mboschert8562

Hi! We’re planning a trip to CR in summer 2024. We have 3 older teens, so 5 total. We can either fly into Liberia or San Jose. We are planning to rent a car (is there an inexpensive way to do this?)
We’d like to experience rain forest, cloud forest, hanging bridges, zip lines, waterfalls, volcano, see monkeys, sloths, and the beach. We don’t really want to drive a ton and if I had my way, we’d have a home base and only unpack once (but I don’t think that’s realistic).
So my question is, do we stay in Arenal, Monteverde AND Manuel Antonio (or Tamarindo)? Is that too much driving/too many places in 10 days? I’m terrible at deciding and want this to be a special and memorable trip for my family. Obviously I’d like to do as much as possible but don’t want to feel rushed, or like we spent our entire vacation driving. Help!! And thank you in advance for helping me decide.

volcanogirl

I'd do a combination of the Arenal area and Manuel Antonio. There's plenty to keep you busy in both areas to fill 10 days. Monteverde is kind of a pain to get to, and almost everything you'd like to do there can be done in the Arenal area except for seeing the cloud forest. Do the Mistico Hanging Bridges in the Arenal area, zipline at Sky Trek, visit the La Fortuna waterfall, go hiking at the Arenal Observatory Lodge, do the guided tour at the Bogarin Trail, visit Tabacon or Eco Termales natural hot springs one evening, and then go to Manuel Antonio for beach time. We saw monkeys and sloths right at our hotel there. There's a beautiful beach inside the national park.

mboschert8562

Thank you volcanogirl! This is very helpful.

volcanogirl

Sure no problem, that's what we did for our first trip. It's a pretty popular combo for first timers. We fly into SJO for those. Each is about three hours from the airport but in opposite directions. You won't want to drive between cities at night, so depending on your flight times you may want to spend first or last nights closer to the airport.

sunbum1944

A fun thing we did in Costa Rica was river rafting. We spent the night in San Jose for that.
We flew to Manuel Antonio in a small plane- everyone was weighed before boarding.
We were on a tour with a small local operator. My daughter and I were the only one on the tour- he'd had some cancellations- so we had a private tour. He didn't go everywhere with us but he would arrange pick ups and lodging and events. Worked out great for us. He drove us to Arenal and Monteverde areas
We spent 2 nights in San Jose, then a few days in Manuel Antonio, Arenal, Monteverde.
The volcano was erupting when we were there so that exciting. We also enjoyed evening at Tabacon. The volcano erupted while we were sitting in the hot springs and the whole place shook.
It was a great trip

mlgb

That must have been quite a while ago sunbum1944,weren't the last flows in 2010? I missed them by a few months but managed to catch the horrendous floods in November 2010.

volcanogirl

Yes no flow since 2010; we got to see it back in the day too - really amazing. For tours in the Arenal area, I'd recommend Desafio. For tours in the Manuel Antonio area, I'd recommend Manuel Antonio Expeditions.

mboschert8562

Thank you for all the information! I’m strongly leaning towards staying in an Airbnb in either Quepos OR Tamarindo and taking day trips/excursions from our “home base”. Now I’m just trying to better understand our options from each place to make the best decision. Any advice on these two options?

volcanogirl

Just a heads up regarding Airbnbs, make sure you check regarding security. Friends of ours stayed in one, and it was broken into while they were sleeping. We prefer a hotel with security for that reason. I'm sure it's rare, but something to think about.

mboschert8562

Ohhh that’s crazy and scary. I’ve been checking to make sure they have alarms but I guess that doesn’t necessarily make them safe. Thank you for mentioning this.

mlgb

I think you should go with the traditional Arenal/ Manuel Antonio combo.

My impression of Quepos is that it isn't very nice. There are apartment type hotels in Manuel Antonio so you don't need to stay at an Airbnb.

You'd want to call Arenal Observatory Lodge to see if the suites can hold 5 people. One of the benefits of traveling after Tomas was that I got into the White Hawk Villa.

volcanogirl

Yes Quepos is the more industrial area. Most people stay closer to the Manuel Antonio area near the park. Tulemar Bungalows is a great place to stay if it's in your budget; they have a beach.