Family Trip Report
Jun 6th, 2005 | 08:19 AM
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Family Trip Report
We were on the most wonderful 9-day family vacation in Costa Rica (2 adults and 2 kids ages 8 and 5) on April 20-30, 2005. I truly think that Costa Rica must be one of the best travel destinations! Not only is it stunningly beautiful, safe and diverse, as an added bonus, the people are so nice, warm and welcoming. In one vacation, we got to see 2 different type of volcanoes, several cloud and tropical forests, waterfalls, butterfly & hummingbird gardens, beautiful beaches, lots and lots of animals and wildlife, including: Cappuccino White Face monkeys, Spider monkeys, sloths, caimans, iguanas, amazing birds and butterflies, and what really blew me away -- unbelievably beautiful tropical flowers and vegetation, which as much as we saw, I could just not get enough....
One of the best things we’ve done with our trip was planning it and pre-booking all the hotels, tours and private transfers ahead of time. It made our vacation so much more relaxing and enjoyable. The tour guides always arrived promptly to pick us up from our hotels. We didn’t have to worry about renting a car, getting directions, or driving anywhere. Even though my husband is a good driver and is not easily intimidated by foreign driving conditions, he commented what a “treat” it was to be picked up from our hotel and enjoy the beautiful scenery from the back seat of air-conditioned vans. The tour operator we used was GaiaLink Tours (for more information, see notation on bottom of the report).
Day 1: We arrived in San Jose on the night of 4/20. Met Rocio, our GaiaLink contact, at the airport and had a private transfer to our hotel, Le Bergerac, where we were upgraded from a Standard room to a spacious and beautiful Superior room. The hotel is very nice and has a lot of character. The room had its own private balcony with a beautiful private garden. As a matter of fact, this hotel was our first introduction to the incredible gardens, tropical vegetation and amazing flowers and flower arrangements that continued to amaze me throughout our trip!
Day 2: We took the 4-in-1 Tour. This tour was probably one of the highlights of our trip. My recommendation to anyone is that even if you don’t take any other tour in CR – take this one! Even though it’s called a “4-in-1”, as my 8 year-old put it – it’s actually a “14- in-1”… You get to see so many things in this full-day tour: starting with a nice typical breakfast at a quaint restaurant, a visit to a coffee plantation, Poas Volcano (which is so beautiful on its own, but also has absolutely gorgeous grounds leading to it), the La Paz waterfalls, which included beautiful butterfly and hummingbird gardens, a wonderful lunch buffet at the Peace Lodge facility (what a beautiful setting that was!), and then an unbelievable walk in the truly spectacular trails leading to the waterfalls. After all that, the van continued to Sarapiqui River and we went on a very nice boat ride observing the wildlife. (This short boat ride gave us a flavor of the Caño Negro boat tour that we went on later, while visiting Arenal, and I could arguably say that you could give up the Caño Negro tour if you experience this one). The trip ended with a beautiful drive through the Braulio Carrillo National Park before returning to San Jose. This tour was a truly pleasurable day and highly recommended!!!
Day 3: Our transfer to Arenal was wonderful. As with all other tours and transfers, our driver arrived promptly to pick us up, and right after breakfast we started a very smooth and interesting drive to Arenal. We asked our driver to make two stops on the way, and he happily accommodated our request. First we stopped in Sarchi, which is a little artsy town known for its ox carts. The driver dropped us off at the most famous shopping center, and it was a good place for taking photos of the kids with beautiful, very colorful, full-size ox carts, and for a quick bathroom stop.
Next, we stopped in Zarcero, which is known for its beautiful garden by the town’s church with its amazing sculpted bushes. We went “wild” taking pictures of the kids with their favorite “animal” bushes… There are bushes sculpted as bunnies, dogs, dinosaurs, you name it, as well as a beautiful arched entrance… It was a nice experience.
As we were approaching Arenal, we were getting very excited to see the mountain crystal clear! From the many postings that I read, I mentally prepared myself to a cloud-covered mountain, which I understand is a very common sight. Other than brief cloud coverings in the late afternoons, the mountain has given us a spectacular clear view throughout the 2 days we were there. Just to let you know, even though smoke was clearly coming out from the top of the mountain throughout the day, we could not see any red lava flow from our hotel (Hotel Paraiso). We did see, however, around mid-night, two very quick lava explosions from the top of the mountain (literally, lasted a couple of seconds, making it very easy to miss), but there was NO red lava flow otherwise. Some people had mentioned to us that the lava flow could be seen from the Observatory Lodge, but since it’s on the other side of the mountain, and the mountain was covered with clouds at the time, we opted not to go there for dinner.
