EmilyE

(I filed this report in the wrong place so will send it again.) Here's a LONG report of a 2 ½ week trip my 13-year-old daughter and I took to Costa Rica in February this year: As on our first trip to Costa Rica, we spent the first two nights at Xandari Plantation Inn in Alajuela, only about 20 min. north of the international airport. (We live in France, so need that second night to help us get over jet lag before starting to travel around Costa Rica.) We love the rooms at Xandari, which are huge, beautifully decorated and with great views of the city at night. We also like the restaurant, also with a spectacular view of the city, the lap pools surrounded by beautiful gardens, and the great gift shop, where we bought some of the nicest souvenirs of our trip. Since we arrived after 10pm (the Xandari driver was waiting when we got off the plane) the staff left fresh fruit and cookies in the room for us; they had also offered us the chance to order something from the restaurant menu in advance. After two days at Xandari, we were picked up by a driver and private guide from Costa Rica Expeditions (the excellent company we traveled with for part of our first trip to Costa Rica) and were driven to Moin on the Caribbean coast for our trip to Tortuguero by boat. The trip to Tortuguero took most of the day because the shorter route from San Jose to Moin was closed, but we enjoyed the long, bumpy drive through coffee plantations and banana fields. The boat to Tortuguero was a small open boat but with a roof over us, a good thing since we would have otherwise been baked by sun and drenched by rain. We saw lots of wildlife from the boat, including crocodiles and lots of birds. Stopped part-way to Tortuguero for a good picnic lunch in a little covered eating area next to a local family’s house right on the river. Tortuga Lodge: it’s a lovely place, dominated by the river right in front of the hotel, and you can hear the crashing surf though you can’t see it (can’t swim in the sea around here). The rooms, in several separate buildings with about 8 rooms per building, are comfortable, certainly not luxurious but comfortable, with porches in front where you can sit in one of those typical rocking chairs and watch the water go by. The rooms are screened and have good cross ventilation (no air-conditioning, which we didn’t miss). The only drawback with our room, which was on the ground floor in the last building on the way to the boat storage place, is that staff people walked back and forth in front of it a lot at night and, since the curtains were transparent, we felt on display then. If I go there again I’ll ask for an upstairs room, preferably #s 1-4 in a building that seems more private than the others. The garden around the lodge is lovely and we saw more birds and monkeys there than in Tortuguero park, which we toured later with our guide. Favorite things there: the chlorine-free pool, right on the canal, with a covered area with hammocks next to it; lunch at Miss Junie’s restaurant in Tortuguero village for the local specialties like fish in coconut milk; walking around the village watching kids play soccer; and a kayak trip on the canals (a boat took us to the head of a canal and we kayaked back down the canal with the current; saw lots of animals and it was lovely to be on the water). Food was good at the lodge as well and everyone enjoyed drinks on the terrace before dinner. Then, however, came the big glitch of our trip when the staff at the lodge told us the wrong time for our flight back to San Jose and we missed the plane. Luckily, someone had heard the staff tell us the flight time so Costa Rica Expeditions knew this hadn’t been our fault. Because we had to take a later flight, we didn’t get to take our scheduled whitewater rafting trip on the Pacuare that same day, a huge disappointment. Costa Rica Expeditions instead offered us a guided trip to the La Paz waterfall gardens, which was pleasant (esp because of our great guide, Luis Torres) but not something we would have chosen otherwise. Later the company offered us a refund for the Pacuare trip. We spent the night at the Grano de Oro hotel in San Jose, which has a good restaurant though it was a bit formal for us in our zip-off pants and dingy hiking boots (great desserts at this restaurant). Our ground floor room was fine, though with windows opening onto a little courtyard through which people had to pass to get to their own rooms. We had this same setup in another San Jose hotel so I assume it’s typical. There was no noise at night, though. The staff here was super friendly and helpful. The next day their driver took us to Tobias Bolanos airport for our Nature Air flight to Drake Bay. We were actually 16 lbs over the 50-pound limit (for two people) for this flight (mainly because of all the books my daughter had brought and all the medicines I had brought in my paranoia; never used any of them of course), and we had to pay about $8 overweight charge. I had thought they’d make us leave something behind