Central America - San Jose, Costa Rica - To Do?

CO Airlines had an amazing deal on FC tickets to San Jose, CR so before I was able to do any good research on San Jose itself, I booked the tix and we leave in one week. Now I am regretting it as we only stay 3 nights and I realize how far of a distance everything good is from San Jose and hear that we can do the city itself in one day.

Now that I am able to do some homework here, do you have any suggestions to feasibly experience anything good within a close hour of the city as we are staying at the Marriott San Jose and I am really not great on trecherous roads with cliffs, long drives, pot holes and all the horror stories I hear, unless they are exggaerated? Since we do originate in Florida with a layover, I don't think it is feasible to really take a long drive or flight that same day just to turn around a few days later.

Thanks for any input whatsoever, I appreciate it. This might just be an early year mileage run, if nothing else.

Please follow the discussion as the thread moves to our Travel->Latin/Central America forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

Is booking a sep. connecting flight from SJO to Liberia possible? This will get you to the coast without a long drive.

I can recommend a few things:

I really enjoyed viewing the Poas volcano. A huge crater, active, steamy. The road up is not too bad (and from my perspective the roads in CR are really not that bad). This is about 2 hours away though.

You can also do a day tour of the Irazu crater.

About one hour outside of San Jose, there is the Braulio Carillo Park. Hills, volcanic run-off, some nice landscapes, and it's where I saw my first sloths and monkeys. The big thing there is the Aerial tramway. I found the tram to be a little lame. It was nice seeing all the plant life at the different levels in the canopy. Just don't go expecting to see tons of animals here. They avoid the tram.

I have heard the Butterfly Gardens and La Paz waterfalls are good as well.

I also enjoyed a tour of the Cafe Britt plantation. I learned all about coffee, they present the information in a fun way.

You may also be able to find a cloud forest area.

Just curious but what did you pay for these F tickets, and were they out of NYC?