Costa Rica Newbie

[DanielleNDerek]

to the forum. Happy Planning!

[michaelwachniak]

Welcome to the forum! I've been to Costa Rica many times, its so beautiful!

[yamille]

Costa Rica is GOrgeous! WE were debating between CR and Mexico. Costa Rica is where my FI and I first vacationed together. It's a special place. Happy planning!

[Jenn3878]

Hi! to the forum! Happy planning!

[Kriswim]

I just got back from Costa Rica! What a trip! I have lots of helpful hints that no one warned me about!!

[O'Driscoll Photography]

Welcome, and Congrats!

 

I just spoke with a woman today who's going down to Costa Rica on Thursday. She was telling me all about it, and it sounds like an awesome place!

 

Happy planning!

 

Tod

[BEACHBRIDEMA]

Welcome

Sarah

[Saraha]

Welcome to the forum, Costa Rica will be a beautiful place for the wedding, good luck planning!

[starfish 1115]

Krisswim,

I would love to hear your thoughts about your Costa Rican vacation. How was your trip? I confess the note about warnings has me concerned. I can't wait to hear details.

[Kriswim]

Starfish - here is my "quick" review of my trip:

 

I really love Costa Rica. The people there are so nice! We were really scared upon arriving b/c everyone warned us about theft. But we had NO problems. We rented a GPS (a must!) and had to upgrade our rental car b/c my FI and I don't drive a stick. ( Alot more expensive!!)

We only had time to go to one place b/c my FI was playing in a Poker Tournament in San Jose for most of the week. SO, we drove down to Manual Antonio (Pacific Coast). It was beautiful! Everyone there was so nice and the beaches were great.

I would reccomend only staying there 2 nights max. b/c we sorta ran out of things to do!! (If you can believe that!) We stayed 3 nights. We took a tour of the National Park - a must! Hired a guide though our hotel - another must!

We stayed at the Hotel Byblos - great great place. Based on recomendation from our friends. There were monkey's in the trees!!

We went to the beach and did some shopping. We didn't do any ATVing or Zip lining (we were on a limited budget for this trip - have to save for the wedding!). It was also the LOW season - aka rainy season. So, it got cloudy in the afternoon and rained most late afternoons, evenings/nights. In fact, when we arrived it was POURING!!! Not a fun drive let me tell you! I thought my FI was going to have a panic attack.

 

The roads in Costa Rica and insane. The highway to Manual Antonio is very Curvy and steep - no guard rails!!! One wrong move and you are off a cliff!!!

They are fixing the bridges but there are still 2 that are the old bannana train bridges - very narrow and scary.

I wish we had flown to M.A instead and rented a car when we got there. I think that is what we will do next time. One night we drove up into Jaco and ate at a great restaurant. I had heard bad things about that town but we had fun there. I heard the beaches were good there too but we didn't see them. They are really building up that area so there are lots of resorts popping up all over the place.

Over all it was a really fun trip. I learned lots of Spanish ( I knew a little before going and relied on my dictonary for the rest!). The Food is AMAZING!

 

I really want to go back and see the rest of the country! (During the dry season though!!) ;-)

Let me know if you have any other questions!!!