so it was a relief to only have to pay the overweight charge. They probably let us go on since my daughter weighs so little (she’s a skinny 13 year old) and I’m not very heavy either, and since they weigh your bodies along with your bags, we got a break. We found Nature Air very professional and the pilots (two of them, a relief since once in Costa Rica we were in a plane with just one pilot) were great. Lovely flight to Drake Bay with a stop in Palmar Sur on the way. At Drake Bay we piled into a jeep taxi that took us down a bumpy road, over a few streams and to a beach where we waded into the water to catch the boat for La Paloma Lodge. This was our second visit there (Xandari and La Paloma were the only lodges we had already stayed in that we visited again on this trip) so we were ready for this and had worn shorts and Tevas. On to La Paloma, which we love. We have seen other lodges in the area and think La Paloma has by far the best location, high on a bluff overlooking the sea. Like the last time, La Paloma’s very friendly manager, Nicole, was waiting for us with juice and a continental breakfast, and then we went to our cabin, #5. This is a deluxe rancho, one of their older cabins, all hardwood, with a view of the sea and of jungle all around. It has a double bed and single bed upstairs and a double bed, bathroom and covered deck downstairs. It’s all open but we had no problem with bugs except when we tried to read in bed at night, when we used the mosquito nets. It was very cool thanks to a ceiling fan. (Deluxe rancho #3 and the more expensive sunset ranchos are supposed to have better sea views but we love #5.) At La Paloma we went kayaking on the river near the lodge, a fun trip upriver to a spot where you can beach the kayaks and swim. We also went on the organized snorkeling trip to Cano Island offshore. The snorkeling isn’t fantastic (rather cloudy water and a lot of annoying little jellyfish that stung us from time to time) but we still had a great time because we saw sea turtles and giant rays in the water, dolphins from the boat, and had a nice picnic on the beach. Like last time, we didn’t take the guided trip to Corcovado National Park, since we decided to just hang out in our lovely cabin, go to the beach or kayak, but other people who went on this trip had a great time. You get two guided trips at La Paloma on a 3-day package; the kayaks don’t count because they’re free. Saw monkeys and scarlet macaws on the grounds and at the lovely swimming beach below the lodge (easy 10 minute walk) where we spent a lot of time boogie-boarding. After 4 days we took a jeep-taxi to Puerto Jimenez, a two-hour trip through forest and a few little villages, over several streams. It was great to see more of the countryside. In Puerto Jimenez, we had arranged in advance for a driver to meet us at the Osa Tropical office (local tourism center, very efficient) and take us out to the house we had rented for 3 days on Matapalo beach. Since it was Sunday and the supermarket was closing early, we had also arranged for groceries to be ready for us (I had faxed a list to Osa Tropical in advance). The driver then took us to our wonderful house, Casa Verde, at the very end of the road to Playa Matapalo on Cabo Matapalo (below Lapa Rios and Bosque del Cabo). It was a long (45 minute) bumpy drive from Puerto Jimenez, but worth it. We loved the house, all open (built on pillars) with a big living area and kitchen overlooking the beach, small bedroom with beach view (double bed) and smaller bedroom with two bunk beds, the lower of which wouldn’t have been comfortable because it didn’t have much ventilation. This house was the perfect size for us, but I think it wouldn’t suit more than a couple with one child. Larger houses in the area are for rent through the Casa Bambu web site; their houses are closer to the swimming beach, too. We had asked the caretaker, Leticia, to cook for us 2 nights and she prepared great local specialties (tamales, empanadas, chicken with garlic sauce) with the stuff we’d brought. The horseback riding group from Bosque del Cabo passed in front of the house while we were there, and there’s a big waterfall you can reach from Bosque that’s a short hike behind the house. You can’t swim on the beach here (too rough) so you walk 20 minutes back along the road to Pan Dulce, the swimming beach that Bosque del Cabo and Lapa Rios both use. We saw lots of monkeys and birds from the house and along the road. This is a VERY isolated place, and even if you had a car it would still take 45 minutes to do any grocery shopping. Taxi service to Puerto Jimenez cost $40 round trip, so this isn’t a trip you’d want to make often. It’s possible to catch the “collectivo” group taxi that runs along the road from Carate to Puerto Jimenez, but I think there are only 2 per day. You can also hike to the main road and try to flag down a taxi, but since we were there for only 3 days we didn’t bother. While there we did take a return trip to Las Orquideas flower and fruit farm on