So we have booked a week in July around Los Suenos and are looking for day trip ideas. You may have read a post from me about driving to Playa Hermosa in Guanacaste, but we have scrapped that plan.

We will be staying at the Marriott and will not have a car. After reading up on this, I have decided I just do not want to deal with driving. I am sure once I get there I will change my mind, but this is my plan.

With that said, what are some reasonable day trips from this area? Of course checking out some of the nice beaches in Jaco are on our list.

Some things we would like to do are see sea turtles nesting, see a live volcano, go to a hot spring, Zip Line in a Rain Forest. Are any of these options a reasonable drive from this area. We will hopefully be picked up by a tour company, or maybe have a private driver take us. We will be using Danny for Costa Rica Tour Driver for our Air Port transportation, so we will try and use him for our tours too if needed.




Thanks,
TT

Is it possible for you to split your trip and do half at Los Suenos and half in Arenal? Arenal has the active volcano, natural hot springs, ziplines, etc. but would not make a good day trip.

After going over a billion options we have decided to stay put in just one hotel the whole time. We realize Costa Rica has some very diverse areas and we will not get to see it all. It will be a pity not to see Arenal and its hot springs, but relaxing completly some days and some day trips others is what we plan on sticking with.

When we stayed at Los Suenos, many day trips were available to be booked from the hotel. We booked a package at the hotel for the Calypso Catamaran Tortuga Island excursion, and on other days drove ourselves to zip line at The Orginal Canopy Tour at Mahagony Park and to Manuel Antonio (both of which I highly recommend doing via a tour even if you don't want to drive yourself). The Catamaran day didn't excite me as much. The scenery from the boat was really beautiful and the island was nice, but it was a really long day.

http://www.marriott.com/hotelwebsite...sTours08-b.pdf

The Calypso looked nice, but I too was thinking this would be a very long day. We are going to San Juan in 2 weeks and there are plenty of catamaran snorkeling options there.

We are probably going to go to Arenal 1 day with a private driver, and this is going to be a very long day. I would like to limit the amount of days this long, we are on vacation, so low key days will be important.

Thanks very much for including the PDF of the tour options from the hotel.

TT

Whatever you do don't miss the sunset symphonics at Villa Calletas. Get ther around 4:30 and do not sit in the pit. find a table where you can look over everyone's head so you can take pictures. It's great. Villa Calletas is 15 minutes from Los Suenos.
Past Villa Calletas on your left you have Punta Leona. Pay the entry fee and enjoy their facilities. Make sure to get there early and go directly to Playa Blanca. It's one of the nicest beaches you'll find anywhere. They also have a pool and tennis courts, etc for your use.
10 minutes past Punta Leona on your right you have Villa Lapas. They have a bridge system that you can do. Book as early as possible and try not to go with a group. First one out sees everything. Hire aguide, about $10.
10 minutes south of Jaco you have Playa Hermosa, a very long surfing beach. Farther down the road you can visit the Estrellios beaches, they also are beautiful.
You can eat at any of these locations although Villa Lapas food isn't rated highly. Coming back from there on your right there's a Camarones (prawn) restuarant that's excellent.
The food in the marina restuarant at Los Suenos and also the view is great. Prices are good as well.
If you like casinos the two in Jaco are better than the ones at Los Suenos.
There are also several zip lines in the Jaco area. Take a walk downtown and pick up a few brochures.
Have fun!

Quiety lurking on this thread and loving the day trip ideas. Keep them coming. Thank you!

We are also headed to CR in a few weeks (first timers!) and staying at Los Suenons (also using Marriott Points and will not have a car). Kids are ages 13, 11, and 8 and we all love adventure.

We want to river raft, zip line, hike the rainforest, possibly ride horses, hang out on the beach and would love to see the volcano. It sounds like we will be able to do a lot of that through private tours. I have no idea which ones to choose as there are so many out there and really want it to be a good experience. I have been second guessing my decision on staying at the same property, but as it is our first time, I really didn't know. Learning....!

Thanks for any suggestions on tour groups/day trips.

The hotels are very prepared for this. I booked some unique tours ahead of time that I didnt want to miss but other times I just walked into the lobby and said,"We'd like to tour Manuel Antonio tomorrow" or "Can we get a ride to Monteverde on Thursday?" Within 10 minutes the hotels had a driver/tour set up. I found this at all the hotels we stayed at. The tourism industry is very professional there. We were happy with all the tours we took, even the ones booked last minute.