Vacation to CR

My wife, and three kids (18, 19, 22) are making our first visit to Costa Rica (June 28 - July 5). A day or two around San Jose, then south to Domincal area for 3 - 5 days.

Our interests are a brief exposure to canopy tour, white water rafting, horseback riding, then, just R&R stuff beaching, surfing, nature. Question is: should we go north to Monteverde or La Fortuna area for these activities (plus live volcano sighting) and then head to Dominical area for remainder 4-5 days OR bypass the north area and just go south, if we can find comparable exciting like activities there. Hope this make sense.

I don't know if it's too much of an inconvenience (time, travel, cost) to do the north activities or if we are able to make better use of our resources finding a single locale to 'gitter done.'

Is the Dominical area a good choice for surfing, R&R, nature with reasonable (very reasonable preferred) or do you have another recommendation.

Thank you all so much for your insight and experiences.

dave

Reply to this

I have not been to Dominical or Monteverde but I do highly recommend Volcan Arenal near Fortuna. The town of Fortuna itself has nothing to offer and is quite unattractive, but the surrounding area is beautiful and has many adventuring possibilities. The sight of the volcano lava at night is awesome, and the surrounding rainforest area and nat. park is gorgeous. There are lovely hot springs and plenty of opportunities to see nature (howler monkeys, birds, rainforest, etc.). There's a butterfly garden/ farm in Fortuna, which I enjoyed as well. I think your kids would like it.

You could do a lot in the Fortuna area in just a couple of days. The drive from San Jose to Fortuna is breathtaking. Once you get there take a tour which includes rainforest hiking, volcano-viewing and a visit to the hotsprings (I liked Tabacon Springs). After that you could move on to the beach and do your relaxing. Really, you could do a lot in one day in Arenal area, but allow 2 days just in case one night is cloudy and you don't see the lava your first night.

Another tip- get out of San Jose as soon as possible (or better yet, skip it altogether!) The highlights of Costa Rica are elsewhere. If you need to stay near the airport for your return, stay in one of the neighboring towns/suburbs instead, Heredia or Alajuela. Reply to this

do not bypass Arenal. You'll be able to do either Monteverde or La Fortuna one of the two. Canopy tours there are amazing, hots springs are a must, you can raft there too. then head to Dominical to chill on the beach Reply to this