Costa Rica es Pura Vida

Costa Rica has so many different ecosystems to visit, it’s hard to answer the question "How was it?" The beach was relaxing, the volcano was fascinating, the cloud forest was an adventure.

One of the best experiences was the Cano Negro excursion from Arenal. We saw more wildlife here than we could see in a lifetime. It was like wildlife overload. We saw three kinds of monkeys (adults and babies), more birds than you could shake a stick at, and even a sloth in motion (which is rare, because they are one of the slowest animals ever, and they sleep a lot.)

I also enjoyed hiking around the Arenal volcano. We saw some wildlife on the hike as well, but the best part was hearing the volcano rumble (it was kind of freaky) and seeing the lava after dark.

I wasn’t all that impressed with Monteverde. I mean, it was okay, but I don’t know that I would make it a priority. But the hanging bridges were a unique experience while we were there.

And there can be no complaints about spending time on a beach. Our three relaxing mellow days at Flamingo Beach were a stark contrast to the "go-go-go" of the rest of our visit there. Who can argue with a few days of an all-inclusive hotel and beach?

Quick Tips:

Both the Cano Negro tour and the volcano hike were booked through Sunset Tours – and I can’t say enough good things about the company, the guides, the transportation, etc.

I don’t recommend spending any time in the capital of San Jose. Even the Costa Rican woman who sat in our row on the plane told us to get out of San Jose as soon as possible.

The rainy season is from about April to November, so our January visit worked out pretty well as far as the weather goes. We spent the week in shorts and t-shirts, and it only rained on us twice, for short amounts of time.

Also, get some extra-strength bug spray. The Costa Rican mosquitoes didn’t get the memo that they’re supposed to be repelled by this stuff. And definitely bring sunscreen, the sun is HOT!

Best Way To Get Around:

I don’t know if I would recommend doing a self-drive tour of Costa Rica. The roads are horrible for the most part (their idea of "paved" is rocks and dirt). If something happened to your car, you’re in the middle of nowhere waiting for a tourist bus to come by and help you. There are also scams where people follow rental cars and try to flatten a tire so they can rob you.

I think you should book the trip with transfers included, which is what we did. And there’s no reason to spring for an English-speaking driver, because it’s not a tour, it’s transportation.

After a long three-hour drive from San Jose on some of the windiest roads I’ve ever experienced, we finally saw the Arenal volcano poking up on the horizon. We drove through the small town of La Fortuna (renamed since it was fortunate to have survived the volcano blast), and then five minutes later we pulled off the road into the driveway of the Hotel Paraisso. I’m not sure what Paraisso means, but it was like a lush paradise. Everything has a “lodge” feel to it, with native plants and a well-landscaped property. There was a lake, a pool, a “pool” bar in a hot springs, and about 8 small hot springs pools. (Note here, these aren’t natural hot springs. The Paraisso set up a way to steal water from a natural hot springs and redirect it into their own springs. So they’re not really hot, but they have the same minerals, and a sign listing the minerals in the water is posted.)

We had paid for a “superior bungalow” room, so after we checked in (there’s Internet access in the front lobby for $3 an hour, by the way) our bags were put in a van and we were driven up the hill to our own little house. The lawn was beautiful, there was a front porch with two leather rocking chairs which looked onto a magnificent view of the volcano, and you were surrounded by the smells and noises of the environment. The room consisted of two queen beds, a wall-mount TV, a fridge and a vanity with mirror and dressers on each side (with a safe that was an extra charge to use.) The bathroom was fairly large with a glass-door shower. The décor was very forest-like, and the walls were all wood (and in some places there were holes). The beds faced the windows, so you could lie in bed and look at the volcano in the morning (if the clouds allowed.) The only problem I had with the place was the smell. I believe there was nothing that you could do about it, it’s a result of the humid, rain forest-like environment. Oh, and the bugs. You’re in a natural, eco-friendly environment. You’re in their house. But it’s still a bit weird. And the Costa-Rican mosquitoes didn’t get the memo that they’re supposed to be repelled by Deet. The maids even brought a little wildlife into our room, with a towel sculpture of some swans.

