Thanks to everyone who contributes to this board – it proved very useful for our month in Costa Rica. We did it in four stages:

1. Feb 10, 2006 – 10 day "Costa Rica Natural Paradise" Caravan Tour ($995). We looked into a half dozen tours, and were skeptical about how Caravan could do this tour for the price, but having found only positive comments on the internet, our 3 couples joined 34 other people, and had one of our best ever vacations. Hotels, food, and the tour guide were first rate. We all gave Caravan 5 stars, and marveled at how they could do it for the price. We departed from our friends, and my wife and I (just retired) ventured to the beaches for the next 3 weeks.

2. Playa Flamingo Marina Resort (5 nights). We had a driver take us from San Jose to Playa Flamingo – the roads are a disaster in the Nicoya Peninsula, and I would not recommend anyone drive them. The potholes were so bad that we had to come to a complete stop about every 5-10 minutes. The Flamingo Marina Resort was OK, but the marina has been closed by the local government (a big disappointment); the advertised DSL internet connection was "in progress", and the local alternative was pathetic, plus the Jacuzzi was broken. Very few tourists around, including at the hotel, with the local restaurants having a hard time – just 50% of the business they had in January 2005, we were told. The Playa Flamingo beach is very nice, but the town is much smaller than we expected, with just a few stores and half a dozen places to eat. The roads were so bad, we decided not to go exploring. Tamarindo, 20-30 minutes south, would have been a better choice for anyone who wants some activity in the area. One other note – the guide books forgot to mention that February is always windy (20-30 mph) here – forget about offshore fishing – we couldn't even play a decent game of tennis any morning at the hotel, due to the high winds. Water temperature was a refreshing 78 degrees, air temp was 90.

3. El Sano Banano Resort (also called Y-Land Y-Lang), Montezuma (5 nights). We hired a driver from Playa Flamingo to Montezuma, and it was a nightmare. The roads are even worse in the southern end of the Nicoya Peninsula, and what should have taken two hours, lasted 5 hours of constant jolts, dust, and bumps. However, Montezuma was our favorite destination, with a real town, something of a hippie culture, but very diverse non-the-less. The El Sano Banano resort is a gem – 15 minutes from town, accessible only by walking down the beach, and right on the edge of the jungle. They have done a wonderful job of planting lush vegetation throughout the facility, with lots of wildlife, and a beautiful outdoor restaurant (an outstanding breakfast is included). This is another beautiful beach (there are several more deserted beaches east of the hotel), with water temperatures up to 85 degrees, and air temperatures 90-95. Due to the heat, we always ate dinner at an outdoor restaurant on the water, of which there are several. There are not many excursion possibilities here (unless you want to travel far), except for Cano Blanco national forest – a place Foders and Frommers obviously never actually went to when they wrote about it. We gave the 2.5 mile hike to the beach a try – but with most of the hike either a 30 degree incline or decline, in 90 degree weather, we only made it 1.5 miles, in two hours, and gave up, like most others over 40 years old. After a mile or so, the trail becomes pretty rough, often just gullies, and the guide book really did their readers a disservice by not warning of the difficulty, and the need for good hiking shoes. By the way, there was little wildlife to be seen in the park – a trip we wish we had skipped.

3. Costa Verde, Manuel Antonio (5 nights). Having visited the beach here at the end of our 10 day Caravan tour, we had high hopes – again depending on the tour guides advice that the hotels up in the mountain have easy accessibility to the beach – not so. We walked down the road from the hotel to the beach – a twisting two lane affair, with cars driving too fast and no sidewalks, much too dangerous (and in 90 degree plus temperatures, with no breeze, just too hot.) We took the public bus back, only 40 cents, but hot and often crowded. The walk back up to the hotel was out of the question, so you basically have to pack up for the beach and stay there – not our style. We took cabs to restaurants, but they are off the meter (illegally), and charge a standard $4 no matter how far you want to go – which for us was generally only about a mile. The public beach is not particularly nice, but you can rent chairs and an umbrella there – the beach in the park is much nicer, but no services (other than a bathroom) are available. Lots of wildlife in the park, and a return trip for us would be at the so-so hotel in town (which has A/C) and daily trips in and out of the park to enjoy the beaches there. The "town" is actually just a lot of tourist shops, stands, and restaurants. A/C was mandatory for us at Costa Verde – with a few nights at 90 degrees or above, it would have been very uncomfortable sleeping.

