Activities: visiting the Volcán Arenal National Park (can't miss it, the volcano is impressive). Canopy in the jungle, rafting.
Lodging: we stayed at Hotel Arenal Lodge, amazing view of the volcano from the room's window, pool and jacuzzi. It has breakfast service and a restaurant open for lunch and dinner. Also some jungle trails inside the hotel which are really cool.
My absolute FAVE place in Costa rice was Cahuita National Park. It was soooo beautiful and had lots of monkeys and raccoons. Raccoons probs aren’t exciting to many people on here but they’re one of my fave animals so I was so happy to see so many. And you should visit the Jaguar Rescue Centre while you’re there. Manuel Antonio was a great place to see sloths but you’ll need binoculars.
Hi! I don't know how to reply to a comment. But answering your question @stephwood : we drove to get from one city to the other and once we were there to go to different beaches. Highly recommend renting a car! We used tour guides specifically for national parks, to be able to see the animals with the guide's equipment and their knowledge on how to spot them, but other than that, no. The routes were in good condition, but keep in mind that near the volcanoes or mountains there can be roads with lots of twists and turns. I would say that 13 days is enough to have a complete experience in the country, but if you are able to go for a bit longer that will probably be awesome too! There were a few places we wanted to visit and we couldn't because of the time. It is an amazing country and it is truly a beautiful experience, hope you can get to visit!
Did you drive or use tours/guides? Is it a relatively simple country to drive around? Do you feel like 13 days was enough or would you suggest more? Sorry for the 20 questions!!
It seems like an amazing country with so much incredible wildlife.