Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - cr trip report (3/31-4/8)

We had a lovely honeymoon in Costa Rica. Thought I'd post a trip report on where we went, what we thought, and what we saw.

For any DC folks, we stayed at the Park Hyatt in DC's West End (Foggy Bottom/Dupont) for the two nights after our wedding. It was really nice, and we truly felt the five-star service. If you're a government employee, they allow the government rate for leisure trips, and they comped my bottle of champagne and chocolates.

We flew from Washington National to San Jose via Charlotte for just $301/person, inclusive. We had no problems, though making our connection from DCA to our San Jose flight was a little tough due to a slight delay.

Immigration and customs was simple, and we paid our exit tax in advance. I had read that the taxi folks can be pushy at SJO. I've traveled to Buenos Aires and Lima, so I was pleasantly surprised that a "no, gracias" and some ignoring was all it took. Thrifty picked us up about five minutes after we got there.

We had booked an automatic 4x4 through AutoEurope, who uses Thrifty in Costa Rica. We paid $272 for a week, inclusive of CDW/LDW. We had no problems, and Thrifty upgraded us to a comfortable Jeep Liberty. We paid $104 extra for "full" insurance, though we declined the GPS. We had to put down a $750 deposit on the vehicle.

We drove the 25 minutes (getting slightly lost -- so it took maybe 35) to Vista del Valle, a Shillmac recommendation. It was really a nice intro to Costa Rica, and we stayed in the Mona Lisa cabin. We swam in the slightly dirty pool (it was maybe 5 PM, and they clean it in the mornings). We also had chips and guacamole and drinks (Imperial for me, Mojito for the wife), and my wife was impressed that the bartender picked fresh mint for her drink. We ate dinner there, which was $18 each, but was good and was inclusive. We enjoyed the cabin, though the water in the outdoor shower was a little tepid. Breakfast the next morning was the best we had in Costa Rica -- a full continental, plus eggs and "desayuno tipico" made to order.

The next morning, we drove to the Espiritu Santo Coffee Tour in Naranjo. We got lost along the way, but not too bad. I speak Spanish proficiently (which means I can get by just fine), so asking for directions wasn't hard. Tico directions are vague though!

The coffee tour was a highlight of the trip. It was $16/each, but we tipped our two guides big time because they were so good. They told us the tour would take an hour and a half or two hours, but we stayed for almost three. It was two guides and my wife and I. The guides answered questions about their market (100% Starbucks in the US), labor conditions for Nicaraguan workers, immigration, coffee, whatever. They were honest and fun. They hadn't finished the smaller processing plant they will use on the tour, so we drove in our SUV about five minutes into Naranjo to visit the real one. It felt like we should have had hard hats or something, because we got so close to all the machinery. We climbed up and under and learned how the coffee is processed. To summarize, this tour was great. I'm sure it's better than Britt, and I've never done Doka. One of our guides worked at Doka, and he likes Espiritu Santo better. You also don't have to make an appointment currently. They don't have a website, but you can ask your hotel or just drive into Naranjo (there are signs everywhere).

After the coffee tour, we drove to Hotel Sugar Beach. We stopped to buy groceries at a mall-type thing in San Ramon, paying a guard at the local disco to watch our luggage-laden SUV. The drive to Guanacaste was fine, but traffic on the Panamerican was pretty heavy. I think the strange conbination of rural Oklahoma driving growing up and downtown DC driving now (we live in the District) made me feel totally fine about Tico driving. We stopped at whatever "tipico" restaurant is on the corner of the turnoff to the Tempisque bridge, which was fine, if not cheap.

The roads were all fine, though once we turned off toward Playa Potrero and Playa Pan de Azucar the road was rough. After Potrero, the road was very rough and would have been nerve wracking if we were doing it for the first time at night.

Hotel Sugar Beach was lovely. The room was very clean and nice, though we immediately noticed the water was tepid as well. The setting was amazing, though it was getting toward the end of the dry season, so it was pretty brown. The hotel's restaurant was decent, though the pastel tres leches was amazing. My wife actually emailed and got the recipe from them, which she tinkered with and we've been enjoying for a couple of days now. The breakfasts were nice, and the hotel staff were friendly and helpful. The next day we ate at the Happy Snapper, which was good. There is apparently some sort of souvenir/trinket market on Playa Conchal, which was really pretty. My wife bought a pair of earrings.

Frommers makes it seem like Liberia was a decent place to visit, which it wasn't. We found a decent lunch near the plaza and used cheap internet, but it only took us 1.5 hour to get there so it wasn't a completely lost day. We ate dinner at the Marco Polo restaurant in Potrero, which had really nice wood-oven pizza.

