Rincon de la vieja, hermosa, nosara
 

Hello. We are in the process of planning a 2 week trip with our 4 and 6 year old. We are flying into Liberia and then are thinking about going to Hermosa for a few days, then Rincon de la vieja and Nosara. We are also thinking about Arenal but are trying to limit our amount of time in a car.

We have been to Costa Rica several times without the children. We are looking for places that aren't too touristy--different than they would experience in the U.S.-but still fun for the kids.

I would love to hear other peoples experiences in these places. We are thinking about staying in villas las suenas (oasis condos), Playa Taype in Nosara and we aren't sure about Rincon de la Vieja.

I would love to hear from people who have been to these places, where they have stayed, recommendations, etc.

Thanks for everyones help.

We love Hermosa and use it as a place to get back in touch with civilization between trekking and biking. In a lot of ways it's the ideal Costa Rican beach (as long as you're not a surfer). We always stay at Hotel el Velero, www.costaricahotel.net(a splurge for us) but I'm not sure that they have anything bigger than two queens. Villa del Sueno is up on the hill but El Velero fronts on the beach and you could keep an eye on the kids from poolside.
The beach is perfect for kids, fun sized waves and you can rent sit atop kayaks from aquasport. There are about a dozen good dining options.
Rincón de la Vieja is another excellent choice to avoid the crowds.
We loved Nosara too, but unless the kids really love the beach, they might start losing interest by the end of two weeks.

I've stayed at Villa Taype a few times and can say that the pool is great and will be perfect for your kids as the steps getting into the pool are wide and shallow. The beach there is also nice, and low tide affords lot's of little tide pools to explore and sit in, but have to agree that after 3 days or so the kids may get bored because there is not much else to do for kids that age. The main draw in the area is surfing. Long story short, if they love the pool and beach, you'll be fine.

Have to agree with the prior posters here, Nosara may be just too quiet for the kids for an extended stay - consider Samara instead, it is actually a nice small town and the kids would probably enjoy wondering around town and watching local kids play soccer on the field. The beach in Samara is safe for kids. It is also a bit easier to get to since the road is paved all the way to the town. Another thing to keep in mind about Nosara: the beach is very open with no shade trees and I didn't see any place that would rent umbrellas. It was a definite problem for us and I would assume for you as well with the little ones.

Thank you costaricaguide,Ally and Iza for your very informative responses.

My husband and I went to Samara last year without the kids and loved it. We were thinking about going back but we can't find anywhere big enough to stay with the kids. We were looking at Villas Playas Samaras but they haven't responded to any e-mails and I'm not sure how far they are to town.

How does the "town" in Nosara and Hermosa compare to Samara? Is there anything in walking distance to Villas Taypes? Anyone have suggestions on places to stay in Samara?

Thanks for all of your suggestions. It really helps with planning our trip.

Nosara is very spread out with lots of confusing little roads. The town center (which is much smaller than Samara) is a good distance away from where most hotels and restaurants are. I am not sure about the exact location of Villa Taype but we stayed at Casa Romantica and were able to walk to the beach but had to drive everywhere else. Since the whole town is so spread out, I am assuming you would have to drive everywhere too.

When planning our vacation, were considering staying in Samara and then decided on Nosara and regretted it - our 9 year old daughter was bored there. In Samara we were considering staying at Las Brisas del Pacifico.

Let me know if you are interested in our trip report from last summer (Malpais/Nosara/Tamarindo/Arenal).

My wife and I stayed in Playa Samara this past February at Las Brisas. We stayed in the main hotel building, which is up on a small hill overlooking the ocean. They also have bungalows at the beach level which should easily accomodate your family. The Villas Playa Samara is a much larger complex, and your kids would probably have other kids to play with.It is about 1.5 miles from the town. The easiest way to get into town is to walk along the beach rather than along the road.

rbrazill, what did you think of Las Brisas? Is it very basic? I was also interested in Guanamar Hotel which is on Playa Carillo. Have you had a chance to see it?

This summer we are off to Europe but will definitely visit Costa Rica again and Samara is high on our list.

