orangepetal

We are traveling to CR in December for 10 days, not including travel days. Family of 4, no small children.
We arrive in San Jose and we're driving to Manuel Antonio from the airport. We plan to stay here for 2 nights.
We go to Monte Verde and spend 2 nights there.
Next stop is La Fortuna area. How many days to spend and what to see?
Lastly we plan to visit Guanacaste for the remaining stay. What are the must sees here?
Flying back from Liberia.
We plan NOT to rent a car and will be using tour services.
We are into waterfall, bridges, fauna/flora, beaches, wildlife and everything nature.

My expert CR peeps, please suggest what all can I add or omit from my planning.

volcanogirl

Manuel Antonio is nice; be sure to do a guided tour of the park while you're there. Lots of wildlife - good chance to see monkeys and sloths. We used Manuel Antonio Expeditions. The beach inside the park is pretty. I believe it's closed on Mondays, but double check their Covid hours. In Monteverde, a guided hike in the reserve is nice. I'd recommend bringing a fleece jacket or sweatshirt in case it gets chilly. Our hotel had the fireplace going when we were there. We also did a guided night hike and saw some things we had never seen before like a fox and a porcupine. You never know what you'll see. For La Fortuna/Arenal area, we usually stay four nights when we go. There's a very pretty waterfall you can go to, no need for a guide, just lots of steps down and back up. I'd also recommend the guided tour at the Bogarin Trail owned by a local family - good chance to see red-eyed tree frogs, poison dart frogs, caimans, sloths, and some nice birds. Really need to do the guided hike because they pointed out several things we would have walked right by. The Hanging Bridges are a nice hike since you like bridges; you can also do that on your own. It's a loop trail with several high bridges. The Cano Negro tour with Desafio is a fun boat tour if you're up for an all day adventure. You can also white water raft with Rios Tropicales or Desafio or zipline at Sky Trek. The Penas Blancas safari float is fun. Have also enjoyed a cooking class with Costa Rica Cooking.

volcanogirl

One more thing in La Fortuna/Arenal, do a night time visit to one of the natural hot springs. Tabacon if you want upscale and fancy or Eco Termales if you want smaller and locally owned but charming.

mlgb

The hot springs I went to in town (a long time ago) was Baldi. At the time you could get a discounted day pass from the vendors near the waterfall hike. It had a range of pools, from some with handrails and easy walk-in (there was a group of older Americans on tour using it) , to noisy swim-up bars, to a big pool with waterslides (fast), to quieter pools in the back.
Used by a lot of locals, especially the waterslides.
I didn't think much of the buffet, and from comments on Tripadvisor I gather that has not changed.

One advantage was that I could walk there from my hotel in town.

orangepetal

Volcanogirl, thank you so much for all your wonderful suggestions! Very informative and we will definitely use it to plan out trip.

orangepetal

Mlgb, I've been reading about Baldi as well. Yet to decide if thats going to be a part of our itinerary. Thank you for the suggestion!

volcanogirl

Of course, happy to help!