the Golfo Dulce (driver from Osa Tropical came out to our house at 6:45 am to pick us up). Las Orquideas sent their boat and we crossed the gulf (lovely trip, lots of dolphins) to Les Orquideas, which was homesteaded 25 years ago by an American couple, Trudy and Ron. Took their excellent tasting tour (one of the highlights of our trips to Costa Rica for my daughter) in which you get to taste all kinds of fruit and herbs grown on the property. After 3 nights at Casa Verde the driver from Bosque del Cabo picked us up for our short (20 minute) drive to Bosque. Bosque’s gardens are gorgeous as is the spectacular new dining area with thatched roof , gift shop and a nice upstairs reading area. Our cabin wasn’t ready so we hiked on the Pacific Trail (VERY steep and hot coming back but lovely) and then had a great lunch. Then, on to our cabin, El Sol, which we really liked (thank you, Fodorites who recommended this one). I wanted a cabin with two beds so chose El Sol, a standard cabin, instead of a deluxe cabin since the deluxe ones seem to have one king-sized bed each, but later we met a family who’d chosen a deluxe cabin with a rollaway bed for their daughter, so this would be an option. El Sol was fine with us. It seemed more private than the other standard cabins and had a great view of the sea as well as of surrounding trees, where we saw more monkeys than at any other place we have been in Costa Rica, just from our porch. As for our favorite things to do at Bosque, we loved swimming in the jungle pool off the creek trail, surfing (my daughter and I took surfing lessons and both managed to get up on the board the first day, and she loved it so much she went back for two more lessons), the guided night hike on which we saw frogs, bats and so many snakes that we started hiking in our hiking boots instead of our Tevas, and the mangrove-sunset kayaking trip in which we kayaked for about two hours through a mangrove swamp and on the beautiful Golfo Dulce, with a swim on a deserted beach in between (and a fruit and cookies snack on the beach). I also really liked the Pacific Trail although the tide was too high when we hiked it our first day and after that we missed the trail at low tide again because we went surfing then instead, so I never got to try the tide pools on the beach that you can only use at low tide, but I hiked down there just before low tide one morning and had the whole beach to myself and saw the tide pools; they looked fantastic. Other people staying at Bosque took a picnic lunch down to this beach and spent the day there (there’s also a waterfall) which I’ll certainly do if we go back there. The only cabins I wouldn’t want to stay in at Bosque are the garden cabins. They’re quite a trek from the restaurant and don’t have the great ocean views all the other cabins have. We hated to leave Bosque after only 4 nights. We met a lot of lovely people there and the staff were all friendly and efficient. Kevin, great guy, drove us to the airport in Puerto Jimenez and even hauled our bags to the plane for us. We took the Nature Air 9:40 flight back to San Jose in time for our 2pm flight to Houston. People warned me this was cutting things too close but we had plenty of time. It’s true Nature Air doesn’t have a covered waiting area at Puerto Jimenez and Sansa does, but the Nature Air flights we’ve taken have been great, with excellent pilots, and I’ve read that Nature Air’s safety record is better than Sansa’s. We had arranged for Costa Rica Expeditions to have a driver waiting for us at Tobias Bolanos airport to take us directly to the international airport, but in fact we could have just taken a taxi from the airport. We got to the international airport well before our flight to the US and had time to do our gift shopping at the airport (don’t miss “Babylon”, a CD by Water Ferguson, 80-something calypso guitarist from Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast; our guide had recommended this and we love it; had looked for it everywhere and finally found it in the airport gift shop). Our flight to Houston left a little late (the plane had to wait in line on the runway for quite a while before taking off) and then came the only major glitch of our trip. Continental had given us only one hour in Houston before our connecting flight to Paris, and, thanks to the current need to pick up and re-check your bags, which took forever, and our late flight, we missed our flight to Paris. Continental put us up in a Holiday Inn, which was OK but NOT what we had in mind for the end of our trip. We found out in the hotel that this happens every week to Continental passengers trying to make connections. There were about 20 people at the hotel who’d missed their Continental flights, and almost everyone on our flight from San Jose had to either take a later connecting flight or spend the night in Houston. I will never again let the airline give us a connection to make in only one hour at that airport. Other than that, it was another fabulous vacation in Costa Rica!

