JC_Mia

I am a single woman in her 30's that will be in Costa Rica for the entire month of February 2011 with my 8 year old daughter, Mia. I speak remedial Spanish, so we'd like to do a language-school for at least a week at the beginning of the trip in Tamarindo (Wayra Spanish Institute is the one I'm leaning towards). Then, we would like to get to get to other parts of the country for the remaining 2-3 weeks. We won't want to be on the move every other day, but would like to get to do all the major things (canopy tours, snorkeling, volcanos, surfing, river rafting, and the like). With a month's time, I really can't afford to be eating at restaurants every single meal, so I'd rather have a house/cottage of some sort with kitchen at least part of the time. So, my questions are:
--Any reason for me to be concerned about being a single woman/child alone?
--Where near the major attractions (like Monteverde, Manuel Antonio, Arenal, and the like) would you suggest I look for not-a-hotel lodging?
--What are some economical tips? I'm looking to get the most bang for the buck and be able to afford to stay the full month.
--If you could fill a month in Costa Rica (with a very inquisitive child!), how would you fill it?

I have tons of logistical questions, too, like transportation (rental car? driver? plane?), and the like, but I'll save those for after I have a general outline of the trip. Thanks for any advice or ideas.

JC

shillmac

Sounds like a great time! I wouldn't choose Tamarindo for a week (prefer to visit for a day for a meal and shopping), but I am sure Wayra is excellent. I've used CPI for several weeks of Spanish over the years.

You have some good ideas, and I think it would be very helpful to you to be in touch with someone who has a tremendous number of contacts all over the country. If you are interested in speaking with this person, his name is Pat Hewitt.

http://www.lovecostarica.com/

Pat owns a company called Costa Rica Travel Exchange. He has helped so many and is kind and gracious--as well as extremely knowledgeable.

You guys will have a great time!

hsmithcr

I have to agree about the Spanish school in Tamarindo. Tamarindo is an upscale, expensive place to be. I would rather choose the school in Samara, a much more laid back beach town and less expensive. For language school, you can always choose the "homestay" option where you can stay in a local person's home very inexpensively and get excellent Spanish immersion at the same time.

Your best bet for a month's inexpensive lodging is to book "cabinas" or other similar places and then look around once you are there to see what you can find for a longer term stay. You will probably not find anything inexpensive on the internet.

For the Arenal area, check here: www.arenal.net

For Monteverde - www.monteverdeinfo.com

For Manuel Antonio - www.manuelantoniopark.com

Many of the smaller "cabinas" or Costa Rican style hotels will have basic kitchen facilities and are inexpensive enough to stay for a longer time - say a week or so. Plus with a week's stay, you usually can get a discount.

Of course, you do not really say what you would like to pay per day so it's hard to figure. For me, $30 a day would be really cheap but I usually end up paying about $40-60 a day for lodging when I travel around Costa Rica and this depends on the area.

Food is not cheap in Costa Rica but you might want to plan to eat out once a day - maybe lunch. Typical Costa Rican restaurants (known as "sodas") feature a daily lunch special known as a "casado." This is usually six items - some kind of meat or fish, salad, rice, beans and then two other things. You can usually get this (and often more than you can eat!) for less than $8, depending on where you are. Then you can "fill in" with cooking at your lodging. Many restaurants will have "pollo frito" or fried chicken which you can get two pieces ready to eat for about $3 with a little container of sauce and some fried tortillas. Of course, everything is more expensive in the heavily touristed areas that you are talking about.

rpowell

We used www.vrbo.com for a house rental in Manuel Antonio and found a wonderful place. You can also rent condos through that web site. Have an amazing month!

Continental_Drifter

A second vote for the language school in Samara.

Also, we rented a house in Samara that was charming with a plunge pool and a terrific view. We rented The Casa La Papaya found on VRBO and it would easily fit your needs. The other cottage, Casa Mango, on the property is a bit smaller but would also sleep the two of you. It shares the rancho and the plunge pool. The owners are often in residence in their larger home up the hill from you.

http://www.vrbo.com/global/siteFrame.aspx?l=79302&k=1

It really is a great little town. When we didn't cook in, we found eating out there to be inexpensive also.

JC_Mia

Thank you! Fabulous ideas about Samara instead of Tamarindo. I'll get in touch with Pat Hewitt, too. I will definitely do the home-stay during language school and look to a "cabina" otherwise, I think. If I could keep lodging to about $50 per day, that would be great, but I know that might not always be possible. Transportation is another issue! Getting from here to there is going to be interesting!

JC_Mia

I checked into the language school in Samara, and they do not accept children. Any other suggestions for beach language school other than Tamarindo, then?
JC

Continental_Drifter

You might check with the owners at the property I linked above. They may know of something. Lavae teaches English at a school, so she likely has contacts.