| Costa Rica Travel 15:58 - Jul 22 with 2085 views | BlueandTruesince82 |
Just wondering if anyone has been? Thinking of going next year as it's a bucket list country for us but prices do seem to vary wildly, appreciate its not going to be a cheap holiday but easy to go way over looking at some of the offerings
Ideally hoping to have 7 to 10 days with a split between a resort where there are good excursion options and maybe 2 or 3 days somewhere a bit more exciting, a rain forest location.
Mrs B and T is bit of an adventurer and will get bored if I make her stay in a resort for a weak so trying to find a happy medium, just wonderd if anyone has been and planned a similar trip, if so who did you go through?
From looking so far I can see lots of resort options, lots of guided tours with multiple locations but nothing that's a sort of dual location split so far. I know we have some well travelled TWTDers so any recommendations greatly received |  |
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| Costa Rica Travel on 16:11 - Jul 22 with 2034 views | WeWereZombies |
Went as a couple of independent travellers back in 2009, one of the countries on my madcap idea to travel from Guatemala City to Panama City by chicken bus (which we almost acheived, had to use a ferry to cross a river and took up an offer of a hundred mile taxi ride to avoid waiting a couple of hours or so for a bus...in Costa Rica.) Costa Rica, Belize and Panama were the easiest countries and didn't find any problem locating places to stay, must be even easier now with booking.com etc.) The Pacific coast can be unbearably hot but also has great wildlife reserves. Further east we found a white water rafting day down Rio Pacuare, great experience and glad I did it as I may not be up to it these days. In general, Costa Rica was one of the places where if you find somewhere to stay the local guides and white knuckle adventure providers will find you. Pura Vida. |  |
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| Costa Rica Travel on 17:54 - Jul 22 with 1942 views | mojo |
| Costa Rica Travel on 16:11 - Jul 22 by WeWereZombies |
Went as a couple of independent travellers back in 2009, one of the countries on my madcap idea to travel from Guatemala City to Panama City by chicken bus (which we almost acheived, had to use a ferry to cross a river and took up an offer of a hundred mile taxi ride to avoid waiting a couple of hours or so for a bus...in Costa Rica.) Costa Rica, Belize and Panama were the easiest countries and didn't find any problem locating places to stay, must be even easier now with booking.com etc.) The Pacific coast can be unbearably hot but also has great wildlife reserves. Further east we found a white water rafting day down Rio Pacuare, great experience and glad I did it as I may not be up to it these days. In general, Costa Rica was one of the places where if you find somewhere to stay the local guides and white knuckle adventure providers will find you. Pura Vida. |
It's my favourite county. I have been a couple of times, doing bird and conservation work at Tortuguero NP several years ago and guiding work at Rancho Naturalista last year.
Ideally I would suggest you want to spend a bit of time on the Pacific slope, Caribbean slope and in the Central Highlands.
Lots of places offer zip lining, rafting experiences and you could combine the former with a visit to the canopy walkways at Monte Verde to get the cloud forest experience. Arenal and La Selva are very popular but I haven't been to either.
As We Were Zombies says, the Pacific Coast and places like Guanacaste can be hotter than Haides at certain times of the year. |  | | |
| Costa Rica Travel on 18:05 - Jul 22 with 1926 views | factual_blue |
We did an organised tour several years ago. It's a great country with very varied terrain and climate.
The typical experience will let you take in the wild Atlantic, then the central mountains and rain forests, before the beautiful tranquil Pacific coast, which ideal for relaxing and enjoying the warm Pacific Ocean.
Plenty of different experiences and guided tours - jungle treks (including skywalks, bird watching, turtle hatcheries, alligators, capuchin monkeys etc etc. |  |
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| Costa Rica Travel on 18:58 - Jul 22 with 1877 views | BlueandTruesince82 |
I guess I'm hoping for a kind of dual location holiday split between beach and rain forest ideally with a tour operator that can organise all the logistics for me so it's as hassle free as possible.
Assume the roads etc are mostly quite good, Fortuna for the rainforest looks like it has lots of hotels.
Thanks for all the input so far | |
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| Costa Rica Travel on 19:24 - Jul 22 with 1843 views | Deano69 |
Went a couple of years before Covid, fantastic place.
We rarely go back to the same place twice, the world is too big, but we are going to make an exception here.
That said we would do things slightly differently if we went again. We had two weeks ad a good hotel (RIU Palace) and went on excursions from there. However, we would definitely do something in 2 places, some days in the rainforest followed by a the more luxurious setting of a beach hotel (the RIU was very good tbf)
This is a link to a useful facebook page for the RIU - https://www.facebook.com/groups/HotelRiuPalaceCostaRica which we still follow to keep an eye on what going on.
Do be careful of trip offering cuddling sloths, turtle watching etc. Some are less scrupulous that the professional ones (apart from anything else the general public shouldn't really be holding sloths) .
Do remember that this place is the real deal, there is stuff out there that's highly dangerous and we were warned not to go off track when on excursions etc, That's not meant to be a paranoid scaremongering, just a bit of advice (one trip in the rain forest the guide mentioned that there's creatures in the forest that would kill in 30 minutes if untreated and the nearest hospital it 3 hours away!
Its a wonderful place, I'd move there tomorrow! Haven't said that about anywhere else we have ever visited.
Places to visit Diamante (close to the RIU) , Horse trek to the Mount Springs, numerous wildlife reserves. We used to go watch the monkeys near the hotel in the morning, just brilliant.
