costaricalover

Thank god for cut and paste...Tully, have I done well??

costaricalover

Vista del Valle up next...

tully

Very well! Glad you enjoyed your time at Lookout Inn. It does have a very nice location and so many macaws. Looking forward to the rest.

volcanogirl

How do you get to the Lookout Inn?

costaricalover

You fly into Puerto Jiminez, and then they send a driver
to pick you up. It's farther up the road then Bosque,
probably at least 40 minutes on the same road.

costaricalover

Jimenez

volcanogirl

Ah, thank you!

Juldie

costaricalover; thank you for such a quick reply. I am sorry about you losing that response email! I loved reading your review of Lookout; all of the reviews of it I have read have been pretty amazing. I looked at Luna Lodge but nothing seems to be like Lookout. What a unique spot, for sure. Just got to put aside my concerns about the open air rooms. I also took a quick look at Vista del Valle for maybe our last night. Being Marriott rewards members with points I can use the last night I am tempted, but it would be so wonderful to stay out of the brand entirely while in Costa Rica to stay in unique beautiful lodging our entire stay.

I want to ask you this. I am a hot spring/thermal pool lover and I know this trip where we will be there are not any. I am trying to determine if it can make any sense that upon leaving this area (your basic itinerary) to wrap up my stay in CR going to some hot springs before flying out. I know they are mostly in the Arenal area or Rincon de La vieja. Is this a crazy idea driving/time wise? The thought of soaking as a way to end my travels sounds wonderful. Thanks for your help.

Juldie

By the way we are doing this entire trip by driving from San Jose, including going down to Lookout by car. We are not flying into Puerto Jiminez so we will be spending plenty of time on the road as it is.

costaricalover

Juldie, how much time do you have in Costa
Rica?

Juldie

costaricatraveler; we will have 9 days on the ground. We are thinking 1 in Uvita/Dominical on the way to Lookout, 3 nights there, back up to Uvita for maybe 2 nights. If we do this it will leave 2 other nights. Thinking about hot springs or could maybe consider a boat trip from Yaco to Tortuga Island if that is a great use of a full day. ?? Love to hear your ideas.

costaricalover

I think you're biting off too much, especially if you plan
on visiting Arenal. When you say you have 9 days, does
that mean you will be flying into San Jose and leaving
the same day for Uvita? What time does your flight get in?
You don't want to be driving in the dark, in my opinion.

If you do have 9 full days, that is, no overnights in
San Jose area going out or coming in, I'd probably
split it between the Uvita/Ojochal area and then
head down to the Lookout. Otherwise you will be
spending far too much driving IMHO.

Juldie

9 days does not include the day we fly in or the day we fly home. We arrive into SJO close to 10 PM so we will stay close to the airport and in the morning head to Uvita. So you think it would be too much driving to go to Arenal at the end for a couple of nights? Do you know anything about the day trip to Tortuga from Jaco?

sparklegem

What a great trip report! You have me questioning my itinerary, your's sounded so amazing! I will save your report for our next trip down. I think that you may have me planning my next trip before we even take this one

Jane62

Wonderful trip report, costaricalover! I've been planning my family's own trip to the Osa Peninsula for late June/early July 2013 (to coincide with the Fodor GtG at Bosque, at least for a few days). We've been to CR before but not to the Osa. My husband always has to surf when we go anywhere that has decent waves but I want to focus on wildlife - it's always a conflict - I was going to have us stay 3 nights Drake Bay to do a day trip to Sirena and a day trip to Cano Island then 3 nights Cabo Matapalo for the 3 great point breaks and then 3 nights Bosque del Cabo. But I'd really like to have more time at Bosque. After reading this trip report, I started looking at Lookout Inn and realized there is also surfing at Carate - though my husband said beach breaks (Carate) are not usually as good as point breaks (Matapalo). But started thinking maybe we could do 4-5 days at Lookout Inn and do Cano Island and Sirena day trip from there as well as him doing some surfing, and then go to Bosque for 4 nights and have him do a couple days surfing at Matapalo from there - it's just not as easy to surf from Bosque as he'll need to get down to the beach and back. I am going to look into this more but am interested in your saying you chartered a boat to go to Sirena - can you say who you used and did they provide a guide? And approximate cost? I am going to go look for your tripadvisor report and you can also PM me over there if you prefer, over there I am Momof2LosAltos.

Thanks so much!

tully

The ocean down by Carate is pretty rough, not really a surfing area. You can go into Corcovado on a day hike from Carate. It's about a 30 minute walk on the beach to get to the La Leona park entrance.

costaricalover

Hola Jane! I will be attending the Bosque gtg next year,
so hope to meet up with you there. I loved both Bosque and Lookout for very different reasons. The hiking at Bosque is hard to beat. Property is much larger and the accommodations are somewhat superior. Lookout is located much closer to the ocean, so we did a lot more walking on the beach. I loved the beach at Lookout-totally deserted, not great for swimming, but wild and dramatic. So, as Tully says, probably not a surfing beach. Tons of wildlife at both places, more macaws at lookout. The owners at lookout have feeding stations for birds and monkeys do not quite as natural as Bosque. Be forewarned that at Lookout there are many stairs as it is located on the side of a hill.

Terry, the owner, arranged our boat outing to Sirena, which was fabulous. It was not cheap, approx $150 per person, but well worth it. We only had 4 people so I think it gets cheaper the more people you have.

Can't really advise about surfing, sorry. But FYI, to complicate thins for you even more, Pavones, not far from Zancudo is very popular. Pavones is across the Golfo Dulce from Puerto Jimenez by boat, or a longer trek by car. I'll be checking out that area in February and can report back.

Looking forward to the Bosque gtg, and hope to see you there!

Jane62

Tully, my husband has a book about surfig in Costa Rica (like that's the entire subject of the book, believe it or not!) and it does mention Carate but it's a beach break not a point break, so those are not as good. And Costaricalover, thanks, we do know about Pavones - that's one of the top spots in the country apparently, maybe even world-class though they say that the Matapalo breaks are world class as well. I know one can get a boat over to Pavones from Matapalo so maybe he'll do that one day.

THink I'm going to stick to original plan - look forward to meeting you too CostaRicaLover!

JES28

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