wanderin_traveler

Thank you for such a wonderful and detailed report! I really enjoyed reading it. We're heading down in Nov. Since this is our first trip we're doing the usual Arenal, MV, Osa, Alajuela. Well, I guess Osa isn't really the usual from what I've been reading. I'm really looking forward to it though. Sounds like you and your daughter had a great time. Are you looking to adopt? Because I'm available if you promise we'll take trips like that all the time. LOL!

shillmac

What a lovely report, Emily! I am so glad you and your daughter had a wonderful time together. How neat!

I'm glad you enjoyed El Sol--we did as well and also felt it offered a little extra in the way of privacy and view.

The CD you mentioned--I don't have it, but LOVE "Babylon". I've heard it played many times. You've made me determined to pick up a copy!

Did you know you can download 94.7 (one of my favorite stations with both American and musica Latina) out of San Jose on your computer? I think I did it by going to www.liveradio.com--it's been awhile--I should double check that before offering it up as solid information!

Anyway, too bad about the problem in Houston--we've flown through there often en route to San Jose. We had a similar problem last October in Miami!

Our oldest daughter just returned from Paris this past Sunday--it snowed much of the time she was there--perhaps you chose a good time to be in the tropics?

tully

Your report, which I enjoyed reading very much, got me thinking. I flew back from SJO to Tampa thru Houston & I realized I had no recollection whatsoever of either flight, customs, etc. Weird! I must've still been on vacation mentally. Here you are coming from France to CR and I'm tryng to decide between France or Germany or CR! The agony of decisions! Thanks again for your nice report.

EmilyE

Dear Shillmac, many thanks again for the recommendation of El Sol at Bosque del Cabo. It turned out to be the ideal monkey-watching spot as well as being lovely and private. As for our return to France, we came home to snow all over our farmhouse, quite a shock after the Osa! Tully, if you have questions about France, I'm happy to try to answer them. You'll of course have a totally different holiday here from the one you'd have in Costa Rica!

4explore

Emily,
Thanks for the informative report. I am going to Bosque del Cabo (cabin La Palma) in June with my 13yr son and 15 yr daughter. Really wanted to go on the boat trip to the Las Orquideas flower and fruit farm on the Golfo Dulce but worried about the expense if the kids wouldn't enjoy it as much as the adults! Your daughter loved it? Maybe I'll go for it after all, especially if we'll see dolfins.

EmilyE

Dear 4explore, my daughter loved Las Orquideas both times we went there, both two years ago (when she was 11) and this year. She loves new tastes and never met a fruit she didn't like, and Trudy is a great host, so this place is one of the highlights of our trips to Costa Rica. It would depend on the kid, though. While we were there this year there were some other kids who didn't want to taste anything and got bored. I think they just hung out on the beach during the tour. The trip over by boat is lovely and every time we've made that crossing, we've seen dolphins.

4explore

Thanks Emily - its decided! My kids are adventurous with all foods except for most fish (But I'm working on that, in prep for our trip!) We will love this tour I think.

EmilyE

4explore, I know you'll all have a wonderful time at Las Orquideas and at Bosque! Just be careful your kids don't get as hooked on surfing as my daughter did, because we missed out on some other activities because of this! (I have to say it was worth it, though. I'd never thought I could get up on a surf board.)