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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Costa Rica
Looking into planning a trip in October or November of next year... what are the must see/do activities, cities to visit, places to stay, food, etc? We'll be there 10 days, it will be just me and BF, we are both active and enjoy outdoor activities. Thank you for any suggestions!
Re: Costa Rica
we're going this june!
our itinerary is as follows: san jose, pacuare lodge, arenal, and manuel antonio.
so excited!
We went to Manuel Antonio and Arenal for our honeymoon. We had a blast and loved both areas. Here's a summary.
In MA we stayed at Arenas del Mar (loved it -- nice rooms, great staff, fun bar) in the rainforest and next to 2 beautiful beaches, wildlife everywhere including monkeys, sloths, iguanas. We took a guided tour hike of MA National Park which was fun and informative, and MA Beach is stunning.
In Arenal we stayed at Arenal Nayara (gorgeous resort but wouldn't recommend it -- we had a bunch of disappointing issues and customer service wasn't great). The highlights of our trip in this area were seeing the volcano erupt and Sky Trek ziplining -- this is a must if you like adrenaline rushes! We also hiked the old lava trail and Arenal Hanging Bridges with a guide, where we saw more wildlife and interesting plants. We hiked down to La Fortuna waterfall which is gorgeous and swam at the bottom. I highly recommend all of these excursions, but if you're limited on time my favorites were the waterfall, ziplining, and bridges. We also visited Tabacon Hot Springs which was nice for relaxing a couple of hours in the evening, but it was touristy and my least favorite thing we did. We heard great things about white water rafting and waterfall rappelling in the area too, but we didn't have time to fit those in.
Tips: Try eating at Sodas. They're local restaurants run by families serving typical CR dishes for cheap, and they're in many cities throughout the country. If you visit the Arenal area then definitely go to the active side of the volcano at night as much as you can to increase your chances of seeing red lava...it's awesome and worth it. Also, I suggest not staying at an AI in CR. There's just so much to explore, see, do, and there are tons of nice and reasonably priced resorts everywhere.
Costa Rica is really easy to plan on your own. We went to a more remote area for our first week - Drake Bay and stayed at Cabinas El Mirador Lodge. The only thing I would choose to do differently here is to pay for the upcharge to stay in the electricity rooms. Otherwise, this place was awesome. It was just DH and I traveling, but this lodge really forces you to meet the other people staying there which was great. So we ended up doing a lot hikes and other excursions with the other guests. We went to Corcovado National Park several times. We went snorkeling. My favorite memory was 6 of us hiked several miles from the Lodge to a very nice deserted beach that was excellent for swimming and snorkeling. Again, it was so isolated we had the whole beach to ourselves.
The next week, we mainly stayed at Hacienda Baru, a bit outside of Quepos, although we were easily able to walk to Quepos. Check out this place if you're interested in wildlife and outdoor adventures. We camped outdoors one night, did ziplining, etc. And again, Quepos is a laid back town where you can get some food. I would have ventured out there more if I could speak spanish! Next time!
CR was just so amazing and we cannot wait to go back in the future! No matter where you choose, you will have an amazing time!
With ten days I would recommend visiting La Fortuna/Arenal or Monteverde, Manuel Antonio, and somewhere on the Nicoya Peninsula.
I visited Costa Rica for 8 days last year and have entries in my travel blog here:
http://wanderlusttraveler.blogspot.com/search/label/Costa Rica?m=0
We stayed here in Arenal: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g309226-d310177-Reviews-Termales_del_Bosque-La_Fortuna_de_San_Carlos_Arenal_Volcano_National_Park_Province_of_Alajuela.html
The suites are $100 a night and much nicer than the standard rooms--you basically get your own bungalow. Cheap (but super nice) massages, hot springs on the grounds, free Costa Rican breakfast, horseback riding on site. Short drive to the volcano.
We also went to Manuel Antonio... where we did a rain forest canopy walk and to the beach. We only stayed in San Jose one night (picked up car, slept) and then headed out first thing in the morning. We drove everywhere. Get a car with some pick-up--you'll need it! And we loved our GPS, we rented it with the SUV.
I used TripAdvisor and Fodor's forums almost exclusively. Along with Lonely Planet guidebooks. Had no trouble communicating with hotels or tour operators.
As for recommendations, I can tell you what we did I think you will like. We are also both active and enjoy outdoor activities.
- River rafting. We went on the Pacuare River and it was excellent! Up to Class IV+ rapids. We went through the Pacuare Jungle Lodge and stayed there one night. Super fabulous.
- Arenal. We loved the volcano, though I hear it's not as active now. We saw lava flowing in giant amounts - so awesome. We hiked up Cerro Chato, the dormant neighboring volcano. Really rough hike, but fun.
- Monteverde. We hiked in the cloud forests multiple times (day and night).
- Manual Antonio. Beautiful beaches and there are fun hiking trails in the park.
Hope this helps!