We chose to visit Costa Rica due to its wildlife and its diversity which includes beaches, jungle, volcanoes & cloud forest.
Planning, Itinerary, Activities & Photos:
We flew to San Jose via the US from Heathrow with United. It was pretty straightforward, a long layover in the US but we paid to go into the United lounge, so it was quite bearable.
Prior to our trip we had to sort out exactly where we were going and how we were going to get there. The Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree Forum proved invaluable in our research.
We decided that after an overnight stop at a hotel close to San Jose airport (the Marriott), we would head for the jungle of Corcovado (via a flight to Drake Bay) for 4 nights. It was easy enough to go on-line to Nature Air’s website and book the flights, which were cheap, especially as we were travelling light (hand luggage only). It was quite a dramatic flight in, on a very small plane.
We chose Corcovado over Manuel Antonio as it is much larger, much more remote, and far less touristy. It really just depends what experience you are looking for.
The lodge (Finca Maresia) that we stayed at near Drake Bay was fabulous and we would highly recommend it.
They also assisted in booking trips for us – hiking / wildlife viewing in Corcovado, horse riding, night safari. It is also a lovely place to just relax.
Our next stop was the beach. We had decided, after much research on a 5 night stay in Santa Teresa, which (certainly back in 2014) was fairly remote and not at all built up. It is a surfing mecca and has a chilled out backpacker feel to it. We booked flights from Drake Bay with Nature Air again, changing in San Jose for a flight to Tambor – a very short connection that we only just made! – We actually had staff help us by practically running us through security, as you have to exit the airport and then re-enter and check in again! Once we arrived in Tambor we had a pre-arranged taxi to pick us up and take us to our lovely lodge, Otro Lado.
We spend a relaxing 5 days with lots of walks on the beaches, and hired a quad bike to do a bit of exploring on our own. It was a lovely place, small & friendly, with a good vibe. It reminded us of our backpacking days.
From the beach we headed to the cloud forest of Monteverde for 2 nights, by shared taxi transfer. We stayed in the friendly and helpful Monteverde Rustic Lodge.
Whilst in Monteverde we hiked some trails in the cloud forest and got our adrenaline kick by going zip-lining (the longest zip line was 1 kilometer, so it was pretty exciting!) The place we did the zip lining, which also included a “Tarzan swing”, was Selvatura Park – there are a few to choose from but Selvatura had the longest zip-line and a good reputation.
After our short stay, we had arranged with Vamos Rent-A-Car to drop off a 4×4 for us, which we would use to visit Arenal for 3 nights and then get back to San Jose. They were recommended to us on the Thorn Tree forum and we were very happy with the service. Having someone come to drop the car off with us did not cost a huge amount extra, we paid about $350 in total for the 4 day rental including the drop-off for us in Monteverde (paid on receipt of the car, no pre-payment or deposit was taken!)
In Arenal we had booked a villa through Home Away, and it was stunning (it’s in our Top 10 Most Awesome Places to Stay list!) A car is necessary if you are staying there as it is very out of the way, which is one of the things we loved about it. It was also a stunning and a rather “exciting” drive from Monteverde to Arenal, which included a river crossing (luckily the river wasn’t too deep – just!) and driving over a wooden bridge that didn’t look as if it would hold the weight of the car (so much so that I got out as Paul drove it over the bridge!)
Having the car in Arenal was great as it allowed us much scope for exploring the area, which we enjoyed doing, along with simply relaxing in our lovely villa, dipping in the pool, watching hummingbirds in the garden and enjoying the stunning views.
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