Looking for suggestion on where to stay in Costa Rica? (best, life)
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We are travelling to Costa Rica next month for 1 week and are wondering where we should stay. There will be 4 of including my wife and I, as well as our two kids, ages 22 and 7 (yes, my kids are 15 years apart).
We stayed in Guanacaste on Peninsula Papagayo and at the Marriott near Tamarindo on our previous trip.
We are flying into Liberia and cannot figure where we want to stay.
We plan to go to the beach, see the wildlife, do some shopping and try to catch a marlin (my lifelong dream). We are open to suggestions as well.
What part of Costa Rica should we stay and can you name a specific resort, hotel or place to rent?
We are looking for the following:
1. We want to be on the beach
2. Kid friendly
3. We want something kind of nice
4. We want the place to have a pool
If it were me and I had previously stayed in Guanacaste I would head down to Manuel Antonio.
-nice areas of the beach to visit plus Manuel Antonio National Park
-good fishing out of Quepos
-it is most definitely family friendly and well maintained
I forgot to mention that Manuel Antonio is very safe. The next town over (Quepos) can be a little seedy in my opinion because of all the transient (farm worker) traffic but it's ok during the day or just to catch a fishing trip out or even a dinner while there.
We are travelling to Costa Rica next month for 1 week and are wondering where we should stay. There will be 4 of including my wife and I, as well as our two kids, ages 22 and 7 (yes, my kids are 15 years apart).
We stayed in Guanacaste on Peninsula Papagayo and at the Marriott near Tamarindo on our previous trip.
We are flying into Liberia and cannot figure where we want to stay.
We plan to go to the beach, see the wildlife, do some shopping and try to catch a marlin (my lifelong dream). We are open to suggestions as well.
What part of Costa Rica should we stay and can you name a specific resort, hotel or place to rent?
We are looking for the following:
1. We want to be on the beach
2. Kid friendly
3. We want something kind of nice
4. We want the place to have a pool
Any suggestions or ideas are appreciated.
Thank you
Last year we stayed Ocean Front at the Diria. It is a beautiful hotel location. The room was just so-so since it is an older hotel beachside, but maybe try for the newer condo on the other side of the street. Sunsets were beautiful. There are 4 pools. Can take surf lessons right there on the beach. Private yard that beach goers and vendors do not come up into.
It is close to everything so you can walk to restaurants, shops, etc. Had free, secure parking for the rental. Great breakfast was included.
My sons were there for surfing and we were on the road by 5 every morning and then were able to get back before 10 to have breakfast.
We saw lots of Howler Monkeys when we drove to Playa Avellanes. We went to where our son had stayed for surfing before - Cabinos Las Olas-. There is a public parking lot there and a rugged boardwalk out to the beach. We started seeing the monkeys in the trees when we turned down the road to the cabins. When we got to the parking lot they had made it to the big tree there and we got loads of pictures.
Someone else mentioned the Jaco area- about a 5 hour drive South of Tamarindo through the mountains. I liked Tamerindo better than Jaco, but loved the things we saw down there. Near San Jose we went to see Poas Volcano and on the same mountain went to a very nice park your kids would probably love. They had all 5 cats native to Central America, an aviary, butterfly house, snakes, and other animals native to the area, a huge restaurant in the middle of the park where you can eat in a package deal, and 5 beautiful waterfalls. Bring a back pack with water-we were there for over 6 hours.
A must as far as I am concerned is Manuel Antonio National Park which is down by Quepos. Hire a guide but be sure to bargain. Wear suits under clothes and carry swimstuff, snacks, and lots of water. We ended up spending 8 hours walking in the park. We did the whole trail around the point, but next time will plan time in the water to cool off too. There are no food stands once you are in the park so we were out of water long before we left and very hungry since we left Jaco at 4 and didn't leave the park till about 4PM.
Almost forgot....in Jaco we stayed in a beautiful condo that we rented using Home Away and spoke with the owner to rent. It was beautiful right on the South end of the beach-too far to walk into town in the heat, but a beautiful quiet area away from the hustle of downtown. Might want to check out home away offfers. Plan for some rain everyday, but might luck out and be at night mostly.
As far as nice places to stay, Los Suenos resort in Herradura is hard to beat.
Nearby Jaco has a reputation as a party town but that is later at night and isn't bad. In the day and evening there are plenty of restaurants fro low end cheap "sodas" to nice pricier places as well. There are also places where you can line up tours and such to see crocodiles, ride ATV's, go zip lining, surfing and all sorts of fun stuff for the whole family. manuel Antonio is about an hour south of there and is a nice park.
As far as going out to catch a marlin, Los Suenos has a world class sportfishing fleet with some of the best boats and crews from all over. Most of the larger boats will be private though but there is a good charter fleet as well and an office to book trips from if you haven't lined up anything before hand. The marlin fishing has gotten better over the years with blues being the majority but blacks and a few stripes can be caught as well. Sailfishing is what put this place on the map and that can be incredible. As the waiting list for getting a slip grew in Los Suenos a marina was opened up in Quepos as well which has some of the boats that used to be at Los Suenos.
If staying up towards Liberia, there are several places where you could charter a boat as well, such as Flamingo and posibly the new marina in papaguayo. Traditionally, that part of Costa rica has had the better marlin fishing and the main season is actually in the summer month's up there. But a lot of that has to do with the fact that until the early 2000's (when Los Suenos was built) there was nothing to draw a sportfish fleet to that part of the coast. Once constructed it gave a nice marina for owners to have their boats sent over and the crews didn't mind one bit. About the same time frame as that is when the average size of a sportfish increased and fuel capacity on even some production boats was incresed to an amount that could allow a 60 footer to cross the 500+ miles from Jamaica to Panama without carrying extra on deck tanks. Those two things opened up the option of some of the best crews from the east and gulf coasts to make there way over to CR and with that a marlin fishery exploded.
We've stayed at the Riu hotels in Guanacaste. Very nice. However, that part of CR is not our favorite. If you can't fly into San Jose, that's fine. Although San Jose is closer to the best parts of CR.
First, I would fly into Liberia. Then drive to Arenal if you get in early enough. Stay at one of the hotels around the volcano. There are lots to choose from. Do the hotsprings, ziplining, horseback riding, etc...
Then drive to Manuel Antonio. Lots of great ocean view hotels there. Some have access to beaches, but not always. MA has the best beaches in CR and lots of wildlife. It's the only plce where the jungle goes down to the beach. You could also stay in Jaco, but the surf is rough.
If it were me and I had previously stayed in Guanacaste I would head down to Manuel Antonio.
-nice areas of the beach to visit plus Manuel Antonio National Park
-good fishing out of Quepos
-it is most definitely family friendly and well maintained
It's a pretty long drive down there but a lot of nice places to stop and visit and good restaurants along the way.
We've stayed at La Mariposa, very nice. Tulemar is the best, and they have beach access. We usually go with the best deal as long as it's a nice hotel.
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