Anyone visited Belize or Costa Rica?

[DeliveredByKiki]

Thinking of going with another family in the first week of January - any tips of exact areas to look at or one over the other?

We did a 2+ week trip to Belize. I have a trip report (somewhere) and will message it over to you. it was fantastic. we did some time on the mainland and then some time on the islands for the sailing and snorkelling the reef.

I've been to Costa Rica. La Fortuna in the rainforest at the base of the Arenal volcano is the best place to go. It's about a 2-3 hour drive from San Jose airport. The sheer number of activities (rafting, zip lining, hiking, trails, rainforest tours, waterfall killing etc etc) offered in such a small area is insane!

We then drove for 4 hours to tamarinds which is a surfer paradise beach area on the Pacific. It's laid back but also absolutely full of activities!

We didn't bother going to San Jose itself as we heard the traffic is appalling.

Sorry, *Tamarindo

The traffic in San Jose wasn't appalling but as a city it's not the loveliest. However it feels reasonably safe & does give any visitor to Costa Rica an intro to the countries history, politics & mindset (if you want one! It is pretty unique within Central America in its set up & outlook). We went to Arenal (a now non smoking volcano) & did the hot springs then spent the rest of our time at Manuel Antonio. It's a beautiful country with lots of outdoors activity & abundance of wildlife & jungle. We booked flights/hotels/transfers separately & it's easy to do.I loved it - Belize looks fab though too - it was very badly hit by a hurricane 2 years ago though so maybe worth checking how much damage there still is?

Thankyou! mummymeister I’d love to see your trip report

Well SJane you're the only person I have ever come across both here and in Costa Rica who thinks the traffic in San Jose isn't appalling. Obviously you are so very clever and we should all listen to you over everyone else I'm sure

I don’t remember the traffic in San Jose being so bad, (so that’s two very clever people) but it’s not a particularly appealing city. We drove back there from the west coast which was fine except for an interesting encounter with traffic police. We crossed from the Caribbean to the Pacific, then back to San Jose. Most of our trip we did on a tour, but it would be fine to self drive. We did see a lot of things on the tour that I don’t think we would have done on our own and the guide was amazing. Tortuguero on the Caribbean is lovely, beautiful boat trips to see monkeys, sloths etc. The cloud forest around Monteverde has amazing zip lines and high level walkways that let you get eye to eye with howler monkeys. The Pacific coast has nice resort type hotels and also white water rafting, beaches etc. Arsenal was foggy when we were there so couldn’t see the volcano. The hot springs were great though.
It’s a breathtakingly beautiful country with lovely people.

Costa Rica is absolutely beautiful and I highly recommend a visit.
Tortuguero is lovely, as a pp says, and the river trips are fascinating.
The OSA peninsular is worth a visit and we stayed in Santa Teresa for a few days which is great. It's laid back with places like the Chakra Guesthouse and the Peace Cafe, and has a wonderful long beach and incredible sunsets.
I can't wait to go back.

On the whole it's often a bit c!everer to comment on something you've actually seen & experienced first hand duchessofsussedsex?! Sorry but like chemenger I didn't think it was that bad - does everyone who doesn't agree with you experience this level of pleasantry?!

I didn’t realise the PP hadn’t even seen the traffic in San Jose before dismissing your comment so rudely SJane! . I would respectfully disagree also with her absolute statement that Arenal is the best place to go. It was by no means my favourite place in CR.

Went to Costa Rica a year ago, stayed in RUI Guanacaste and went with TUI, they fly direct to Liberia. TUI do loads of excursions as well as other operators there - if you look on their website if will give them. Arenal is often one of the most recommended places but was a pleasant trip to volcano and hot springs but least favourite. Favourite trip was with Gecko tours just us , they are on the beach at RUI, went to rainforest with 2 guides and got to cuddle a sloth. Also went to Diamante, kids and DH did zipline which goes at 60mph and starts at crazy heights, lots of animals there too, they loved it, that's next to RUI.

At our hotel you could kayak, windsurf and SUP included in AI, there were 5 raccoons, 1 coati, hanging round hotel. Monkeys just outside by beach. We to Buena Vista trip, lots of fun, waterslide through jungle then ziplining through jungle by active volcano, monkeys and toucan in trees, horseriding and hot springs. Another trip to Blue River with Nexus, about 8 of us, lovely gardens etc.

Driving, we were advised not to hire a car and tours drove through rivers and no road signs often. Lady said her cousin did it and ended up lost for hours. Not been to San Jose or Belize. Monteverde has hanging bridges but wasn't sure for kids. Beautiful country loads of wildlife would recommend. RUI great food, even kids got 3 course meal served by waiters on AI with steaks the size of the plate 😱 great facilities but very lively so not for your quiet holiday. 😎 My DS is ASD so a strong preference for AI and one jotel.

We adored CR (and no, don’t recall the teaching in San Jose being particularly bad) we hired a 4x4 and drove all over. We also took a couple of internal flights. We went right up from osa, via st Theresa, tamarindo, Monteverde, Arenal Etc. It was totally wonderful

Just reading these 2 just brings home that there is a hell of a lot we didn’t see! I enjoyed Arenal (but was disappointed the pools were man made) but probably not the highlight of our trip either. No slur in the slightest meant on you Penguinsnpandas (I wouldn’t have had the foggiest) but my OH works for a large Animal Welfare charity - while we were in San Jose we met his local counterpart - from an animal welfare perspective they are really concerned about (and actively campaign against) interactions with Sloths such as cuddling & selfies. They’ve become big business in Costa Rica with many babies captured in the wild & physically mistreated to pose nicely with tourists. A lot of them are kept in not great conditions & die earlier than they should as interacting with humans & human environments causes them acute stress. It’s not nice & as above, I wouldn’t have known anything about it. Basically their advice is, please keep your distance from sloths!

A third very clever person here who didn’t think traffic was awful

You sound delightful @duchessofsussedsex

This one did seem to be kept in good conditions, had a rainforest to itself and they told us how to have least impact on it, made us wash hands first etc but did get impression maybe controversial as not told where we were other than a private reserve on Caribbean side where they rescue animals. TUI don't run a similar trip. Obviously you don't know how much of rescue story is true but appeared genuine and animals, not many of them, in good health with caring staff. I have heard of babies being snatched and being shown on sides of roads that's really awful. My son is ASD with a wildlife obsession and very cuddly.

Roads my have been blocked with water when we went as it was August, so rainy season, coach drove through it but there was a lot of dirt track and areas with 1.5 foot of water to drive through. DH gets lost in the UK every time and so don't think we would have stood a chance. 😂