MFNYC

Between advice from this board on our driver (WIlson Rojas), this is what we have so far:

Sat, 1/21 - arrive SJO. Wilson will pick us up to drive us to the Lost Iguana Resort. We'll stop for lunch along the way. Will arrive at hotel in the evening, settle in, and have dinner at hotel.

Sun, 1/22 - Morning trip to La Fortuna waterfalls (How much time to allow?). Lunch in town (La Fortuna). Then 5pm reservation at Eco-Termales including dinner. We will use taxis for this day, and from what I understand, it's best to arrange with taxi to pickup from Eco-Termales at 9. WIlson also recommended a nature hike at the private reserve between lunch and the springs. Is there enough time for this? Wilson recommends Geovany Bogarin as a guide.

Mon, 1/23 - Hanging bridges in the morning. How much time to allow for this? Lunch (any recs for a light lunch?) Relax at resort in the afternoon. Dinner in town. Need dinner recs as well. Some places Wilson recommended are: Nene´s - Don Rufino- Lava Rocks.

Tue, 1/24 - Eco-Glide in the morning with transportation included. Again, about how much time needed for this? Lunch - where? Relax back at hotel. DInner in town - where?

Wed, 1/25 - pack up and check out. Wilson will drive us to Tulemar in Manual Antontio, with a lunch stop along the way.

Thu, 1/26-1/29 - TBD. Probably tour of park (do we need to book in advance). Possible rafting trip (nothing too wild), any recs? Also looking into Damas Island Mangrove Tour (again recommended by Wilson). Any other suggestions welcome, also restaurants recs for all meals. Walking distance preferred, but would take taxi if necessary. Also, good cafe for breakfast near by?

Sun 1/30 - check out and off to Casa Bella Rita in Santa Ana with driver. Need restaurant recs in that area for dinner.

Mon 1/31 - to airport and home.

Thanks.

volcanogirl

We love the Lost Iguana - good choice. I'd allow a couple of hours to do the waterfall. You have to hike down and then hike back up, and you'll probably want to swim while you're there. Don Rufino is a good restaurant in town. We like the chicken dinner at Eco Termales too. I'd allow a couple of hours for the Hanging Bridges hike. We actually ended up having lunch there, and the food was pretty good. La Choza de Laurel is another good dinner spot; they're known for their rotisserie chicken, but we had casados there. I've heard Nene's has some good ceviche, but we haven't tried it yet. We did our zipline at Sky Trek; the actual zipping took about two hours, but to pick up and drop everyone back off takes some time depending on how many hotels they go to. Overall, it took us a little over three hours. Nayara has excellent food if you wanted to go there. They have a nice open air restaurant.

Restaurants we liked in Manuel Antonio include Cafe Agua Azul, Barba Roja, Salsipuedes, Cafe Milagro, and Ronny's Place/Mi Lugar. We loved the tour of the park and saw a lot of wildlife there. Bring your suit if you want to swim. A lot of the restaurants have nice sunset views.

SeeCR

MFNYC, a few thoughts.
The drive from LI Resort to LF waterfalls is 20-30 minutes. Hike down, 20 minutes. Steep hike up, more like 50. There are several private reserves. Some would be doable in that time slot. 2.5 hours for the Hanging Bridges, quite close to your hotel. When in La Fortuna, we go to Nene´s. We like their lomito dishes. My favorite, Lomito Jalapeño, but the jumbo shrimp have delighted us as well. Agree with volcanogirl about La Choza de Laurel, though we like it more for lunch. Looks touristy, but the food is excellent. Also in La Fortuna, consider a night hike. Colorful, interesting critters come out at dusk.
For rafting and kayaking near Manuel Antonio, amigosdelrio.net. Also agree about Cafe Milagro. Adrienne will take excellent care of you.
In and near Santa Ana, typical Tico cuisine with a panoramic view of the western central valley, Tiquicia. (You'll need a taxi.) Two delicious Italian places, Bacchus in town, and Da Marco, just west of Santa Ana. For excellent food in an historical setting, the restaurant in Hotel Grano de Oro in San José. There are several restaurants in the Centro Comercial Momentum, including very good thin-crust pizza at La Fabbrica, Spoon, a casual soup/salad/sandwich Costa Rican tradition and a gelato shop!

volcanogirl

We like Grano de Oro too - excellent food, and a good place to stay to be closer to the airport. SeeCR, where do you do a night hike in the Arenal area? I would love to do that.

