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Where Should We Stay in Costa Rica?

Travel Info
My boyfriend and I are going to Costa Rica for a week in February next year. Originally, we were thinking of staying in San Jose for the whole week for the sole purpose of room & board, and then book tours via our hotel that would take us to Arenal Volcano, the Monteverde Rainforrest, etc during the day. So basically we would just be returning to San Jose to sleep/clean up.

Is this the best way to see Costa Rica?? I've heard that visitors have stayed in one tourist attraction, then picked up their bags and stayed at another. If this is the best way to see Costa Rica, then where should we stay and what hotels should we book?

What is the best approach?? Thanks!

Travel Tips

I would advice to stay in Liberia or Nicoya 2 or 3 days with a rented car and travel around, them go south and stay in Quepos or near by and stay 2 days. go back north and stay at monteverde or arenal one night.
And yes, flight through liberia.
That was a commercial reccomendation, what most tourist like to visit in CR. If you want the Costa Rica way of life it is different.

San Jose, you can do a half a day tour and then go to the Gold or the Jade museum.

A week is too little.

And you are missing Limon, and Puerto Viejo. Nice beaches down there.
Focus on what you like and plan accordingly
Most tourist go to the beach. But you might also go to the mountains.
Beach> guanacaste area, quepos area, puerto viejo, manzanillo
Mountain> braulio carrillo, monteverde
RAin Forest> drake, braulio carrillo airtrail, monteverde, limon
indian> not many...
volcanoes> arenal, miravalles (both active), Irazu and Poas. Source(s): I was born, and live in Costa Rica.

Other Travel Tips
San Jose is actually the least attractive part of Costa Rica.

go to fodors.com and go to the travel talk section

tons of info on Costa Rica - you can post questions there too

free site
I visited Costa Rica about 4 years ago. We stayed in the Guanacaste area and took a day trip to the Arenal volcano. We only saw San Jose in passing - while we waited for our flight home (there's good shopping). My suggestion would be to stay in the areas where you plan to sightsee otherwise you may spend lots of time driving from place to place and Costa Rican roads are not the best so what may seem like a short distance make take longer.

If I were to visit Costa Rica again, I would go to the Tamarindo area, which we missed last time.
I agree with YW, Guanacaste & Tamarindo will give you a better feel of Costa Rica & it's natural beauty.
Here is a brief description from a client
"Conchal - decadent resort called Melia Playa
Monteverde - rustic cabin, rainforest, etc.
Arenal - saw the volcano erupt. Stayed at Tabacon. Talk about cool!
Fly into Libiera, not San Jose. It'll save you a day coming and going."

Hope this helps!
Wendy
It is a lot more relaxing if you stay in one place, but I don't think Guanacaste is at all typical of Costa Rica--don't get me wrong, it is VERY nice but it has a unique ecology (dry forest not rain forest) and the style of tourism is different.

The problem with being based in San Jose is that you have long drives. It is about 5 hours from downtown San Jose to Monteverde in a car for instance and about 4 to Arenal. It is about 3 hours from the nearest beach town (Jaco). There are however nice day tours from San Jose to Arenal.

San Jose is not a pretty capital city but there are things to do within a short distance. If you can't get to Monteverde for instance there are the La Paz waterfalls, butterfly gardens and cloud forest which can give you an idea of what Monteverde is like. There are excellent tours that combine La Paz water falls and Poas volcano. San Jose is also a good place to be based for some of the countries best white water rafting.

I guess that I would spend time in San Jose and then one other spot-- what spot depends on whether you want beach time. If you don't want beach, stay overnight in La Fortuna (Arenal) and then take the taxi boat taxi from your hotel to Monteverde. If you want to combine mountain and beach time, I would do Manuel Antonio or Jaco (check a guidebook like lonely planet to decide). Tamarindo is about 6-7 hours drive from San Jose.
More than 25 trips to Costa Rica.