At night, we went to sleep to the lullaby (or noise, depending on your point of view) of crickets and monkeys and birds. In the morning, we’d wake up and go to our included breakfast which was a buffet with Costa Rican staples (fried plantains, beans and rice, fresh fruit) as well as eggs, cereals and muffins. There was also an omelet station. I found it to be quite filling and very tasty.

The best part of the hotel is that you can’t spit without hitting a view of Arenal volcano. A point for some is that the hotel has it’s own set of ziplines, and the hotel can also book some other tours for you. The property also has its own hiking trail to the waterfall – at your own risk.

I think the room was a good value. We spent about $130 and that included breakfast. I also have a feeling that the problems that this hotel had (with the bugs and the odor) would be found anywhere, and it’s again just part of the environment. I’d recommend the Paraisso to anyone going to Arenal.

It’s a long trek from the eco-tourist part of Costa Rica (Monteverde) to the Pacific beach resorts (it took us just under 4 hours to drive, with about an hour on bumpy roads.) The weather is also quite different: the Pacific side is hot, hot, hot. But not terribly humid, so it’s not unbearable.

We purchased the all-inclusive package (room and all meals and house drinks) at the Flamingo Beach Hotel, and they know who gets what by the different color wrist bands they give everyone. We checked in around noon (normal check in is at 3) and they put us in a room with two double beds. That just wasn’t going to work for us, so we asked to be moved to a room with a king bed. We had to wait 3 hours, but we did get a new room. It was a beautiful room, with the exception of the parking lot view, but honestly, we didn’t spend much time in the room, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. The room itself was huge, with a fridge, a flat-screen tv and a nice sitting area.

The resort was a little smaller than most of the all-inclusives I’ve stayed in. There was one main pool with a swim-up bar, and the pool was well-kept – it was even lit nicely for evening swimming, and surrounded by pool-side lounges and tiki torches. It was a short walk across a small road to get to the beach front.

The fine white sand of the beach was easy to walk on, but the waves were pretty strong, so it’s not really a great swimming beach. But it’s a nice beach for walking and lounging, it’s quiet and not over-developed.

The restaurant was great for breakfast, good for lunch and okay for dinner. The menu is pretty limited and it doesn’t change, so if you were here for an extended stay, you’d probably want to budget extra money to eat off property a few nights.

There aren’t any organized activities (water aerobics, etc.), but there’s a tour desk where you can arrange day tours, fishing tours, snorkeling, etc. Some of these tours are to Arenal and Monteverde, which would make for LONG days. I don’t know that I recommend making the beach your home base for visiting these places.

The hotel was more than acceptable for the three days we were there. It’s a $6, 10-minute drive to the small one-souvenir-shop town. It’s 45 minutes away from Libera airport, and it’s a good place to get your beach on for a few days.

I will be the first to admit that when the transfer shuttle from the airport stopped in front of the Hotel Britannia, I was a little nervous. We’d just dropped some folks off at the Hilton near the airport, and their hotel looked like a paradise. Hotel Britannia was in the center of San Jose, surrounded by insane traffic, exhaust fumes, worn-down building fronts, etc. The hotel itself looked like a historic building with wrought-iron fencing and a beautiful entrance. The lobby was an open-air seating area with a small gift shop, and the front desk was situated in a small corner near a fountain.

The front desk staff (consisting of one person that we saw) spoke a fair amount of English and was as helpful as she could be (her resources were limited.) She told us that she’d upgraded our room and handed us the key and pointed to the door right behind us. The room itself was large with a king bed, a large bathroom, a TV and a mini-bar. The quaintness of the room didn’t assuage my fears that we were on the first floor, and our huge window opened out onto the street where the shuttle had just dropped us off. I soon found out that the glass was tinted, so that made me feel a little better, but I was worried about the noise and the neighborhood.

The hotel was a six-block walk to the Center. This was the heart of the city, and packed with people, even on a Wednesday night. If you were looking for local restaurants, you could find them here. If you were looking for Burger King or Quiznos (whut? Can we escape?) you could find them here. You could also find street vendors, souvenir shops, the National Theater, street performers and a casino in this area. So the hotel turned out to be close to the hustle and bustle.

