keefmick

the volcano was active at night and we saw quite a display from the restaurant at volcano lodge which was quite good--we had a number of good views of entire volcano but only one night of eruption

Kwoo

keefmick,
What kind of malaria pills did you take on your previous trip to Haiti? When I told my doctor where we are going in CR, he recommended typhoid shots and chloroquine (anti-malarial). We are considering taking the Cano Negro Boat Tour, which might be the reason for the pills. (Cano Negro appears to be in the Alajuela province, & the CDC recommends anti-malarial pills for that province.)
I'm not thrilled about taking them but am hesitant not to follow doctor's orders.
What was the temperature in all the places you went to? We are going to MA, Arenal, Poas & Alajuela (the town) in Aug.
Thanks for your help.

keefmick

I don't recall what anti-malaria pills I took for Haiti as it was a number of years ago. The weather was hot everywhere except Monteverde which was warm during day and cool at night. Arenal was shorts weather all day and at night. Warm but not too hot. Same for Alajuela. MA was very hot but not as hot as Miami where we live. Personally I would not take anti-malary pills as it is not a third world country at all. Not at all what I expected. Everything was very clean and no problems with any food or water over 2 week period.

uconn

Hi - Thanks for all your helpful information! I have a few more questions.
What type of rooms did you stay at in both Tabacon & Tulemar
At Tulemar i am trying to decide it the upgrade to the premium room vs standard is worth the extra $$- we will b traveling with 2 childrena as well.
thanks again for your help

janeann

My husband and I are planning to go mid-July, and can only go for 8 days, What would you suggest as the best itinerary. Also, I know you talked about mosquitos, but I have a great fear of flying beetle type bugs, including cockroaches andjune bigs. What did you see there? TIA

keefmick

uconn: At tabacon we stayed in a junior suite which we loved! We had a full living room area with a pullout sofa (where our daughters slept), and a king size bed. We had a nice outdoor patio (with our own jacuzzi)where we could sit and enjoy the beautiful grounds. I did not see the regular rooms, but for four people, we really enjoyed our junior suite, as we had a nice amount of room. We would definitely stay in a junior suite again.

In Tulemar, we had a premium bungalow which was furnished beautifully!! We peeked in a regular bungalow - they look very similar on the outside to the premium bungalows, but inside they look a lot more basic. As far as the picture windows and the views, however, they are probably both quite similar. However, I think the premium bungalow was worth the price and we would stay there again in a heartbeat. DO KEEP IN MIND, however, that in most bungalows (ours included) the second bedroom is downstairs and there is NO internal staircase - so the second bedroom must be accessed from the outside!! We were not aware of this until we arrived. Because we did not want to leave our girls alone downstairs, my husband and I split up at night and we each slept with one daughter. However, during the day it was nice for us and the girls to each have privacy - they relaxed downstairs and we hung out upstairs. You can also call between the two rooms very easily. In addition, I believe there are a few bungalows with an interior staircase, so if you are interested in that, you should make a special request for it when you make your reservation.

keefmick

juneann--don't worry--very few flying beetles and no cockroaches or june bugs--be prepared for some small bugs around but nothing to be concerned about--as for an 8 day itinerary I would love to help but need to know, is it 1 day of travelling on each end and 6 days of touring?--what time do you get in and what time do you leave and how many days in between?--I would probably consider 3 nights in arenal (if driving in same day landing); 2 nights in monteverde and 3 nights in manuel antonio--if you need to stay over last night you can drop a night in manuel antonio but that is a short stay there--another option is arenal/manuel antonio and xandari at alajuela for 2 nights right by airport--then can do poas volcano and la paz waterfalls and gardens for one day--let me know more details and I will be glad to help--for planning purposes the main activities at each location are:
arenal--canopy tours/hanging bridges hot springs/waterfall/horseback ride/rafting
monteverde--cloud forest tour with guide/canopy tours/ horseback/frog pond (actually very cool and I hate frogs)/butterfly farm
manuel antonio/national park with guide/boat tours/deep sea fishing/beach/canopy tours/horseback
xandari--hike hotel grounds which are beautiful/poas volcano/la paz waterfalls

uconn

Thanks so much!!!!

janeann

Thank you so much for speedy response. The 8 days will be for vacation, with 2 more for travel. Yo uhave helped to mitigate my fear of the beetles. So you would choose Manuel Antonio over Tamarindo? That is what we have been pondering. Anyone heard of Ryan Air and the Suntrips Go Explore trips????

