lamdur, to make the most of your time, I'd hire a driver (this from a person who much prefers to drive herself in Costa Rica!). Try to see as much as possible on the way. A driver can help you decide on what will work out best. Suggestions:

Zarcero, Sarchi, Grecia, (great little towns)

Or get down to Poas Volcano by 9:00, then head over to La Paz for an hour or so. The volcano is beautiful and the waterfalls, hummingbirds, and butterflies at La Paz gorgeous!

Thanks everybody. I think I have my itinerary all set. 1 night Bourgainvillea, do Paos and La Paz on the way to Lost Iguana for 3 nights, 3 nights Monteverde, and 2 nights at MA, and back to San Jose for the last night. If anytone know anything about the Belmar hotel in Monteverde please let me know. The web photos look great and it is very reasonably priced. And I think I'll try Costa verde in MA. Have to get this booked and off my mind. So let me know soon if they are bad choices. Thanks

Costa Verde is a fine choice !!

Get it booked and relax, HJ--you're going to have the time of your life! :) Enjoy!

Hi gang- just relaxing with a glass of wine checking the last minute postings for any more great advice. We are leaving this Thursday, finally! Ended up with 2 nights at Lost IGuana (but spending 3rd day doing waterfall rapelling there) then going to Peace Lodge for 3 nights. Doing the horseback/canopy tour one day and rafting another. Left one day unplanned- might do La Paz tour/hike.

Just wanted to thank you ALL for the great advice and helping us plan our own trip. Pura vida....Jill

Safe travels, Jill! And have a fabulous time--man, will I ever be with you in spirit! :)

Jill (the other one)

Thanks to all. My trip is set. Those still planning, book soon. We are staying at Arenal Paraiso (could only get a high priced room there), Monteverde Cloud Forest Lodge (Couldn't get Belmar) but did get Costa Verde in Manual Antonio. Can now relax with air, car, hotels and even a guide in Monteverde scheduled. Hope everyone else can do the same. I couldn't have done it without all of the posts here and others. Adios!

jakeaspen: Have fun! We loved the Hotel Bougainvillea in Heredia and at $80 a night it's a bargain. We stayed there at the end of our trip after we dropped off our rental car. We got a free ride to the hotel from the rental car place, and even the driver had a little trouble finding it, took one wrong turn but quickly got himself oriented.

My niece who just got back from her honeymoon stayed there too, and she liked it too, except for one problem...she and her new hubby drove there from the car rental place near the airport, and got very very lost for 2 hours! Just a warning it's difficult to find. ONly about a 20-minute drive from the airport if you're not lost, but if I were you, I would do it this way:

Arrive in SJO airport; have taxi driver take you to Hotel Bougainvillea (bring a map with you with the Hotel on it; ask HOtel bougainvillea for one. Show it to the taxi driver. If you think the driver is lost, hand him the phone number for Hotel bougainvillea and he can call them for directions!) Then the next day after breakfast, have it all arranged for your car rental place to pick you and your luggage up at Hotel bougainvillea and take you to the car rental place, they should do this for free. It is easier to find your way to Arenal starting from a car rental place in Alajuela, than it is starting from the Hotel bougainvillea.

We had no problem as I knew this in advance, and as I mentioned we didn't have a car at the Hotel bougainvillea. We drove up to Arenal from the Tricolor car rental place, which gave pretty good directions for how to get started going the right way. (We had maps too.)

Hope this is helpful.

We stayed there on our last night in Costa Rica. We dropped off our car at Tricolor, Alaluela, and they gave us a free ride to the HOtel Bougainvillea in Heredia. As I mentioned driver got slightly lost but only briefly.

Also, if you take HOtel Bougainvillea's free shuttle into downtown San Jose, you need to know where to go from the point where they drop you off. We didn't take the shuttle into downtown San JOSE. My niece did and she and her hubby didn't realize it drops you off on the outskirts of town, and they had no idea where to go from there! You need to plan ahead on this. Have a map of San Jose and have the excellent front desk at Hotel bougainvillea show you where you would need to walk from drop-off point to find the area which has good shopping/dancing/restaurants. I believe it's known as the El Pueblo mall.

