Weddingbee boards

We were in Costa Rica when we got engaged.  There is so many things to do.  We were doing more backpacking type of stuff then honeymoon type of stuff though.  A big decision will be whether to rent a car or find transport.  Both are feasible options.  It may be less of a headache to find transport in some ways but if you don't want to take the local bus (which is what we did a lot of times and is dirt cheap) it can get a bit costly.  There's lots of cute towns in Costa Rica but the nice places to stay are usually a bit outside of town, so if you want to stay at those  places you may need a car.  I loved Arenal, which is the volcano area, and my husband loved Monteverde, which is the cloud forest area.  We were there two weeks so did a week in land with mountains and then a week at the beach.  The two beaches we went to were Montezuma and Dominical.  Dominical is about an hour or so south of Manuel Antonio, and was one of my favorite places, but that's also where we got engaged so I might be biased.  The water on this side isn't the crystal clear water so if you want that you might be better off on the carribean side.  I've heard great things about Tortugero, but there's places farther south that are quite nice as well.  The other thing is if you're going down to Dominical a trip to Osa might be worth it, apparently it's got a ton of wildlife, but you may be better off flying in then driving, as it is quite a long drive.  In 9-10 days you can probably comfortably do about three places, so I'd decide and map out routes and flights, you might want to pick one coast and do two diff spots and an inland area or two inland areas, but it might be hard to get to both coasts in that short time.  Some places are very tedious to get to from other places since it's a very mountainous area.  Look on tripadvisor boards for discussion, it'll give a good idea about lengths of time and best travel options to different places.   Good luck, let me know if you have any questions!

@candice - love your itinerary - two days will be good in arenal, that's about what we spent and did a hike and looking for lava with hot springs both nights - and hiked around silencio reserve during the day one day, it's beautiful and has monkeys and a nice view of the volcano - I love the rafting idea - we thought about doing that but then ended up not and I kinda wish we had.

@Miss Hummus - also neat itinerary!  Sounds like you have some great tours lined up.

I think June is the off season for when you go @hotchildinthecity so hotel prices should be a bit less than in November as well.  And just for a reference for the opposite end of the spectrum (we also went in the off season) - Between me and my FI, I think we spent less than $1000 total for two weeks - though we weren't staying in fancy places, but we did go on some tours. Some of the tours are a little cheaper booking once you get there than over the internet and you shouldn't have a problem in the off season with them being too packed, just some food for thought in case your budget does seem to get a bit stretched.

It depends - my husband loves fresh avacados and mangos and they are deliciously fresh and not very expensive in costa rica.  So for lunch we would often just go to a local bakery or store and get a loaf of bread, and dress it with avacados and tomatoes and whatever and have mangos and coconuts for dessert.  Very tasty and affordable from street vendors - like $5-6 for the two of us.  If you go to street vendors to eat, a few bucks, if you go to local restaurants I'd plan on 75% US prices and also depending on the fanciness of the restaurant, some can be more, and it even depends on the area - like Monteverde was the most expensive that we went to for food and not many non-restaurant options.  If you are in a more isolated area where options aren't as plentiful and it's mainly at the hotel it's going to be more like US city prices, though it really depends on the place.

Other posters are right, June is the "wet" season, meaning you might get more rainy days than sunny. I visited in January at the start of the dry season. I cannot say enough good things about Costa Rica and the people there! Here are a couple of recommendations:

1) Don't drive. Its a madhouse there, and it would probably stress you out. Like some other posters, I took the local bus. It is dirt cheap (when we went in 2006 it worked out to like 25 cents American to travel from Jaco to Quepos!)

2) Visit Montezuma on the Penisula de Nicoya. You can take a water taxi across from a beach near Jaco for 35$. It was so amazing there, very chill. All the locals recommended it! You can go ATVing on the peninsula, boogie board at the beach, visit a beautiful waterfall or lie around in one of the many available hammocks. Its so worth it.

3) Visit Manuel Antonio and Jaco - lots to do in each place! Jaco gets busy on the weekends though, becuase lots of locals who lives in the central cities drive there for the weekends. We did ziplining just outside of Jaco for $25 pp - guides spoke English and it was a blast! We also did horseback riding.

4) Like others said, definitely go to Arenal. We didn't see any lava when we were there  :( BUT you can book a tour to spend a wonderful day in the Tabacon Hot Springs - so beautiful!

We went for 2.5 weeks, and visited San Jose, Jaco, Montezuma, Quepos/Manuel Antonio, Arenal, then back to San Jose. We spent about $2000 for two people, not included airfare. We didn't stay at luxury hotels or a resort, so that helped keep costs down.

One tip though - when taking a cab in San Jose, make sure you take ones that are red and marked with a yellow triangle on the side - these are regulated cabs and are guaranteed safe. The driver may try to talk you into going to a hotel he is affiliated with though - stand your ground if you are not interested.