On our first full day in Costa Rica we scheduled 3 activities. The first was called Safari Float. Our tour guide; Sunset Tours, arrived at the hotel on time and we were off on a 45 minute ride to the San Carlos River. We all put on life jackets and climbed into a 5-man raft for what would be a relaxing 2-hour float. Our English-speaking guide talked about the various trees, birds, monkeys and iguanas we saw along the way. This trip was perfectly safe for everyone in the family and even included a stop along the river to visit a 98 yr old farmer whose daughter served us coffee and Cassava bread. They had cows and chickens.
Back at the hotel for lunch, we prepared for a very exhilarating afternoon. Sky Trek and Sky Tram is the most daring of the country’s canopy tours. At base camp, we were fitted with harnesses and ran through an instruction and safety briefing. We were then loaded into steel gondolas suspended on a cable and pulley system and brought to the top of the track. One by one we attached our clips to the pulley system and off we went…squealing as we pushed off the platforms sailing through the trees hundreds of feet above the ground. It was cool!
That evening we went to the best hot springs spa in the country, Tabacon. For $70 you can enjoy their lavish buffet dinner, and then report to the changing area for a towel and locker. The facility is well maintained and it’s incredible to see such detail in the jungle. Tabacon Hot Springs is a labyrinth of stone and tile paths winding through native trees and manicured gardens, perfectly lit to capture the mystery and intrigue of the tropical rainforest. Steam rises from the hot water that flows off the mountain and collects in pools formed out of ancient volcanic rock. What an experience!
That night we fell into bed, exhausted from a full day of playing in the Costa Rican mountains.
The next day we said good-bye to our hosts at the Arenal Paraiso. Our guides Danny and Mario (from Destination Costa Rica) picked us up at the lobby and we began the long journey to Manuel Antonio.
From Arenal Volcano (and the mountain town of La Fortuna), it takes 4 hours to drive straight West to hotels located on the Pacific coast. This is the province of Guanacaste. Travel down the coast a short ways and you come to the town of Tamarindo. Once just a college surfer type destination, Tamarindo today is growing into a shopping, restaurant, and resort destination. Here you’ll find a selection of corporate all-inclusives mixed in with the smaller, locally-owned Mom and Pop hotels. The growth is ongoing so traffic delays are to be expected at this time. Your patience will be rewarded, however, the beach is beautiful here. Softer, lighter sand and good waves make Tamarindo a great second stop on your Costa Rica vacation. If you follow the coastline southward from here, you’ll enter the Nicoya Peninsula. You can cross the Peninsula and take the car ferry over to Punta Arenas on the mainland. Punta Arenas is the cruise ship dock. Cruise ships through the Panama Canal call on Costa Rica at Punta Arenas.
45 minutes south of Punta Arenas is Jaco Beach. What I’ve learned is that there’s a new East/West highway that connects the capitol city San Jose (in the center of the country) with beach towns from Punta Arenas on southward. This allows tourists (who want to bypass the volcanoes in favor of the beach) a one and a half hour transfer from the Capitol and International Airport. Sweet!
We stopped in Jaco at a Grocery store to buy liquor. The name of the store was Maxi Bodega and we discovered that it is owned by Walmart. The only way I could tell is that next to the register while checking out, I noticed a display of re-usable grocery sacks with the Walmart logo on them. It reminded me of that Diana Ross song, “Ain’t no mountain high enough…” (Oh, Pleeeze)
Danny and Mario were super nice guys, but still; after 6 hours in a van, we were ready to be off the road. That’s when we arrived at the town of Quepos. Quepos is a town of about 20,000 and home to a small tuna fleet. Today the largest employer is (you guessed it), tourism. We crossed through Quepos pretty quickly and on the other end of town, our driver Mario found a road leading up the hill to the hotels of Manuel Antonio. We took this winding mountain road for about 3 miles until we came to our second hotel on this trip, Villa Roca. www.villaroca.com
Thursday, April 8, 2010
My story starts with a Red Eye flight (non-stop on Frontier Airlines) from Denver to San Jose, the capitol city. It was a 5 hours and went so smoothly that I think you can jet away to Costa Rica for a long weekend.
As a travel agent, we book our Costa Rica hotels and tours through a package company named Way To Go Costa Rica. Their staff of agents are very knowledgeable about the destination.