The last day was interesting. We rented a kayak and snorkeling equipment. The guy showed us a map and said "there are some rocks over here -- you should check out what's over there." Well, we went to check out what was over there (both my wife and I have kayaked before), and got caught in between the rocks and a large wave overturned the kayak. Everything was fine (we packed the kayak well), but my wife lost her glasses and I sliced my foot pretty terribly. So the rest of that day was spent resting up, buying stuff at the pharmacy, and swimming in the hotel pool. Be careful if kayaking in the ocean!

We went to dinner at Mar y Sol in Playa Flamingo. It was truly excellent, and we eat out in DC a good bit. We paid $110 for the meal, but it was an extremely good value. The owner is French, and he came around and greeted every table. I really recommend this place.

One note on Hotel Sugar Beach: there were "daddy long legs" spiders everywhere! We thought the bed was safe, but one afternoon we saw one there too.

We drove from Sugar Beach to Arenal. Note that there is no gas station for a while, and we thought we were going to run out of gas. We drove to Guaitil, a small village near Santa Cruz, to shop for pottery. We bought really great pottery at good prices from a womens' cooperative. I'd recommend a side trip to shop in this post-indigenous village. I work in American Indian issues in DC, so it was interesting for me to speak to the folks about the issues there.

We stopped at the Lucky Bug Gallery outside of Nuevo Arenal for coffee and shopping. The coffee was great, and it was a nice little gallery-type place. The road from Cañas to La Fortuna was newly paved, and was really nice and scenic.

We stayed at Linda Vista del Norte, which is 8 kms down the road by the national park entrance, SkyTrek, and Arenal Observatory Lodge. Our room did have a GREAT view of the volcano and lava flow (which we saw the first night). The pool area was very nice at this hotel. The water was either scalding or freezing. The hotel staff were at times surly, and the restaurant is extremely (!!) overpriced and the service was bad. I would have stayed somewhere else, had I known.

We did a canyoneering tour with Desafio Adventures and had a blast. It was really a lot of fun, and it felt very safe. We were with a family of four from Florida and five friends from Atlanta. The guides were good, and the lunch was nice. It was $85/person, and I would recommend it to anyone. We rested that evening at Eco Termales. They couldn't give us dinner (we reserved at 10 that morning), but we enjoyed it nonetheless. It wasn't too full, and we thought the honor system bar was nice. It did cost $24, and not $18 (as Frommers 08 reports). Baldi (across the street) looks tacky, and Tabacon was "muy caro" (expensive), so we were happy with our choice. We ate dinner at Dun Rufinos, which was nice and not a bad deal.

We got breakfast at Cafe Vienna, which is next to the Burger King in La Fortuna. It is a cafe run by Viennese expats, and the espresso was really great. The pastries were wonderful, and we think it's worth a stop for anyone. The pain chocolat was very near to the French variety, according to my wife (who spent a year in France).

We drove back to Alajuela and turned our car in, with no hassles whatsoever. I recommend Thrifty. We took a cab to Hotel Los Volcanes, which was only $52 and was bright, cheery, and spotlessly clean. It felt a little like a hostel, but we enjoyed our room (number one). They had an electric shower head, though it was actually installed in a safe way (whereas in Bolivia, Uruguay, and Cuba they are not!) and it was hot! What a treat after a week of tepid showers.

We took the bus (fifty cents!) into San Jose and ate dinner at Olio, in Barrio California. Our taxi driver looked to be fifteen and couldn't find it. He kept asking people on the street "I have foreigners, and they want to go to Olio, do you know where that is?" I had a map, which he ignored. Olio (search the Frommers site for a review) was EXCELLENT and a great value, and we would love to go back. Seriously check this place out.

We wish we had stayed an extra day to hang out in San Jose. I know it's not the highlight of Costa Rica, but we're city people and enjoyed feeling like we weren't surrounded by Americans all the time. This was actually the biggest negative for the places we went, that we felt like we were surrounded by American vacationers, and couldn't experience the true Costa Rica. This was overcome in San Jose, where we tooled around shopping (cheap shoes for my wife!) and stopping for dessert and coffee. Latin America has great parks, plazas, and public art, which we enjoyed.

The next day, we woke up late, lazed around, and took a taxi to the airport three hours before our flight. Half an hour later, we were at the gate, and we wished we had slept a little longer. But it wasn't that bad, and we browsed the duty-free shops while waiting for our flight.

Costa Rica is a beautiful country. If we return, we'll try to hit the Caribbean coast for a more "authentic" experience. We had a lovely time.