ekellyga

Arriving San Jose June 2 for 10 days. Debating whether to rent a car or use other methods between our stays. Probably Peace Lodge, Arenal, Monteverdge, then Manuel Antonio.
It's been suggested to rent a 4WD if we rent our own car. Anything else I need to know???
Thanks

spin

You will need 4WD if you are going to drive to Monteverde in June. The roads are horrible in the rainy season.

ekellyga

Give me a bit more info on how horrible, please.
Is June the worst of the rainy season??? Would it be better to skip Monteverde for this trip, in June???
Thanks

gannetmusic

I agree with spin - you definitely need 4WD to Monteverde - especially in the rainy season.

Plenty of others will disagree but I think Monteverde is the most over-hyped area in Costa Rica and we would not visit again in any season.

Unfortunately, most of my time in Costa Rica has been during or on the fringes of the dry season, so I'm a bit hesitant to suggest alternatives. What sorts of things are you interested in doing?

Jerry

shillmac

My concern is that you are planning too many locations for 10 days. I believe you'll enjoy yourself and the country more if you move at a more leisurely pace. 2 days at Peace Lodge--relax, look, walk, soak up the Pura Vida! Arenal--2-3 days, Manuel Antonio. You'll need to return to the airport area the night before your departure unless you have an afternoon flight. All the roads to the above mentioned places will be just fine. You could easily do them without a 4 wheel drive.

ekellyga

Interesting that you should recommend that, shillmac....as that thought was on my mind, for a few reasons.
One, just like you said, too busy....but one posting on this site said that he wasn't as keen on Monteverde as he thought....and since the drive from Arenal region to M V is long and hard.....I might decide to skip it.
However, when we travel....we get "antsy" kind of quickly, and like to move on and see what's over the next hill, so to speak, so "who knows"
Thanks.
Any more random info you can give us is welcome!

shillmac

ekellyga, I think you hit the nail on the head. So much is up to the individual traveler. Some people would be surprised (and not happy) with the fact that all those transfers require more "car time" than anticipated--translated into less beach time/hike time/sitting at the bar time/ etc! For others, the driving and traveling through the countryside at a sometimes slow pace is part of the fun and doesn't infringe one bit on other areas of the vacation. We are more the latter type. Within reason.

There are some wonderful alternatives to Monteverde should you decide not to go there. A couple of them come to mind to include in your itinerary:

Peace Lodge

Arenal

Savegre Lodge (south of San Jose of Cerro de la Muerte near San Gerardo de Dota--this is also cloud forest. Very cool, high altitude, quite beautiful with great hiking, birding, trout farms and fishing, horseback, falls, etc). Wonderful family run (the Chacon family) lodge. . .

Dominical/Manuel Antonio (From Savegre, you simply head further south about an hour to San Isidro de General, then cut to the west to Dominical (small beach/surfing mecca) and up to Manuel Antonio (about 1.5 hr. north of Dominical)

An alternative:

Peace Lodge
Arenal

La Finca Que Ama (nestled on a canyon about one hour south of the airport between Puriscal and San Pablo de Turrubares) is a luxury hotel in a very isolated setting with a wonderful young Israeli couple as your hosts. Fabulous amenities, stimulating conversation, excellent food! From here you are about 2 hours away from Manuel Antonio and very close to Turu-Bari Park, which has gotten great reviews since opening last year.

Both are good alternatives to Monteverde. If you want to hike the cloud forest with a great birding guide, stay at Savegre 2 nights and go out one day with Marino. You'll be hooked forever!

On the other plan, you could stay at La Finca 2 nights and let Turu-Bari be a day trip--or just one night as a stopover breaking up the long drive from Arenal to Manuel Antonio.

I'd recommend a 4 wheel drive if you go to Savegre Lodge. The last few miles off the highway and down to Savegre Lodge is rough as is the road from Dominical to Manuel Antonio. On the other hand, the road to La Finca is top notch!

Just a couple of thoughts to further confuse you! The options for finding places to enthrall you for a couple of days are simply endless. I can think of several others, but these are more within the loop of your travel plans.

And, of course, should you decide to go ahead and work Monteverde in, that would be a good choice for you as well. Very hard to go wrong!

RufusTFirefly

I'll disagree on Monteverde. It might be overhyped, but we enjoyed our stay there a lot. We weren't impressed with the Arenal area, EXCEPT for the volcano itself.

Different strokes for different folks.

And the roads to and in the Monteverde area are the worst I've ever seen.

ekellyga

So, as suggested in a previous posting, if we decide to delete the Monteverde portion of the trip, and just do Peace Lodge, Arenal, and Manuel Antonio......do you think we will need a 4wd vehicle. Sounds like the only really bad road would be the part to Monteverde.

Thanks

shillmac

You can certainly get by without a 4 wheel drive on the roads you have mentioned. Sometimes it is nice to have one, but not necessary except in certain areas as you know.