Since everyone in the world seems to have been to Costa Rica except me and Mr Pique, I am confident I can get some good recommendations here.

We have booked an AirBnB near the Caribbean coast, within walking distance of a national park that is supposed to have great snorkeling.

I have found a very cheap way to fly there--book MT to LAX on Delta and use my e-credits for the first leg, then book RT LAX to San Jose on AeroMexico--jeez, so cheap we can afford to fly first class if we want to, and even have a layover in Mexico City.

I will book the plane tickets as soon as I am pretty sure of the itinerary we want. We'd like to see more of the country than just the Caribbean side, and we need to figure out the best way to get around. I'm thinking we don't want to rent a car, but not sure what a good option would be. And I really don't think we want to take the bus.

Though we are used to roughing it all the time here in MT, we definitely do not want to rough it on this trip.

We are celebrating Mr. Pique's retirement. We've got three weeks before our employer-sponsored health insurance (which covers us overseas) runs out and we go on Medicare (which doesn't).

If you've been to Costa Rica, please share what you think an ideal three-week itinerary would be, or any highlights that are don't miss.

We love long walks on the beach, snorkeling, hiking, bicycling, hot springs, swimming, doing nothing, meeting the locals, birding, learning new things. And since Mr. Pique is not used to crime infested areas (I still have my instincts from living in Hell's Kitchen, he does not), we don't want to be in places where we have to worry so much about petty crime. Because Mr Pique does not pay attention, and I don't want to be stressed out being vigilant for both of us.

We strongly dislike: noise, crowds, chain hotels/resorts, lack of privacy, getting stomach problems, and getting malaria/dengue/zika.

Petty theft is common everywhere in Costa Rica according to friends that had a condo there.
The owner was asleep both times. He did not have his hearing aids in either time.
After the first time he put bars on every window except a small one in the kitchen. They used that to get in.

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:
Petty theft is common everywhere in Costa Rica according to friends that had a condo there.
The owner was asleep both times. He did not have his hearing aids in either time.
After the first time he put bars on every window except a small one in the kitchen. They used that to get in.

Wow. We are staying in a gated community. I'm hoping that eliminates that issue, but maybe not?

Where in Costa Rica is your friends' condo?

We stayed on the Pacific side so our (excellent!) tour experience won’t be much help. If you can find a local tour company (boat or mini bus) with good reviews you’ll probably see a lot of stuff you’d miss otherwise. The guy who ran ours was a retired Vons produce manager from LA who moved back to Costa Rica to be near family. Very funny and free beer!

One place he took us was a small house down a long, very steep road. The ladies who lived there were selling bags of banana slices for like 50 cents. The bananas were to feed the monkeys - 100s of them! - who lived in the trees. They were the kind who carry their babies in their backs and were endlessly entertaining. The males would sit way up in the trees and scream at the females to bring more bananas! I probably dropped $20 on bananas and it was money well spent. The monkeys took them right out of our hands and wait to see if we would give a second piece to their babies.

If you can find a canopy hike I’d recommend that - the jungle is amazing! The local beer is Imperial and it’s really good. The tourist stands overcharge for it but it’s available in grocery stores for about $1.50 a six pack. Ditto the local coffee - Blue Mountain? - really good and dirt cheap in the grocery stores. See if you can find one of the enormous ant hills. They’re really something.

We ate mostly at informal fish places on the beach. They didn’t look like much (thatch roof patios, open fires) but the food was outstanding and the owners were always very nice.

quote:

Originally posted by piqué:

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:
Petty theft is common everywhere in Costa Rica according to friends that had a condo there.
The owner was asleep both times. He did not have his hearing aids in either time.
After the first time he put bars on every window except a small one in the kitchen. They used that to get in.

Wow. We are staying in a gated community. I'm hoping that eliminates that issue, but maybe not?

Where in Costa Rica is your friends' condo?

Outside San Jose is all I know.

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:

quote:

Originally posted by piqué:

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:
Petty theft is common everywhere in Costa Rica according to friends that had a condo there.
The owner was asleep both times. He did not have his hearing aids in either time.
After the first time he put bars on every window except a small one in the kitchen. They used that to get in.

Wow. We are staying in a gated community. I'm hoping that eliminates that issue, but maybe not?

Where in Costa Rica is your friends' condo?

Outside San Jose is all I know.

oh. well, i have heard for years that San Jose has a lot of crime and is not a good destination. We will probably be staying the night, then catching a plane to the southern caribbean coast.

steve, the monkey thing sounds crazy.

we are hoping to go to three different parts of the country--southern Caribbean coast, the volcanoes area, and the Pacific coast. We heard there was a kind of a bohemian village on the Pacific Coast that was out of the way and laid back, so considering that.

