July/Aug Itinerary: opinions needed
 

Hi all,

My husband and I (in our early 30's) are planning our first trip to Costa Rica from July 24th to August 9th.
Our targets are: lots of wildlife, some hiking/rafting/diving, some relaxation, and as little bugs/humidity/crowds as possible.
This board has helped me tremendously putting together our tentative itinerary.
I would really appreciate your feedback on the following:

D1: fly in (landing late afternoon) and transfer to Buena Vista hotel, Alajuela
D2: White Water rafting Pacuare River with Costa Rica Expeditions
D3-4: fly Sansa to Tortuguero. Stay at some budget hotel in the village, tour the canals with local guides. Do night turtle walks. Does anyone know how one transfers from the airstrip to the village?
D5: early morning fly back to San Jose. Rent a car (Terios or RAV4, haven?t decided yet). Visit Poas. Drive down to Manuel Antonio (Villas Nicolas).
D6-7: Manuel Antonio. What to do besides a guided visit of the park?
D8: drive to Arenal (Volcano Lodge or Montana de Fuego?).
D9: hike Arenal trails and spend afternoon at Tabacon Hot Springs
D10-11-12: drive to Rincon de la Vieja (Hacienda Guachipelin). Hike La Cangreja, Blue Lake, La Pailas, soak in Santa Maria pools, do the Canopy Tour. Drive to Flamingo Beach
D13: Scuba diving Catalina from Flamingo
D14-D15: Drive to Nosara (what is the shortest way to go to Nosara from Flamingo?). Stay at Lagarta Lodge. Turtle watching in Ostional (crossing fingers vigorously for an arribada :-)
What else to do in Nosara?
D16: Drive back to San Jose.

Sounds good. Lots of moving around, but you have enough days to enjoy your travel. The itin. should give you a great overview of the country.

You will have the best chance of viewing Poas if you get there between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. It is lovely!

Also, from Flamingo to Nosara, you will go back east to Belen, then south on Highway 21 to Nicoya. There you will cross back over to Nosara. I wonder if you really want to do a one nighter at Flamingo. You certainly won't have much time there. Transportation will eat up much of your time. Also, you are doing a lot of crisscrossing.

Have you considered going from Arenal to Rincon (same general area), then Flamingo/Nosara (or just Nosara), then Manuel Antonio? That would seem like the better route.

In Manuel Antonio there check out a canopy tour. There are other things to do there as well. The beaches are nice!

Thanks much for the advice, Shillmac!! :-)

I have actually considered leaving Flamingo out, and skip the diving. Maybe I should just do that.

I agree about the criss crossing thing :-(
The reason why I am positioning Nosara towards the end of the itinerary is because arribadas are said to occur after the last quarter of the moon, which is about Aug 7 (Day 14 in my case). Though I have no clue whether this assumption is valid in the rainy season.

Maybe we should go SJ-Arenal-Rincon-Manuel Antonio-San Jose and then fly to Nosara and back.

OR couldn't you go to Nosara from Manuel Antonio on your way back to San Jose?

AHA!!! How come I've never thought of that in 5 months of planning?? lol :-)
Sounds perfect, shillmac!!
You're the best ;-)

I hope everything works out great for you. . .you really do have a nice itinerary planned. Pat yourself on the back!

By the way zuser, looking at your plans, these are all easy drives. Have you considered that option? You will see some beautiful country! Times would look something like this:

SJO-Arenal: 3 hours
Arenal to Rincon: 4 hours
Rincon to MA: 5-6 hours
MA to Nosara: 5 hours
Nosara to SJO: 4-5 hours

These may seem like long drives to you, but there is so much to see on the way! You can't fly to Arenal, you can't fly Arenal to Rincon, you would have to return to SJO to fly to Manuel Antonio, and I don't know of any flights to Nosara (although there may be some). Seems like a car would fit your plan better. You would be doing your driving in the mornings (say between 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.) which would allow you to avoid the rain most likely. You probably won't want afternoon flights for that same reason--weather.

Thanks for the kind words, shillmac :-)

We do plan on driving all of the legs you mentioned. We will be renting a 4wd, most likely Terios, or Rav4 if we decide to splurge.
The only area we will be flying to (and from) is Tortuguero.
Guess I need to start worrying about booking those flights LOL.

I thought this might be of interest for anyone planning to visit Tortuguero individually:
Regarding how individual travelers can transfer from the Tortuguero airstrip to the village, I was just told that Victor, the Sansa representative, meets the planes and offers the 2 mile boat trip for a small fee (couple of dollars per person).

Hi there. Did you get to see the arribadas? Did you find a way (other than the moon) to figure out when one would happen?

Also we're doing a similar route, subject to change at any minute based on when the turtles are in the mood ... any advice?

1. arrive transfer to Peace Lodge
2. Waterfalls near Peace Lodge
3. White water rafting near Peace lodge/ then drive to Arenal Observatory Lodge before dark.
4. Tabacon Hot Springs/ Arenal Observatory Lodge
5. Slow drive to Rincon (still haven't found a nice place to stay.)
6. Hike the lower part of Rincon/overnight Rincon.
7. Drive to Nicoya along the coast ending at Nosara for the night
8. Nosara if there are turtles/if not Manuel Antonio
9. Manuel Antonio
10. Return early to airport.