Turns out, we got a good night’s sleep and nobody bothered us. I didn’t notice any noise from either the street or the lobby. For our included breakfast the next morning, we visited the restaurant on the property. It’s a cute little brick-walled bistro with a décor that was accentuated by interestingly shaped liquor bottles. The breakfast was a plate of fruit, toast, and coffee. Eggs and such could be ordered at an extra cost, and on nice mornings, there are tables outside.

Generally, I wouldn’t recommend that people even go to San Jose, but if you need a place to stay for the overnight, the Hotel Britannia wouldn’t be a bad choice. It’s quite a trek from the airport in some scary traffic (it took about 45 minutes), so that might be a consideration for you. It wasn’t a bad deal, it was about $100 a night, with the included breakfast. It was clean, it was quaint – I’d agree with the 3-star rating that I’d seen on TripAdvisor.

After a two-hour transfer from Arenal to Monteverde on the worst roads I’ve ever seen, we finally got to rest our butts as we arrived at our hotel. The family-run Fonda Vela is the closest hotel to the Monteverde cloud forest, and the buildings blend into the environment well. The room décor reflects the surroundings, and the room itself is HUGE! We had a king bed, a huge desk, an armoire with TV, and a sitting area that looked out onto a wooded area. The bathroom had a separate sink and mirror area, so I could put on makeup while the boy was in the shower.

The front desk staff was on the ball, able to book zip line tours or hanging bridge tours or any other tours. There’s Internet access in the main house as well. We didn’t have breakfast included in this hotel stay, so just the room rate was about $130.

The restaurant served okay food (the Costa Rican dishes were good, the American dishes a poor try), but the wait staff was a little slow on the uptake. The breakfast buffet cost us about $10 each, and lunch and dinner ran about $15 each. But they pretty much have a captive audience. After all that driving, I doubt anyone is going to want to taxi themselves on the bumpy roads back to the minature town for dinner.

We only stayed here one night, because we wanted to spend more time at Arenal and Flamingo Beach than in the cloud forest, but if you’re braving the roads to Monteverde, this hotel is a really good choice.

We booked both of our excursions from Arenal with Sunset Tours and I can’t say enough good things about the company and the guides. We had the same guide for both our Arenal volcano hike and our Cano Negro boat tour, and he was incredibly knowledgeable, and he could spot wildlife which reminded me of the old adage: "like finding a needle in a haystack."

A shuttle picked us up at our hotel around 3 p.m., and took us to the Arenal volcano viewing spot. A quick stop for a pee break (it’s a 2-hour hike) and then we were given our volcano lesson at the base (it’s Costa Rica’s youngest volcano, it exploded in 1968, and it’s active all the time, but not so it would force an evacuation.). After about a half hour history of the volcano, we started along the path into the forest. Our guide, Zender, could spot a rare plant at 100 yards, he could spot a bird in a tree with his naked eye, and he could call howler monkeys with the best of them. We saw both squirrel monkeys and howler monkeys, so many birds that I can’t even remember the names of them all and wild orchids. Our guide told us, as the volcano rumbled behind us (what a freaky feeling THAT was), that we were extremely lucky to get so see all that we saw. It’s kind of a hit or miss thing.

The hike was broadcast as a beginner hike. I’m no hiking specialist, but there were parts of the trail that I found a bit challenging, and I’m a gym rat. The guide was good about making sure everyone stayed together, though.

The hike finished right around sunset. We took another pee break and then headed to the best viewing point to view the lava flows. (For now, the direction of the flow can change.) Seeing a lava flow is a challenge, because the weather around the volcano is tricky. There are very few days out of the year where you can see it all the way to the top, and some days the clouds cover everything but the base. But again, we lucked out, because after waiting for about 15 minutes (with every other tour group in Arenal that day), we got so see some red sparks. (The lava isn’t like a river. The volcano spews rocks and ash, so it looks like someone flicking ash from a cigarette.) Overall, we were lucky enough to see everything we had wanted to see.

