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Just booked tix to Costa Rica - advice welcome!
It'll be our first time, and I am wildly excited - kindly send your blog/trip report links my way 
We are flying in and out of Liberia and staying for two weeks (late August - early September). Would love to see volcanoes, waterfalls, and wildlife, and probably squeeze in a few beach days. DH and I are in our mid-30s and in an OK shape, but probably not ready for really long and strenuous hikes...
Thanks so much for any info/recs!
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Re: Just booked tix to Costa Rica - advice welcome!
my husband and i just got back from costa rica last night!
we were in costa rica for 8 days. we visited/did the following:
pacuare lodge (highly recommend!) - you have the option of white water rafting to and from the lodge (highlight of my trip!). the lodge is situated right in the middle of the rain forest. great food and exceptional service! we also did zip lining at the lodge - it was fun, but if you want something very extreme (views of waterfalls and extreme heights, i'd recommend zip lining in the arenal area).
arenal - nature hike, hot springs, visited a waterfall, and road horses.
manuel antonio - we stayed at arenas del mar (beach front resort, highly recommend) - relaxed on the beach, toured manuel antonio park. animals roamed freely on the resort's premises (monkeys, iguanas, lizards, various insects, birds).
we opted for transfer services as opposed to renting a car and driving ourselves. we just wanted to sit back and relax and not worry about how to get from point A to point B.
let me know if you have any questions.
Moxie, this sounds awesome! Re: transfers, did you use different companies every time? Which can you recommend? Thanks much!
our travel agent (family friend - funtastic tours and cruises) booked the transfers for us.
as best as i can recall, the companies were sunset tours, iguana tours, and aventuras naturales. you can also book excursions through these companies.
they were all great - on time (or early), friendly, and moderately priced. they all spoke some english (some better than others, but enough to cover the basics).
providing links to pacuare lodge and arenas del mar (the highlights of our trip
)
http://www.pacuarelodge.com/
http://www.arenasdelmar.com/
I absolutely love the Tabacon hot springs resort which is in the Arenal area.http://www.tabacon.com/ We have always stayed somewhere up the road and then gone in with a day pass. We also made sure to book massages there months ahead of time and earlier in the day.
I also loved Manuel Antonio although it was a bit more touristy than other spots, it was still worth it. We stayed in two places there, one was La Mariposa http://www.lamariposa.com/ which is gorgeous with an amazing view and beautiful pool but expensive and the other was the coolest treehouse like hotel which was fairly inexpensive. It was called the Hotel Plinio. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g309274-d309059-Reviews-Hotel_Plinio-Manuel_Antonio_National_Park_Province_of_Puntarenas.html
ETA I just tried looking up the Hotel Plinio and they are currently closed.
I have driven myself every time. It is not for the feint of heart. There are loads of potholes and one car bridges and the signage isn't great but it is doable and probably even easier now with GPS. I would not suggest driving at night. To be honest, I loved that part of the adventure and it was nice to have a car (make sure it is a 4x4 if you go this route) to come and go as we pleased.
It has been a few years since I have been, but when I was there last, the world phones did not work there. I ended up renting a local cell phone, which they brought to the airport and delivers upon our arrival and then picked up from there when we left. This was out of San Juan and not sure if they would service the Liberia airport. This helped on the one trip that we decided to wing it and bring guide books and called hotels on the way to the town we decided to visit to check avail. That was the most fun I have had there as we really got to do what we wanted and stop whenever we felt like it.
Tamarindo and the beaches of the Guanacaste coast were not my favorite though nice. I did however, love the little town of Montezuma. It is very hippie and you can get there via a car ferry or regular ferry from Puntarenas. Puntarenas is not a pretty town just a place to get easily to and from the other side. http://www.nicoyapeninsula.com/montezuma/
Have fun!
Try to hike the Arenal volcano. I'm not an outdoorsy person, but I thought that was one of the coolest things I've ever done.
We loved zip lining in Manuel Antonio too, but they have that practically everywhere in Costa Rica.
Be sure to drink a lot of Imperial!
We stayed at Tabacon Hot Prongs resort for 4 nights. I would recommend it. Did a class III-IV rafting day trip on the rio toro (Desafio Adventures - got a discount coupon through Pura Vida Eh? website). Did a combo tour of hanging bridges (recommend), La Fortuna waterfall and volcano National Park. Normally it is a 4 combo but one is a hot springs for dinner. So they worked a price for us for just 3 of them (Anywhere Costa Rica).
Transport: combination of private transport due to air flight times and sghared transport (La Fortuna to Montezuma). All with anywhere Costa Rica. They were all great. A little confusing on the shared transport but it worked out ok.
Montezuma - stayed at Ylang Ylang beach hotel. Breakfast and dinner included. It is a 10 minute walk to town. No neighbors east of it for a two hour walk (45 min horse ride). Rode the horses to the falls by Tango Mar resort. We had a private bungalow on the beach. We don't like crowds and this was our HM.
I would highly recommend zip lining near the Arenal Volcano. I believe it's called "Sky Tram and Trek". Definitely worth every penny and the drive because the views are breathtaking! We also stopped at the Baldi Hot Springs on the way back from the Arenal Volcano and it was also fantastic! We also enjoyed the river boat tour because we got to see so much wildlife and feed white-faced monkeys!!
Have a great time!