Where to Spend 10 Days in June/July! Central v. South America
 

Hi there! Hoping someone can help out and give me their opinions/advice on where to head for a 10 day trip this summer. My boyfriend and I are currently stuck between Belize, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru. We've been to Costa Rica before but only during the dry season and have heard amazing things about the green season. The other three we haven't been to but I've also heard really great things about each. I also (as of yet) haven't looked too much into the weather at any of them, although they seem to be mostly okay with maybe a little rain in the afternoons/evenings, which is perfectly alright by us. Looking to combine mostly adventure/jungle time with a little bit of the beach! If anyone has any insights on any of the above, I'd love to hear it and am also open to any other options or ideas you may have! Thanks in advance!

@sholak786 thanks for the tip! I'd never heard of that site before it but it seems pretty cool/useful

We love both Belize and Costa Rica. Costa Rica is great for adventure activities - check out the La Fortuna/Arenal area. For beach, we like Manuel Antonio. CR beats Belize for wildlife. Belize has fantastic snorkeling and ruins. We loved Ambergris - close to Hol Chan. A lot of places in Belize have sea grass in the water though. Have also stayed at a couple of jungle lodges we really enjoyed. We almost always travel during green season - sometimes the rates at hotels are better.

@volcanogirl I think we've decided to head back to Costa Rica as of now! Realized that in South America proper its wintertime so not the best time to visit. Neither one of us are too huge on water activities and Costa Rica seemed to be the better option at leas price wise right now. Definitely planning on heading to Belize at some point in the near future though! Really excited about going during the green season when everything's all lush and verdant. We're probably going to end up flying into Liberia, but we're conflicted on whether to go over to Arenal and then head east to Tortuguero, or whether to head down to the Osa Peninsula instead? Any recommendations either way?

The Osa is amazing. I really like Tortuguero, but you would be a little bit early for turtle season. If the choice is between Osa and Tortuguero, I would pick the Osa - the best wildlife we've ever seen. Are you definitely going to Arenal? That's one of our favorite areas - tons to do there.

I've heard the wildlife is incredible in the Osa and unfortunately we didn't get too see too much the last time we were in CR so leaning towards there! I'm not sure if we'd head to Arenal if we end up doing Osa but I'm very conflicted. When we went to CR last March we went to Arenal and I loved it but we didn't get to do a lot of activities I wanted to do (zip line, hanging bridges, river float) but I'm wondering if it would be too much to try to fit Arenal and Osa in one trip and if we should just stay over by Rincon de la Vieja since we're flying into Liberia. Thoughts?

Do you already have your flights booked? It would be better to fly into San Jose if you can. You can fly from SJO down to the Osa in about an hour on Sansa or Nature Air. I would try to do both places if you can. It would be a nice mix of adventure and wildlife.

We haven't booked yet luckily so might be shifting plans to fly into San Jose instead. The prices seem pretty comparable either way so it wouldn't make too much of a difference. Tentative plan right now is to fly in, make our way up to Arenal for 3 or 4 nights (depending on flight times) then head over to the Osa Peninsula for about 5 nights! I've seen your recommendations for AOL and BDC on other trip reports and am hoping to hit both of those. Sorry to ask so many questions (hopefully these will be the last ones!) but which tour companies/guides do you recommend for the Arenal area?

I'm happy to help - no problem. We really like Desafio; Sunset Tours is also good. For rafting, Rios Tropicales. For ziplining, Sky Trek. For natural hot springs Tabacon. Also good hiking at the waterfall and the Hanging Bridges. We really like the Cano Negro tour for seeing wildlife - it's a boat ride.

Thank you so much for all your help/recommendations! I'll be sure to post a trip report when I get back with everything we end up doing!

Great - looking forward to reading it!