volcanogirl

Hi, guys - does anyone know if Peace Lodge, Bosque del Cabo, or Vista del Valle have gift shops? I was wanting to buy one of those nice carved wooden bowls that I saw all over CR on our last trip. Do you think any of these places would have what I'm looking for? Thanks for any info. you can provide. I always try to get a nice souvenir to remember our trips by.

hipvirgochick

Peace Lodge has 2 nice gift shops with quite a bit to choose from (not ALL items made in Costa Rica, mind you). I loved those bowls too, and plan on getting some next trip They had some nice jewelry too and all kinds of things you could take back for gifts. BDC has a gift shop, but it's quite small and has limited items. They have some very inexpensive T-shirts (I picked up a Women of the Osa for $10 and my daughter a BDC for $10) and somve very locally made items such as painted masks, belts and wooden carvings. There are also a couple of gift shops/art places in Puerto Jimenez, so you could go on your way out or if you go to town for a tour. I guess Sarchi is the best place to buy things, but I wasn't able make it there.

tully

Can't remember if I saw bowls but there was a lot on offer at the PL gift shops (just beware of buying Terra chips - $7!!!!) As a last resort, Cafe Britt has a near monoply on stores at the airport, there must be 4 or 5 there and they might carry the bowls.

If you have time to hit Sarchi, that would be a good place, price may be a little cheaper too depending on which store you go to. Also, never been there but there is a Green Turtle Store right in the same complex as Garden Court, Hampton Inn etc right by the airport and they may carry something like that.

volcanogirl

Thanks for the info. tully and hip; I'm not familiar with Sarchi - where is that?

MarciaM

I think that the gift shop at Peace Lodge is run by Cafe Britt, too. It has a nice selection, and it is pretty much the same selection and price as at the Cafe Britt stores in the airport. Vista del Valle has a small gift shop with some pretty, high end carved wooden bowls. Sarchi is a small town about 10 minutes away from Vista del Valle. They can arrange for a cab for you. Sarchi is known for it's craft and furniture shops. Lots of wooden bowls and souvenirs there.

volcanogirl

Ah, thanks for the info. My husband ordered a couple of those CR rocking chairs for me online for my b-day - now that I think about it, they may have come from Sarchi. It definitely sounds like its worth checking out. I love those bowls, but they can get kind of pricey!

volcanogirl

Thanks for the good advice, everyone - we are just back from our trip and wanted to tell you we found a beautiful bowl at the Morpho (owned by Cafe Britt I believe) gift shop at the airport. They had a great selection to choose from, and we ended up getting a really pretty salad bowl with tongs - love it, and it will always remind us of CR.

We didn't have time for the Peace Lodge gift shop, but it looked great. The one at BdC was fairly small. VdV had some nice items, and we bought a small little bowl there as well.

tunadoc

I was also thinking of passing through Sarchi to hunt for crafts and souvenirs. But it's looking like the day that best fits into my planned routing is a Saturday. Any idea of what days/hours shops might be open in Sarchi?

MarciaM

There's a coop store in Sarche Norte that opens early, but most stores are open by 10:00. Of course you can get there at 10:00 and there's no one there, even though the sign says 10:00. Maybe by 10:15...

tunadoc

Thanks, MarciaM. One of the likely scenarios is that we arrive back in the Sarchi/Alajuela area on a Saturday at the end of the trip (gotta be at the airport the next morning for a Sunday noon departure). So one of my concerns is. . . how late in the day can we arrive in Sarchi and still be able to shop?

tunadoc

I can now answer my own question, having just returned. We ended up arriving very late indeed in Sarchi (5:35 PM on a Saturday). Turns out that everything was going to close at 6PM. We started to shop at light speed. Funny thing, though, the shop manager wasn't too concerned about closing on time when she saw that we were still shopping (and buying!).

volcanogirl

tuna, funny how that works, isn't it?!

We went to a shop in Puerto Jimenez that had huge signs saying "closeout sale" and "going out of business" and "additional 20% off" - we asked the woman at the register when they were going out of business, and she said, "We aren't going out of business." What?! Well, we got some good deals there anyway...

Suzie2

volcano girl, was that the gift shop by the airport? I think we saw the same signs. Jose who bartends at Bosque del Cabo owns the big store on the main street in town. We peeked in after breakfast at Carolinas to see if he was there but no luck. Had to wait until happy hour up at BdC. He doesn't have quite the variety of stuff that Tom's place does.

Cafe Britt does have several stores in the airport with a good selection. They also run the gift shops up at PL.

Sarchi is amazing. It is like going into a grocery store. You just walk down huge aisles and pluck stuff off the shelves. I had Luis from Orquideas Inn running like crazy taking my stuff up to the front. No Prada stuff ;-).