Originally Posted by
Chelski
I agree with this. Stay at a resort, enjoy it.
I'm heading to CR in mid-November and will stay the 1st two nights at Doubletree Puntarenas. I wanted a couple days at the beach for my kids (4 and 3).
Right now, we are book for three nights in San Jose, but I'm looking to change to just the last night in San Jose. We plan to explore one rainforest/waterfalls and a volcano.
Last, late November we did a short 4 day/3 night trip to Jeju Island, S. Korea and stayed in a different place each night.
I plan to visit the Arenal Volcano being the most active and the Monteverde cloud forest/Children's Eternal Rainforest as one day excursions. I would like to make it to Manuel Antonio national park, but I think we will get enough from the Monteverde area and don't want to sacrifice precious resort time.
If there are any recommendations for cheap hotels in the Arena or Monteverdi area I'd appreciate it. Also, if there is a good location within close proximity to both that's an option.
We are the type to stop and check out a place while driving vs. hoping the plan is all that and a bag of chips
.
I stayed at the Doubltree at the end of my CR trip, in order to get acclimatised to Cancun (my next stay
). It's OK, nothing super-exciting and I guess the kids will prefer the pool to the beach. Get yourself a mossy repellent, though, or stay close to somebody who attracts them more than you. This is not hotel-specific but CR-wide. By the way, the margaritas were also OK.
If you go to the Arenal area, spend an afternoon at one of those hot-water spas. Both you and the kids will love it, once you get over the first shock when you enter a pool where the water is 45 oC hot.