Costa Rica itenerary
 

I'm starting to think about my trip to CR in December and what I want to do so I can make sure I save enough $ to do the things I want to do.

I'm leaving on a Friday (December 12th) early in the morning out of Detroit (guess I will have to drive from Cbus to Detroit... I go where the cheap airfare is lol) and get back LATE on Christmas Eve, like, 11:50pm. My mom is unaware of this and I will avoid telling her until at LEAST Thanksgiving. I was deployed last Christmas so she's going to be pretty sore when she finds out I'll be traveling haha.

My point of my trip is to be a 180 from my Germany/Poland trip (which was kick ass, but now I'm ready for something new), so I am 100% about ecotourism and the beach. I'm a huge animal lover and I love hiking so I know I am going to have a blast.

So essentially, here's what I am thinking (this is a rough sketch right now of what's happening): Fly into San Jose and get the hell on the bus on Monteverde asap. I get into San Jose around noon or 1pm. I'm trying to get out same day but if not, I will catch the morning bus.

I want to do like 4 days in Monteverde... lots of hiking, ziplines, canopy tours, see the butterflies, whatever else is thrown my way. Then I want to head to La Fortuna/Arenal for like 2-3 days (what do you guys suggest?)... I know there's the taxi-boat-taxi route to get there from Monteverde, but I found a place that does taxi-horse-boat-taxi, and I kind of want to do it because I've never ridden a horse because I was always petrified of them (lol don't ask). Going to overcome it!! Then I want to head down to Puerto Viejo and just be a beach bum for pretty much the rest of the time. I 100% plan on staying at the Rockin' J's place in a hammock the whole time I'm there.

I want to go rafting too at some point. Maybe while I'm up at Monteverde.

And I read about Cocos Island National Park and that sounded awesome cos people really get permits to look for treasure there and that would be so fucking cool just to go poke around there for a day, cos they only allow so many people on the island per day. Also Tortugero sounds awesome too, but I think December is not prime time for some turtle action. I was reading about this village over by there called Parismina which is pretty "off the beaten path". I don't know. Those are my "alternates" I guess.

My big thing is I don't want to rush around every other day and be en route somewhere else. I traveled at warp speed in Europe and want to chillax this time around. Then again, I'm not scheduling my trip around a Celine concert this time either haha.

So what do you guys think? Also, how hard is it to get from La Fortuna down to Puerto Viejo?

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Sorry it took me a while to reply...

Getting out of San Jose right away is a good idea. I'm sure there are things to see & do, just make sure you do them in daylight.

DEFINITELY do the zipline in Monteverde!!! They've got the best (from everyone I spoke to). I actually stayed in Santa Elena. It's a little bit from Monteverde itself, but they're pretty centralized for catching buses to other sites. For the zipline, check out Selvatura - supposedly the "original" zipline.

To get to La Fortuna, I did the taxi, boat, taxi. Omi did the horse, boat, taxi when he went. I don't know if it's changed, but for a while there was some concern as to the condition of the horses they were using. Check it out to be sure before you go.

I picked up the rafting in La Fortuna. They'll pick you up at your hostel & drop you back off at the end of the day. There are multiple levels you can ride. I took the class III but I think I saw where they also have up to class V.

I can't help you with the coast. I stayed inland. A lot of other folks on here have been to the coast though. They'll probably chime in here sooner or later.

ENJOY!