My father-in-law, wife, and I will be heading to Costa Rica in February 2009. This will be my father-in-law's first trip to CR, and our second one.

We have all of our lodging booked as well as our flights, so it's a matter of ironing out activity plans.

Phase I: Sarapiqui

Friday, 2/6: Arrive at SJO, drive up to Selva Verde lodge.

Saturday, 2/7: Morning hike (Selva Verde or La Selva), afternoon boat tour

Sunday, 2/8: Morning hike (Selva Verde or La Selva), afternoon whitewater rafting

Monday, 2/9: Early morning birdwatching hike, visit Helliconia Island, night hike at Tirimbina.

I guess my big question is whether it's worth it to do one morning tour at Selva Verde and another at La Selva, or just spend two mornings at La Selva.

Phase II: Manuel Antonio

Tuesday, 2/10: another early morning birdwatching tour at Selva Verde, followed up by the drive to Manuel Antonio. Settle into rooms at La Posada.

Wednesday, 2/11: Morning tour of Manuel Antonio park (tour guide booked), afternoon open (beach!)

Thursday, 2/12: Damas estuary tour (guide booked), night hike at Fincas Naturales,

Phase III: Tarcoles/Carara

Friday, 2/13: Drive to Villa Lapas, canopy tour there (father-in-law REALLY wants to do a canopy tour in CR), Tarcoles Crocodile river safari/tour

Phase IV: Arenal

Saturday, 2/14: A.M. tour of Carara (guide booked), drive to Arenal and check into Arenal Observatory Lodge, Eco Termales evening session (reserved)

Sunday, 2/15: exploration of Arenal Nat'l Park, hiking, pool, suffering through dinner at AOL

Monday, 2/16: morning tour of Hanging Bridges, afternoon at Proyecto Assis (to be arranged by Desafio)

My wife and I spent two nights in Arenal last February, doing a day trip to Cano Negro. We didn't get a chance to do much hiking in the park. We were trying to figure out what to do with our last afternoon there--the Penas Blancas float looks kind of boring (especially after having done rafting and three other boat tours already) and Proyecto Assis looks like it would be unique and rewarding.


I guess, to boil it down, the questions are:

1) Where should we do our first two morning hikes in the Sarapiqui area?

2) Is Proyecto Assis really worth it? As an alternative, we could spend the first part of the Villa Lapas day at the beach in Manuel Antonio and do a canopy tour in Arenal. Not sure which would be better.

Many thanks for the suggestions/feedback. For background as far as what we saw on our prior trips, you can see the review I posted (two parts):


http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...creen_name=RAC

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...creen_name=RAC

RAC, I answered you over at TA and will finish here I would do the La Selva half day and also the tour around SV with a guide. The latter isn't that long, maybe 2.5 hours? The plus with the guide, is that obviously you have a guide, but you also get to go into a gated off area with trails. Once you cross the suspension bridge you will reach a gate that you cannot go thru w/out a guide, so the guide will give you access as well. The am birding walks weren't very long, maybe 30-45 or so.

The La Selva tour was great as well. Different atmosphere, lot of time goes into research there and our guide was quite serious. I'm not a birder but was amazed at the sheer amount of birds there, and got to see peccaries and howlers, among other things.

My secret life is exposed!

Thanks, that was our original plan.

La Selva is the reason we decided to come to that part of the country at the first place. But then we saw what SV was like and heard about LS's food (reminded me of reviews of the food at Arenal Observatory Lodge).

I would do the Sky Trek zip line at Arenal, we stayed at Villa Lapas and watched people doing the zip line there, which was really tame in comparison to the Sky Trek in Arenal. The Villa Lapas zip line is not very high and doesn't seem to go very fast.

No, the zips at Villa Lapas are pretty tame. Bit of a $$ waste, my opinion, unless you can do the GOOD ones! LOL

Regarding La Selva, we toured there one morning (general tour, general information). Before we left, I made arrangements to return the next a.m. (alone, 6:00) for a one on one birding tour with the same guide. La Selva is a terrific place to list LOTS of species. That is when I began my life list. I bought the little green book there and have been listing in it ever since. All CR birds are in it, and La Selva birds are highlighted. These little books are available at all birding areas with the birds of that area highlighted. I must have listed about 50 birds that morning.

All that to say I think you should BIRD in La Selva. Do Selva Verde tour as well if you'd like, certainly nothing wrong with that.

Last summer, while at Villas Lapas, we had a negative experience with a birding tour we took on the Rio Tarcoles. It wasn't the crocodile tour, we'd already seen plenty of those. It was specifically for birding. The young guide showed us all the regular stuff (things we'd already seen more than once other places), and when I had (two or 3 times) the opportunity to list a bird that would have been NEW to me, he wouldn't stop and help identify it. . probably didn't know for sure, but I had to forego listing several because I was unable to get a good enough visual. I tried to explain that I needed him to stop and let me look more carefully, but he didn't seem to get it. He was more interested in checking his cell phone messages.
And it was just DH and I on the tour.

I HOPE you have a better experience. That said, on the birding tour, we did see some HUGE crocs, right there in the water next to the boat. Huge.

Thanks everyone. This is the kind of information I hope to get here!

Tempting to do the early morning birding at Selva Verde though--it's free!

Is there much wildlife or bird sighting at the half-day guided walk at La Selva?

Tons of birds at La Selva! I'm not a birder mind you but even I was like, geez there are a lot of dang birds here! On our tour we saw a troop of howlers, a couple peccaries, a tortoise, a couple agoutis etc.

Some 350 or so species of birds in the La Selva area, I think. The guided tour (not the tour specifically for birding) is extremely informative about everything to do with La Selva.

I'd do the freebie too!

Hi Tully. . .I can tell you just loved those birds. You've been brainwashed by your felines!