Amazing sunsets, do expect rain, lots of it, its a rain forest! |  |
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| Costa Rica Travel on 19:24 - Jul 22 with 1839 views | Swansea_Blue |
The Mrs has been out there. She reckoned it was a stunning country, one of the best she's ever been to. I'll ask if she's got any tips, but it was a flying visit all arranged for her.
They're the model country for what a more sustainable future looks like. They've not been bought by the fossil fuel companies like much of the West. Environmental sustainability is at the core of everything they do. They're almost 100% switched over to renewable power. They're re-forested huge swathes of the country after previous deforestation and now have a cover of about 60% (the UK is 13%). They achieved this by scrapping their military and investing the money saved into these sorts of initiatives to improve the country.
I'd love to go, very jealous! |  |
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| Costa Rica Travel on 23:37 - Jul 22 with 1721 views | Kropotkin123 |
Went a while back now. Maybe 2012. Went to Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. My best experience was in Nicaragua. My worst experience was in Costa Rica. With that said, as a whole, Costa Rica was the best, and I've always recommended people visit Costa Rica instead of travelling the who region. Generally speaking, the people are some of the friendliest you'll meet. There is plenty to do and visit, so I'd recommend venturing out of a resort as much as possible. I didn't book a resort and did everything on the fly, staying with families or whatever options we had where we were (hotel or hostel). I guess it depends when it is in terms of how realistic it is to do things as you go. My trip was also no end dates, so I couldn't be late for a flight out. |  |
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| Costa Rica Travel on 11:24 - Jul 23 with 1536 views | TractorBrew |
| Costa Rica Travel on 18:58 - Jul 22 by BlueandTruesince82 |
I guess I'm hoping for a kind of dual location holiday split between beach and rain forest ideally with a tour operator that can organise all the logistics for me so it's as hassle free as possible.
Assume the roads etc are mostly quite good, Fortuna for the rainforest looks like it has lots of hotels.
Thanks for all the input so far |
We went with the kids 2 years ago, stayed in 4 different places and hired a car to drive between. Stayed in Arenal by the volcano, then over to Monteverde and stayed on a farm in the valley, few days on the beach in Montezuma, then down the coast to Dominical.
If you want to do something without too much distance between the stops, I would say head towards Santa Elena / Monteverde for the cloud forest and adventure stuff, then head across to the pacific coast from a bit sun, sea and sand. Personally much preferred Montezuma and the area around there to the further down the coast towards Jaco (bit more commercialised, lots of yanks) | | | |
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| Costa Rica Travel on 11:28 - Jul 23 with 1531 views | chicoazul |
Opie I’ve not been but I hear Isla Nublar just off the coast is amazing and a must see. |  |
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| Costa Rica Travel on 15:54 - Jul 23 with 1415 views | WeWereZombies |
| Costa Rica Travel on 23:37 - Jul 22 by Kropotkin123 |
Went a while back now. Maybe 2012. Went to Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. My best experience was in Nicaragua. My worst experience was in Costa Rica. With that said, as a whole, Costa Rica was the best, and I've always recommended people visit Costa Rica instead of travelling the who region. Generally speaking, the people are some of the friendliest you'll meet. There is plenty to do and visit, so I'd recommend venturing out of a resort as much as possible. I didn't book a resort and did everything on the fly, staying with families or whatever options we had where we were (hotel or hostel). I guess it depends when it is in terms of how realistic it is to do things as you go. My trip was also no end dates, so I couldn't be late for a flight out. |
The open ended trip sounds like a good plan, even though we set aside two months for our jaunt we had spent too much time in Guatemala (although two weeks at Spanish school to start off with was not so bad an idea) and El Salvador. I would have liked to have given Belize more time, Honduras was just difficult and Nicaragua was a few days of extreme contrasts: leaving was the worst border crossing yet and I got punched by a beggar in Leon (and she had a fair degree of heft) for not giving anything. By the time we eventually crossed into Costa Rica we were running low on time, and Panama was a dash to a backpacker haunt east of David before a long coach trip for a couple of days in Panama City and flight back. | |
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| Costa Rica Travel on 17:00 - Jul 23 with 1369 views | SmithersJones |
| Costa Rica Travel on 18:58 - Jul 22 by BlueandTruesince82 |
I guess I'm hoping for a kind of dual location holiday split between beach and rain forest ideally with a tour operator that can organise all the logistics for me so it's as hassle free as possible.
Assume the roads etc are mostly quite good, Fortuna for the rainforest looks like it has lots of hotels.
Thanks for all the input so far |
I’d 100% recommend Costa Rica as a holiday destination. We used Rickshaw Travel and by the sounds of things I’d recommend you look at them. Basically they’ve got lots of 2-4 day blocks of things to do / places to go, you choose which ones you fancy and they put it all together including transfer between blocks. | | | |
| Costa Rica Travel on 17:04 - Jul 23 with 1360 views | BlueandTruesince82 |
| Costa Rica Travel on 17:00 - Jul 23 by SmithersJones |
I’d 100% recommend Costa Rica as a holiday destination. We used Rickshaw Travel and by the sounds of things I’d recommend you look at them. Basically they’ve got lots of 2-4 day blocks of things to do / places to go, you choose which ones you fancy and they put it all together including transfer between blocks. |
Awesome ty, will have a look at Rickshaw, seems like one of the best places in the world and have wanted to go since I was teenager and getting to the stage where to make the most of it one should go sooner rather than later | |
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