We are getting closer to our trip - one month from today! We will be spending our first week in a rental home in Atenas and our second week in Dominical. We are a family with three very young kids (ages 3, 2, and 8 months) plus a few other adults (including 2 photographers) who are joining in the fun! Our kids are flexible and great travelers, but we obviously have made some choices (like the rental homes for week long stays) to create a more laid-back experience (we like to avoid crowds generally) and to avoid packing and unpacking every couple of nights. But, I am now in the stages of planning a tentative itinerary for our first week (I'm sure I'll be back on here when I need help with our second week!). This is what I'm thinking so far...please help me with giving any advice on the activities and/or order (or combining two or more into one trip) if you can!

Friday - Arrive, get rental car, get settled in to rental home and check out area

Saturday - Farmers Market in Alajeula in morning and maybe local hike in afternoon

Sunday - Taking a tour/visit and donations to a local orphanage and maybe Zoo Avenue (everyone says this is must-see...is it?!)

Monday - Poas Volcano and possibly Doka tour (is tour really long that my kids will go out of their minds?) (Anyone know the drive time to Poas and best time to get there?)

Tuesday - La Paz Waterfall Gardens (husband and I were there 5 yrs ago before it was so built up...but I think the others will enjoy it and I think it might be a good, leisurely way to let kids explore)...would it make more sense to combine this with Poas or something else due to the drive (still not exactly sure of drive time here)

Wednesday - Turu Ba Ri? (maybe...need to read website more for here) or maybe one of the other trip ideas below...

Thursday - ??

Friday - Head south to Dominical - stopping en route at Tarcoles Bridge, Carara National Park and maybe Pura Vida Gardens & Waterfall Park to see tallest CR waterfall(would it be better to do these as a day trip during one of our days in Atenas instead of trying to stop along the way?)

Other ideas I had were:
Sarchi shopping
Lankester Gardens (drive time? worth it?)
Los Angeles Cloud Forest (drive time? worth it?)
Bosque de Paz (drive time? worth it?)

We can obviously shuffle most of these (except farmer's market day and whatever day we lock in to visit the orphanage). Are we cramming in too much? I think we're okay with some longer day trips (like Peace Lodge) as long as we balance out some laid back days to so an easy trip and spend a good bit of the day relaxing at the house. Kids will be content to play with sticks in the yard and swim in the pool and see monkeys somewhere along the line. I really wanted to do wildlife boat tour on Sarapiqui, but I think with the tour length plus the drive time, it is too much. I've seen croc boat tours on Tarcoles, but not sure how they compare and not sure we'd be up for 2 hours on a boat with toddlers the more I thought about it!

Plus if anyone has any dining suggestion, I'm open to that too!

Sorry to have so much included here but I know you are all the experts from past experience! I hope to get some great advice and get some things lined up so we can maximize our time!

Thanks!
S

Totally agree that you should save the extended boat tours for when the kids are older. We haven't tried that yet with our 4 year old granddaughter, either. Simply because if it really doesn't "do it" for her, there isn't an escape route!

Everything sounds good. I do think you are correct in assuming that Lankester Gardens and the Sarapiqui are a little too distant for you. Doka is a good idea, but don't do "the tour" with the kids. We've been there 3 times, have done the actual tour once. I don't know your kids, and it MIGHT be okay especially if you were the only ones in the group. I just think it might not be as interesting for you as you might not be able to fully focus on the tour guide.
Still, it's a great place to visit, pretty. Maybe someone in your group could entertain the kids for awhile so the others could do the tour?

Try to get to Poas first, then stop by Doka on the way back. You should be about an hour, hour and a half from Poas. Not sure your best route as we've not gone there except from inside Alajuela. I could tell you that one, but it would be confusing. Can't remember if there are signs or not from the highway. Hopefully there will be. I'll send an e-mail off to Humberto at Hotel Villa Bonita. . he'll send directions, and I'll try to remember to pass them along!

Zoo Ave is a good, low key way to spend time with the kids. They will enjoy it. Doesn't take long either. I recall a nice little restaurant across the road and maybe south a couple hundred feet.

Another thought-- combine this with Poas and Doka: as you drive up there, you SHOULD pass through a little town called Fraijanes. There they have Bosques de Fraijanes (on your right as you are driving through) and there is a great little playground area for kids as well as a hike down to a river, some ducks and other little animals, etc. Also along that road between Doka and Poas is Chubasco's, an excellent restaurant, on your left as you drive north toward Poas.

