Costa Rica, July/August 25 HELP!!!

[phyllidafosset]

We are planning 3 weeks with teens this year. I am getting myself in a tizzy about a) where to go! Was planning to fly to Liberia and was thinking Liberia, Samara, Monteverde, Arsenal, and maybe another beach place. But I am not sure if the place I have found outside Samara would be right for a week, and I think Cahuita might be better, in which case we’d fly to San Jose (more expensive). And not sure where else?

b) to hire a car or not?? SO many people seem to hire a car, but the driving sounds horrendous (particularly out of San Jose). I’m worried about the costs of using private transfers, and getting stuck in hotels that are too far to walk to anything. Advice about both options would be welcome!

c) where to stay (relates to where to go 😁). The one thing I’m sure about is Arenal and Monteverde. Teens will want to do ziplining, seeing nature (no spiders, or spiders or spiders in the background), hot springs, cloud forests - what else? In Arenal was thinking 2 days in hot springs hotel and 2 days at observatory hotel? But then beyond that, I don’t know!

d) cost! Everyone says expensive but what does that mean? Are private transfers/taxis going to be more than hiring a medium sized 4x4? Is doing laundry expensive? What are food costs? I have heard like the US, but are we talking Texas (UK like) or New York (HUGELY expensive)? Are organised tours expensive? How much per person for a day trip, roughly?

one last question - we LOVED Thailand, but it would cost us £3.5k more to fly there (air miles issue). I think we could do hotels for the same cost. So then would private transfers/ food costs/excursion costs be likely to get close to that 3.5k difference? I have tried working it out but I’m not sure about the details of Costa Rica!

This was our 20 night trip.
We mostly self catered and stayed in budget / backpackers / guest house type accomodation. All booked on booking.com.
We spent just under 1k per person + flights.

1 Arrive Alajuela (San Jose airport)
2 Bus to Samara
3-5 Samara (beach, surfing)
6 Bus to Monteverde
7-9 Monteverde (cloud forest, zipling, lots of walks)
10 jeep-boat-jeep transfer to La Fortuna (bargain $30, amazing views)
11-13 La Fortuna (hanging bridges, arenal observatory lodge hike, rope bridge every day)
14 Bus + boat to Tortuguera (exploradores minivan transfer)
15 Tortuguera (boat or kayak trip, walk in national park - loads of wildlife - turtle nesting evening).
16 Boat bus to Cahuita (booked on tortuguero). Stunning trip. Cheap.
17-19 Cahuita (fab beaches, snorkeling trip (not amazing snorkeling but fun trip nonetheless), national park walks - much cheaper than elsewhere $5 entry). Most wildlife seen here.
20 Bus or rafting trip + transfer to Alajuela. We did the rafting trip transfer with exploradores. Totally recommended. Fab last day!

P.s. Samara was lovely but Cahuita much nicer. Both quiet laid back towns.

That is super encouraging, thank you @HappyHolidays75! I have a stupid question but how much luggage did you have?

i am thinking not to do Samara, and perhaps somewhere else (although so would like to do some surfing).

We took a 65 litre back pack each, and a day sack. Walking boots were in the main backpack too.
Did laundry at each place we stayed for 3+ nights.

Was probably my second favourite holiday ever (Sri Lanka slightly wins) but definitely the teens favourite.

Eating out was probably UK pizza express type prices.

Arsenal 😂

a) Can't comment on Liberia, Samara or Cahuita as didn't go to any of them. Arenal is great for hot springs, animal experiences and obviously, the amazing looming volcano over the town. Monteverde is high up in the hills in the middle of the country and each ecosystem is different and unique.

b) We hired a car and found the driving was mostly fine. There is a terrible bit of road if you're driving between Arenal and Monteverde - it's a rough track covered in potholes and it goes on and on. San Jose wasn't too bad, although trying to find fuel on the way back to the airport at the end of our trip nearly resulted in divorce (we got lost, got stuck in a huge traffic jam for an hour and ended up yelling at each other!). But I wouldn't have wanted to be stuck in hotels in the resort areas and was glad overall that we had a car. It was no worse driving in CR than in Italy or Spain.

c) We stayed in a hotel with its own thermal baths in Arenal (Paradise Hot Springs) and it was great - our kids loved hanging out in the springs and they were drained and cleaned every day - but the town of La Fortuna is a touristy dump IMO, so I was glad we were outside it. The Bogarin Trail is great for seeing animals - we saw more with our guide there than anywhere else - it's very small so the guides know where they are! In Monteverde we stayed in a hotel outside the town called El Sol, which was lovely, and in a really nice, warm, sunny area (the cloud forest was cold and windy when we were there in Jan).

d) yes CR is very expensive. How expensive? Western prices like you'd expect to pay in the US for everything - food, hotels, excursions. A quick search on e.g. booking.com or Tripadvisor will show you, but it's not a cheap trip to a developing country. This is a destination that is very popular with well-off westerners and prices reflect that. You can save money on food by eating in local restaurants aka 'sodas', but if you want to stay in nice hotels, eat in your hotels and do excursions with guides (highly recommended, or you won't see a thing), then expect to pay £££.