Hotel Paraiso is beautiful and highly recommended! Even though the cabin itself was very basic, the hotel has so much to offer. First, it has spectacular views of the mountain from every cabin, and practically from anywhere else on the hotel property. Also, the hotel grounds are gorgeous! We also really enjoyed their natural hot springs. Even though they can’t be compared in their magnitude to the Tabacon springs, we found them to be more charming, with more “character” and they were more “inviting” in terms of their water temperature, compared to the Tabacon springs, which we found to be way too hot (and this is coming from a person who loves hot water…!). The hotel also has an awesome full buffet breakfast!
Shortly after our arrival at Hotel Paraiso, we were picked up for an afternoon tour of the volcano. The best part of the tour was: after a long, hot walk on the trails, in and out of the forest, finally arriving to an open area, which was covered with beautiful black lava rocks, allowing the most magnificent view of both the mountain (which seemed to be particularly close by at that point) and the Arenal lake. Our kids just loved playing the roles of various “mountain cats”, while hopping and climbing those rocks!
We were then transported over to Tabacon springs. These springs, even though almost too hot to enter, have the most spectacular setting, and we still found the whole experience to be very enjoyable. Also, regardless of the mixed reviews that I had read prior to our trip, we completely enjoyed our dinner experience at Tabacon. They have multiple buffets with several different stations, such as hot food station (which includes various kinds of meats and fish), a pasta station (where they freshly prepare the pasta of your choice with your choice of toppings). They also had many, many different kinds of salads, fresh fruits and deserts. It was a very nice ending to a long and exciting day!
Day 4: Today was our full-day Caño Negro boat wildlife tour. We were picked up early in the morning and had an enjoyable ride in a more luxurious, air-conditioned bus. As was true for all our transport throughout the trip, the ride up to the Nicaragua border was beautiful and interesting. We stopped on the way to see, as our guide jokingly put it, “chicken on the trees”, which was no other than a bridge offering an unusual view of hundreds of iguanas lazily lying high on the tree branches. Quite a view! The boat ride up and down the Rio Frio River was very nice and relaxing. The tour guide kept spotting wildlife that we would have most likely never seen on our own… During this three-hour ride, we mostly saw caimans, lizards, tropical birds, some far-away Spider monkeys and a sloth. After this leisurely boat ride, we stopped for a very good, home-made typical Costa Rican hot lunch.
In summary, I would say that even though the trip overall was very enjoyable and we saw a decent amount of wildlife, we felt that we still saw less than what we initially expected.
Day 5: Today we had our van-boat-van transfer to Monteverde – and what a trip that was!! The first “van-boat” portion of the trip is brief and smooth, and the short sail in the lake is fun. When the luggage is loaded onto the second van – that’s when the bumpy ride begins, and as a matter of fact, remains bumpy all the way to Monteverde (about a two hour ride). The bumpy road is due to the fact that the road is not paved, so in essence, you’re riding on a dirt road. I have to say, though, that regardless of the bumpiness, I totally enjoyed this ride too. The scenery was breath taking and, for the most part, watching the view took precedence over the uncomfortable road conditions.
Upon our arrival to Monteverde, we checked into our hotel, Fonda Vela. We were totally pleased with our bungalow, which was spacious and airy, with 3 beds and lots of big windows throughout. Shortly after our check in, we were picked up for the Selvatura Hanging Bridges tour. This is a self-guided tour, which our family did leisurely, at our own pace. It’s a nice feeling to be up there, at the tree canopy level, and look at the forest from above. Other than occasional butterflies, though, there were no animals or wildlife to be seen. Their butterfly garden was closed for renovation, and the hummingbird garden was much less impressive compared to the one we saw on our first day at the LaPaz waterfalls. We ended the day with a wonderful dinner at Sofia’s (see notation on the bottom).
Day 6: After a wonderful full buffet breakfast at the Fonda Vela hotel, we were picked up for our tour of the Monteverde cloud forest. Did I mention that we had 9 days of beautiful, clear, sunny days in Costa Rica? Well, today too, was another sunny day, which contributed to the fact that we have not seen the cloud forest in its misty, foggy state. Our guide was very animated and passionate about his work. He explained the four main forms of vegetation found in the cloud forest in a playful, dramatic way that has definitely made an impression on the kids (and us). Whether you’re into bird watching or not, as soon as you get into the forest, you can’t help yourself but get into the “race” of finding a Quetzal… And the challenge continues for as long as you’re in the forest. We ended up seeing several Quetzals from far away, and one up close through the guide’s telescope. We saw other wildlife, including Spider monkeys towards the end of our tour. This tour was enjoyable and we highly recommend taking it with a guide, which makes all the difference in how much you get to see in the forest and understand your surroundings. At the end of the tour, the van dropped us off at the Monteverde center of town, where we had lunch and shopped for souvenirs.