Has anyone out there done the Tortuguero Canals? My family & I will tour the Canels in 2 weeks for 3day/ 2 night tour package. Any words of advice?

Summit - there is quite alot of info here from those of us that have been to Tortuguero. You may want to try doing a search to see what has previously been said. Just type in Tortuguero in the search area. I just love this site!

We went to Tortuguero in Feb 2004, loved it.

We did the boat in/fly out package. Stayed at Mawamba Lodge.

As for advice - none really - except to take advantage of all the tours, they are included! And you do realize - no swimming in the ocean here.

You may want to post an new topic with your questions, in order to get more replies.

But ask away - I always enjoy sharing!

Well, our itinerary is set and I want to thank all posters.
Day1-fly in and stay at Bourgainville
Day 2-4 3nights arenal Praiso seeing Paos on the way. Plan to do canapy tour and hanging bridges and hot springs.
Day 5-7 3 nights Monteverde Cloud Forest Lodge. couldn't get Hotel Belmar. Have a guide booked.
Day 8-9 2 nights Costa Verde at Manuel Antonio
Day 10 leave car in Quepos and fly back to San jose on Sansa where the international airport is just across the field to catch afternoon flight to usa.

I'll post on our return which is Feb. 9th. Any last minute thoughts please post. We take off Jan 31st. I think were covering quite a bit of CR in 10 days..really 8 with flights. We are renting a car and driving ourselves. Wish us luck!!!!

Author: heyjude21919
Date: 02/12/2006, 08:59 pm
We also just got back from 10 days in Costa Rica. All I can say is Wow! We loved it all. Out itinerary was as follows: Day 1 flew to San Jose, took a shuttle to Hotel Bourganvillea (Beautiful hotel and gardens). Car arrived next morning from Mapache. It was 4 wheel drive. Drove to La Fortuna and stayed the next three nights at Arenal Paraiso. Really liked that too. They had their own hot springs although not as elaborate as Tabacon. We did the Sy Tram/ Sky Trek. The ziplines were great. The guides talked about the rainforest while riding up the tram stopping to look at monkeys and different tree features. Then we zipped down. It was wonderful..The guides will go with you if necessary. I am 58 and normally afraid of heights but just loved this!!!Having a car was great if you like checking out in-town stuff. We did go to Arenal National Park and hiked to a lava field. You could see the rocks tumbling down with each blast. The sounds are awesome. Also hikde to La Fortuna Waterfall. (500 steps down and up)but worth it. Also did the hanging bridges. Also cool. Then on to Monteverde for three nights at the Cloud Forest Lodge. A wild drive. The roads were horrible, a real adventure. We had a guide, Rafeal, who was great at the MV Reserve. Also took a coffee tour which was the only place we saw a toucan. It rained most of the time and when not raining you were in a mist. It didn't stop us at all. Next we drove to Manual Antonio and stayed 2 nights but wished we had more time there. The public beach was great, but swimming in the lagoons in the National park was wonderful. No waves. You could just float and swim all over. Also the trails had monkeys sloths both two and three toes, and iguanas. Amazing. Stayed at Costa Verde hotel. Loved it. Food was great and we found local music at La Cantina across the street. Took a 12 seater plane (Sansa Airline) back to San Jose the last day. Our car was picked up at the hotel the day before keeping our rental to a week even though we were there 10 days. 25 minute flight which as great for seeing the coast line and mountain ranges. We were so glad we did that. Only 58 dollars per person. Peggy at Vacationcity.com helped us with reservations after getting great ideas from this board. I will try to help anyone with specific questions, but am not on the computer everyday. You may have to wait for my reply. But we definitely want to return to Costa Rica. Just loved the country and the people. I only speak a little spanish, but being on our own what I could speak did make a difference. I would recommend having a driver or a tour if you speak no spanish. My husband was amazed at how my spanish helped and believe me it isn't very good.