First off, thanks for the advise to those who responded to the "Driving in Costa Rica" post (which I didn't post). Not quite a ringing endorsement for renting a car!!

In any case, I'll be going to Costa Rica in January with a few others, and will be flying into the Liberia Airport for our week's stay. Our plan was to rent a car, and then spend about 4 days "inland" in the Guanacaste area doing the attractions (canopy tour, white water rafting, rainforests, hot springs, etc.). Then we'll go the Pacific Coast for about 4 days of beach and scuba time.

I'd love some advice on hotels, restaurants, attractions, etc. For our inland hotel, we've considered Tabacon and Arenal. For the Pacific Hotel, we're looking at Cala Luna in Tamarindo. However, any other advice or info would be great.

bump... anyone?

Hi dave:
Looks like a nice itinerary? What beaches will you be visiting in the Pacific? Also, what are some of your interests besides the stated, like golf or other sports, or cultural activities too. If you're a golfer, there's a couple good courses you can play near Tamarindo. Other good hotels around there include the Melia Playa Conchal, a beach resort with golf courses. There are many restaurants, but what sort of choice are you looking at?
As for the inland (volcano, etc.) I'd say Tabacon is a good choice, but I've never stayed there. I'll be in Costa Rica in January too. I can help you quite a bit with your questions as I grew up in CR.
Sorry for the late reply, but got online today for the first time in about 10 days
Take care

Thanks for the reply. Not sure about which beaches we want to visit on the Pacific- once we're out there, we'll basically just pick a resort to hang out at for a few days. No golf, but we'd like to scuba dive. Any Pacific resorts, or smaller full-service hotels, that come to mind (other than Playa Conchal)?
As for restaurants, anything goes...
We're probably going to rent a car, but if we were to stay at Tabacon, would it just make more sense to take taxis/tours to the various attractions, and skip the rental car?

Thanks.

A good resort-hotel property near Tamarindo is Barcelo Playa Langosta. This is a hotel run by the Spanish chain Barcelo. Langosta beach and other surrounding beaches are quite nice, I'm not totally sure about scuba diving though. As for Arenal, I would consider it better to still have the rental car. It gives you total flexibility to what you want to do and when to do it. There might also be last-minute places you might want to see. Also, taxi-riding around Arenal and La Fortuna isn't very practical. There are a few good typical food restaurants in La Fortuna. There are also many pizza places with quite decent food.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by UA888-SJO:
A good resort-hotel property near Tamarindo is Barcelo Playa Langosta. This is a hotel run by the Spanish chain Barcelo. ......</font>

Of late Barcelo has become terrible in their services. I used to like them, in my last trip to CR, a two night all inclusive stay became a nightmare with no runing hot water, and variety of options for meals being comparable to that of airlines http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/frown.gif

OTH, Sol Melia managed properties are all top notch.

When will you be there? I should be in San Jose around the 24th of January. Still ironing out details. Feel free to private mail me.

Chris

Thanks to all for advice- will be in CR from 1/18-1/26, but are not going to San Jose. Plan now has 3 nights in Arenal (hoping to get into Tabacon which is currently full), 2 nights in Monteverde (hotel TBD) and 3 nights on the Pacific in Tamarindo, at Cala Luna hotel. We'll be flying into Liberia airport (new DL non-stop from Atlanta just started), and will rent a 4x4 to get around.
Any other thoughts?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by dave_261:
We'll be flying into Liberia airport (new DL non-stop from Atlanta just started), and will rent a 4x4 to get around.
Any other thoughts?</font>

Be careful about driving -I'd suggest getting a touristic agncy to provide you with transportation from Arenal to Monteverde (We used a boat to cross the lake, and the drive from there up the mountains was brutal even for the local driver of the 4x4.

[This message has been edited by akhullar (edited 12-14-2002).]

Hello. My apologies for bumping such an old thread. My wife and I are heading down to Costa Rica soon and I had a few questions that I could not find in this or other threads, so I figured it would be better to add onto this thread than open another one.

From reading all the relevant threads, it seems to be a tossup as to whether to drive in Costa Rica or not. I don't plan on doing any driving in San Jose. I do need to get from SJO to Playa Hermosa (wife's relatives are up there), and then from there to the Arenal volcano, before heading back to SJO. I know there are buses that go from SJO to Playa Hermosa, but don't know of anything from there to Arenal and back to SJO.

Knowing that I am not driving in San Jose, would you recommend renting a car or just taking buses? I am leaning towards renting because I like the freedom of being able to go where I want when I want. Also, does it matter at all that I speak Spanish?

Around the Arenal volcano area, does anybody know of any other decent places to stay other than the Tabacon resort? We are hoping to stay at Tabacon, but in case it is not available, I'd like to have a back-up location, and I can't seem to find anything else in the area.

Finally, is it even worth while for me to bring my cell phone? I have a GSM phone that works on the 900/1800 frequency, so I have used it in a few other countries just fine. I see that Costa Rica has a provider (I.C.E.) that offers GSM 1800 service, but it seems to be sketchy. I'm wondering if anybody else had luck bringing their phones and getting a pre-paid SIM card while there.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[QUOTE=SMF UA 1K]From reading all the relevant threads, it seems to be a tossup as to whether to drive in Costa Rica or not. I don't plan on doing any driving in San Jose. I do need to get from SJO to Playa Hermosa (wife's relatives are up there), and then from there to the Arenal volcano, before heading back to SJO. I know there are buses that go from SJO to Playa Hermosa, but don't know of anything from there to Arenal and back to SJO.

Driving in Costa Rica is an adventure. As long as you don't mind shelling out some bucks for a 4x4, and have a decent sense of direction (or know a few Spanish words to ask for help), I think driving is the way to go. I'd imagine that the bus service is reliable and cheap, but I think you'll have more freedom with your own car.

I flew into SJO 10/28/04 and left SJO 11/01/04. Highly recommend driving. Roads are excellent going from San Jose to La Fortuna/Arenal area (only a handful of serious potholes). The buses that travel that road are amazing - the tight turns, narrow bridges, etc. would make me nervous being a bus driver.

From LaFortuna to Tabacon Hot Springs the roads are good. From Tabacon Hot Springs into the Arenal Park the roads are mud/rock but I saw both 4x4 and cars navigating the rough roads.

From Arenal Park to Arenal Observatory extremely rough roads.

I have about 300 pictures available just send me a quick email.

A guy at the hostel in Escazu/San Jose said he planned on using the bus system and that is a popular option.

Hotel/hostel we stayed at ($36.00/night) in LaFortuna: http://www.cabinasguacamaya.com/ It was mentioned on the US inflight magazine 10/2004 and we had already decided to stay at that location. Very friendly and helpful (no meals included though).