Later that evening, we were picked up again for the Night Hike tour in the Santa Elena cloud forest. The tour starts at sundown and provides a totally different experience as you get to observe the interesting jungle’s activity at night. While enjoying the actual night walk in the forest, we had the opportunity to observe different night creatures, such as frogs, olingos, kinkajous, sloths, porcupines, white-nosed coati, lizards, sleeping birds, tarantulas, spiders, grasshoppers, crickets, and possibly other critters. This was a wonderful experience for the kids, who don’t get the chance to walk around with flashlights and look for night animals often…
Days 7 and 8: Today we had our private transfer from Monteverde to Manuel Antonio. The unpaved, dirt road part of the trip seemed to have gone by faster this time, and the rest of the ride was very smooth. The driver stopped at the famous bridge allowing the view of tens of huge alligators (or were they crocodiles?). We arrived about 4 hours after our departure at Hotel Espadilla, where we stayed for the next 3 nights. I would like to make a special notation on Hotel Espadilla, since before we left on our trip, I was looking for travelers’ reviews on this hotel, and found non. This hotel is down the hill, a very short walk from the beach. It is definitely not geared for those people who are looking for luxurious accommodations with a spectacular view – but it was perfect for what we were looking for. Traveling with kids, we preferred the convenience of being a hop away from the beach rather than having a room with a view. This hotel was wonderful for our needs. It had a nice, clean, air-conditioned room, 2 swimming pools (one at the hotel grounds and the other across the road at the cabina grounds, which is run by the same owners), it included a wonderful breakfast, and best of all – it was close to all the “happenings” on the beach.
For the rest of the day, as well as the next full day, we entered a “relaxation” mode, spending long hours on the beach and pool… It was definitely a change from our very busy preceding days.
Day 9: Today was the last organized tour of our trip… It was a guided tour of the Manuel Antonio National Park. This is a wonderful park, and what’s adding to its charm compared with the other forests that we visited on our trip are the beautiful secluded beaches along the way. We saw sloths, many beautiful butterflies, iguanas and a large variety of birds. And just as we were getting worried about not seeing any monkeys, we happened to walk by a large group of adorable Cappuccino White Face monkeys, who were busy playing with a leftover sandwich, and gave us quite a “show”.
At the end of the tour, we opted to stay in the park, and spent the rest of the afternoon in one of the beautiful beaches inside the park.
Days 10 and 11: Transfer back to San Jose and flight back home. We had no problem paying the departure tax at the airport on the day of departure (there was practically no line). However, the security check lines before the gates are extremely and ridiculously long. Kind of makes you wonder if all those people standing in lines are going to make it to their flights… It turned out that we had a small advantage traveling with kids, as we were actually pulled out of that long line and transferred into a much shorter “family security” line.
And off we flew back home to New Jersey….. leaving a part of our hearts in Costa Rica……!
OTHER COMMENTS:
Biggest surprise of the trip: Totally enjoying ALL the rides and transfers from place to place. After reading so many reviews prior to our trip, I was very concerned about the car rides and the road conditions. What made these rides so enjoyable to me were 1) the fact that the scenery was so incredibly beautiful and 2) being transported from place to place by “professional” tour guides and private drivers took the worries about driving and following directions away. I can truly say that in most cases I simply did not want these rides to end. It was so relaxing looking at the views, watching the natural fences, or the endless green hills, the tropical vegetation, the fruit stands at the side of the roads, you name it – it was very relaxing and enjoyable!
Best restaurant experience: Sofia’s in Monteverde. Sofia’s is a wonderful restaurant that offers a complete dining experience: nice atmosphere, reasonable prices, and the most unusual, unique and best-made dishes we’ve had in CR. (The only problem was the many flies that happened to buzz around when we were there, however the quality of the food more than made up for that little annoyance).
Runners up restaurant experience: Mari Luna in Manuel Antonio. I am so surprised that this restaurant’s name hasn’t appeared in any of the posts that I read prior to leaving (as opposed to Karolas, which kept coming up in so many of the posts, and that we ended up not having a very good experience there – see notation below). Mari Luna has been recommended to us by the hotel’s front desk staff, and turned out to be such a great place. The food was excellent, the atmosphere was fun, the prices were good, and they also had a live band that played wonderful Costa Rican music.
