Returned from Costa Rica yesterday!
 

We had a great trip thanks also to all the suggestions on this site. If anyone wishes to have more information on any of the places we visited please feel free to e mail me at [email protected]
Travelled with husband and 2 sons (17 and 19). This was our itinerary and some comments:
Day 1 and 2 – San Josè (stayed at friends’ house) visited Poas Volcano and La Paz waterfall gardens (loved the butterfly enclosure).
Day 3 – Drove to Punta Leona, visited Jacò and stayed overnight at Villas la Caletas where we also had dinner. Saw crocodiles on the way and met a Coatimundi on our balcony. Beautiful hotel.
Day 4 and 5 - drove to Manuel Antonio stayed at La Posada Jungle lodge. Very pleasant, smaller than it looks on the web, owner very very nice. Went to the park saw 3 types of monkeys, sloths , raccoon, deer. Boys enjoyed shorter zip line canopy tour. Lunch at La Vela (very slow), Xmas dinner at Karola’s (nice).
Day 5 – left car and flew late afternoon back to San José.
Day 6 - Aerial tram in Braullio Carillo, lunch at Selva Verde (food dismal but garden and bridge worth it) and guided tour of La Selva biological reserve. Interesting but lots of rain. Saw peccaries and poison dart frogs.
Day 7 – We were supposed to boat along the Sarapiqui and San Juan river to Tortuguero but our trip was cancelled at the last minute because of problems on the Nicaraguan border. So flew instead. Stayed at Mawamba lodge. Surprisingly good food, nice guide and pleasant rooms but rain, rain, rain. Saw lots of birds.
Day 8 – private boat out of Tortuguero (it had stopped raining and was one of best parts of our trip) to Moin where our rental car was waiting. Drove past Limon (quick visit) and down to Puerto Viejo (Caribbean coast) where we stayed at Villas del Caribe. Great beach, excellent hotel. Spent 4 nights relaxing, eating at all the little restaurants, New Year’s Rasta party on the beach. Boys surfed and went fishing. We saw toucans, sloths, caymans . Manzanillo also fun and beaches down the coast get better and better.
Day 12 – drove back to San josé – visited Zapote (greater SJ area) where they were holding annual fair with corrida ( traditional bullfight with non professionals where bull does not get killed). Lots of stalls with delicious food, plenty of crowds and very noisy. Really enjoyed the atmosphere.
Day 13 – early flight to Osa Peninsula drake Bay. Stayed at Paloma Lodge 3 nights. Really beautiful hotel, good food, very good service, lovely rancho for 4. Kayaked in the afternoon (lots of monkeys a white hawk and 2 scarlet macaws). Visited corcovado park on day 2 (the guided tour of the park was not essential after we’d done so many already but did get to see an anteater really close up and our guide was good). In the afternoon we hiked to the waterfall and swam which was fun and very muddy. On day 3 we were taken to Cano island. The weather was excellent and we did some quite good snorkelling. The boys scuba dived and said it was the best dive ever – 20 sharks, huge jackfish, 2 turtles, lobsters as well as all the coloured fish etc. Saw a whale on the way back.
Day 16 – flew back to San Josè via Puerto Jimenez – excellent flight in really clear weather saw all the coast. In the afternoon we went to Saarchi which was nothing special but bought a few souvenirs and then drove (got lost) to Xandari for dinner which was one of the best meals in Costa Rica – beautiful grounds, fantastic view and gift shop much better than anything you can find in Saarchì!
Day 17 – long flight back to Italy via Atlanta. Hundreds of photos to organize!
Thanks to all the people who helped out will gladly answer any questions.
Elisa

Ah! I am SO jealous about Cano Island- it sounds like amazing diving. Looks like we will have to make a return trip back just to dive. Did you overnightat Cano Island or ona boat? How long was the drive? Costs for diving?
Thanks for your review. We've been back almost 2 weeks and I need to get mine posted!

Wow ! Wow ! Wow ! What a trip !!! More please , with pics ! lol , Thanx , Faith .

We went on a boat from La Paloma. The diving cost $170 for 2 people 2 tanks each which was less than I expected. Also it was great because it was just the 2 kids with the instructor. They said it was the best part of the whole trip! We didn't think the snorkelling was as great as some places (esp Maldives which is the best I've ever done) but obviously further down it was fantastic!

How did you make the arrangements? ((R))

I booked flights and hotels over the internet independently. To arrange the Sarapuiqui/San Juan cruise (which didn't work out) and Tortuguero plus the rental cars which were a bit complicated as we were picking up and dropping off at different locations we used Rainforest Tours which i also found on the internet. They were very efficient except we wished they had let us know about the Nicaragua problems sooner so we could have made different arrangements but perhaps it was a last minute thing. In any case I found everything tourist related to be very efficient in Costa Rica. We never had any problems - everything worked like clockwork! Oh except Delta losing one of our suitcases but that was resolved by the next day.

What was the name of the canopy tour that you did in MA? What did your kids think of it?

There are 2 canopy tours on offer in MA one i think is "the original" and it takes about 5-6 hours but a lot of that is driving time. The one my kids did was the shorter one - they were picked up at 7 am and were back by 10.30. It still had 16 platforms (the long one has 18)and they really enjoyed it especially because there wasn't a lot of waiting around. It cost 45 dollars. I would definitely go for this one.

Sorry, I can't remember the name of the canopy tour but I'll ask the kids when they get back and post it.

It was called Titi Canopy Tour and it departs from Quepos near the airport so it's really close by.

Were staying at La Posada Jungle in February with two families. Are the rooms small or the hotel area? Did you book any of your tours through the hotel? Can you walk to the beach from the hotel?

Thanks

Hi jamaus, the rooms are pretty big at la Posada, ours had 2 double beds and a desk, big fridge, comfortable en suite bathroom. Outside is a sitting area with table, rocking chairs and hammocks. It's just that the bungalows are really close to each other and to the pool and to the main house. in fact the whole property is kind of concentrated. When you see it from the street it doesn't look that great but once inside it's really very nice. You can walk to the beach in 4 minutes and to the park entrance in 10 so it's really convenient. Also being right up against the park all sorts of animals come into the grounds. The owner is really really friendly and hospitable. It's not as luxurious as some of the other hotels we saw in MA but I would much prefer staying there than in one of the ones up the hill. You can just go in and out of the beaches in the park and pop back to the hotel when you want. Have fun!

Thanks for all the information about the hotel.
Were looking forward to our trip.

Elisa, glad you enjoye your selves. I'll be @ corcovado in Feb. I've been reading on this forum about the monkey die off. Did you hear anything about that while you were there or see any adverse effects? Eugene

About animals dying in Corcovado. Yes it's true the park was closed for most of december but had just re-opened when we went. it's a bit of a mystery. No one confirms the number of dead animals. The "official" reason is that there was so much rain that the flowers fell off the trees and there was little food available so fruit eating birds and mammals died of starvation. Our park guide didn't believe this theory. He said that several loads of drugs had been dumped in the sea and washed ashore in the park following US police controls in the area. This was why the park had to be closed.......In either case the local papers and TV weren't giving much coverage to the issue probably not to alarm tourists. Anyway we saw lots of monkeys and birds and certainly didn't notice anything amiss so don't worry and have fun but do investigate when you're there and let us know if there's anything new.