Not sure how far Turu-Bari is from Atenas. I believe it was about an hour or maybe 45 minutes from Puriscal back when we used to stay at La Finca Que Ama near Puriscal. It might be a good idea to stop there either driving to Dominical or on the return rather than there and back as a day trip--since it is that direction.

Good luck. I'm sure you'll get lots of suggestions from "the crew"! Hope this has helped the least little bit.

Thanks! This does definitely help some. One other thought I had last night while I couldn't sleep! Is stopping at Carara to hike en route to Dominical a bad idea since our car will be loaded with all our luggage at that point? Or, is that a fairly safe or guarded area? If that's the case, is it worth it to do that as a day trip as opposed to some of the other places closer by Atenas? I don't think we're totally opposed to back-tracking since we'll be going that way to Dominical. Safe?

...and if we dont do doka tour, can we just walk around and buy coffee??...

Yep; nice gift shop; pretty grounds.

La Paz and Poas are doable in a single day--it makes sense to combine those two--they are right next door to each other.

Tarcoles River tours are better than the Sarapiqui, especially after the earthquake killed all the fish in the Sarapiqui. No fish means no birds, no caimans, no otters. Maybe an iguana in a tree and some swallows. We saw over three dozen species of birds on the Tarcoles, along with GIANT crocodiles.

Definitely combine La Paz and Poas like suggested above; they are so close to each other. We've done the Doka Coffee tour and really loved it, but I think little ones might get bored. They take you into the field, show you the life stages of the plants, have coffee tastings, show you the drying, roasting, and packaging processes and end at the little gift shop. It is a very pretty property.

We did white water rafting on the Sarapiqui and loved it, but we didn't see any wildlife whatsoever.

If you can time your La Paz visit during hummingbird feeding time, the kids would love it. The hummingbirds will land right on your hand and drink nectar from a little feeder you hold. They were doing it twice a day when we were there. Very cool.

I would do Carara as a day trip from Atenas. They have an easy "handicapped" trail for the kids or even the lower trail is easy walking. It is 1hr each way from Atenas and you'll want to get back before dark.

Regarding La Paz, we were just down and were told that the waterfall its self was no longer flowing. Did we get wrong info?

You're probably doing a little more traveling each day than we would as it does take a good part of the day just to get somewhere and back.

Pura Vida

You could do both Carara and a Tarcoles cruise as a day trip.

Just arrive at the park entrance at 7:00 am, get a guide, and do 3-4 hours there. Then grab lunch at Steve n Lisa's, and then do the afternoon/sunset tour with Jungle Crocodile Safari or Crocodile Man Tour.

So, for those of you who suggest Carara as a day trip - is it because of the safety factor of having our bags in the car?

And, re La Paz - I have not heard anything about that and haven't thought to even research such a thing...so, anyone else? Know if the falls are no longer flowing???

Thanks for all the helpful replies so far!

Yes, leaving your car unattended is always a bad idea. Carara is also very close to Atenas--about one hour drive away.

You do not ever want to leave of value anything in your car -thieves can spot a rental car and can break in very quickly. There have been numerous reports of people who "just went for a quick look" and came back to their car being vandalized.

Last I heard 3 out of the 5 waterfalls were open at La Paz, but not all of the trails. Because admission is pretty steep, I'm skipping it until they are fully operational.

Peace Lodge sent me an e-mail a few months ago that things were getting back in order after the January earthquake. There are five waterfalls on the property, and back then they said that two of the five were already open. Maybe someone has gone recently and can update us, you could e-mail the Peace Lodge. They're pretty good about giving updates.

If only 2/5 are open, maybe a better idea to just see the free one.

well, i will definitely get in touch with la paz to find out about what is running and what is not on the property. that could make a big difference to whether we go there or not.

and, re carara (or if we don't end up doing a full day trip to la paz), are there are national parks or cloud forests within the same general driving distance that would be just as good - if not better?

distance and quality wise...what about:
-los angeles cloud forest?
-bosque de paz?
-any others i am totally missing?

are there any swimmable waterfalls in the general area like at fortuna? (if not, i think we will find some in dominical region, but just wondered...)

hmmm. sounds like i have more planning and figuring to do.