The hotel is spread out – our room was high up and required quite an exertion to walk up to every time – lovely outdoor restaurant with a great view, plus a spectacular panoramic view from the main pool. Spider monkeys came to visit at the pool, plus iguanas, and a sloth. Our room was actually in the jungle this time, but neither bird nor animal came by, other than a wayward Agouti. The barbeque restaurant associated with Costa Verde (across the street) had delicious pork ribs, but unfortunately, my wife and I both had food poisoning as a result, were wiped out the next day, the only time we were sick in Costa Rica. I mentioned it to the hotel management, but they did not seem very interested.

We went on a 40' catamaran cruise (six hours), which included snorkeling, dolphin watching, dinner, and sunset - an excellent excursion, and highly recommended.

4. We spent a few days at the end of our stay in San Jose at the Grano de Oro, a boutique hotel, which was absolutely gorgeous, but not in the tourist section of town. Side trips included a bus tour of the city, which included the National Theatre and the Gold Museum, a very interesting tour. We also made a trip to La Paz falls, which had the best selection of wildlife in our entire stay. The butterfly gardens and hatchery were outstanding, hummingbirds eat out of your hand, and the frog gardens had a great variety of poisonous frogs, which you could actually find as you walked around the garden. The falls are spectacular, had various levels, and had well developed pathways.

Other notes which may be of interest:
1. Jaco did not have much of interest to us, and the beach was not very nice.
2. The Montverde cloud forest was nice, but don't expect to see much wildlife.
3. The Britt Coffee tour includes an ongoing skit by professional actors (likely trained by Disney), a first class affair, and very enjoyable.
4. Sarchi, the place artisans sell their goods, was a disappointment – the items were pretty much mass produced, no one actually doing "one of a kind" craft work. In fact, we saw many items for sale to tourists during our stay, and found very little in the way of "bargains", and only a few pieces that were truly unique.
5. The boat tour up the Cano Negro Wildlife refuge was excellent, with lots of wildlife sightings, both birds, caimans, and howler monkeys.
6. The Pacific coast was hotter than we expected – at least 90 degrees during the day, and several nights during dinner at outdoor restaurants we were sweating. The only place we did not have A/C was in Montezuma, which worked out OK except for one night when a cold shower was required before bed.
7. We took the water taxi from Montezuma to Herraduda (15 miles), which luckily for us was on a rare day of flat seas. The 20' open boat would be a real painful ride if the wind picked up like it usually did in the mornings.

Whoops, forgot a couple of important things -
8. We brought insect spray, and after traveling from Tortugero to Monteverde to Manuel Antonio, didn't use any of it. In fact, I only saw one mosquito the entire month. Each place we stayed during the month had OPEN windows with no screens - any bug could have gotten us easily - they just were not a problem. I didn't get bit by a mosquito until I got back to Florida. Which brings me to.....

9. malaria pills, which we took and which were a waste of time. We also drank the water at hotels and restaurants, and never had a problem. I love fruit, and had it every day (especially the fruit drinks - yum, yum) - never had a problem. I am firmly in the camp of "Costa Rica is as safe to travel as the US", with the possible exception of traveling off the beaten path.

Trophy98,
Thanks for sharing your trip report. How nice that you had such a nice long time for your visit!

Although Playa Flamingo is one of our favorite places (we love to explore up and down the coast), 5 nights really is too long for this location. I agree with you that Playa Flamingo is a gorgeous beach--one of the prettiest in the country. There are, actually, several nice beaches in this immediate area. And yes, the marina has been closed for quite some time now. We haven't stayed at Flamingo Marina Resort--always at Flamingo Beach Resort which we've always enjoyed. It's a good value for the location. Did you catch some of the breathtaking sunsets at Playa Flamingo?