Walking distance from Villa Taype: Casa Tucan directly across the little 'road' has a good restaurant and bar. They show movies on a huge screen on Tuesday nights. (At least it was Tuesday when I was last there). Harbor Reef Hotel has a good restaurant and lot's of monkeys to see. Cafe Paris is very good and has TV and a pool table. Marlin Bills is just across the street and is one of the better restaurants in town with good steaks and seafood and a decent wine collection. There are probably more places within walking distance, but those are the closest. To get to town for the great Tico Restaurants, you'd need a car.

My husband and I stayed at Las Brisas last year in the bungalows. They were very small with a very comfortable double bed and a single bed. We liked staying there. There were mostly Europeans when we were there. It was pretty quiet and the upper level pool which is on the web site was closed and had no water in it.

RBrazil, How were the rooms in the hotel building? When we were there in Feb 03 it was really quiet up there. We weren't sure if anyone was staying there!

We thought about Villas Playas Samara but I can't get any positive feedback on it. It sounds like it could be a good choice for us.

Thanks again for everyone's help!

Iza,
thanks for your info. I would love to read your trip report from last summer. My e-mail is
[email protected].

We stayed at Las Brisas del Pacifico in Samara the weekend before this past one. We stayed on the top floor of the tower unit. We had a great view and the room was huge with a nice bath. The rooms are furnished spartanly. In fact, a convent might have more elaborate furniture. By the way, we made no advance reservations. Just called the morning of our stay. Most of their clientele seems to be European and the owner/manager? speaks German.

We had no air conditioner but did not need it at night with the windows open except for one problem. The folks next door did have an air conditioner and left it running all night. We could still hear the surf breaking but there was this constant humming next door.

There's a nice pool up at the top which lets you cool off after the long climb up to your room. After the second day, we were driving up and down to use the beach because the climb in the heat was very taxing.

The beach is nice at Samara and the hotel has a number of lounges under the palms and also hammocks near the pool. Very relaxing.

We walked the beach in both directions and did not see any other resort that looked as nice as Las Brisas. We also went up to Nosara for the day and did not find anything as nice right on the beach. We never saw the Villas Playa Samara. I guess we didn't walk far enough up the beach.

We had nice breakfasts in the morning at their restaurant which were included in the room rate. But, we did not dine there. The staff keeps the music pumped up with a lively latin beat and we found this not to our taste during dinner. We did not see many others dining there either. In fact, the whole town of Samara seemed very quiet even though we were there on the weekend.

We drove by the Guanamar Hotel on our way to Montezuma. It did not seem to be right on the beach but they have their own small beach down the hill. It seemed very quiet there. We did not stop and go in.

We also drove by the Hotel Punta Islita. This looks like one of the nicest places in Costa Rica. We will definitely consider coming back to stay there for a week. It's really isolated and looks very relaxing.

My apologies to rjd24 and Iza for not responding sooner. I somehow lost track of this thread. I think Otis_B_Driftwood answered both of your questions quite well. We stayed on the second floor of the main building. It was viturally full at the time we were there (President's Week.) The rooms were large but fairly empty. There was a nice balcony with a fabulous view of the ocean. There is also a separate pool up there which was unused the whole time we were there. All of this for about $88 a night with breakfast.
We went to Playa Carillo which was beautiful. We got there at about 10:00 and were the only people on the mile-long beach for at least an hour. We never saw more than 25 people the whole day. We did not go inside the Hotel Guanamar, but saw it from the outside. It's on a hill across the road from the beach. I'm sure the view would be nice, but we liked the fact that Las Brisas was right on the beach (as is Villa Playa Samara.) Playa Carillo has a beautiful beach and not much else. We had a decent dinner at Restaurante Mirador, but there was not much else there.

Thanks for replies regarding Samara hotels. Playa Carillo is beautiful - we landed on the airstrip there during our first trip to Costa Rica (someone was being dropped off on the way from SJ to Tamarindo) and loved the look of it. Since then I have been thinking about returning there.

rjd24, here is a link to my trip report. If it doesn't work, let me know and I will e-mail it to you.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...nosara+malpais