Unexpected restaurant disappointment: Karolas in Manuel Antonio. As I mentioned above, I read so many great reviews about Karolas that it was an obvious dining choice while staying in Manuel Antonio. Although I agree that the atmosphere is generally nice (even though it was extremely crowded and loud the evening we were there), and the food is pretty good, the problem that we had while we were there, made the overall experience not very good. It all started when my husband took our 8 year-old son to the men’s bathroom. He came back to the table being so disgusted. He said that the bathroom was nothing short of filthy. The floor, the walls, the toilets were so dirty, that he needed to wipe the toilet for my son… only to find out that there is also no soap to wash hands with. He pointed it out to the owner, but he just shrugged him off saying that this bathroom is also used by his employees as a dressing room and that’s why it’s difficult to keep it clean. He also said that the soap is often stolen by his staff, therefore he is not eager to replace it. After several repeated requests, they finally brought a huge commercial-size soap bottle with a tiny amount of soap in it for my husband and son to wash their hands. Needless to say, this incident took the appetite away… as you can’t help thinking about the cleanliness (or lack thereof) of the staff preparing your food…
What amazes me even more about this incident is that throughout our trip, we were so impressed by the cleanliness of the bathrooms everywhere we went. Whether it was in a park, a forest, or while making a stop at a gift shop or gas station on the road – the bathrooms were always inviting and extremely clean. I guess we did not expect to have our only dirty bathroom experience at an upscale, expensive and highly recommended restaurant in Manuel Antonio…
Most enjoyable (though simple) food: We just LOVED the Casado (also referred to as “typical meal”), which includes rice and beans, meat (fish or chicken usually), salad, plantains, yucca, sometimes with a fried egg right on top. Very filling and darned good! The same is offered for breakfast, which we enjoyed throughout the trip.
GaiaLink Tours: The tour operator we used was Ralph from GaiaLink Tours (www.gaialinktours.com). He has done a terrific job planning and booking our trip, and his staff and drivers in Costa Rica have done equally as good of a job providing us with such kind and caring service.
One of the best things we’ve done with our trip was planning it and pre-booking all the hotels, tours and private transfers ahead of time. It made our vacation so much more relaxing and enjoyable. The tour guides always arrived promptly to pick us up from our hotels. We didn’t have to worry about renting a car, getting directions, or driving anywhere. Even though my husband is a good driver and is not easily intimidated by foreign driving conditions, he commented what a “treat” it was to be picked up from our hotel and enjoy the beautiful scenery from the back seat of air-conditioned vans. The tour operator we used was GaiaLink Tours (for more information, see notation on bottom of the report).
Day 1: We arrived in San Jose on the night of 4/20. Met Rocio, our GaiaLink contact, at the airport and had a private transfer to our hotel, Le Bergerac, where we were upgraded from a Standard room to a spacious and beautiful Superior room. The hotel is very nice and has a lot of character. The room had its own private balcony with a beautiful private garden. As a matter of fact, this hotel was our first introduction to the incredible gardens, tropical vegetation and amazing flowers and flower arrangements that continued to amaze me throughout our trip!
Day 2: We took the 4-in-1 Tour. This tour was probably one of the highlights of our trip. My recommendation to anyone is that even if you don’t take any other tour in CR – take this one! Even though it’s called a “4-in-1”, as my 8 year-old put it – it’s actually a “14- in-1”… You get to see so many things in this full-day tour: starting with a nice typical breakfast at a quaint restaurant, a visit to a coffee plantation, Poas Volcano (which is so beautiful on its own, but also has absolutely gorgeous grounds leading to it), the La Paz waterfalls, which included beautiful butterfly and hummingbird gardens, a wonderful lunch buffet at the Peace Lodge facility (what a beautiful setting that was!), and then an unbelievable walk in the truly spectacular trails leading to the waterfalls. After all that, the van continued to Sarapiqui River and we went on a very nice boat ride observing the wildlife. (This short boat ride gave us a flavor of the Caño Negro boat tour that we went on later, while visiting Arenal, and I could arguably say that you could give up the Caño Negro tour if you experience this one). The trip ended with a beautiful drive through the Braulio Carrillo National Park before returning to San Jose. This tour was a truly pleasurable day and highly recommended!!!
Day 3: Our transfer to Arenal was wonderful. As with all other tours and transfers, our driver arrived promptly to pick us up, and right after breakfast we started a very smooth and interesting drive to Arenal. We asked our driver to make two stops on the way, and he happily accommodated our request. First we stopped in Sarchi, which is a little artsy town known for its ox carts. The driver dropped us off at the most famous shopping center, and it was a good place for taking photos of the kids with beautiful, very colorful, full-size ox carts, and for a quick bathroom stop.
Next, we stopped in Zarcero, which is known for its beautiful garden by the town’s church with its amazing sculpted bushes. We went “wild” taking pictures of the kids with their favorite “animal” bushes… There are bushes sculpted as bunnies, dogs, dinosaurs, you name it, as well as a beautiful arched entrance… It was a nice experience.
As we were approaching Arenal, we were getting very excited to see the mountain crystal clear! From the many postings that I read, I mentally prepared myself to a cloud-covered mountain, which I understand is a very common sight. Other than brief cloud coverings in the late afternoons, the mountain has given us a spectacular clear view throughout the 2 days we were there. Just to let you know, even though smoke was clearly coming out from the top of the mountain throughout the day, we could not see any red lava flow from our hotel (Hotel Paraiso). We did see, however, around mid-night, two very quick lava explosions from the top of the mountain (literally, lasted a couple of seconds, making it very easy to miss), but there was NO red lava flow otherwise. Some people had mentioned to us that the lava flow could be seen from the Observatory Lodge, but since it’s on the other side of the mountain, and the mountain was covered with clouds at the time, we opted not to go there for dinner.
