Our Costa Rica Itin.. Your thoughts
 

Would love your input on this itinerary for my family of 4 (two kids 13 & 15)

Day 1 - Arrive San Jose in evening - stay at Marriot near Airport.

Day 2 - Early morning Departure for plane ride to Tortugero

Day 3 - Tortugero

Day 4 - Tortugero boat thru Nicaragua to Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui - See La Paz Waterfalls en route to Arenal - overnight Lost Iguana

Day 5 Lost Iguana

Day 6 Lost Iguana - river raft Sarapiqui

Day 7 Arenal - Tamarindo - Hotel Diria

Day 8 Tamarindo - Hotel Diria

Day 9 Tamarindo - Hotel Diria

Day 10 Tamarindo - Hotel Diria

Day 11 fly from Tamarind to San Jose for flight home

Any input would be appreciated.

What time do you get to Puerto Viejo on day 4? You still have a fair drive ahead of you especially if you want to spend some time at La Paz.

I'm not a big fan of the Hotel Diria....but opinions seem to differ greatly on this place.

I trust you have an afternoon flight home from San Jose on your last day.

cheers

Jerry

I agree about Hotel Diria. Overpriced and bad service, IMO.

An alternative to Tamarindo is Playa Hermosa. The advantage is that there are less tourists. The disadvantage is there is a lot of construction in Hermosa. I did not like Tamarindo as it seems like gringo central to me.

I beg to differ with the other: Tamarindo is perfect for your children age group, they will love it. And we love the hotel diria; right on the beach, very costa rican, free extensive breakfast, fine service, the condos across the street are great, full security.

I have my doubts about Day 4 - that's a long way to go and leave yourself the time to enjoy La Paz... you don't say how you are getting from PV to Arenal - car and driver, local transport???


Also on Day 11, make sure you have plenty of time between flights - flights from Tamarindo are notoriously late departing and if you are on Nature Air you need to get from the domestic airport to the international - unless you have early flight from Tamarindo and very late afternoon flight from SJO, I wouldn't take the chance.

Cheers,
Andrew

Arenal is a wonderful area especially with your teens. We loved the Lost Iguana and so did our young adult son and 2 daughters. Lots to do in area, I suggest you spend 3 or 4 nights at the Lost Iguana. Beautiful rainforests in the area, Hanging Bridges is a nice morning hike, there's activities like the zip-lines and Canyoning (waterfall rapelling), river rafting...Plus maybe you'll get lucky and see the volcano erupt, we did!

don't know the others areas you are visiting.

Thanks for your responses. We are using Costa rica Exp. for all transportation. They are picking us up in PV and transporting with a driver and guide. This is really there itinerary. We are not doing any driving as I would like my husband to enjoy this as well and my kids to get some information about the area from someone knowledgeable. Please, any other info is most useful.