My wife and I are planning a 10 year anniversary trip to Costa Rica in July. It will be our first trip without the kids in a while. We are looking to split the trip between the volcano area and a beach. We are looking at less commercial hotels that are in close proximity to the towns. I’m not sure if we should rent a car or do a trip that includes shuttles. We are used to traveling to many Caribbean beaches vs the pacific side. I’m told the Pacific side has more to do. Looking for recommendations on areas to stay how to navigate the trip. Thanks

For the beach part, look at the Pacific side. Tamarindo, Punta-Arenas, Playa Hermosa. There are many more. Beautiful country.

Wife went years ago. She highly recommends Arenal volcano and the hot sprins there. Two butterfly sanctuarys. (One in LaPaz), the bat museum and zip lines. She HATED the cloud forest.

Can I ask why she hated the cloud forest? We are going in July for our honeymoon. Going west coast to the Westin all inclusive. But we planned an all day trip to the cloud forest.

Wife and I visited the Guanacaste region along the Pacific coast in NW Costa Rica. Absolutely rent a car, that was a big part of the adventure. We enjoyed exploring the small coastal and mountain towns on our own. The roads off the main highway are total shit so don’t get in a hurry.

Cloud Forest....scorching hot, dry and dusty. Acording to my wife

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Originally posted by Jaycat:
Cloud Forest....scorching hot, dry and dusty. Acording to my wife

Interesting. Not at all what I’d expect. July is apparently rainy season so perhaps I’ll have better luck.

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Originally posted by frayedends:

quote:

Originally posted by Jaycat:
Cloud Forest....scorching hot, dry and dusty. Acording to my wife

Interesting. Not at all what I’d expect. July is apparently rainy season so perhaps I’ll have better luck.

Been to CR half a dozen times. Probably spent a cumulative 3 months there - mostly between August and October, although we were up in the mountains for a couple of weeks in April one year.

I've hiked through the cloud forest many times and scorching hot, dry, and dusty are the opposite of anything I could even imagine it being.

Could be warm, but not likely hot. The coast gets hot - the cloud forest? No way.

Dry and dusty? You're talking higher elevation rain forest. Even if the trade winds came to a complete stop, dry and dusty?

I respectfully suggest that wherever your wife was, Jaycat, it was somewhere other than the cloud forest. I'd be interested to know.

OP - just sent you an email with some notes I made for a friend a few years back for your perusal.

-Rob

Back when I used to travel for work a lot, and had a large number of Marriott points, my wife and I stayed at the JW Marriott in Guanacaste for a long weekend. What a great hotel, but probably not what you're looking for. A few miles away was the town of Tamarindo. That might be more your style. We flew into Liberia, which is roughly 45 mins away. The capital airport is much further away. The Guanacaste area was very nice.

Based on what I saw, I'd say rent a car.

Rob...thank you for what you sent it was very informative.

I ended up finding a direct flight out of Newark to Liberia. At this point we are planning on renting a car and spending 3 nights at Arenal Volcano and 4 nights at Tamarindo. We haven’t booked the hotels or excursions yet. We might take a night from Tamarindo and stay somewhere else. We are really looking forward to this trip.