Costa Rica is a democratic republic, meaning they hold elections, collect taxes, and have a representative government for the four and a half million residents of her 7 provinces (States). It is a tiny country by US standards (being 1/3 the size of my home state of Colorado) but her richness is in the welcoming personality of her people and her soil. Everything grows here. Tourism is now Cost Rica’s “numero uno” industry. But right behind tourism is Bananas, Papaya, Pineapples, Coffee and so much more.
A US citizen needs a valid Passport good for at least 90 days, because that’s how long you can stay here as a tourist; 90 days. Then you have to leave for 3 days, and then you can come back again, and repeat the cycle. No need to have dual citizenship. There’s about a quarter million North Americans living here year round or vacationing like “snow-birds.”
Your first vacation or two in Costa Rica is like vacationing in Hawaii…you don’t stay in one location the whole time. Most people will visit two or three provinces during the typical 7-night trip. On this trip, we are visiting the Central Valley region (San Jose up to Arenal) and then West Coastal region (Quepos/Manuel Antonio).
San Jose has built a modern “international arrivals” terminal. So, Immigration and Customs was quick, Our destination management company, Destination Costa Rica, sent an English-speaking Driver/Guide to pick us up. His name was Roberto and he was holding up a paper sign that had my first and last name on it. He was standing outside the terminal building (with a lot of other drivers) leaning against a plate glass window. I gave him the “hi sign” and he flashed a wide smile. Everything went smoothly. After exchanging big hellos, we walked a short distance to his Toyota 9 passenger van.
Along the 3-hour drive to the town of Fortuna, we talked about the people, the history, and what we can do to have fun in his country. Your driver will make a stop along the way for pie and coffee or to a local Super Market (if you’d like a bottle of water for the ride). Speaking of water, I do recommend that you drink bottled water while in Costa Rica. In addition, a Pepto Bismol tablet each morning is cheap insurance against an upset stomach.
Our first hotel for this trip was the Arenal Paraiso hotel. www.ArenalParaiso.com The AP covers many acres and in keeping with the jungle feel, has a series of 100 small stone and wood bungalows. We were located close to the highway. The better rooms were the wooden duplex’s located up on the hill because they were away from the direct noise of the road and had better views of the Volcano Arenal. All the rooms have private bathroom (with shower only), king or two double beds, vanity, satellite TV, small refrigerator, and a 2-cup coffee maker. To me the best feature of the rooms was the Costa Rican made rocking chairs on the patio. It was nice just sitting their with coffee or a drink and relaxing. Each room came with it’s own parking spot in case guests had rented a car. I rate the Arenal Paraiso 3-stars and it’s a great family resort in that they have nice swimming pools, daily complimentary breakfast buffet, and reasonably priced food for the rest of your meals. Plus this hotel has a great view of Arenal, a small hot springs, and a well-priced Canopy Tour right on site so you don’t need to go anywhere if you don’t want to. $45 US for the zip-line, lunches at $7-$10, dinner for $10-$20. One thing I always recommend when you first arrive to your room at a tropical hotel, get the bellman to show you how to use the air conditioner. The Arenal Paraiso was able to get us into rooms by 11am on our day of arrival, and that was nice seeing we flew all night. However, the A/C could not keep up during the heat of the day. Only after the sun went down did the air conditioning make the room comfortable enough for sleeping. The resort had a moderately priced Spa and a small gym with 3 machines. I had “Today’s Gentlemen” treatment package which was a combination of a full body Swedish Massage, facial, and pedicure, all for $125 USD plus tip. The Arenal Paraiso is built on the side of a hill. We are in the mountains here so access for the handicapped (while not impossible) will be somewhat of a struggle. I would come back to the Arenal Paraiso. Other hotels we saw along this stretch of road were the Kioro, the Volcano Lodge, the Tabacon Lodge, and the new Royal Corin. We were told the best accommodations are at the Arenal Springs Resort and Spa.
As a travel agent, we book our Costa Rica hotels and tours through a package company named Way To Go Costa Rica. Their staff of agents are very knowledgeable about the destination.
Costa Rica is a democratic republic, meaning they hold elections, collect taxes, and have a representative government for the four and a half million residents of her 7 provinces (States). It is a tiny country by US standards (being 1/3 the size of my home state of Colorado) but her richness is in the welcoming personality of her people and her soil. Everything grows here. Tourism is now Cost Rica’s “numero uno” industry. But right behind tourism is Bananas, Papaya, Pineapples, Coffee and so much more.
A US citizen needs a valid Passport good for at least 90 days, because that’s how long you can stay here as a tourist; 90 days. Then you have to leave for 3 days, and then you can come back again, and repeat the cycle. No need to have dual citizenship. There’s about a quarter million North Americans living here year round or vacationing like “snow-birds.”
