trishar

I am a single mom traveling with my 9 year old son and 21 year old neice. Could only get frequent flyer tickets in/out of Liberia - Jan 5-18. Many people have told me that driving is not safe but I think renting a 4WD is the way to go. I want to to maximize my daylight time with tours and do most driving at night. Is that ok, or should I stick to daytime driving?

Rincon de la Vieja/Hacienda Guachipelin
Monteverde/Finca Valeverde - trying to go a little budget and rustic
Arenal/Los Logos - does this have a lava view? Or lava view recommendation?
Manuel Antonio/may go budget at BW Queppos or all out at Costa Verde
Return to Liberia for flight - possible 2 days at Marriott Guaanacaste - I can use points here and it's so nice why not squeeze it in??

I am very flexiable, so please any recommendations for an alternate itinerary, how many days to spend at each destination and what tours to do. We are very adventereous - zip lines, canyoning, hiking, horse back riding, rafting, hiking. What are we missing? Any recommendaitons on which river for a good level 2 rapids for a first time 9 year old?

Thanks!

cmerrell

Hi trishar,

I don't think you'll find anyone here who's going to recommend you do most of your driving after dark. Road conditions in CR can be highly variable and weather conditions can change rapidly. Most roadways are not well lit at night and it would be very easy to miss your turn-offs. Most people recommend that you plan your driving times to ensure you'll arrive at your destination before nightfall. Besides, the countryside is really beautiful and you'd miss out on a lot of it if you were only driving at night...

I've driven on 2 separate trips and never had any issues, but I don't know if I would feel quite as comfortable driving with just female companions. There are the occasional stories of flat tire scams and other unpleasantries, although my own driving experiences have been perfectly enjoyable.

3 days is a good rule of thumb to allot for most locations. That would definitely be true for Monteverde, Arenal and MA. Haven't been to the Rincon area, so I'm not sure about that one. Since most of roads are of the 2 lane, winding variety, it takes quite a while to get from point A to point B in Costa Rica. For example: you'll spend 3-ish hours traveling between Monteverde and Arenal, and 5-6 to get down to Manuel Antonio from either of those locations, so you need to build travel time into your itinerary.

Sounds like you're a very active crew, so you should absolutely love CR! For Arenal, you can check out this link to track the lava flow direction. Los Lagos gets good reviews here, but it would not currently have a view of the lava...

http://www.arenal.net/arenal-costa-rica-map.htm

There are lots of helpful posters here, so keep asking questions. And have fun with your planning stage.

1bhcrashman

Wake up at 5:30am and be at your destination for the night by 6pm. That is usually the excepted thought. There is a definite reason why everyone says not to drive at night. Mainly because it's VERY dark, the roads can be in VERY bad shape, there can be VERY many people wearing dark clothes walking on the sides of VERY narrow roads, animals, etc. If you have an accident it is the law that you must not move the vehicle until the police (and sometimes the insurance rep is on site) 2 women and a young boy possibly stranded quite a distance from anywhere in the dark? Just my opinion.

baldone

Agree completely with the other posters. There really is no reason to risk ruining a trip considering all the risks of driving at night. The roads are very poorly marked, IF AT ALL. I got lost in the daylight with a gps a number of times. Throw in fog & rain and you have recipe for disaster. As far as activities, we did do the zip with Sky Trek at Arenal. Highly recommended, cable car up, views of the lake, awesome zips, very professional. Google "Travelexperta" for help with an itinerary. It's not me. She doesn't charge for building an itinerary.

volcanogirl

Agree with everyone else. Do not do your driving at night; things are hard to find, and there are dropoffs, fog, rain, etc. Much better to go during the day. Fonda Vela is nice in Monteverde. Los Lagos will give you a volcano view, but not a lava view. For lava view, your best bet is Arenal Observatory Lodge, but it's further from town.

trishar

Thank you so much! This was my first post - and I have so many questions for such a long trip. Stay tuned as I break it down a bit!