amyksnyder

Hi, my husband, my 8 year-old son and I just returned from a fantastic trip to the Guanacaste area of Costa Rica. It was made perfect by the expert assistance of our driver/guide Leo Rodriguez. He is a college educated, wonderful "tico" who possesses vast information about the country, the accomodations, beaches and food! He lives in San Jose, but will guide tours all over the country. He owns his own 15 person van and will rent a 4 wheel drive , if necessary. We flew into Liberia, spent a night there and continued on to The Harmony Hotel in Nosara. The hotel has a mellow-cool vibe and the beach was one of the best we saw. Leo also took us by a couple of his "favorite" beaches along the way which we would never have found on our own. After 3 nights in Nosara, we went to Hotel Captain Suizo in Tamarindo. The bungalows are comfortable and my son loved the pool. The food was good as was the service. Tamarindo is in the midst a building explosion, so it was a little noisy at times. Leo took us to his favorite seafood restaurant instead of eating at the hotel every night. Again, we would never have found it ourselves. One of our favorite lunches was at a place that serves as the couples house and restaurant. The mother cooks, the father waits tables and their sons catch the fish! What could be better? Without a big sign, we would have driven right past this cocina. Throughout the trip, Leo was constantly giving us interesting information and pointing out sights and animals. At the last minute, we decided to include Arenal in our trip. Leo recommended Kioro Arenal, which is a sophisticated, perfecty situated hotel at the base of the volcano. We noticed that the hotel is so new, it wasn't listed in Fodors, Frommers or Lonely Planet. Thank goodness Leo knew about this place. We will definitely return there! We stayed at the Four Seasons for the last part of the trip. As with any Four Seasons, the service and food were great. The place was sophisticated, but unlike Kioro, the folks were a little snobby. Leo took us on some great day trips throughout the vacation. He didn't waste our time and took us only on the best activities he could think of. We did a super - 9 line zip-line, inner tubed down a river, took a wildlife raft - floating trip, took volcanic mud baths and rode horses a couple of times. THe nighttime viewing of Arenal was spectacular too! Leo can be reached at [email protected]. I assure you he will make your trip as good as it can get!

Thanks.

Amy

Dyer

Amy, I understand how Leo Rodriguez made your trip so successful. He did ours two years ago, also. I will add Leo's telephone number also (from the U.S.A. you need to dial 011) and then 506-378-0001. He books very quickly thanks to the positive posts he receives on this site, www.tripadvisor.com and www.frommers.com We also stayed at the Hotel Capitan Suizo and the property was so beautiful. I liked the fact that it was an 8 minute walk from town to get away from the hustle and bustle, and it's swimming beach was so nice. I am sad to hear of the construction Tamarindo has been experiencing.

Pumpy

Amy, great trip report. Do mind sharing the names of the tour companies and/or more information on the river rafting, inner-tubing, mud baths & horse back riding. Did you do all of these in the Arenal area?

patams

Sounds like a wonderful trip. Leo has been our driver and guide both trips to Costa Rica. Year before last he took us to Arenal and to MA, last year to Playa Grande and this November he will take us to Dominical. We feel we just could not possibly find a more interesting, knowledgeable, or safe driver/guide than Leo. Maybe we should keep him all the time instead of renting SUV's during our time there. There will be 12 or 14 of us this trip so he is getting a larger van for us all. We just don't have space to brag on him enough.

amyksnyder

This is the link to the hacienda where we went inner tubing, rode horses, had a mud bath, learned about the local indians and walked to a waterfall. The hacienda also has a delicious lunch buffet. F.Y.I., the road to the hacienda is less than smooth. It definitley requires a 4WD. We did this as a day trip from the four seasons, but there were many prople who actually stayed at the hacienda.



http://www.liberiacostaricainfo.com/...uachipelin.htm

Dyer

patams, did you post on your Nov. Costa Rican trip? And, how is Leo? He sent us a Merry Christmas e-mail - that he keeps tracks after not seeing us for 2 1/2 years pleases me. He stated how important it was to be with his family on Christmas Day. I'd love to hear about your trip. Dyer