Rate this Costa Rica Itinerary

[Anonymous]

Would appreciate feedback on this summer trip:
-San Jose 1-night
-Tortuguero 2-nights
-Arenal 2-nights
-Monteverde 2-nights
-Manual Antonio 2-nights
-San Jose - 1-night

It seems like a lot of driving, but I don’t know which areas to eliminate!
Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I think you can combine Monteverde and Arenal. One night less. Are you doing the driving yourself ? Why are you going to Tortuguero?

[Anonymous]

Thanks to the PP. I’ve heard amazing things about Tortuguero- plus I have a non-refundable credit (from our cancelled covid trip) that I have to use.

How do you combine Arenal and Monteverde? They are 3 hours apart?

[Anonymous]

I definitely would not do more than 3 sites. It takes forever to get around. I would do one beach and one interior/volcano spot — so flying into San Jose, arenal and tortugero I guess since you are locked into it.

[Anonymous]

fly out of liberia airport so you don't have to back track and spend a few days at the beach.

[Anonymous]

Looks fine to me but I’d eliminate Manuel Antonio out of all of those options. I’m not really a beach person though.

[Anonymous]

This is too much driving, you won’t have time to experience anything/ just pass by in a car.

Since you can’t drop Tortugero, I would skip Manuel Antonio. No need for two beaches.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone - I don’t think Tortuguero is considered “beach” vacation since you can’t actually go in the water due to bull sharks . If I could drop Tortuguero - and use the credit elsewhere…would you recommend Manuel Antonio over tortuguero?

[Anonymous]

Skip San Jose all together. Go see arsenal and then just go surf and do yoga in Nosara.

[Anonymous]

I assume you are just flying in and out of SJO. There is no need to spend any time in San Jose itself. So if you're spending time in San Jose, I would cut that out.

You can combine Monteverde and Arenal by just cutting out one day; you can do 2 nights in Monteverde, drive to Arenal the next day at 5am, arrive in Arenal and spend one night in Arenal. How committed are you to Arenal versus wanting to get reach beach time? I would consider cutting out Arenal and going to the Guanacaste beaches, and then from there back to San Jose to fly back. Arenal and Monteverde are similar in that they are both cloud forests. The difference is that Arenal you can sometimes see the volcano (often it is clouded over) and you can do the hot springs.

I think Tortuguero is about 6 hours from Monteverde (you need to add time because the road to Monteverde is so bad) so that will be the longest driving day.

Manuel Antonio is lovely but one of the minuses is that there are not many hotels near the beach itself, because MA is a national park. Most people stay in the hotels up the hill to Quepos. Manuel Antonio is also about 5 hours from Arenal, so that is a long drive.

Another idea is to go from Arenal to the beaches of Guanacaste, and then fly back on a domestic flight from LIR to SJO to catch your flight back to the states? Or if you haven't bought your tickets yet, why don't you fly into SJO so you can go to Tortuguero, and then fly home from LIR?

[Anonymous]

san jose is like Detroit there is no reason to spend anytime there.

[Anonymous]

Skip overnight in San Jose. Arrange for flight to the Tortuguero airstrip from San Jose upon arrival. Do three nights in Tortuguero (Tortuga Lodge--loved it, and plenty to do for three days). Fly back to San Jose and get car, drive to Arenal. Stay three nights. We actually had a driver transport us, which was nice. We liked Hotel Silencio del Campo in Fortuna. They have their own hot and cold spring-fed pools. We went ziplining, horseback riding, and tubing while at Arenal. For third location, maybe consider West Coast beach location. We did Manual Antonio for our third location, but it was kind of meh, to be honest. Although we did love our hotel--Si Como No.

[Anonymous]

Do not drop Tortuguero! Do the kayak tour and you'll see so many amazing critters! 3 different kinds of monkeys, toucans, otters, giant lizards (forget the name), and don't miss seeing the sea turtles laying eggs on the beach at night.

I would skip the first night in San Jose. We landed, picked up our rental car and drive straight there (well, to the parking lot to grab the water taxi). Just make sure your hotel knows what time your flight comes in. If it's after the time the public water taxi closes, you'll be taking a private boat there, but they'll be waiting for you, even if it's after dark.

You could combine other locations as others have suggested.

[Anonymous]

Do not drop Tortuguero! Do the kayak tour and you'll see so many amazing critters! 3 different kinds of monkeys, toucans, otters, giant lizards (forget the name), and don't miss seeing the sea turtles laying eggs on the beach at night.

I would skip the first night in San Jose. We landed, picked up our rental car and drive straight there (well, to the parking lot to grab the water taxi). Just make sure your hotel knows what time your flight comes in. If it's after the time the public water taxi closes, you'll be taking a private boat there, but they'll be waiting for you, even if it's after dark.

You could combine other locations as others have suggested.

[Anonymous]

How important is a beach? I would definitely drop MA. That's a ton of driving.

Staying near the airport on both sides is not a bad idea though. The custom line at SJO can take a while to get through. Rental cars aren't always fast, etc. We did a bunch of driving recently and were surprised at how many roads were not marked at all. I definitely wouldn't have wanted to navigate in the dark, which is after about 6pm.