cb24

Hi all -

My husband and I (mid 30's) will be traveling to Costa Rica May 2-9. I have been before (Arenal & Montezuma) but he has not. We will be there for 7 nights and plan to rent a car. I'm trying to decide the best use of our time and/or two places we should hit. We like a solid mix of adventure and beach. For beach in particular, a non-rocky beach/water (I can't recall if this is an issue anywhere in CR or not?).

I'm thinking it will best to either do a mix of Arenal/MA or, stick solely to south of the airport... I've mostly been reading about MA/Uvita/Osa Peninsula. Outside of the volcano, does the southern area offer similar options as far as hiking, rafting, nature, etc? I also read a post from someone that mentioned good cloud forests between MA and San Jose? Further, I know its the beginning of green/rainy season so wondering if any of the areas we are considering should be ruled out as a result.

Lastly, we had a recommendation to stay at the Villa Callerta in Jaco... worth making a trip through there for the lodging or not?

Any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated! Again I have been to Arenal so I know how great it is - and its just a question of if my husband would be missing out if I didn't go back there with him.

Thanks!
Christi

uhoh_busted

We are going to be in San Jose for dental work next month, will then pick up a car and head for some vacation time in Arenal and Playa Samara, then head back to SJ for a quick follow-up appt and return home.

It looks to me like Playa Samara is going to be gorgeous, for what we want. Check out videos on vimeo and you tube for beach areas you are interested in visiting. It helped us make up our minds

volcanogirl

Arenal and MA is a great combo for a trip. MA has a beautiful beach inside the park, tons of wildlife, lots of good restaurants and hotel choices, and good adventure activities. Tulemar Bungalows is our favorite - they have their own beach. We love Arenal too and have been there several times. The Osa is fantastic for hiking and wildlife, but more off the grid than places like MA so not as many things in the way of adventure activities. We ate lunch at Villas Calletas, and it had beautiful views; Jaco has a reputation for being a party spot, so we haven't stayed there. If I were looking for cloud forest, personally I'd head to Monteverde.

volcanogirl

Regarding May, I wouldn't rule any areas out - rainy season intensifies so I would worry more about September/October. We've traveled in April and July and got rain, but nothing that really stopped our plans. Plus the rain helps to cool things off and makes things pretty and green. And you can get better deals during green season.

cb24

Thanks to you both! While Playa Samara looks lovely, I don't think we will be making the trek to the nicoya peninsula this trip.

Volcanogirl - Fantastic hiking and wildlife & off the grid in Osa sounds wonderful... is there a specific area there you would recommend? I checked out Tulemar and that also sounds amazing. I am definitely leaning towards a few stops in the southern pacific for this trip.

thanks!

cb24

Me again... is this too aggressive of a plan? If so, which would you cut?? I don't know if we can afford both Tulemar and BdC the whole time. If its not too aggressive - which is the location we should spend 3 nights vs 2?

Arrive around 12:30p on May 2nd

Drive to Uvita (airbnb rental) - 2 nights
Drive to Osa (BdC) - 3 nights
Drive to MA (Tulemar) - 2 nights

Drive to airport morning of May 9th for 1:30p flight.

volcanogirl

Yes, we stayed at Bosque del Cabo and thought it was fantastic. They have great trails, wonderful guides, and the wildlife is amazing. We saw all 4 kinds of monkeys from the front porch of our cabin, also saw scarlet macaws fly by every day, sloths, agoutis, coatis, toucans, and even an anteater. It's a neat spot perched high above the water with pretty views. You can fly to Puerto Jimenez from SJO in about an hour.

volcanogirl

cb, I would probably pick either Uvita or MA if it were me, otherwise you're doing too much moving around I think.

cb24

Thanks! I'm thinking the same thing about choosing between Uvita and MA. Do you know what airlines fly between the two airports? Also, do you know if there are good car rental companies that you can do a pickup in SJO and dropoff in Osa or near the BdC?

Appreciate all your help!

volcanogirl

Check Sansa and Nature Air; those are the two in-country airlines. We don't usually rent a car - personally I would not want to drive to the Osa, but most U.S. car rental agencies are in CR, and Tri-color is also popular. We've used Alamo in the past without problems. You can check with them about pickup and dropoff. Not sure if it's still the same, but when we went to Puerto Jimenez there wasn't much in the way of an airport. We landed on a gravelly dirt road by the cemetery, and kids were riding their bikes on the "runway" - no building to speak of. I got a kick out of that.

cb24

I read that Solid has a good car rental in PJ. You have me a bit nervous about the airport! I take it the planes are pretty small??

We're leaning towards 4 nights in Uvita and 3 nights at BdC. Flying back to San Jose on the last day and leaving the car. In the green season it looks like Solid does free different location dropoffs w/ a week rental.

Thanks again!

volcanogirl

Yep, they're small. When we've gone there isn't much in the way of security, they come out with a clipboard and call out your name, and if everyone is there you take off. They are strict about luggage weight though. Should be info. on weight and dimensions on their websites. We've always felt very safe despite being in tiny planes. We just did a tiny plane in Belize, and a girl on our plane was interested in flying, so the captain told her to come up and sit next to him in the co-pilot seat!