2 weeks in Costa Rica - what to do?

[Pogonogo]

DH and I are planning on going to Costa Rica at the beginning of June. I've seen lots of family friendly trips, but we are lucky enough for it to be just the two of us this time.
We love wildlife, but don't really want to do a full on tour, other than individual guided day tours of worthwhile.
Does anyone have any recommendations of places to visit/ stay and how much you can pack in to 2 weeks?
In theory I'd like to visit Tortuguero, maybe Rara Avis, Montevideo and Corcovado.
Which flights would you recommend as there are lots of stopover options?
TIA

It's ages since I went so things might be different and I don't know about flights, but definitely recommend corcovado for wildlife, and one of my greatest memories is seeing the volcanoes Arenal and Poas. Manuel Antonio National park is fab too.

The thing with Corcovado is that it’s not super accessible for anything less than a proper organised trek. If you do go to Osa for that, fly to Drake Bay. There’s nothing much in Puerto Jiménez (but there is quite a nice hotel now, ‘Botanika’).

I’ve not been to the Caribbean side but friends who’ve recently been said that Tortuguero was amazing.

Manuel Antonio is nice and there are some nice hotels and restaurants in the area. You have to book online and I’d advise you to get the 9am slot as you will queue for an hour to get in.

You can pack quite a lot in if you fly internally on Sansa’s little Cessna line. There’s another one now - Green Air maybe? I do think it’s very hard to be in certain places (like Uvita) without a car. By contrast, Dominical, is very contained so you don’t need one there.

Nauyaca Falls are 10 minutes in a car from Dominical. As is Hacienda Baru (for wildlife). Have a look at those.

Don’t linger in San Jose. It’s not great.

Re: flights, you can fly direct with BA.

Thanks both that's really helpful.
I'll definitely look into an organised tour and flights for Corcovado as I'd hate to miss out there.
There's so much to see, but realistically I know 2 weeks isn't long enough!

Scuba diving, that´s what everyone goes there for. And isn´t Montevideo in Uruguay. Will stand corrected if not...

It's Monteverde in CR.

Sorry it must have autocorrected as Montevideo, I definitely typed Monteverde!! It's the cloud forest we want to see!

We have just come back from a fortnight in Costa Rica and really enjoyed it. Trailfinders put together our itinerary and we went to Tortuguero, La Fortuna, Monte Verde and Manuel Antonio. Also included some whitewater rafting, zip wires and horse riding. You need guides for the national parks which Trailfinders arranged. We saw loads of Sloths, Toucans snakes, crocs, monkeys and many beautiful birds. I have just retired so we pushed the boat out on some up market hotels which were amazing - one had a swim up bar in a thermal pool ( spring water heated by volcano) It is a bit expensive but prices overall were about the same as here. You can get ideas from a Trailfinders brochure or ask them to do a no obligation plan. There is a very good Facebook Group too. Costa Rica Travel or something similar which has loads of pics and good ideas and advice. Try to get direct flights. Our return via Madrid was really tiring. Pura Vida!

Again well over 10 years since I travelled in Costa Rica. Visited Rara Avis - if you like birds its a must. The ride in on the horse felt like a bit of an endurance test as it was v hot and humid and I am not used to treking!
Think it is probably the most beautiful and bountiful country I have visited. Would love to go back. Travelled independently and alone - but there were tourist shuttles that ran between the main spots.

Thank you. Our flights are booked and I'm just booking accommodation now and planning our itinerary!

I've used trailfinders and the other travel operators to base some options as well as all your suggestions.

We quite like the excitement of doing it ourselves.

I can't work out whether we should go to Monteverde first or Tortuguero. I'm not sure if we'll feel like another long journey the day after the flight?

How exciting! We went to Tortuguero the day after arriving (just stayed in hotel near the airport). The lodge we stayed in included transport there, so a coach picked us up - it was early-ish but no effort. The journey there is nice to see the scenery and the last bit is by boat. We then flew to La Fortuna for Arenal, which was well worth it not just because it was fun and scenic, but bad weather had meant the people returning by road were delayed due to mud slides (we were there in the rainy season). We picked up a car in Arenal and after there drove to Monteverde, then to an AI on the Pacific coast for a few days before driving back to San Jose, so didn't visit the other areas you're planning to. Next time!