Husband and I are anticipating a trip next March to Costa Rica. We are hopefully going to stay 8 days or so. Looking forward to an active trip, decent hotels / motels (nothing fancy). What is the best way to visit most areas, looking for any and all advice for this time of year (March), places to visit - must see(s) (not too big on bird watching or surfing), hotels, activities, shows, guides, etc... Thank You

Can you narrow it down? What do you want to see? Rainforest, volcanoes, beaches, city? What kind of lodging do you like? Fancy, cheap, in-between? You might want to look in a guide book and figure out what areas you want to see most, maybe 2 or 3 places and then start planning from there. It's a small country, but it takes a long time to maneuver around and there's a huge diversity of experiences you can have.

Sandy

The way I planned my trip was reading trip reports on this site (as well as reading some guidebooks I got out of the library.. the one I liked the best was National Geographic but there are different tastes. By reading multiple trip reports I got a sense of what type of people go where. For instance, some people find Tabocon Springs a must we didn't like what we saw.. so it really is reading whats' available and where and then planning. Luckily, CR is a small country, easy to get to know and get around. And wonderful!

I agree with the above posts. Get a guide book to see what each area offers and then plan a course. With 8 days, though, I think you probably will only be able to visit two areas. Most first timers as far as I can tell go to Arenal (for the volcano) and then either Monteverde (for the cloud forest) or Manual Antonio (for the park and pretty beaches)or somewhere in the Guanacaste region.

I don't know exactly what you mean by "shows," but I don't think Costa Rica is that kind of place. It's a flora and fauna place...it's birds, monkeys, sloths, exotic flora, mucho butterflies, hiking, rafting, horseback riding, relaxing on the beach, ziplining, rapelling, volcano viewing, ATVing......

My husband and I went five years ago, so not sure our hotel info would be good, but our itinerary was great. We stayed in San Jose (Hotel Edelweis was great if it is still around), Arenal, outside Santa Elena/Monteverde, Playa Samara, and we took an overnight rainforest trip - the highlight. We did everything on public transportation (sort of fun, but I would say it would be better to rent a 4x4). We went in late April and had nothing reserved except the overnight rainforest/rafting trip, which I cannot be enthusiastic enough about.