Hello All,
Thanks to those of you whose comments helped me to plan a fantastic 10-day trip to CR! We just returned. We are a family of 4 with moderately adventurous daughters ages 8 & 11, so my comments are mostly oriented to families traveling with kids.
We spent one night in SJ at Orquedeas Inn, which was delightful (though our roadside room wasn't very nice, I had a peek at some poolside ones that were lovely, as were the grounds etc.)
Following advice from some of you, we hired Wilson Rojas to drive us to La Fortuna. He was great, and can be contacted directly at
[email protected] or
[email protected]. Cell phone 506-377-8891. We stopped along the way to look for birds and ogle waterfalls, which was all lovely, though in retrospect this made the driving day feel too long for the kids, and I wish we'd just motored straight to Fortuna.
We stayed 3 nights at Los Lagos which was a great choice for the kids, and we could have stayed longer. When we first arrived it seemed too Disneylandy for our tastes, but the pool complex (warm pools, cool pools, swim up bar, slides) was awesome and we could have spent days just playing there. As it was my kids definitely wanted to hunker down and hang out poolside and relax most of the first couple of days so I was really glad that we didn't pre-book tours. It is really easy (and probably cheaper) just to do this on-site, or skip a guide and go by cab. The zip-line on-sight at Los Lagos was fabulous - everyone in my family raved about it as the #1 activity of the trip. The hanging bridges hike was awesome too: we saw loads of monkeys, both types of sloths very close up right off the bridge, and tons of other great creatures. We thought our choice to take a cab ourselves and not to hire a guide was a good one as we could go at our own pace, and generally when someone spots something you have a chance to come over and see too. We got some magnificent daytime volcano viewing though it clouded over every evening. We didn't go to Cano Negro because we felt it was too much schlepping.
We next drove the 5 hours to Manuel Antonio for 2 nights at Si Como No. This is a beautiful resort but we are not really the resorty types and probably would have prefered one of the midrange hotels with a more bunaglowy feel (and saved a lot of moola). They are all close together and the views are all comparably magnificent. We had a terrific day at MA - took the public bus down the hill which was fun, enjoyed the shops and roadside food, loved seeing the meddlesome capuchins close up on the beach, (definitely no guide needed for that one) and played in the gentle waves til it got too hot and crowded at midday. As great a day as this was, we all agreed it wasn't worth the 5 hour drive there and transition to another hotel. We think we should've skipped it.
We definitely felt that the only drawback of our trip was too much transitioning, and that 2 places would have been better than 3. At least one of us got pretty cranky on the long travel days or then didn't want to do an activity, so it would've been better, for our style, to minimize those in favor of longer stays in 2 places. Also our kids definitely did NOT want major activity on every single day, though I know this is how many people plan their trips.
We then flew by way of San Jose to Puerto Jiminez, 2 short flights which ended up being much more fun than we'd expected, with incredible views of the country. We spent 4 nights at the beachhouse at the Yellow Coco inn at Playa Puntarenes south of P. Jiminez. It is magnificent - commanding a fairly rare ocean view steps from the beach. The beach house is 2 stories, open on all sides to what my daughter kept referring to as "living in a travel brochure" and in fact was much bigger than we needed. It would be a great place for 2 families or a large family as it sleeps 8, and is pricey, esp. as no meals are included. It's easy and delightful to walk a few yards down the beach to one of 2 fun restaurants though. (Black Turtle Lodge or Pearl of The Osa, both of which seem great.)
Our highlight was the half-day tour in Golfo Dulce which included dolphin sighting (an enormous and awe-inspiring pod of spinners frolicking alongside our boat), snorkeling (calm water, shallow, decent fish) and a trip to the wildlife sanctuary where my daughters died and went to heaven (ok, so did I) touching and holding monkeys! We also took a marvelous horseback ride an hour down the pristine, jaw-droppingly gorgeous beach and then back through the jungle. The ocean was beautiful though at times the surf a bit rough, and unfortunately we were all stung by jellyfish though we were told they are only occasionally in the area (some say it coincides with the full moon, who knows, but it kept us from swimming the last day which was a big bummr.) Other than that we lounged on our porch amidst the most amazing array of birds and butterflies imaginable, with several pairs of scarlet macaws hanging out and squawking their heads off in the tree by the house, the occasional howler monkey troop wandering by, and flukey rainstorms pounding the roof at night, and it was absolute heaven!
In sum: great trip, but with kids I would not go to so many places, and definitely stay somewhere at least 3 nights. I recommend booking activities when you get there (esp. b/c you don't want to be tied into something if the weather is bad or someone is sick), and considering going it alone at times to set your own pace. For our style, less is more oftentimes!
Thanks everybody!