Of course, I can't remember the names of any of these places.

So if you or anyone else has Pacific Coast or interior experiences to recommend, please do so!

One of the tours I'm interested in is taking a dugout canoe down an interior river to meet an indigenous tribe.

Another is a guided snorkeling tour off the coast of a national park--the one that is within walking distance of the only place we have reservations for so far.

Mr. Pique is into watching birds, so that might be another tour. The volcanoes area is of interest mostly because I like hot springs, but also it is cooler there and we would be more comfortable hiking.

There are places to go horseback riding so I am going to bring my helmet. Costa Rican saddles are a variation on the McClellan military saddle, which is the saddle I most prefer, so I might do that quite a bit.

Stayed here for a week and a half and loved it. Great resort and great base for day trips.

https://www.bosquedelcabo.com/index.html


J

There is a lake by a volcano that has freshwater sharks. Windsurfers like the lake for the wind, but it is not for beginners.

quote:

freshwater sharks

so, not only do they have saltwater crocodiles, they have freshwater sharks?

how lovely!

quote:

Originally posted by Jack Frost:
Stayed here for a week and a half and loved it. Great resort and great base for day trips.

https://www.bosquedelcabo.com/index.html


J

thank you. looks fabulous. but not in our budget.

Don’t let the sand fleas ruin your vacation! I hesitated to tell you this because I don’t want to be a trip discourager. But then I thought I should tell you.

Sand fleas are a problem in certain areas around the Carribean mostly in the jungle undergrowth of undeveloped areas where they live. When a sand flea bites, a round red circle about the size of a quarter will appear on your skin. A couple of days later the circle will become inflamed and become an itchy bump. And it's itchy as hell.

I don’t know how much of a problem the sand fleas are in Costa Rica but they were pervasive in the beach areas of Honduras where I went. Bring some insect repellant. Avon’s Skin So Soft, a bath oil, is claimed to be a sand flea repellant but Avon denies any insect repellant properties of SSS. Non-scientific empirical studies show that SSS is effective but scientific studies show that it's not. The next time I go there I’ll bring along both SSS and Deet which is scientifically known to be a repellant.

Google "sand fleas" and "Avon Skin So Soft as a sand flea repellant" for more information.

The people who live there get sand flea bites but don’t have the reaction that visitors get probably because they’ve developed an immunity to them.

thank you! i seem to remember suffering through sand flea bites as a kid when we went on beach vacations in delaware. we are still making plans. i find trip planning to be more onerous than ever. i deliberately made all flights and reservations with free cancellation in case we are too overwhelmed to get it together to go.

next time we travel i am going to hire a travel agent to do the whole thing for us.

We went a few years ago. We rented a car in San Jose and headed for the west coast. Saw the cloud Forrest, and Manuel Antonio Park.

I loved the freedom of a car. I recommend hiring good guides to take you through Manuel Antonio. You see so.much more. We also did a night hike, loved it.

I thought it was very safe. We stayed in local hotels, and we had no trouble parking.

Good luck!

how did you find driving there? we were going to not try to drive long distances because we read that there can be a lot of complications.

our itinerary at present:

we fly one day to LAX, spend the night in an airport hotel, then fly the next day to San Jose, and stay in another airport hotel. Then the third day we either fly or drive or take a shuttle to our first destination: Cahuita, on the Caribbean coast.

We're planning to spend a full week in Cahuita in an AirBnB, rent a car, and we have the use of bicycles. We want to explore the Cahuita national park, go snorkeling there, walk the many beaches, take a day and go to Bocas del Toro in Panama for the snorkeling, take a river trip to meet an indigenous tribe, and maybe also take some Spanish lessons!

Whew! I thought that was going to be our quiet week but it already sounds too busy.

Then we want to head to the Arenal/La Fortuna/Monteverde area for a few days and hike the Celestial River and maybe another trail and look for birds. Soak in the hot springs. I imagine it is going too be too touristy for us there, so three days max.

Our last stop will be a week in Guanacosta at a horse ranch where we will ride every day on Pacific beaches and Mr Pique may take riding lessons. Its an all-inclusive guest ranch with super nice horses--a cross of Paints, Criollos, and Paso Finos. There are all-day rides to local villages and fiestas. We'll have a private casa and three meals a day. This last is a pretty big splurge for us, but at this point going to a place where everything is planned out for us sounds very attractive.

The guest ranch is also planning our Arenal agenda--hven't yet heard what it is, but if anyone has recommendations i am all ears!