Costa Rica in 10 Days: Part One

Traversing the Cloud Forests of Monteverde!

Costa Rica was a perfect destination for last year’s Spring Break. It’s a country just small enough to be explored in less than two weeks. Granted, you could spend months there, but it’s not required to have a fulfilling and exciting adventure.

Go While it’s Cheap

Costa Rica is relatively cheap for what you get.  We explored the country in a period of 10 days for less than $1,500 each.  We weren’t exactly on the tightest budget, either.  We did everything we wanted from whirring zip lines (flying foxes for you Aussies) to lavish hot springs.  In this little TBD guide I’ll walk you through the basics of our trip in a nuts and bolts fashion.  This is the first of a 3 part post; I’ll do one for each destination we visited.

The Itinerary

2.5 hours from San Jose to Monteverde. Rocky and scenic.

We only had 10 days in CR so we had some choices to make.  Costa Rica can offer a wide variety of travel experiences.  It has resort style for you package-lovers, laid back beach experiences for you surfers, and adventure/trek oriented experiences for you thrill seekers.  We opted for the outdoor adventure.  With this in mind, we chose to cut out San Jose.  We heard that it didn’t have a whole lot to offer and the true purpose of our trip was to get some mud on our boots- not something you can really do in an urban jungle.

The ever popular national beer of Ticos

Straight off the plane from Atlanta (which was less than $400.00 RT) we would taxi to the bus station and get the 2:15 bus to the mountainous villages of Santa Elena / Monteverde.  After 3 days there, we would take a jeep, and cross a volcano-side lake to La Fortuna.  From Fortuna, we would fly domestic Nature Air to the beach haven of Manuel Antonio and relax for around 3 days.  On the third day in Manuel Antonio, we would take another domestic flight back to San Jose, wait a few hours at the airport and then fly back to Atlanta.

I’ll go briefly through the bare bones of the trip and try to give some good advice about what to do and how much it costs.

MONTEVERDE: The land of the Cloud Forest

The mighty gate to the Cloud Forest

We were drawn to Monteverde and the surrounding town of Santa Elena (where most of the commerce and accommodations are) because of the majestic forest in the clouds and the

Stunning flora of the Cloud Forest

plethora of activities that the area offers.  There’s so much to do in Monteverde.  While there, we hiked in the Cloud Forest (El Bosque Nuboso de Monteverde), went horseback riding, did one of the famous zip line courses, and went on a night hike.  There’s a lot of cheap and good accommodation and food in this area.  Where you incur the most cost as a traveler is the activities and the fact that unless you have your own transport, you’ve got to take taxis everywhere, which don’t cost as much as they do in most developed countries, but aren’t as cheap as a tuk-tuk.

Monteverde Hotel: Cabinas Vista al Golfo

Cabinas Vista al Golfo: Rustic and really friendly

We got in late and it was dark.  We had to get our bearings in the dirt roads and trails of Santa Elena before we made it finally to our hotel.  They gave us a huge welcome and we’re super helpful and eager to hook us up with the stuff we wanted to do.  The hotel was everything we wanted. Cheap, clean, hammocks everywhere, great staff, public kitchen area, what more could you want?!

TBD Official Cabinas Vista al Golfo Rating: Cheap and clean are welcome words to a budget traveler.  Cabinas Vista al Golfo has this in spades with a genuine and helpful staff to boot.  Solid.

Essential Experiences in MV

We had a full plate in Monteverde. It has a lot to offer.  Here’s the run down:

Selvatura Zip-Lines and Canopy Tours Official TBD Rating:   For many, zip-lining is the essential CR experience.  Lonely Planet touts Selvatura is the original provider of this experience in Monteverde.  It is expensive.  I think we paid US60 per person for a zip-line

Impressive bridge of Selvatura

and canopy tour.  The experience of the zip-line cannot be quantified.  It is truly amazing.  I’ve never been skydiving, but I would imagine it’s a similar rush. Whizzing hundreds of feet above the jungle canopy is breathtaking. The guides were good.  Not great.  I felt like a commodity.  They’re on a tight schedule getting the masses through the lines on time.  Our party was very small.  Eight, I think.  Which is a far cry from the 20+ that I’ve heard from others to be the norm.  I don’t know the secret to getting a small party.  Don’t do the hanging bridge “canopy tour” it’s a waste of money and boring compared to the zip-lines.  Spend the US15.00 on some post adrenaline beer and eats.

Horseback Riding Tour Official TBD Rating: After the zip lines of Selvatura, we

Linds and her faithful mount, Pinto

squeezed in a horseback tour of a farm near Monteverde.  This was Linds’ idea and I was a little sceptical about how fun it could be.  We were both blown away about how much fun it was to see the country side by horseback.  We went over hills and over forest streams; all the while getting a first hand look at a functional Costa Rican farm.  After the tour we were waiting around for the taxi and they showed us around their turtle farm and how they make this tequila moonshine stuff called

Pinto and Talia, our steeds (left to right)

‘trapiche’.  Tasty!  I think out tour was unplanned because we were the only ones on it.  Just us and the two friendly guides. It was US35 per person and totally worth the cash.  Great value.  Our friendly host at the Cabinas Vista al Golfo.  The name of the farm was ‘Las Brisas’.  I couldn’t find a site for them online.  Just request it when you get to Monteverde.  Totally worth it.

Lo-Light: Night Hike

On our first night we did a light-less hike through one of the surrounding forests.

Bosque Eterno de los Ninos Nighthike Official TBD Rating:   Not very thrilling at all.  For US25 we were guided with our own flashlights through a trail for about an hour.  We saw several tiny nocturnal bugs, a tarantula, and a long snake.  Some people seemed to get into it.  Just not us, I guess.  Would have rated it better if it were 10$ cheaper.

Divine coffee in Costa Rica. The best.

Overall, Monteverde was a blast.  Plenty of stuff to do (it’s actually a bit overwhelming to try to do everything you want).   Some things we’ll do next time are canyon repelling, coffee farm tour, and a birdwatching

Yummy casado. Meat and a bunch of other stuff.

tour.  This place is so beautiful and chill.  The food in Santa Elena is great. It’s just simple CR eats.  Order casados everywhere you go.  They’re like a meat plate with a bunch of tasty side items.  Drink as much coffee as humanly possible.  I drank so much one day, I freaked out.

Termite food in the Cloud Forest

Official TBD Monteverde Rating: A plethora of great value accommodations and iconic activities make Monteverde a must-see of Costa Rica.

Next stop, La Fortuna!

Tags: Costa Rica, horseback riding, hotel reviews, monteverde, ratings, recommendations, zip lines

This entry was posted on Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 3:04 am and is filed under Blakesjourney. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.