Costa Rica Questions

carl4252003

so fi and i have been going  back and forth to go to the islands for our hm or somewhere different where weve never been ... yes there are many islands we have still yet to see ... but in a way once uve been to one uve been to many! lol ...

we were starting to look into costa rica and i saw that there are different areas in costa rica ... does anyone know of the specific between them .... we are looking for an all inclusive that wont break our wallets ... wanna stay less then $4000 .... we are into excursions as well as laying and relaxing on the beach ... we arent into the gigantic party scene but a little night life at the resort and whatnot would be perfect ...

any suggestions ...

thanks for all the help!!!

alithebride

a book about the country might be a starting point for you. head to your library and check one out. dh and i stayed on the west coast just south of puntarenas for a week for my birthday a few years ago and had a great time.

girlinchicago

Here's some good, basic  info about the different areas of CR and some nice hotel options in each area.  I don't recommend booking with them though - we could have booked the same package on our own for less.

http://costaricaexperts.com/destinations.php

We did 12 nights and stayed at El Silencio Lodge & Spa (AMAZING!), Arenal Nayara (not a fan,)  Lapa Rios (AMAZING!) and Oxygen Jungle Villas (yuck.) 

Let me know if you have any questions or want to see pictures from our trip. 

Karen's MOH

I would also recommend staying in more than one place, but don't stretch yourself too thin since traveling through the country can take some time. We stayed in three places in a week, and that was too much-- two places in 1 week, or 3 in 10 days or so, seems ideal to me. 

The Pacific coast is where you will find more AI places and pretty beaches, sunny weather, so definitely go there, but I personally wouldn't ONLY stay there. I would recommend something more in the central part of the country as well-- we stayed in Arenal and did ziplining and things like that which was really fun. Then we moved on to Tamarindo, which was great but also a little more like 'any tropical type beach vacation', if you know  what I mean. 

I found the Frommer's guide to be really helpful and we actually referred to it a bunch of times while we were there.