I will note that the road to the volcano is BUMPY! Just be prepared.

I think this is a great way to experience Arenal’s volcano, and Sunset Tours is the way to go. Book it in advance before you leave for your trip! (The volcano hike was $39 each, and for extra cost, you could include the hot springs and a dinner in your package.)

We booked two excursions from Arenal, both through Sunset Tours. I can’t say it enough, Sunset Tours rocks! We had the same guide for our Cano Negro tour as we did for our volcano hike, Zender, and he was a great guide. We found out at the end of our Cano Negro tour that it was the first time he’d done it on his own, and you’d never have known it, because he was a pro! The boat driver was a pro, too, spotting animals with the best of them. And one of the staff even reached into the water and pulled out a baby cayman (like a gator) for us to see up close! Now that’s dedication!

The transfer to the Rio Frio (the river that leads to the Cano Negro Wildlife reserve) took about 2 hours, and the last half hour of that is on an extremely bumpy road. But at the end of that bumpy road was a lunch that was probably the best meal I had while in Costa Rica. We had our choice of traditional Costa Rican food, and I chose the casada con pollo, which was chicken and rice and beans with a salad and tortilla crisps.

After filling our bellies, we boarded the flat-bottomed boat to start down the river. Before we even pushed off from shore, we’d seen a white cayman and a white egret. And, golly, then we went into wildlife overload. We saw blue egrets, snake birds, howler monkeys, squirrel monkeys, white-faced monkeys, caymans, bats, egrets, yellow-bellied birds, red-headed birds, a sloth (actually moving, and they don’t do that much!) and I’m sure more that I’ve forgotten. It’s like a wildlife Vegas – sensory overload.

We were on the boat for about two hours, and it went by fast. I was sad to hear that it was time to go back. (This from the person who gets sea-sick, but the ride was smooth and I had no problems.)

Don’t forget your extra strength bug spray (I had it on and still got bit) and your camera, and this will be one of your favorite excursions of your trip to Costa Rica. The cost per person was $55, and I think that’s a great deal.

The front desk at the Fonda Vela hotel booked a tour for us (the same day we arrived) to travel into the cloud forest and walk along the hanging bridges. There are several companies that offer hanging bridges and ziplines, and the one we heard the most about was SkyTrek. The hotel must’ve had reciprocal arrangements with another company, Selvatura, because we drove right past the SkyTrek office. But I think Selvatura did a great job – the transportation was included, and it cost us about $35 each, which also included a guide to take us along the path. There were only four people on the tour, which was also nice, because we got a lot of dedicated attention and could ask all the questions we wanted.

While not a zip line adrenaline rush, stepping out onto a hanging bridge still takes your breath away. The bridge does sway a bit as you’re walking on it, but I never felt unsafe. the bridges take you into the treetops (if you’re scared of heights, don’t look down) and often times right through the misty clouds of the cloud forest. Our guide, Hector, knew his stuff, and you could tell that he was super excited about his line of work. I was a bit disappointed in the tour, only because we didn’t see much wildlife (though there was a neat hummingbird garden at the start of the trail, and those little buggers will zoom right past your head.) But we did see a lot of interesting plants (like the Angelina Jolie, or "hot lips" flower, and the snowman orchid) and it was pretty neat to be in the treetops. The weather was a bit rainy, but we were in a cloud forest, so that’s par for the course. Our tour started at 2:30, and it turns out the last bus back to the hotels was at 4:30. We got a little caught up, so I felt really rushed during the last 20 minutes of our tour. I didn’t like having to walk on those trails at a fast walk, I was sure I was going to turn my ankles.

I don’t know if I’d go out of my way to do the hanging bridges in Monteverde, but short of the zipline, the bridges are the only other way to really see the tops of the cloud forest. Many tourists combine the two experiences, but we were a bit too chicken to attempt the zips. But we heard and saw them throughout the tour, and everyone sounded like they were having fun. It was definitely a unique experience, and a way to actually stop and see things instead of just zipping past them.