LA_FadeAway

Ryan Air is a charter company used by a lot of trip consolidators. AirTran also contracts with them to handle their long haul domestic U.S. flights. I've flown L.A. to Atlanta and back with them many times due to AirTran's low fares. They get you there, but I must say the planes are VERY uncomfortable. They cram as many seats as possible into them and they don't even have pillows on board (not that you'd want to use those germ ridden things before vacation anyway). Their service is'nt the friendliest and the flights are always late. That being said, I still use them because the price is right and it gets me where I need to go. One more strange thing as that they only take credit cards for drinks, no cash. That may only be on the AirTran contract flights, I'm not sure about the vacation charters.

keefmick

janeann--can't help you with the choice between tamarindo and MA as we did not go to Tamarindo--we loved MA though--there is a recent post asking the same question with a number of responses--good luck!

poss

Once again many many thanks, Keefmick. I have a question about Manuel Antonio now. I keep reading/hearing that the reason to go to Ma is the beaches (and the monkeys of course). But we, like you, live in southern Florida (Naples) And we go often to the Caribbean. I can't believe that the beaches in MA are more spectacular than some of the beaches we know (Ca and Hawaii also-- we have relatives in both those places). So I'm wondering whether it makes sense for us to do MA at all. e.g. I'm used to staying right on the beach and being able to play in the water all day. In MA we'd be staying at Makanda, and even if the beach is quite spectacular, it won't be easy to get to (we won't have a car), and I'm not sure hanging out there would be all that fun or comfortable anyway (the snorkeling isn't supposed to be great). Similarly, we'd been thinking abt doing the Isla Damas kayak or boat tour, but your remark abt being very familiar with mangrove nature areas is making me reconsider. So I'm not sure anymore. Did you do Rainmaker, by the way? Did you visit Carrara or do the Tarcoles boat tour? Thank you!!

JeanH

I don't think the beach around Manual Antonio can compare to the best the Caribbean has to offer. But, the views from Makanda are stunning. It's a beautiful property. Great restaurants close by. The park is relatively small and fun to hike in.

I notice that you mentioned Tabacon in another post. We enjoyed our time there as well. Observatory Lodge is really out of the way, down a fairly long bumpy road.

Jean

keefmick

Poss--the beaches in MA are beautiful but not soft sand and blue water like the caribbean--however, it is unique in that the beaches and jungle merge making it very cool with great views from the top of the hill, i.e Makanda. MA national park is also worth a visit--great nature stuff--I would skip the mangrove tour and snorkeling--I would recommend touring the national park, horseback ride, canopy tour, playing on the beach, relaxing at hotel--great for a good 3 days--we stopped at carrara on the way from MA to San Jose and didn't see anything except mosquitos--it was a pretty jungle but after Monteverde and MA no need to stop--didn't do tarcoles

chinahart

Hi My husband is from Naples and we just got back from Costa Rica and spent five days at Manuel Antonio. I think that you will really enjoy it. While you might not go for the beach since you are from Naples (Althouh it is lovely and very different than Naples with the rainforest going right down to the water) the wildlife is wonderful in the area, and there are lots of local fun activities. We stayed at Si Como No which our children loved and the staff and food at the pool side restaurant where excellent. We had a sloth up in a tree outside our hotel room for four days and the squirrel monkeys came through regularly. We so enjoyed that. I wouldn't skip MA. Hope you have a ball!

keefmick

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