Yes, there's a great one in La Fortuna; we did it for the first time on our last trip, and loved it.

Carara is probably the best wildlife/eco hike that close to Atenas. American crocodiles, scarlet macaws, oh my!

Our experience at Carara was less than it could have been. So it is still on our to-do list--I'm anxious to do some of the birding that area is famous for. The reason we didn't stay very long the one time we were there is because we had our granddaughter with us (she was 2 that year) and too small to enjoy a 3-4 hour time frame; and we were unable to enjoy it with her. We were on the trails there about 45 minutes, and it was time to go. Your experience might be different. I know it's a phenomenal place, but with toddlers, I would find it hard to recommend from our experience.

Yes, you can do Doka, Poas, La Paz in a single day. I just question the wisdom of trying to pack it all in as you would if the kids were older and less prone to getting tired, cranky, needing naps, etc. With the exception of maybe feeding the hummingbirds at La Paz, there really isn't anything for kids to be wowed about at Poas or Doka. They are places that adults and older kids enjoy a lot. That doesn't mean you can't take the kids there--it just means you may need to pick and choose and not try to do it all in one day.

That has been our experience anyway. We definitely pull it down a few notches when we have our little one. One thing that she did really enjoy, and of course I'll get whammed for suggesting San Jose, BUT. . . .

The Children's Museum was very interesting. Our GD was 3 when we took her, 2 might have been too young. And she enjoyed the pigeons (hundreds of them) on the Plaza de la Cultura and having ice cream at POPS. These are the kinds of crazy things we do when we are traveling with her. We do a LITTLE bit of things that we enjoy as adults, but for the most part, we keep it pretty child friendly, which for us always means less time in the car, quiet time in the afternoon for a nap, etc.

Of course, you are experienced at traveling with your kids and already know this. There is just so much to do and see, that it is easy to lose sight of what their tolerance level might be. I certainly don't mean to put a damper on anything the others have said, but not everyone has the experience of traveling Costa Rica with small children.

shillmac,
i definitely appreciate your advice having taken your granddaughter along with you. it is definitely a different way of traveling with kids! and, i am certain i am probably losing sight of how much we can really do with them but i feel like we can probably handle a few longer days (relative - with kids - meaning til 2-3pm) before they really crash. and, they are all good with sleeping in the car, so that's why i figure some of the longer drives might be ok if we head back to our house around their naptime (they'll just nap in car).

my biggest concern is the walking/hiking. they like going on "hikes" around here but when we're doing a lot of walking, they do, of course, get pretty worn out. i'm hoping that a mix of going slow in order to accommodate them and to see wildlife plus taking a few turns carrying them, we might be able to make some of the short hikes at carara and other places work. btw - someone said carara and poas have wheelchair accessibility, does that mean i could push a stroller?? the baby will be carried in a backpack carrier, but it might help if i could take turns with the other two in a stroller.

re la paz. i keep going back and forth about it for many different reasons. i wonder if it's too built up for our tastes and we would just as much enjoy seeing wildlife in their habitat and finding some natural waterfalls elsewhere. plus, the falls trail is not even completely open. but, on the otherhand, it was such a nice facility, that i thought it could be a good easy way to see some things without the pressure of really hiking too much - and having easy places to stop and take a break with the kids if needed (rather than in the middle of an actual park). their rep emailed me and said trails to 2 of the falls are open (i think that's how they meant it) but they also said it is 2 1/2 hours from atenas! i thought it was closer to 1 1/2 hours. do you or anyone have any thoughts on that? i think our absolute max drive time for a day trip would be 2 hrs...preferably less.

so, if we did poas and la paz together (assuming it is 2 hrs or less), we could be at poas ~9am (is that okay?), hang around for an hour (too short/too long), head to la paz for several hours and then depending on how we're feeling, stop in at doka just to check it out (not for the tour). of course, this might trap us at la paz for lunch, which is not ideal...but may be the way it is (with kids!)

finally - i started another question on another post...but i'll ask here. are the kids charged per person when you hire guides at the entrances to parks like carara?

whew. lots of thoughts and planning!

I for kids that age most things are free. Once they get old enough to do things like ziplining sometimes the charge is even the same is adult. Hotel discounts tend to vary from ages 8-12 and from just a discount to being free.