Costa Rica Vaction

Geico266

Geico266

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Geico
We are thinking of Costa Rica for our winter vacation. Anyone been there?

Thoughts?

Things to see?
 
Yeah.

Did a little off the grid stuff at a treehouse community down near Golfito. Finca Bellavista is the name, highly recommended in all respects!

Flew UA into San Jose, rented a small 4x4 and drove 3-4hrs down, stopped along the way at Jaco for a night. Very touristy in the beach area, but we stayed at an estate bnb 1 mile inland which was awesome.
Rented kayaks from Golfito and paddled across to some empty islands.. saw lots of monkeys, sloths, turtles, etc. Really pretty area down there.
Got by with near zero spanish, everyone was friendly. We didnt really do anything in San Jose, I imagine its rougher there.

I wouldn't do the "fly in and get whisked away to liberia in a van and spend a resort-only week" as you don't get any of the local culture/experience - if you do that kinda vacation just goto Bahamas or Jamaica or Cancun.
 
Stop by "The Flying Crocodile Lodge" over on the west side for some great two-place Gyrocopter flights.
 
Check out Overseas Adventure Travel. Sure, its a tour but in a small van like vehicle that can go off the beaten track. Nice small estates, great food at small restaurants, usually about 15 people in the tour.

My logo is from a wrapper of a bar of soap we picked up on the trip.
 
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Geico266 said:
We are thinking of Costa Rica for our winter vacation. Anyone been there?

Thoughts?

Things to see?
Click to expand...

Went 20 years ago. Roads were advertised as "best in Central America". They were awful. The road signage (or lack thereof) was pretty bad too.

San Jose was pretty rough.

Otherwise, the beaches, resorts, cloud forests, and volcanoes were incredible. The food was great and affordable too. The people were very nice and it was easy to find someone who spoke English.

I'd go back in a heartbeat.
 
I was there a couple years ago. What are you looking for? Surfing, beaches, rainforest, volcanos, zip line, relaxing?
 
Geico,
I have been to Costa Rica four or five times in the last 15 years. Each time in my own plane. Costa Rica has changed their policy on tie down rates in the last few years. The last I heard a 24 hr. charge for ramp space was about $200.00 for any airplane regardless of size. I have found Costa Rica fun and interesting although road travel is pretty slow. I am not a fan of San Jose but like the north part of Costa Rica. I would recommend the country and would second the recommendations of Kyle Boatright. Have fun!
 
Badger said:
I was there a couple years ago. What are you looking for? Surfing, beaches, rainforest, volcanos, zip line, relaxing?
Click to expand...

More relaxing, body surfing, touring, volcanos.

Any issues with drinking water?

Thanks for all the tips! I think we are in! :D
 
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Beautiful country. I've been to Liberia and San Jose and both are great places to visit.
 
kyleb said:
Went 20 years ago. Roads were advertised as "best in Central America". They were awful. The road signage (or lack thereof) was pretty bad too.

San Jose was pretty rough.

Otherwise, the beaches, resorts, cloud forests, and volcanoes were incredible. The food was great and affordable too. The people were very nice and it was easy to find someone who spoke English.

I'd go back in a heartbeat.
Click to expand...

The long skinny crappy road leading out of SJ West has been replaced by a huge new toll road. Was often getting pushed out of the way at 60-80mph.
That replaces the old crappy mudslid roads for at least near Jaco. Then the road down (Pacific Highway?) is 2 lane mostly but newly paved and nice with passing and turn lanes.
 
We've been three times and I'd go back tomorrow. The people are great, actually like folks from the US. We help them out with Nicaraguan guerrillas. No army, mostly middle class by their standards. They claim to have invented Eco-tourism. I believe over 80% of the country is protected in one way or another
NE, Tortuguero Conservation Area, quiet, no road access, boat or airplane. Help with turtle nesting or hatching at the right time of year. Over 20,000 turtles come to lay their eggs.
SE more things to do and choices. Also a quick trip into Panama. A sloth sanctuary. very nice.
Monte Verde, tropical cloud forest many different birds and plants. Things change by going up or down a few hundred meters. Many of our house plants came from here.
Drake Bay area - lowland rain forest and more snorkeling or diving.
And the there is zip lining, rafting, horseback and hiking trips.
They have Puerto Vallerta style stuff in the NW. Haven't wanted to go there.
Costa Rica Expeditions - http://costaricaexpeditions.com/wl3/index.php
They set up a personal itinerary then book everything for you including a chartered 182 to Tortuguero. Single pilot IMC for awhile. I liked it, the wife not. Tropic Air served the other places. OAT is good but I rather not be in a group if possible. This 'outfitting' worked great.

Eric
 
Geico266 said:
We are thinking of Costa Rica for our winter vacation. Anyone been there?

Thoughts?

Things to see?
Click to expand...

