25-05-2005 05:06									#1
	Costa Rica advice Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

Has anyone here been to Costa Rica? I'm going next weekend for 7 days and 6 nights with seven other people (all friends or friends of friends) and we're renting to 4x4 so we can drive around the country and do what we want. Here's our proposed itinerary and if anyone has any suggestions on sights to see or hotels to stay at then please let me know.

There are two groups of us going with one arriving on the 28th and leaving after 5 days while the rest of us are arriving very early on the 29th and staying 7 days. We still need to figure out what to do for the last two days though we were thinking about spending at least one additional day (if not both) at Monteverde Cloud Forest National Park. The other option would be to head south towards Manuel Antonio National Park.

code:

Itenerary:

May 28th Saturday:
Group K arrives, and is transported to their rental car from the airport by the rental car agency. 
Group K will spend their Saturday evening in San Jose, and I think you have already
 booked a hotel for Saturday night.
 
May 29th, Sunday:
Group A arrives bright and early.  Both groups leave early from San Jose and drive to 
La Fortuna/Volcan Areanal/Lake Areanal area.  We should be there well before noon.  
Our stay at this site will be from Sunday Morning to mid-day Monday.  
At this site, we can do any/all of the following:

    * Cloud Forest
    * Hot Springs*
    * Water Falls*
    * Volcanoes*
    * Windsurfing*
    * Caving
    * Modest Night Life
    * Horseback Riding*

* indicates must do activities. 
We should spend the day doing hiking around the volcanoe, windsurfing, and hotsprings, 
and in the morning we need to take the horseback ride to the La Fortuna falls, 
which is highly reccomended.  After the horseback riding, we can leave for our next stop.
 
Places to stay:

   1. Areanal Observatory Lodge www.arenal-observatory.co.cr
         1. Rooms are about $20-$30/person depending on the type of room and the number of people
         2. Awesome views of the volcanoe, 1 mile from active volcanoe
         3. Hot springs in and around the lodge
         4. Only place to stay inside the Arenal Volcano park
   2. Tilajari Hotel and Resort http://www.tilajari.com
         1. 35 acre resort adjacent to the river with butterfly gardens and orchid park
         2. Own private reinforest preserve for hotel guests
         3. Kayak tours on the river
         4. Not a very good view of volcano
         5. Rooms are about $20-$30/person depending on the type of room and the number of people
   3. Montano deFuego http://www.montanadefuego.com
         1. Decent views of the volcano
         2. Supposed to be cheaper, can't tell becaues they aren't listing their off-season rates
         3. Nice and rustic cabins

May 30th, Monday - May 31st Tuesday:
After we complete our horseback riding tour of the La Fortuna waterfalls, we will drive around
 Lake Arenal to the Pacific coast of Costa Rica to the Nicoya Peninsula.  This drive should be 
about 150 miles and our final destination is Tamarindo which is the main resort town of Costa Rica.  
Our stay at this site will be from Monday evening to Wednesday early morning. 
 At this site, we can do any/all of the following:

    * Great beaches and all associated beach activities like surfing, swimming, snorkelling, 
scuba diving, sailing, fishing, tanning, sand castle building  etc etc
    * Caving
    * Endangered Sea Turtles are big here
    * Bird refuge
    * tourist resorts
    * shopping is big here
    * nice nightlife

Places to stay:

   1. Hotel Capitan Suizo www.hotelcapitansuizo.com
         1. Private beach
         2. Beach front bungaloes or high-rise hotel rooms
         3. Rates are a little expensive, about $200/night, probabaly will be needing two rooms\

This town has many hotels, and since we are going during Green Season, many of the rooms 
will still be available.  So, if the above hotel is not the first choice, we can always find another 
hotel of our liking once we get there. 
 
June1st Wednesday and beyond:
We will be leaving Tamarindo very early Wednesday morning and drive to Monteverde
 National Forest which is 120 miles away.  We need to leave early on (4am ish) Wednesday
 so that we arrive to the forest by Wednesday early afternoon, this way, Group K 
will have an entire 24 hours to spend at the cloud forests before they head back to San Jose 
Thursday morning to catch their Thursday evening flight.  Group A can stay here up till Friday 
afternoon until we have to head back to San Jose.  We catch our flight back to LA early 
Saturday morning, 630am.  So basically, Group A will have one more day at Monteverde 
than Group K will.  At this site, we can do any/all of the following:

    * Local guides to go hiking with
    * Butterfly and orchid gardens (worlds largest collection of orchids)
    * Canopy Rides (best in the country)
    * Cloud Forest (biggest and best in country)
    * Best wildlife and photography in the country
    * Santa Elaina Reserve
    * Great wildlife tours
    * Bunch of little zoos
    * River rafting/white water rafting
    * Coffee plantation tour
    * Private wildlife refuges
    * Several adjacent parks
    * Horseback riding

 
Places to stay:

   1. Fonda Vela www.fondavela.com
         1. Rates about $120-150 per 4 people
         2. Closest to park
         3. Huge rooms
         4. Window views overlooking park
         5. All the amenities of a good hotel
   2. Montaverde Lodge www.costaricaexpeditions.com
         1. Rooms with vautled ceilings, bath tubs and great views
         2. Solearium
   3. El Sol www.elsolnuestro.com
         1. Stupendous views all around
         2. Cash only

Last edited by Oerdin on 25-05-2005 at 05:19

	25-05-2005 05:08									#2
	Support Apolyton

Can't you reformat that ? I hate scrolling sideways

	25-05-2005 05:11									#3
	Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

If I do then it left justifies everything. I'll see if I can't add in a few breaks.

How's that?

	25-05-2005 05:17									#4
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

Maybe the list formatting could help.

	25-05-2005 05:20									#5
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

I tried it and it screwed up all the indents. I just hit enter in order to make breaks occur near the edge of the page. I suspect that's as good as it gets.

	25-05-2005 05:26									#6
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

It's fine now - and I think that Costa Rica may be worth a visit - maybe I should go when the temperature here goes against zero and the rain starts pouring down .

	25-05-2005 05:30									#7
	Tired of ads?

Currently it is the very beginning of what is normally the rainy season but this year has been a dry one in Costa Rica. Hopefully it won't rain to much but I'l pack my gortex jacket just in case. Temperatures have been aroun 72F/22C so it is very comfortable this time of year.

	25-05-2005 05:52									#8
	Put an end to popups!

the best idea is for the groups to move out at 0800 zulu, converging on that volcano, where objective A (see Appendix 1) can be reached. once you are 10 - 6 with the volcano, head back down to the beach where you can 10 - 8 with some hot babes. copy that?


objective A - cafe at the top of the volcano. (note, there are usually two prices, one for the locals and one for the dirty gringos)