Post # 1
Member
407 posts
Helper bee
Obviously Costa Rica is not boring. However, because I like to avoid the touristy places, I was thinking of booking a gorgeous place south of Manio Antonia National Park, with more remote beaches. Someone on here mentioned Oxygen Jungle Villas. I also want to visit Corcovado National Park,and maybe stay on the Osa Penninsula for a few days. Some of these places are quite remote, and there is no nightlife or towns to speak of- but that’s the point! Fiance thinks he’ll get ancy. I did include a few nights in Arenal which I think will have more town and “civilization” to speak of.
I don’t want to give up on Costa Rica, or visiting Corcovado, which is supposed to be one of the most incredible parks in the world. How should I modify this to please us both? I heard Montezuma has more fun nightlife – maybe take a day trip to Corcovado rather than stay there? And spend time at Montezuma instead? Or stay right in Manio Antonia National Park – is it a mob scene? We’re going beginning of December. I’d appreciate any input! As you can tell, he left it up to me to do all the planning – but I want us both to be happy just the same.
Post # 3
Member
227 posts
Helper bee
The “touristy” places in Costa Rica aren’t really mob scenes, at least not in my experience. The bars in San Jose on a weekend, yes. Everything else, not really. I think Manuel Antonio is a must see. When I went with friends, it wasn’t really crowded and you can explore the park at your own leisure. We had a whole beach to ourselves for quite a while. Montezuma is also really cool and it’s a small town – it would be a good compromise. Really, besides San Jose, ANYTHING in CR is going to be less crowded than any decent-sized city in the US. In places like Manuel Antonio you can make your visit as secluded or as touristy/night-life-ish as you like.
I loved the hot springs in Arenal too. From what I remember, though, there wasn’t much nightlife there. It’s VERY small. I don’t even know that you’d need a few nights there, just enough time to see the volcano and do the hot springs.
Post # 4
Member
1956 posts
Buzzing bee
- Wedding: June 2010 - Tannery Pond at the Darrow School
He def won’t get bored, you’ll be on your honeymoon! I mean, unless he’s planning on hitting up the clubs or something, which you can’t really do in the beach towns, obviously but even in places like Manuel Antonio, there’s bars and a dance club (although it’s small…) I just saw another thread about CR and replied but I’ll say the same thing:
I did a semester abroad in CR when I was in college and it was amazing!! I’ve been back twice since and loved it even more…Manuel Antonio, Montezume and Mal Pais are probably my 3 favorite towns…MA has the national park with lots of hiking and wildlife, Montezuma is a little bit bigger and has more nightlife but still beautiful beaches, etc and Mal Pais is probably the most remote of them all…Def make a few day stop in Arenal as well…
Personally, I don’t think there’s any way your FH could get bored unless he’s a huge wet blanket, which I doubt he is 🙂 GO GO GO to CR, its the best!!
Post # 5
Member
1084 posts
Bumble bee
You won’t get bored. Costa Rica is extremely set up for tourists, there’s enough to keep everyone happy. The one thing that you have to take into account though is the length of time it takes to travel around Costa Rica. We did Montezuma, it’s a really cute little beach town (and the one where my husband proposed in), with plenty of things to do but enough off the beaten path. We then took a ferry and bus down to Dominical, which is another cute little beach town. The nice things about these towns are they aren’t huge so they don’t feel like tremendous tourist traps but they have a few bars in them and restaurants if you feel like going out. There are some really awesome beaches around Dominical or farther south Uvita, Playa Ventana has these awesome looking caves. We had an awesome trip but I really wish we gone down to Corcovado, alot of people in Dominical had come from there and all had a great time, it is really remote and you have to be able to deal with camping and hiking, and it is out of the way, so it does take a lot of extra consideration. But from everything I’ve heard it’s worth it.
The other two towns we did were Arenal and Monteverde, also very fun, my husband likes mountains and I like the beach, so the first week we spent in the mountains and the second at the beach. But it is a lot of travel time to all these places so you have to kinda figure all that out too.
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