And Cabo Blanco Reserve! Your review brought back many memories. We are early 50's and did this hike a couple of years ago. Our experience was different, however!
We, too, thought it quite strenuous, but were exhilarated after making it all the way over to the beach and back! Seemed quite an accomplishment because, you are right--this hike has some very touch sections. Fortunatetely, we saw TONS of wildlife including lots of birds, an anteater, a baby deer very close up, coatis, LOTS of white faced monkeys.
For those who prefer a shorter, less strenuous hike, there is a less lengthy loop that doesn't cross the ridge to the beach. A nice option for those preferring a more moderate hiking experience. The total time for the long hike is at least 5 hours, including an hour for lunch and rest at the beach before starting back. Those who are interested in this hike should know that an early start is important!

I'm glad you enjoyed some of the sights in San Jose. There are, for sure, a few places definitely worth seeing--at least once!

And Sarchi--did you by any chance visit the Fabrica Chaverri (might be a little off on the spelling) where so many oxcarts are sold? There is a workshop out back where you can watch the artisans painting the designs.

Agree with you regarding La Paz--can't imagine a better butterfly or hummingbird garden!

You bet the beaches are hotter than heck this time of year. This is their summer. AC definitely a necessity!


Your 10 day tour sounds like a real winner--glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks again for sharing.

Interesting reading your report. I am with you on Flamingo. Very pretty beach but the town really doesn't amount to much. Maries was a definite for many of my meals. I enjoyed walking to and from Potrero by beach and road. You can take some nice excursions from there though. Did you go out to see the turtles? The snorkeling isn't great but it is a lovely day out around the islands.

A month is a wonderful amount of time to really see lots of things although on my longest trip for 5 weeks it still didn't seem like long enough. You covered lots of bases and got to see a good diversity of things. Thank you for sharing.

With respect to drinking the water...my family of 5 started out drinking the water; DD13 and I got sick-the other three didn't. We all switched to bottled water by about Day 4 (just in case) but we did have ice in drinks, etc. I think it just depends on your system.

Hi Shillmac, your past advice was very useful in planning our trip, and yes, the breathtaking sunsets at Playa Flamingo were the best - I'm thinking of having some 8x10's made. Interesting about the wildlife at Cano Blanco (or lack thereof), may be related to the season?

In Sarchi we did visit the large shop with work areas in the back, where the oxcarts are painted, however there was no one working the day we were there. Since I was not interested in an oxcart, but was interested in handmade crafts, I had hoped to see someone making some of those, but the stalls appeared to be for assembly of oxcarts only, and the associated painting.

Suzie2, you are right about Maries restaurant - I could have eaten there every night. It was not the right season for turtles, so we didn't see any of those, and although I was planning on going snorkleing offshore, it was so windy that I didn't go. I did snorkle off the beach, and saw some nice fish, but not like a coral reef.

I didn't say much about the Caravan tour, as it hit many of the highlights in the country, and the itinerary is on their website. It sure was convenient to have them do all the planning for a trip to the Carribbean, up to Nicaragua, and down to the Pacific coast.

A whole month in Costa Rica - how wonderful. I am admittedly a bit envious.

Every few months a question comes up about Caravan. I think there are many that are a bit skeptical of the price. We have friends that did this tour a couple years back and were very pleased at what they got for the money. We met up with them for a day in Tortuguero and were very impressed with their guide. It seems Caravan does a very good overview of the country at a very reasonable rate. If they would change the Jaco portion, I would have no complaints with their itinerary.

We too stayed at El Sano Beach Bungalows on that particular trip, loved Montezuma. After my research, we were a bit concerned that we would be the oldest people there! We were some of the oldest - but not THE oldest! While there we enjoyed just hanging out on the beach, visiting the little shops and restaurants, a day snorkeling at Tortuga and a horseback ride.

Next trip you will have to visit some of the other beaches on the Nicoya and possibly the Osa!

I so enjoy reading others comments and opinions of Costa Rica. Thanks for the report.

LOL--don't feel bad; I've not managed to get my great sunset photos framed either. Good intentions, however! Sometimes I look at them again am amazed all over again at the beauty.

Again, thanks for posting. We are looking forward to a 4 week trip again this summer (although now I find it difficult to be away from our granddaughter that long--she was with us last year! She'll be along for a week of our time this year as well, but after that. . .I'll miss her even with Costa Rica surrounding me!)

We're hoping to get up to Tortuguero this year. It's been on our "list" for awhile.

Thanks again for your objectivity. I'm such a sucker for the place that I find it hard to be objective. And it's a needed quality on this board, I believe.