@HappyHolidays75 having thought I wasn't going to include Samara, I'm sort of thinking that it might be better than Manual Antonio, because I think it might be a little less touristy, and I realised that my daughter is going to feel like she needs some extra beach days, so I'm thinking we can top and tail the nature exploration with beach. Which basically means, having decided Cahuita is somewhere we don't want to miss - we are essentially entirely stealing your itinerary :)

I'm also so excited now. If I can find accommodation that fits our budget and needs, which I think I have, then we are all good. Excursions are going to be a little pricier than would be ideal, but I'm thinking that if we perhaps wait and book them from town rather than from hotels, that might help a little.

@cheezncrackers your review of La Fortuna was super helpful. I was thinking about the thermal spring hotels. It was also super helpful to know that the driving isn't so bad. I think we are still going to try this trip with no car.

Please keep sharing hotel/transport/location/recommendations, and tips and everything. I was feeling like I couldn't make this trip work, but your advice, together with my other reading, has made me feel like I can, and it will be amazing. Thanks :)

You absolutely can do this!
My itinerary I'm sure was stolen from others. Worked well for us - was great to start with a few beach days and end that way too.
We didn't hire a car at all. The only place it was a pain was La Fortuna as things are very spread out. But, there were Ubers and regular taxis.

The jeep boat jeep transfer from Monte Verde to la fortuna is both spectacular and very cheap so I'd try to include that

Likewise if you go to tortuguera the boat transfer down the coast to moin (for Cahuita) was stunning - the boat driver showed us loads of wildlife. You can buy tickets from any of the agents in the town, just ask as soon as you arrive.

Then if you fancy white water rafting, exploradores are a fab company that have a rafting centre. They pick up in various locations, everyone has breakfast at the centre, morning rafting, lunch at the centre, then their bus on to whichever of their locations you want to end up. We were picked up in Cahuita and dropped off at our hotel in San Jose. A superbly organised company.

Accomodation wise we paid only about £50 a night for a triple room. My budget was reasonably limited and we're not fussed about fancy accommodation. Everywhere had very comfortable beds though!

E.g. https://monteverdetours.com/hotel-el-bosque-monteverde.html

Absolutely everything has an entry fee, even just going for a walk like we'd do here for free. But much cheaper on the Carribbean side.

@HappyHolidays75 that all sounds fantastic. Your second post had already sold me on the jeep/boat trip to La Fortuna! And the tip about the transport from Cahuita to San jose is also super helpful.

Can I just pick your brains on one more thing - I have been looking at hotels for Tortuguero, and some are insanely expensive (full-board with tours). Would I be right to think that if we stay somewhere NOT super expensive and FB, then we will be able to get some good local tours in town? And, I'm hoping, not have to spent the INSANE amounts of the couple of hotels that I just looked at? We are thinking that two nights would work, because it is really only one day there, and then the next day travelling down to Cahuita. Actually, I have another question! Someone was recommending little boat tours down to Cahuita, and they look amazing, but honestly (and slightly embarrassingly), I'm not sure what the toilet situation would be?! Kids and getting older have killed my capacity for long journeys 😂

We’re going to skegness!

Yes I booked a cheap and cheerful place in tortuguera. It's one of those crazy places that just works - someone from the guest house met the boat (think they come to meet all boats) and walked us to the guest house. They booked us on to a turtle night walk for the first evening, and a morning boat trip. You book national park entrance tickets separately online - these are needed for the morning boat tour on top of the tour cost, and allow you to go and walk in the park too. We did that in the afternoon (no guide, saw our first sloths!).
Everywhere was walking distance to the main drag with simple restaurants. It had a very backpacker-vibe.
We didn't have Aircon here - if I went back I'd pay slightly more for Aircon. Twas hot!

For the long boat trip, there are no toilets. It's a simple open boat with outboard motor. It would be worth messaging an agent and asking if they do al fresco wee stops if necessary. I reckon they would. They pulled over multiple times to view wildlife (and so the driver could take photos of animals!).

We're reminiscing here while replying 🙂

Oh, and 2 nights was just the right amount.

@HappyHolidays75 were you with DC? And if so, what age?

@MakeTeaNotWar yes - DDs aged 13 and 16