Your first vacation or two in Costa Rica is like vacationing in Hawaii…you don’t stay in one location the whole time. Most people will visit two or three provinces during the typical 7-night trip. On this trip, we are visiting the Central Valley region (San Jose up to Arenal) and then West Coastal region (Quepos/Manuel Antonio).
San Jose has built a modern “international arrivals” terminal. So, Immigration and Customs was quick, Our destination management company, Destination Costa Rica, sent an English-speaking Driver/Guide to pick us up. His name was Roberto and he was holding up a paper sign that had my first and last name on it. He was standing outside the terminal building (with a lot of other drivers) leaning against a plate glass window. I gave him the “hi sign” and he flashed a wide smile. Everything went smoothly. After exchanging big hellos, we walked a short distance to his Toyota 9 passenger van.
Along the 3-hour drive to the town of Fortuna, we talked about the people, the history, and what we can do to have fun in his country. Your driver will make a stop along the way for pie and coffee or to a local Super Market (if you’d like a bottle of water for the ride). Speaking of water, I do recommend that you drink bottled water while in Costa Rica. In addition, a Pepto Bismol tablet each morning is cheap insurance against an upset stomach.
Our first hotel for this trip was the Arenal Paraiso hotel. www.ArenalParaiso.com The AP covers many acres and in keeping with the jungle feel, has a series of 100 small stone and wood bungalows. We were located close to the highway. The better rooms were the wooden duplex’s located up on the hill because they were away from the direct noise of the road and had better views of the Volcano Arenal. All the rooms have private bathroom (with shower only), king or two double beds, vanity, satellite TV, small refrigerator, and a 2-cup coffee maker. To me the best feature of the rooms was the Costa Rican made rocking chairs on the patio. It was nice just sitting their with coffee or a drink and relaxing. Each room came with it’s own parking spot in case guests had rented a car. I rate the Arenal Paraiso 3-stars and it’s a great family resort in that they have nice swimming pools, daily complimentary breakfast buffet, and reasonably priced food for the rest of your meals. Plus this hotel has a great view of Arenal, a small hot springs, and a well-priced Canopy Tour right on site so you don’t need to go anywhere if you don’t want to. $45 US for the zip-line, lunches at $7-$10, dinner for $10-$20. One thing I always recommend when you first arrive to your room at a tropical hotel, get the bellman to show you how to use the air conditioner. The Arenal Paraiso was able to get us into rooms by 11am on our day of arrival, and that was nice seeing we flew all night. However, the A/C could not keep up during the heat of the day. Only after the sun went down did the air conditioning make the room comfortable enough for sleeping. The resort had a moderately priced Spa and a small gym with 3 machines. I had “Today’s Gentlemen” treatment package which was a combination of a full body Swedish Massage, facial, and pedicure, all for $125 USD plus tip. The Arenal Paraiso is built on the side of a hill. We are in the mountains here so access for the handicapped (while not impossible) will be somewhat of a struggle. I would come back to the Arenal Paraiso. Other hotels we saw along this stretch of road were the Kioro, the Volcano Lodge, the Tabacon Lodge, and the new Royal Corin. We were told the best accommodations are at the Arenal Springs Resort and Spa.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Easter in Costa Rica
I am having a most perfect day in Costa RicaIt is Easter Sunday April 4th 2010. I begin this story from the swimming pool of the Arenal Paraiso hotel. (www.arenalparaiso.com) I’m 36 hours into what has to be one of the best vacations I’ve ever taken. In front of me is the clearest, most gorgeous views of Arenal Volcano. Now, I have seen many beautiful sights in my traveling career, but humbled is how I feel in the presence of such an iconic creation of Mother Earth. If you’ve been behind a computer at your desk during our harsh, North American Winter, you owe it to your soul to experience the abundance of life happening closer to the Equator. Don’t commit suicide until you see Costa Rica. I guarantee you’ll change your mind. The variety of plants and trees and the different songs of the brightly colored birds are enough to lift even the lowest of spirits. Nothing in this life can be more overwhelming than the beauty of nature is enlivening.
Hi, This is Steve Lord of All-Inclusive Vacations in Lakewood Colorado
and this is my story about my third trip to Costa Rica
Hi, This is Steve Lord of All-Inclusive Vacations in Lakewood Colorado
and this is my story about my third trip to Costa Rica
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