Hotel Paraiso is beautiful and highly recommended! Even though the cabin itself was very basic, the hotel has so much to offer. First, it has spectacular views of the mountain from every cabin, and practically from anywhere else on the hotel property. Also, the hotel grounds are gorgeous! We also really enjoyed their natural hot springs. Even though they can’t be compared in their magnitude to the Tabacon springs, we found them to be more charming, with more “character” and they were more “inviting” in terms of their water temperature, compared to the Tabacon springs, which we found to be way too hot (and this is coming from a person who loves hot water…!). The hotel also has an awesome full buffet breakfast!
Shortly after our arrival at Hotel Paraiso, we were picked up for an afternoon tour of the volcano. The best part of the tour was: after a long, hot walk on the trails, in and out of the forest, finally arriving to an open area, which was covered with beautiful black lava rocks, allowing the most magnificent view of both the mountain (which seemed to be particularly close by at that point) and the Arenal lake. Our kids just loved playing the roles of various “mountain cats”, while hopping and climbing those rocks!
We were then transported over to Tabacon springs. These springs, even though almost too hot to enter, have the most spectacular setting, and we still found the whole experience to be very enjoyable. Also, regardless of the mixed reviews that I had read prior to our trip, we completely enjoyed our dinner experience at Tabacon. They have multiple buffets with several different stations, such as hot food station (which includes various kinds of meats and fish), a pasta station (where they freshly prepare the pasta of your choice with your choice of toppings). They also had many, many different kinds of salads, fresh fruits and deserts. It was a very nice ending to a long and exciting day!
Day 4: Today was our full-day Caño Negro boat wildlife tour. We were picked up early in the morning and had an enjoyable ride in a more luxurious, air-conditioned bus. As was true for all our transport throughout the trip, the ride up to the Nicaragua border was beautiful and interesting. We stopped on the way to see, as our guide jokingly put it, “chicken on the trees”, which was no other than a bridge offering an unusual view of hundreds of iguanas lazily lying high on the tree branches. Quite a view! The boat ride up and down the Rio Frio River was very nice and relaxing. The tour guide kept spotting wildlife that we would have most likely never seen on our own… During this three-hour ride, we mostly saw caimans, lizards, tropical birds, some far-away Spider monkeys and a sloth. After this leisurely boat ride, we stopped for a very good, home-made typical Costa Rican hot lunch.
In summary, I would say that even though the trip overall was very enjoyable and we saw a decent amount of wildlife, we felt that we still saw less than what we initially expected.
Day 5: Today we had our van-boat-van transfer to Monteverde – and what a trip that was!! The first “van-boat” portion of the trip is brief and smooth, and the short sail in the lake is fun. When the luggage is loaded onto the second van – that’s when the bumpy ride begins, and as a matter of fact, remains bumpy all the way to Monteverde (about a two hour ride). The bumpy road is due to the fact that the road is not paved, so in essence, you’re riding on a dirt road. I have to say, though, that regardless of the bumpiness, I totally enjoyed this ride too. The scenery was breath taking and, for the most part, watching the view took precedence over the uncomfortable road conditions.
Upon our arrival to Monteverde, we checked into our hotel, Fonda Vela. We were totally pleased with our bungalow, which was spacious and airy, with 3 beds and lots of big windows throughout. Shortly after our check in, we were picked up for the Selvatura Hanging Bridges tour. This is a self-guided tour, which our family did leisurely, at our own pace. It’s a nice feeling to be up there, at the tree canopy level, and look at the forest from above. Other than occasional butterflies, though, there were no animals or wildlife to be seen. Their butterfly garden was closed for renovation, and the hummingbird garden was much less impressive compared to the one we saw on our first day at the LaPaz waterfalls. We ended the day with a wonderful dinner at Sofia’s (see notation on the bottom).
Day 6: After a wonderful full buffet breakfast at the Fonda Vela hotel, we were picked up for our tour of the Monteverde cloud forest. Did I mention that we had 9 days of beautiful, clear, sunny days in Costa Rica? Well, today too, was another sunny day, which contributed to the fact that we have not seen the cloud forest in its misty, foggy state. Our guide was very animated and passionate about his work. He explained the four main forms of vegetation found in the cloud forest in a playful, dramatic way that has definitely made an impression on the kids (and us). Whether you’re into bird watching or not, as soon as you get into the forest, you can’t help yourself but get into the “race” of finding a Quetzal… And the challenge continues for as long as you’re in the forest. We ended up seeing several Quetzals from far away, and one up close through the guide’s telescope. We saw other wildlife, including Spider monkeys towards the end of our tour. This tour was enjoyable and we highly recommend taking it with a guide, which makes all the difference in how much you get to see in the forest and understand your surroundings. At the end of the tour, the van dropped us off at the Monteverde center of town, where we had lunch and shopped for souvenirs.
