costa rica questions

[San Diego Bride]

i''m trying to plan a 7 day trip with my husband for the end of march. right now costa rica is at the top of our list. i''ve read the posts here and have done a fair amount of reading on my own, but have some questions for you well-traveled folks...

the trip reviews i''ve read have been longer than 7 days and have started in san jose, but we do have time constraints and flights are significantly less expensive to liberia. ideally, we''d like to go to the volcano, the cloud/rain forest, and have a little beach time. is this feasible without being too rushed or do we need to give up on something? would starting in liberia be an issue? if we flew into liberia, we''d go to the beach on the west side (pacific) instead of the carribean. are the beaches nice here? a couple of days laying on a white sandy beach would be the perfect end to a few days of hiking, kayaking, ziplining, etc. in our minds.

also, any travel book recommendations? i always travel with the "time out" series as a reference, but they don''t have one for costa rica.

thanks in advance for you help!

 

[bee*]

We're planning to go here on our honeymoon (thanks to surfgirl

). I can't answer your questions on travelling yet but just to recommend a book-I got the DK eyewitness one the other day and it's really good. They have plenty of info in it and I got a great sense of the place from reading it.

ETA-also try reading tripadvisor. I've been posting on there the last while and they've answered many questions for me.

 

[movie zombie]

also picked up the DK Costa Rica as we have friends living about 10 miles outside of San Jose and we''ll be visiting with them this year. i think this book will give you an idea if you''re cramming too much into 7 days and what you really want to do/see.

movie zombie

 

[LGK]

I did approximately the same stuff in 11 days last August (with my ENTIRE EXTENDED FAMILY, dear god

). Honestly, I think it might feel a bit rushed to do all that in 7... maybe you might be able to make some not-set-in-stone type plans? So that way if you want to drop something out of your plans, you could. I'd definitely do the beach. Manuel Antonio on the Pacific side is where my family & I spent the most time, and it was beautiful, the beach was gorgeous, warm water etc. Lots of monkeys too. We also spent two days in the cloud forest in Dota at an isolated hotel, and I could have done without that actually, at least not for two days; it rained so much (rainforest, duh!) that it was tough to go out... however, seeing the quetzals made it almost worth it, come to think of it. Also the early tropical dusk made for dull, dull nights in the rain forest- pitch dark at 6, crawling with bugs and pouring rain, and the entire half of the hotel occupied by aunts, uncles and cousins... I was sooo grateful there was one cousin my age with, I think we would have died of boredom otherwise at Dota! Nothing like traveling with your mom and her siblings to make you feel like a kid even at 30.

How ever you do it, it should be a blast. (Darn, I have to go back in the next few months- my DH was supposed to go with but couldn't, so we need to use his ticket soon.) Have fun! Costa Rica is absolutely gorgeous

 

[San Diego Bride]

thanks for the suggestions, ladies. i''ll have to check out that book. i''ve scaled back from our original itinerary as it seems it would be too rushed for a week. we''re only going to do two areas- arenal (volcano, rainforest) and beach. we''ll skip monteverde (cloud forest) this time. manuel antonio gets consistently excellent reviews for its beaches, but since we''ll be flying in and out of liberia i think we''ll have to stick to beach in the northwest.

 

[Addlepated]

It''s been 10 years (!), but we had a weddingmoon in Costa Rica. We spent 8 days there, I think, and did much what you suggested. It went like this:

Day 1: Fly into San Jose, drive immediately to hotel.
Day 2: Hang out, rehearsal dinner.
Day 3: Get hitched
Day 4: To Arenal
Day 5: To Turrialba
Day 6: White water rafting
Day 7: To San Jose
Day 8: Flight home

Honestly, the scenery there is so breathtaking that even driving across the country was a joy. Do be aware that the road conditions there are quite rough, and even though (for instance) the drive from San Jose to Manuel Antonio is only about 120 miles, it took us 5 hours. We were a little beat by the end of the week, but I would do it again, no question (except I''d do the wedding in Turrialba because boy howdy, it''s humid in the rain forest, go figure).

BTW, Manuel Antonio is absolutely gorgeous. Beware the monkeys!

 

[blingergrrrl]

((Novia, I don''t mean to go off topic...but I was wondering if you have more pics of your eternity band? I started a thread in show me the ring to ask if you have more pics! Thanks, and have fun on your trip!))