Shonda

Hi Suzie2,
I've flagged you because you seem to have such great advice and it seems you know Costa Rica pretty well. I am trying to plan my honeymoon from June 1 to June 11. This is the iteneary I am thinking about, do you have any suggestions or comments? Anyplace I'm missing that I should see?
We will be driving between these places:

night 1-2: San Jose - Xandari Plantation
night 3: La Paz Waterfall - Peace Lodge
night 4-5: Arenal Volcano - Arenal Lodge
night 6:Monteverde
Night 7, 8, 9:Tamarindo
Night 10: Fly from Tamarindo to San Jose and return home on the 11th.

Thank you very much

Shonda

I have an updated itenerary:
Night 1-2andari Plantation-San Jose
Night 3: Peace Lodge- La Paz Waterfall
Night 4-5: Arenal Lodge, Arenal Volcano
Night 6: Monteverde ?Hotel?
Night 7,8,9: Manuel Antonio - La Mansion Inn. This hotel looks so beautiful and I heard that there is less rain here in June.
Night 10: Drive back to San Jose and spend the night
June 11 - Return home

What do you think??

Thanks

Ally

Yikes! I think I must have confused you on another post! Tamarindo will have less chance of rain than Manuel Antonio. Not a WHOLE lot more in MA, but more of a chance nonetheless.

Shonda

Thanks Ally,

It sounds like I can not avoid a little rain which is no big deal. How much does it normally rain the first part of June?

Does this seem like a good schedule?

Thank you

Shonda

Maybe something different:
I was thinking it may be better to stay longer in fewer places.
Maybe this:
day 1-2: Xandaru Plantation
Day 3,4,5: La Mansion Inn Arenal. This seems to be centrally located sp we could still see Arenal Volcano and Monteverde.
Day 6,7,8,9: Manuel Antonio - La Mansion Inn
Day 10, Back to San Jose to go home on the 11th.

What do you think?

Thank you

JeanH

I just don't think that Monteverde is a day trip from any where. I dearly love the area, but it's time consuming to get there, and deserves some time. We spent two nights there, and it should have been three. We never got to do any hiking in the Santa Elena Reserve. It isn't the kind of place where you can just drive by and enjoy it.

Shonda

Thanks JeanH
It is so hard to plan because as I am coming across all of these great places, I want to see them all! But it seems if we want to see Monteverde, we would have to add a couple days to the trip. Which maybe we could do, because Monteverde sounds like a place I don't want to miss.
Is it a very far drive from Monteverde to Manuel Antonio?
Thanks for you help

JeanH

I don't know remember how long it took to get from Monteverde, but I know we got up, went to the butterfly farm, then headed out mid to late morning. Going down that side of the mountain, the road was much better than coming from Arenal. It was still bumpy gravel though. We missed a turn off the PamAm highway and had to backtrack. Stopped somewhere before Jaco for a leisurely late lunch, and still got to Manual Antonio around 4pm.

If you get an extra day or two for your vacation and can get to Monteverde, your itinerary will looks pretty close to our first trip. We only spent two nights in the Arenal area though.

Jean

Shonda

Hi JeanH,

Did you feel that 2 nights is Arenal was enough? I could possibly do 2 nights in Arenal, 2 nights in Monteverde. That was I would only be adding one day onto our trip.

This is close to your first trip? Were you happy with where you went and how long you stayed?

Thank you

JeanH

I'm sure we could have entertained ourselves for another day in the Arenal area. When we planned the trip (it was two years ago), our main interests in the area were the volcano and Tabacon hot springs. So, for us two nights was enough. We stayed at Tabacon and did have good volcano views. It was relatively quiet while we were there, but was still spewing rocks and ash at regular intervals. We really enjoyed the hike over the old lava flow.

We were really lucky with the weather when we were in Monteverde. Was sunny and relatively warm, about 70. When we make it back there, and I'm sure we will, we'll probably stay three nights so we can hike both reserves. But, you're more likely to get wet when you're traveling, so I wouldn't plan more than two nights.

I see someone on this board was really disappointed in Manual Antonio. We've been there twice, and the park never felt crowded or noisy. I guess I never considered the access roads into the park as really part of the trails system.

You are going to have a wonderful trip.