Later that evening, we were picked up again for the Night Hike tour in the Santa Elena cloud forest. The tour starts at sundown and provides a totally different experience as you get to observe the interesting jungle’s activity at night. While enjoying the actual night walk in the forest, we had the opportunity to observe different night creatures, such as frogs, olingos, kinkajous, sloths, porcupines, white-nosed coati, lizards, sleeping birds, tarantulas, spiders, grasshoppers, crickets, and possibly other critters. This was a wonderful experience for the kids, who don’t get the chance to walk around with flashlights and look for night animals often…
Days 7 and 8: Today we had our private transfer from Monteverde to Manuel Antonio. The unpaved, dirt road part of the trip seemed to have gone by faster this time, and the rest of the ride was very smooth. The driver stopped at the famous bridge allowing the view of tens of huge alligators (or were they crocodiles?). We arrived about 4 hours after our departure at Hotel Espadilla, where we stayed for the next 3 nights. I would like to make a special notation on Hotel Espadilla, since before we left on our trip, I was looking for travelers’ reviews on this hotel, and found non. This hotel is down the hill, a very short walk from the beach. It is definitely not geared for those people who are looking for luxurious accommodations with a spectacular view – but it was perfect for what we were looking for. Traveling with kids, we preferred the convenience of being a hop away from the beach rather than having a room with a view. This hotel was wonderful for our needs. It had a nice, clean, air-conditioned room, 2 swimming pools (one at the hotel grounds and the other across the road at the cabina grounds, which is run by the same owners), it included a wonderful breakfast, and best of all – it was close to all the “happenings” on the beach.
For the rest of the day, as well as the next full day, we entered a “relaxation” mode, spending long hours on the beach and pool… It was definitely a change from our very busy preceding days.
Day 9: Today was the last organized tour of our trip… It was a guided tour of the Manuel Antonio National Park. This is a wonderful park, and what’s adding to its charm compared with the other forests that we visited on our trip are the beautiful secluded beaches along the way. We saw sloths, many beautiful butterflies, iguanas and a large variety of birds. And just as we were getting worried about not seeing any monkeys, we happened to walk by a large group of adorable Cappuccino White Face monkeys, who were busy playing with a leftover sandwich, and gave us quite a “show”.
At the end of the tour, we opted to stay in the park, and spent the rest of the afternoon in one of the beautiful beaches inside the park.
Days 10 and 11: Transfer back to San Jose and flight back home. We had no problem paying the departure tax at the airport on the day of departure (there was practically no line). However, the security check lines before the gates are extremely and ridiculously long. Kind of makes you wonder if all those people standing in lines are going to make it to their flights… It turned out that we had a small advantage traveling with kids, as we were actually pulled out of that long line and transferred into a much shorter “family security” line.
And off we flew back home to New Jersey….. leaving a part of our hearts in Costa Rica……!
OTHER COMMENTS:
Biggest surprise of the trip: Totally enjoying ALL the rides and transfers from place to place. After reading so many reviews prior to our trip, I was very concerned about the car rides and the road conditions. What made these rides so enjoyable to me were 1) the fact that the scenery was so incredibly beautiful and 2) being transported from place to place by “professional” tour guides and private drivers took the worries about driving and following directions away. I can truly say that in most cases I simply did not want these rides to end. It was so relaxing looking at the views, watching the natural fences, or the endless green hills, the tropical vegetation, the fruit stands at the side of the roads, you name it – it was very relaxing and enjoyable!
Best restaurant experience: Sofia’s in Monteverde. Sofia’s is a wonderful restaurant that offers a complete dining experience: nice atmosphere, reasonable prices, and the most unusual, unique and best-made dishes we’ve had in CR. (The only problem was the many flies that happened to buzz around when we were there, however the quality of the food more than made up for that little annoyance).
Runners up restaurant experience: Mari Luna in Manuel Antonio. I am so surprised that this restaurant’s name hasn’t appeared in any of the posts that I read prior to leaving (as opposed to Karolas, which kept coming up in so many of the posts, and that we ended up not having a very good experience there – see notation below). Mari Luna has been recommended to us by the hotel’s front desk staff, and turned out to be such a great place. The food was excellent, the atmosphere was fun, the prices were good, and they also had a live band that played wonderful Costa Rican music.
