Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Samara or Montezuma

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Samara or Montezuma

We are planning our 2nd trip to Costa Rica for late Jan or early Feb and plan to visit Tortugero, Arenal and a beach town to get some relaxation and a few tours (horseback riding, a possible wildlife experience & easy hikes in the area). We visited Arenal, Monteverde & Manuel Antonio on our last visit. We didn't get to do as much as we wanted while in Arenal on our last visit so want to go back there. We are debating between the Azul Beach Resort (all adults) in Samara or Ylang Ylang in Montezuma. We are not interested in a party town so decided against Tamarindo. Which of these two towns would you recommend? Has anyone stayed at either of these places? Both get good reviews. Getting to Montezuma is a longer drive (we will hire a private driver) than Samara but that is not a big consideration for us.
Your valued feedback is appreciated.
Karen

You can't go wrong with either destination! Heading to Samara will involve much less travel time than heading to Montezuma and you'll find both areas are smaller and less lively than the more visited beachside towns of Manuel Antonio and Tamarindo. What we like about each area is that it's very easy to visit nearby beaches. In Samara you only need to travel 30 minutes or so to see Nosara and in Montezuma it's a short drive to vist the surf town of Santa Teresa.

costaricarios: Thank you for your response. We've decided on Samara for our final destination in CR.