Costa Rica Roundtrip
Destination visited: Costa Rica
Activities included: Birdwatching, Hiking/Trekking, Nature Observation
We travelled through Costa Rica in a Jeep from 10-30 August 2000. Despite a lot of rain, this is a wonderful time to see the country as there are hardly any tourists around.
Outstanding were the rainforests in the southwest (Esquinas Rainforest), the Santa Rosa National Park, Monteverde and the Caribbean beaches south of Puerto Viejo.
Additional Notes
I would recommend the following hotels / lodges: Esquinas Rainforest Lodge (wonderfully situated in the middle of primary forests near La Gamba / Golfito, very good guide), the Grano de Oro in San José (however, a day is enough for the city), Poás Volcano Lodge near Poasito (great open fireplace) and the Hazienda la Pazifica in Canas (for Santa Rosa).
Do take a 4WD vehicle, it makes things much easier if you want to reach remote areas (don’t miss Playa Naranjo and Playa Hachala in Santa Rosa) or go to Monteverde from Lake Arenal. Watch for police in 60km/h and 40 km/h speed limits. However, Costaricans tend to warn you, so we didn’t have any problems with the police.
If you want to relax on the Caribbean side, I would recommend Punta Uva (ca. 10 km south of Puerto Viejo) which has even more beautiful beaches than Cahuita and Puerto Viejo, with the only disadvantage being that you have to go back to Puerto Viejo every evening for the best seafood around (don’t miss the restaurants “Salsa Brava” and “Amimodo”).
Monteverde is nice but a crouded (and americanized) place – even in the green season. The private reserve Santa Elena is better than the Monteverde reserve itself and you definitely will meet more animals than people there (which is not true for Monteverde). Canopy is expensive, but good and safe fun. We did the Sky Trek (10 zip lines, one done twice, the longest is 420 meters with a maximum of 142 meters above ground).
Forget the Arial Tram, it is only enormously expensive and you won’t see much. One coach-load of package tourists after the other is squeezed into the cablecars, you have to book way in advance etc….
The best nature guide we can recommend is “The Ecotraveller’s Guide”
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