Unexpected restaurant disappointment: Karolas in Manuel Antonio. As I mentioned above, I read so many great reviews about Karolas that it was an obvious dining choice while staying in Manuel Antonio. Although I agree that the atmosphere is generally nice (even though it was extremely crowded and loud the evening we were there), and the food is pretty good, the problem that we had while we were there, made the overall experience not very good. It all started when my husband took our 8 year-old son to the men’s bathroom. He came back to the table being so disgusted. He said that the bathroom was nothing short of filthy. The floor, the walls, the toilets were so dirty, that he needed to wipe the toilet for my son… only to find out that there is also no soap to wash hands with. He pointed it out to the owner, but he just shrugged him off saying that this bathroom is also used by his employees as a dressing room and that’s why it’s difficult to keep it clean. He also said that the soap is often stolen by his staff, therefore he is not eager to replace it. After several repeated requests, they finally brought a huge commercial-size soap bottle with a tiny amount of soap in it for my husband and son to wash their hands. Needless to say, this incident took the appetite away… as you can’t help thinking about the cleanliness (or lack thereof) of the staff preparing your food…
What amazes me even more about this incident is that throughout our trip, we were so impressed by the cleanliness of the bathrooms everywhere we went. Whether it was in a park, a forest, or while making a stop at a gift shop or gas station on the road – the bathrooms were always inviting and extremely clean. I guess we did not expect to have our only dirty bathroom experience at an upscale, expensive and highly recommended restaurant in Manuel Antonio…
Most enjoyable (though simple) food: We just LOVED the Casado (also referred to as “typical meal”), which includes rice and beans, meat (fish or chicken usually), salad, plantains, yucca, sometimes with a fried egg right on top. Very filling and darned good! The same is offered for breakfast, which we enjoyed throughout the trip.
GaiaLink Tours: The tour operator we used was Ralph from GaiaLink Tours (www.gaialinktours.com). He has done a terrific job planning and booking our trip, and his staff and drivers in Costa Rica have done equally as good of a job providing us with such kind and caring service.
Jun 6th, 2005 | 01:18 PM
#4
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 5
Likes: 0
Hi TaliCo,
I enjoyed your trip report!
We are taking our two children (6 & 3)to CR in August and I'm wondering if you have any advice as to what specific things your kids enjoyed, what else you could have brought along for them (ie. snacks available in NAmerica and not Central). What would you do different next time in relation to traveling in CR with small kids.
Thanks from Calgary.
I enjoyed your trip report!
We are taking our two children (6 & 3)to CR in August and I'm wondering if you have any advice as to what specific things your kids enjoyed, what else you could have brought along for them (ie. snacks available in NAmerica and not Central). What would you do different next time in relation to traveling in CR with small kids.
Thanks from Calgary.
Jun 6th, 2005 | 09:04 PM
#5
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 3,254
Likes: 0
TaliCo, thanks for the trip report! I printed it out. I want to try Mari Luna at Manuel Antonio. Where is it?
Thanks for the warning about dirty bathroom and no soap at Karolas...sometimes I've noticed that if a place gets too popular, they don't have to try any more...and sometimes they don't! It's always nice to hear about someplace that is worth it but isn't as well known. Sometimes they try harder.
Thanks for the warning about dirty bathroom and no soap at Karolas...sometimes I've noticed that if a place gets too popular, they don't have to try any more...and sometimes they don't! It's always nice to hear about someplace that is worth it but isn't as well known. Sometimes they try harder.
Jun 7th, 2005 | 06:42 AM
#6
Original Poster
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 14
Likes: 0
Hi Calgary,
It’s an amazing thing, but I think I can truly say that the kids enjoyed almost EVERYTHING. I mean -- where else can kids walk around and see monkeys, sloths, alligators and other critters provide such up-close-and-personal kind of shows?
The most surprising of all is that even the activities that I thought would be dreadful for kids, turned out to be a welcome adventure for them. For example, spending a lot of time driving from place to place was an enjoyable activity, primarily due to the fact that every day they got to experience a new type of van or mini bus. It wasn’t like driving in the States in their parents’ car. No. This was different and exciting, because mom and dad got to sit with them, they got to “check out” a new vehicle every day, they got to meet a new group of people (and many times new kids) on a tour, (and also -- it was very cool not to have to put seat belts on in these CR’s vans…). Another example, getting every two days into a new hotel was an adventure for my kids. They just loved the excitement of getting into a new room and figuring out where their new bed is for the night…
As for their most favorite activities, I would say the 4-in-1 Highlight tour to Poas Volcano and the LaPaz waterfalls was truly wonderful for them. They absolutely loved walking inside the butterfly and hummingbird gardens (the butterflies actually landed on them and they got to hold them for a while), as well as down the spectacular path down the falls. As an added bonus, they also met two other kids on this tour that they connected with. They enjoyed hopping on the lava rocks at the end of the path of the Arenal Volcano tour and bathing in the hot springs and pool of Hotel Paraiso. They enjoyed spending a day on the river during our Cano Negro wildlife tour. They enjoyed the Night Hike tour in Monteverde. And of course, they loved spending leisurely time just swimming in the ocean and pools in Manuel Antonio.
In terms of snacks – yes, definitely, snacks are absolutely A MUST with little kids. As a matter of fact, we brought a whole duffle bag full of snacks (carry on) for mostly the kids (and us too). Believe it or not, one of the favorite snacks was Melba Toasts, which came in very handy in the vans during early morning tours. We also brought trail mixes and granola bars, in addition to “Chex Mix” and other snacks.
