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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I actually really appreciated using an agent for CR. She booked all of our activities, transfers and hotels, had someone meet us at the airport, get us through immigration (told us to use the short line, which we knew we could do, but forgot about in the moment), help with luggage, etc. She made restaurant recommendations (reservations not required were we ate and when we traveled) and was generally helpful, knowledgeable and friendly.  I'd use them again and have suggested them to others,  too, with similar results. It's Costa Rican Vacations, and dyonneburgers at namutravel.com. I love planning trips, but she took the headache out of it! That said, we didn't do any fancy itinerary at all and probably could have done it in our own.

Itinerary was similar to PP before me: San Jose to Arenal (Hotel Silencio del Campo is quaint but really nice; our kids both liked it, and there were hot springs all around; it might be sleepy for your older kids) Baldi Hot Springs (kitschy but we had a ball there; your kids might like Kalambu), hanging bridges tour (loved), volcano hike (loved), quite a few things we didn't do that you could do with older children.

We drove ourselves to Quepos and stayed at the Arenas Del Mar, which we LOVED... highly recommend. Probably my favorite hotel anywhere ever. I want to live there and never return! Lol. It is a bit isolated and the drive from the main road in the dark is terrifying.  Did beaches, Manuel Antonio hike (I would have enjoyed a second day there just on the gorgeous beach), and a mangrove tour. One thing we did which i highly recommend is a guide for all the major hikes. We would have missed 90% of the wildlife on our own, but with a guide we saw tons, including pit vipers literally right next to us, toucans, howler monkeys, sloths, capuchin monkeys, so many other birds, crabs, snakes, lizards, etc.

If we had gone for 10 days like you, with older kids, I would have added the cloud forest Monteverde.

I'm planning our next trip back![/quote]

Do you mind sharing about how much you spent and whether the travel agent charged a fee? thanks[/quote]

We went on the shoulder season, early May, which saved us. Weather was fine.  It's always rainy in the rainforest, and we had only one rainy day in MA (I have a hard time understanding anyone not liking MA....it's such a quintessentially Costa Rican type activity!... maybe our experience was better being slightly off season). We spent about $6k including flights for 4 (SWA from BWI), all transportation and activities, hotels, breakfast daily. We were on our own for lunch and dinner, except for the activities which included a meal. The agent didn't charge a separate fee. Pretty sore they make money by recommending different tour outfits and hotels, but I found the ones they recommended to be top notch. She was also willing to adjust tours, hotels, etc until we were satisfied. [/quote]

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