasting it here Maybe it will get a reply.
First time to CR. My itinerary that I have worked on was: Fly in 2:20 arrival 4 nights Arenal area, 3 nights Manual Antonio,. 2 nights Peace Lodge, fly home 3:30 10th day, but after reading posts about how much better Montevarde was than MA, I was thining this might work:
3 nights Arenal area, 3 nights Monteverde, 2 nights MA and 1 night Peace Lodge, and ten fly home. Is that too much? Also I had looked at Lost Iguana Lodge in Arenal but was wondering if something less expensive would be just as good since we don't plan to lay around and relax. thanks for any help. I just want to get it right

We were able to enjoy Manuel Antonio for 2 nights. Yes, I'd like to go again and stay a little longer, get to know the area better, do more activities, etc. BUT you can still enjoy it--IF you don't mind cutting your beach time back. Be sure your full day there won't be on a Monday--park is closed. Tour the park with a guide in the early a.m., then you'll have the rest of the day to enjoy the beaches and just relax. The main draw for MA is the park and the beaches.

If you leave Monteverde fairly early, you can be in Manuel Antonio by noon or 1:00--that would be nice.

Whatever you decide, have a great time!

Hi Faithie, Melissa. . . .

heyjude, if you listen to shillmac and faithie, believe me, it would be pretty much impossible to &quot;get it wrong&quot;! They are great! Lots of good advice on this forum.

I agree that while Monteverde needs 3 nights, 2 nights is adequate for Manuel Antonio. We had actually 3 nights for Manuel Antonio but 2 nights would have been adequate.

It really depends on what you like. Manuel Antonio is more built up, but some people like that.

Gotta go but by the way family loved the sky trek/sky tram zip-line at Arenal, and the waterfall canyoning rapelling at Arenal area was pretty wild and a unique experience, they said (I didn't do these 2 activities but planned it for them.)

Hello, I am leaving Friday 12/2, for a 10 day trip. All is pretty well planned except the travel from Arenal back to San Jose on the day before departure. Trying to decide if want to hire a guide/driver to drive us and stop along the way or just a direct drive to then have time to do things in San Jose on the last afternoon. Any suggestions on a travel route of ~4-6 hrs from Arenal ? Will post trip when I return.

Hey jude ..... Completely depends on what you are personally looking for . We are beach people , so we definitely want a beach location for the most part . After all... , we are escaping cold Quebec !!! Also with 2 young kids who also love the beach and dislike driving , well ...... You get the picture ! Our itinerary will change with the children , but I think yours sounds just fine .

OH !! and Hi Guys !! lol , Faith .