Depends what you want to do/see. Surfing on the west coast, water will be cold, jungle trekking interior, and diving off the east coast, Ambergris Cay has some great places.
 
Henning said:
Depends what you want to do/see. Surfing on the west coast, water will be cold, jungle trekking interior, and diving off the east coast, Ambergris Cay has some great places.
Click to expand...

Henning ! I figured you to bring up "The Blue Marlin" in San Jose !
 
Flew into Liberia and went West so Tamarindo and trekked around from there a couple years back. Fantastic surfing, relaxing, fishing, rock climbing, hot springs, food etc. Volcanos just a couple hours to the North. Absolutely recommend it. I used anywherecostarica.com which is basically a free travel agency that will book every part of your trip for you and provide excellent live communication throughout. I asked them to book a small but decent hotel for us to stay in and they said they would send confirmation, instead of confirmation they said the hotel was full (after they had said it was available) so without any word from me at all they put us up in the four start resort at no extra cost. Check them out, they're great. Highly recommend CR and the Playa Tamarindo area, not too tourist-y but no Spanish needed. Perfect for a first time visitor, very safe and very beautiful and friendly.

Also, I guess Henning has a different definition of cold water, I was more than comfortable in just my board shorts every day!
 
1. Don't drink local tap water. Stick with bottled water.

2. You will enjoy the trip no matter what you do.

3. Bring more money than you expect to spend on souvenirs and gifts.

Expect to pay the departure tax. When I was there about 10 years ago the departure tax was cash only in local currency.

I had not heard or read about paying to leave.

There is no army but the police were ex-military at the time. I felt confident everywhere I went. I went to the local bank to exchange money and an armed guard stood on each side of me. One with a shotgun, the other with a Glock 22 I think. I felt intimidated for sure. The teller told me it was because of the burn scar on my right forearm. Seems the local gangs were burning off tattoos so they could not be identified so easily.

Most people were polite as I tried to use my limited broken Spanish. One elderly woman just stopped me and in better English than me told me to speak English.

I spent a couple days in San Jose, then spent a week in a couple resorts in the mountainous area near a volcano, I just can't remember the name. Food was great, they believe in a big breakfast. We visited a butterfly nesting area, had humming birds eat out of our hands and had some of the juiciest, most flavorable strawberries I have ever had.

Everywhere I went the people were friendly. I met more than a few American expats there. If I win the super jumbo lottery, I may go there in the mountains to retire.
 
Art VanDelay said:
Henning ! I figured you to bring up "The Blue Marlin" in San Jose !
Click to expand...

Or the "Cocal Casino" in Jaco. Lol

I was in Costa Rica earlier this month. Go, you will enjoy it. This time we flew to San Jose, and took a 1.5 hour van ride to Los Suenos which is just north of Jaco. We had excellent fishing, golfing, zip lines, atv rides and relaxing on the beach. The Casino Cocal in Jaco has slot machines that paid out real well. It is not a family oriented place though.

There are nice resorts in the North parts also near Liberia. They seem more family oriented to me.
 
Volcano, rainforest, army ants, horseback riding, kayak, zip lines, mile long water slides, scarlet macaws, green parrots, mot mots, fresh tropical fruits, black beans and rice, hot mud baths, waterfalls, tree-top canopy walkways, green flash sunsets -- did a lot in a short time. An incredible country. Friendly people, too.
 
tinerj said:
Volcano, rainforest, army ants, horseback riding, kayak, zip lines, mile long water slides, scarlet macaws, green parrots, mot mots, fresh tropical fruits, black beans and rice, hot mud baths, waterfalls, tree-top canopy walkways, green flash sunsets -- did a lot in a short time. An incredible country. Friendly people, too.
Click to expand...

I get everything but MOT MOTS. :dunno:

A motmot is a beautiful bird.

http://www.google.com/#q=mot+mot
 
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Snake said:
Or the "Cocal Casino" in Jaco. Lol

I was in Costa Rica earlier this month. Go, you will enjoy it. This time we flew to San Jose, and took a 1.5 hour van ride to Los Suenos which is just north of Jaco. We had excellent fishing, golfing, zip lines, atv rides and relaxing on the beach. The Casino Cocal in Jaco has slot machines that paid out real well. It is not a family oriented place though.

There are nice resorts in the North parts also near Liberia. They seem more family oriented to me.
Click to expand...

We are empty nesters looking for fun. :wonderwoman::happydance:

:lol:
 
Has anyone been Los Suenos, a marina/harbor in the northwest?
Looks touristy but we're thinking of going for the fishing.
 
Geico266 said:
What do you guys do for internet communication? Verizon? Text?
Click to expand...

We had WiFi where there was no electricity or phone. Sometimes had to sit outside or go to the lounge but it was fairly available. If you need every minute then sat is probably the option.
 
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