Costa Rica planning, suggestions?

Sebastian,

Only travels through Costa Rica once, but I did find some maps helpful..  You can download theaps from openandromaps.org for use with oruxmaps or Locus Maps apps.   Peace

Monte Verde is beautiful I suggest a night hike you will see all kinds of animals and plants(Glow In The Dark Mushrooms) that you won’t during the day.

+1 on Link’s Montverde suggestion. Other areas I’ve enjoyed were near Quepos (the splendid Manuel Antonio beach) and the Osa peninsula. I used to hang out in the Tamarindo and Playa Flamingo areas. I was fascinated by the fact that every beach between those two “towns” had different colored sand. Playa Conchal was a beach entirely composed of sea shells–pretty funky, if hard to walk barefoot on.

Don’t get pregnant.

(Zika reference).

Osa peninsula is AMAZING – but very much off the normal tourist track.  It’s far more isolated and way less touristy – and way cooler than anywhere else in CR.  Puerto Jimenez is the main city there – great little town and lots of really, really cool little hideaways right on the beach to stay in.

Having said that, I spent many weekends in Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean side, right next to Cahuita (also a little slice of heaven) – sand streets, great surfing, way off the beaten tourist path, you can stay in a hammock on the beach for $5/night, or a nice little hotel with a pool for $25.  Great open air bars and restaurants….it was my favorite hangout when I lived there a few years ago.

Seriously though, we just got back. Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve is great, especially for us Alaskans because its elevation makes it quite a bit cooler than other places.  The guide showed us some very cool birds plus a few critters although we were able to find some on our own, later as we continued to walk around the preserve.  Finding lodging, etc, can be a little confusing because several different preserves and adventure parks use “Monteverde” in their names and the local town is Santa Elena where the hostel, food stores, and most restaurants are.  AirBnB worked well for us in San Jose, near Arenal and near Monteverde.  My biggest suggestion:  Go on a bird-watching website and get the name of a highly recommended guide – a particular guide, not a guide service.  When we showed up with our Swarovski binoculars, they pulled us from the 10-month-experienced guides’ group and put us with the guide who’d guided for 23 years since that preserve had opened and it made a huge difference.  Get that reference long in advance, retain that guide for a day or two, and have him pick when and where to go.  By willing to get up early and you’ll see more birds.

We returned to Arenal and stayed longer than we did 20 years ago, but you’ve just been there.

20 years ago, we went to the Osa Peninsula and backpacked in the National Park.  It was a little exhausting the first 2 days as we adjusted to the heat and humidity.  We tent-camped, sometimes on our own and other times on the lawns of the camps/cookhouses that were located throughout the park.  Very simply dwellings at the time (may have changed) with bunkhouses and simple but tasty meals of beans, rice and chicken.  Plus cold-water showers (true almost everywhere).

Be prepared for a hard sell on the extra insurance on the rental car.  SLC (or TPL, SLI or API) is required by law and can not be replaced by your own coverage at home nor by your credit-card coverage.  CDW or LDW is optional.  As is Zero Liability.  Optional.  I see reports online of agents lying that it is required and many more, like my experience, of getting a very long and hard sell on it.  I work at a lot of US car rental agencies (cleaning up their contaminated soil and groundwater) and US counter personnel can make over $100,000/year by upsellng the vehicle class, GPS, and insurance – the high margin items.  The prices were the same or higher in CR while per captia income is 1/4 the US, so, in local buying power, that sales agent might be pulling down $250,000/year for selling high-priced insurance to tourists.  No.  No.  Really, no.  Sometimes, I got hot and bothered about it in the US, but decided in advance that I’d accept that car rental paperwork would take me an hour of saying, “No.” and not let it ruin my first day in CR.  A few consolidated car rental sites that usually give me accurate rates were giving me crazy, $6/day, no taxes or fees rates which ain’t true.  I saw a lot of posts by people who took such good news and then were very frustrated on site to have all the prices raised, taxes and insurances added, etc.  I went straight to National’s CR website, not the US one and the price quoted was what I paid in CR (after I said “no” about 34 times).

Almost all the tourists were driving little 4WD things by obscure Korean companies (Toyota RAV4 are top of the market).  For half the price, I reserved a 2WD Corolla and it was fine.  I drive my Corolla everywhere in the US (except the sandy beach) and there was only one super dusty, uphill stretch in CR that I needed to take a second run at.  Lot of rough roads, especially the side roads make for slow going, but that was for bumps – true in anything, not the traction.

All that said, 20 years ago, we did the Osa Peninsula via public transit which was cheap.  And then we weren’t leaving a rental car at trail head for many days.  There are flights and buses from San Jose to Osa.  Monteverde is also accessible by bus and we saw plenty of backpacker / college-student types going that route.  From Santa Elena to the different preserves, you’d have to taxi it, or use a guide service that picks up people in town.  (it’s 4-6 km from town to the nature trails, I think, on twisty roads).

Even if you’re taking public transit and absolutely if you are self-driving, get MapsWithMe app on your smart phone.  There’s a free version, but it was so highly recommended to me that I splurged and spent $4.99 three years ago.  And nothing on it since.  And have downloaded maps of Iceland, Italy, Switzerland, Costa Rica, etc, before a trip, erased it afterwards (to save memory) and then reloaded them when in wifi when I wanted them again.  All for that original purchase price.  The map and routing info is in your device (phone or tablet) and only needs your device’s GPS – not any cellular data to route you and constantly update your position on the moving map.  It made a HUGE difference in my experience to know the right turn was coming up in 60 meters and, the few times I missed a turn to hear from my wife that I’d missed it within seconds of doing so.  Turn off your cellular data, enable GPS for that app and you’ll know where you are at all times without using data at international rates.  There’s a decent search function for stores, restaurants, services, etc, and the routing was pretty good.  Alas, the travel times assume you drive the speed limit and on some back roads, you just can’t.  And on the highways, there are a lot of slow trucks.  So allow more time than quoted.

I don’t know, David. I’ve seen so many mudslides and abrupt broken asphalt drop-offs on the Costa Rica roads that I’d only rent a 4×4, not a 2-wheel drive. A broken axle would make for a very bad day, and trucks are built stronger than cars. The extra clearance and 4-wheel drive capability help too, especially when taking short sandy stretches to gain access to a secluded beach.