The waterfall hike up didn't take us nearly that long though. I did it with a sprained ankle - not fun, but worth it.

55crlover

You are in good hands with Wilson. We love him!

MFNYC

Thanks!

Deb15July

Wilson is wonderful...we too used him for two legs of our trip and would not hesitate to use him again. He's very informative and will stop along the way if he sees birds or animals that might interest you. We also stopped for lunch on our way to Arenal and got Wilson to order for us since it was our first meal in CR and we wanted something traditional.

We enjoyed Don Ruffino, but did not go to the other places you mentioned. I'd read that Lava Rocks is a little cheesy. We had some really good pizza at Anch'io although it's a little pricey.

For your last night in Santa Ana, why don't you ask Rita and Steve to make you dinner at their place. It's a beautiful casa and that way you could just relax and enjoy hanging out before your return. You can let them choose a menu or ask for something. The price for our 3 course dinner was very reasonable.

SeeCR

Volcanogirl, I know of two places for night hikes. The one we have personally done is at Arenal Oasis Ecolodge. Starts at 5:30 or so. The other we've heard about but never done is at Eco-centro Danaus. You'll need reservations for both places.

MFNYC

So we decided to go with a Valmy horseback riding tour while in MA. We've never done anything like this before, but from what I read that shouldn't be a problem.

I have a question re: our 1/22 plans. If we don't make a specific plan for between lunch in town and our 5pm Eco-Termales reservation, is there enough to kill time with in town? Exactly what 'town' are we in? La Fortuna? The idea was to not have to taxi to and from the hotel more than we have to that day, so we'd just stay in town, in between the waterfalls and the springs and will take a cab to the springs from town, then back to the hotel after the springs. Also, how far is Eco-Termales from the town?

SeeCR

Right. You'll be in the town of La Fortuna. Eco-Termales is about 3 miles out. There are a few shops, both souvenir and other, to snoop around. In front of the Catholic church is a small but nice central park, with benches. On the north side of the park is a little ice cream shop for a mid-afternoon sweet snack.

mad

Ditto on Wilson being wonderful! He drove us to Tulemar last year and was great. We were a little sticker shocked by the cost of food at MA. Within walking distance to Tulemar there were two really great, but pricey restaurants- Kapi, Kapi and Agua Azul. I'd only go to Cafe Milagro for breakfast personally, as dinner seemed over priced there for what it was. There are other places within walking distance that are less expensive, but I don't know how the food is. Don't bother going into Quepos for food- not worth it.
You may want to ask Wilson to stop for groceries before you hit MA. We bought most of our breakfast food, which worked out well. We also ate on the beach at Tulemar a few times, which was nice. Had lunch there every day.
If you want to do something very special, you can hire a chef, Chris, to prepare food at your bungalow one night at Tulemar- it's worth every penny!

MFNYC

Thanks for the input. I actually was going to ask Wilson to stop for a food run on the way to Tulemar. We actually are in a studio unit with small refrigerator and microwave so no major cooking in our space.

volcanogirl

Thank you, See!

volcanogirl

La Fortuna is really small. It's basically one main road with some small shops and restaurants sprinkled along it, a small park, the church, one disco, etc. I would have a hard time filling several hours there. Have you thought about going to the waterfall later?

MFNYC

We are arranging to have a home cooked meal at Casa Bella Rita. Any dishes of theirs recommended? They seem pretty flexible.

MFNYC

Ok, based on your feedback, it looks like I will take Wilson's advice and arrange for a nature reserve tour in between the LF waterfalls/lunch and 5pm Eco-Termales/dinner. I think having a few hours to kill in LF is not a good use of time.

MFNYC

One more question re: LF waterfalls, is there a place to lock up our belongings?

volcanogirl

I don't remember seeing one. There's a big parking lot and an entrance area where you pay the entry fee, but honestly we didn't look for lockers or anything so we may have missed it.

Deb15July

Rita says Steve makes great ribs but we didn't have them...we let them choose and we ended up with Chicken Pad Thai and a really good appetizer that if memory serves...was based on yucca. Don't remember dessert because I arrived not feeling great and I decided to turn in early.

MFNYC

Another stupid question re: LF waterfalls, fo you actual climb the falls themselves (many years ago we did in Jamaica), or is it just hiking to the top, and then down again along a trail, and swimming in the bottom area?