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Published: November 30th 2009
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Waiting for our ride
It was too early for some of us to get picked up. For the last several years, my family has kicked around the idea of traveling over Thanksgiving week instead of converging in Chicago, particularly since we'll be doing so a month later for Christmas. This year we finally pulled the trigger back in February, and for 30,000 miles on American Airlines we booked tickets to Costa Rica for the week. We pretty much followed the Frommers suggested one week itinerary, starting in San Jose, and heading to Arenal, Monteverde and Manuel Antonio.
The consensus advice that I received from others who visited the country was to get out of San Jose as soon as possible. We had to stay there the first night since we got in late, and after walking around in the center of town, we decided that we preferred to wake up before the crack of dawn our final day and head over. So I’d have to agree: take a pass on San Jose.
Getting around Costa Rica is fairly easy, especially if you are traveling in a small group like we were (my parents and brother). While the mileage from place to place is not far, the conditions of the roads (many are just dirt) dictate
Hiking around Arenal
My brother, Ernest, and I hiking around the volcano, which was quiet, but we still had a good hike. the length of the trip, so you need to ask or read how long it takes to get from place to place. We were able to book private van service from place to place ~3-4 hours per trip for a very reasonable ~$150. If you are traveling alone or with just one other person, there are also van options you can book for ~$40/person.
Our initial plan was to stop at a volcano called Poas, which was somewhat on the way to Arenal, another volcano. After waiting for 30 minutes from our 630am pickup time, we contacted our hotel which arranged the travel, and they told us that there was a mix up and that the bus company thought the pickup was for 9am. We were told that after 10am, the clouds engulf Poas, and you can’t see anything, so it’s not worth going later than that. On our way to Arenal, we could see Poas surrounded in clouds around 930am, so perhaps we wouldn’t have seen anything anyway.
Things started to turn our way when we were approaching the hotel, and the driver announced that he had received word that because of the mistake, we wouldn’t have to pay the $150 fee. This was a gracious and generous gesture by the hotel, but they didn’t stop there. As we were checking in the manager and the customer relations manager both approached me profusely apologizing. The following evening the manager set up transportation, along with a cooler with enough beverages to serve 20, to a place where you go to watch Arenal erupt at night. The hope was that we’d see glowing red rocks flying out of the top of the volcano, but we learned that night that it had been dormant for the last two weeks, so wasn’t happening that night.
The other highlight of the area is the thermal spa, where the water is naturally heated by the volcano. If you visit Arenal, staying at the Tabacon Thermal Spa and Resort is a must. It’s one of the nicest hotels in the area, and entry to the spa, which costs $70 separately (including a buffet meal), is no charge for hotel guests. So at $150/room per night, it becomes fairly reasonable—just watch out for the food, which is way overpriced. The thermal springs were beautiful, with little sections of the river divided into little wading pools and culminating in a series of waterfalls toward the bottom, which you’ll see in all the promotional materials. This was certainly one of the highlights of the week, and I’m sure the stop would have been that much better if we’d actually seen the volcano erupting.
We were never quite able to lose the cooler from the night at the volcano. After we got back to the hotel, they delivered the cooler with drinks to our room. The next day when we were leaving, they noticed that we had left several drinks behind (I wasn’t exaggerating that it was drinks for 20 people) and packed them up in bags for us to consume on our “Jeep Boat Jeep” trip across the lake and up into Monteverde.
Useful Info Hotel: Tabacon Grand Spa & Resort http://www.tabacon.com/
Dining: Try finding something less expensive outside of the the hotel
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