I don’t think I would do anything much different in terms of traveling with young kids, other than trying new things that we didn’t do this time around, such as zip lines (we opted to go for the more relaxed hanging bridges), horseback riding, and maybe other adventures that we haven’t done the first time there.
Have fun! Costa Rica is a wonderful place for both adults and kids!
Let me know if you have any other questions. I’ll be happy to answer.
Tali
It’s an amazing thing, but I think I can truly say that the kids enjoyed almost EVERYTHING. I mean -- where else can kids walk around and see monkeys, sloths, alligators and other critters provide such up-close-and-personal kind of shows?
The most surprising of all is that even the activities that I thought would be dreadful for kids, turned out to be a welcome adventure for them. For example, spending a lot of time driving from place to place was an enjoyable activity, primarily due to the fact that every day they got to experience a new type of van or mini bus. It wasn’t like driving in the States in their parents’ car. No. This was different and exciting, because mom and dad got to sit with them, they got to “check out” a new vehicle every day, they got to meet a new group of people (and many times new kids) on a tour, (and also -- it was very cool not to have to put seat belts on in these CR’s vans…). Another example, getting every two days into a new hotel was an adventure for my kids. They just loved the excitement of getting into a new room and figuring out where their new bed is for the night…
As for their most favorite activities, I would say the 4-in-1 Highlight tour to Poas Volcano and the LaPaz waterfalls was truly wonderful for them. They absolutely loved walking inside the butterfly and hummingbird gardens (the butterflies actually landed on them and they got to hold them for a while), as well as down the spectacular path down the falls. As an added bonus, they also met two other kids on this tour that they connected with. They enjoyed hopping on the lava rocks at the end of the path of the Arenal Volcano tour and bathing in the hot springs and pool of Hotel Paraiso. They enjoyed spending a day on the river during our Cano Negro wildlife tour. They enjoyed the Night Hike tour in Monteverde. And of course, they loved spending leisurely time just swimming in the ocean and pools in Manuel Antonio.
In terms of snacks – yes, definitely, snacks are absolutely A MUST with little kids. As a matter of fact, we brought a whole duffle bag full of snacks (carry on) for mostly the kids (and us too). Believe it or not, one of the favorite snacks was Melba Toasts, which came in very handy in the vans during early morning tours. We also brought trail mixes and granola bars, in addition to “Chex Mix” and other snacks.
I don’t think I would do anything much different in terms of traveling with young kids, other than trying new things that we didn’t do this time around, such as zip lines (we opted to go for the more relaxed hanging bridges), horseback riding, and maybe other adventures that we haven’t done the first time there.
Have fun! Costa Rica is a wonderful place for both adults and kids!
Let me know if you have any other questions. I’ll be happy to answer.
Tali
Jun 7th, 2005 | 07:13 AM
#7
Original Poster
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 14
Likes: 0
Hi Melissa,
I’m glad you found my report helpful. I spent so much time prior to our trip on this forum that I feel both responsible and honored to share my own experiences.
The restaurant’s name is actually Mar Luna. Phone: 777-5107. It’s located on the main road leading from Quepos down to the beach of Manueal Antonio, I would say about mid-way between Karolas and El-Avion (which, BTW, was another fun restaurant to go with kids, with good food and good prices).
Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Tali
I’m glad you found my report helpful. I spent so much time prior to our trip on this forum that I feel both responsible and honored to share my own experiences.
The restaurant’s name is actually Mar Luna. Phone: 777-5107. It’s located on the main road leading from Quepos down to the beach of Manueal Antonio, I would say about mid-way between Karolas and El-Avion (which, BTW, was another fun restaurant to go with kids, with good food and good prices).
Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Tali
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Jun 7th, 2005 | 02:50 PM
#8
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 96
Likes: 0
Just back from CR last week and had a great experience with GaiaLink also. Our private drivers, Ralphael and Luis were outstanding from Tucan Limo Services. That is who GaiaLink contracts with for private transfers.
We too ate at Mar Y Luna which is actually a ways past Karola's(1/2 mile +/- what I remember) before you get to Quepos on water side of the road. Good food, clean, reasonable price and recomended by the locals.
Most everywhere we went, the bathrooms were clean. When I say clean, I mean soap & water and in much better shape than most I have seen in Mexico and other parts of Central America. Always carry a travel size bottle of hand sanitizer
We too ate at Mar Y Luna which is actually a ways past Karola's(1/2 mile +/- what I remember) before you get to Quepos on water side of the road. Good food, clean, reasonable price and recomended by the locals.
Most everywhere we went, the bathrooms were clean. When I say clean, I mean soap & water and in much better shape than most I have seen in Mexico and other parts of Central America. Always carry a travel size bottle of hand sanitizer
