quick excursion on way back to San Jose
 

We are driving back from Arenal to San Jose Airport to catch a 3 pm flight back home.

-Would it be reasonable to do a quick excursion on the way back to the airport?
-What would be easy and on the way?
-How early should we be at the airport for a 3 pm flight? (We do have to drop a off
a car rental at Toyata)

tx

Does it not take about 3 hours (approx. ) from Arenal to San Jose ? Maybe 2.5 ? You need to be at the airport no less than 2 hours before your flight. Perhaps enough time for Poas ?

Or La Paz Waterfalls.

Or Doka Coffee Plantation - yes I am a coffee addict!!

do you think if We did the 10 am
Doca Coffee Plantation tour, we would
be OK for the 3 pm flight
-how far is it from the airport?

It's at least 3 hours from Arenal to the San Jose airport. The La Paz Waterfall Gardens, Doka Coffee Plantation, and Poas Volcano are about 1 hour outside of San Jose. We were just there last week. The waterfall gardens (also with butterfly and hummingbird gardens) were gorgeous. Spent a couple of hours there, including lunch. Spent an hour at the Doka Coffee Plantation and an hour at the Poas Volcano (which is very different from the Arenal Volcano).

Doka is about 30 minutes from the airport, 40 tops. Will you also be returning a rental vehicle? That will take about 30 minutes of your time as well, depending on how busy they are when you show up. Leave Doka by 11:00 just to be on the safe side! And have fun!!! :)

What time of year are you traveling? Last Feb it took us over two hours to get checked in. Last week we were at the gate in just over 30 minutes.

Don't forget time to get your exit stamp-$26. If you are traveling with someone you can split up here and one can get the stamps while the other gets in line for check in. Whoever gets the stamps will have to have the passports. You will also have to fill out some stuff on the stamp. No lines at all last week but they can get long during the peak travel season. There are two places, one to the left and one to the right. You can also buy them sometimes (if anyone is there) while you are waiting to get through customs on your arrival. There is a desk in that area in the back. The stamps have never really taken us too long to get. Tops 15 mins during a really busy time.

Another thing that will affect your time getting checked in is whether you have luggage to check in or if you are carrying it on. Carry on does not get a hands on check where as luggage that is going to be checked in is looked at personally. They open the luggage up right there before you get to the desk and go through everything by hand. This can take a lot of time if you are on a wide body and there are a lot of bags to check.

We had some time to kill before getting to the airport last Sunday so we just went out to eat. Our last decent meal that day. As it turns out we could have gotten there much later but we usually travel during the busier times and never thought about less travelers this time.

La Paz waterfall garden is about an hour from the airport.

You could take a little detour through Zarcero to see the topiary, or through Sarchi to buy any last minute souveniers.