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A Week in Costa Rica: Making the Most of Your Time!

Aug 02 '01 Write an essay on this topic.

The Bottom Line Costa Rica is warm all year. Even the rainy season is warm and comfortable. The country is small enough that you can see two oceans in two days.

For the last couple of years, my family and I have looked for affordable vacations that are outside of the United States. In 1999, we took a two-week trip through France and Italy, which was fairly costly and the kind of thing we can't reasonably do every year.

But we spent an affordable week in Montreal last year, and had a week to spend this year as well. Costa Rica was a good option because airline tickets were reasonably priced(under $600 each), the flight time is a managable four hours, and hotels, food and entertainment are attractively priced during Costa Rica's off season.

Planning Was an Adventure in Itself

Once we agreed that Costa Rica in late July was our destination, we had to decide where to go and stay. My husband was so busy at his office, he didn't have as much time to do advance planning as he usually does.

Before we go, however, he'll buy a couple of travel books, like Fodor's, and read about the highlights. I'm the one who studied the Internet and sites like Epinions. We compared notes about places that interested both of us (the beaches for me, the volcanoes for him) and looked for hotels near the places we most wanted to see.

We learned about the country, the climate, and modes of transportation (see earlier review on driving in Costa Rica). It's a good idea to see what kinds of food are served if that's an issue for you, and to pack appropriate items like waterproof jackets or ponchos for likely rain.

How Many Days to Spend, and Where?

When you want to see as much of a country as possible, especially with the added challenges of getting from town to town, it's necessary to get a feeling for how long you'll need to spend on the road.

Since the airport is in San Jose, and our arrival was later in the evening, we scheduled the first two nights there, and the last night since our flight was in the morning.

While staying at the Tabacon Springs Resort in Fortuna (a four-hour drive from San Jose), we met a couple from Florida who planned to leave the resort and travel to San Jose on Sunday, leaving very little margin for error in making it to the airport. They also had problems getting transportation on Sunday. We gave them the business card of the driver and tour operator (www.tonytours.com) who had taken us from San Jose to Jaco on a moment's notice. They contacted him, and he agreed to drive them, but it was necessary for him to charge them $120 to make it worth his while.

As pricey as that sounds, it would be a good deal for driving a total of eight hours. Had Tony had more notice, he might have been able to add more passengers and reduce the fare for everyone. The lesson? If nothing else, know how you're going to get from your last hotel to the airport, and you can be more flexible in your other travels.

Flexibility Can be Good

There were excellent tours available at every hotel where we stayed in Costa Rica. At our first hotel (The Gran Hotel) in San Jose, Tourisa Tours had a desk and a staff who arranged a tram tour of the rain forest for our family. At $75 each, it included a 90-minute drive to the rain forest, a comfortable guided canopy tour, a hike and a delicious buffet lunch, as well as a drop off at your hotel.

At the Best Western in Jaco, Grayline Tours had an office, which offered a dozen day trips, shorter trips, and just straight transportation to many popular destinations at $19 per person.

If we had known that tours and transportation was so easily available at each place where we stayed, we would not have worried so much about setting up rides from place to place before we left for the trip.

While I had arranged straight transportation from Jaco to Fortuna through the Tabacon Resort before the trip, once my husband saw that we could pay $59 per person for a guided tour from Jaco to the very resort where we were staying, including lunch, dinner and the guide, he wanted to change our arrangements at the last minute.

If you plan a trip to Costa Rica, seeing a Fodor's Guide might be valuable. They offer iteneraries for people planning one and two-week trips with the "must see" attractions and places. It was helpful to us, because Fodor's knows lots more about Costa Rica than we do.

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