Post by jayhawkbecca on Mar 1, 2014 22:12:48 GMT -5
Hello, dh and i are looking to go to Costa Rica for a week or so in May for our anniversary, kid free!
we're thinking of three nights at the arenal nayara hotel by the volcano. Then three nights at el establo in Monteverde and finally two nights at punta islita in guanacaste as our last stop.
I welcome any feedback on hotels and your thoughts on our itinerary.
Post by phillyrunner on Mar 2, 2014 11:44:17 GMT -5
We LOVED Arenal Nayara!! Would definitely recommend. We rarely ever go back to the same place when we travel because we like to see and do new things but we keep talking about going back there.
We stayed at Arenal Nayara about 3 years ago and absolutely loved it! We had to split our stay between two rooms and both were equally beautiful. The staff is so friendly and helpful. I'd highly recommend it.
gaudi - I went to a surf camp and stayed at Pranamar, which was very nice and had very good food. I pretty much spent most of my time with the surf camp, but did do zip line, standup paddleboard and of course, surfing lessons. I highly recommend contacting Pia at the website below - she put together most of the activities for the group and did an excellent job. She could help with surfing lessons, SUP, zipline, restaurant recs too. I will be using her to help book a trip when I head back to Costa Rica next year!!
greekypie - We really liked Arenal Nayara - the resort. I can't say I was really in love with Arenal though. Glad I went, wouldn't go back. I have a friend who recently went to Arenal and felt the same way. You needed a cab to get to restaurants in town - not a big deal at all. But the restaurants there were...kinda meh. So we ended up eating at Nayara almost all the time. If you like zip lining and rapelling and stuff, Arenal is probably pretty great. It was nice to see the volcano and visit the hot springs. But we enjoyed Manuel Antonio a lot more (as did my friend). More to do - great restaurants and shops, the ocean, similar wildlife. You can do many of the same activities there. And the town was much cuter.
greekypie - I wish I could tell you about the town itself, but we didn't really leave the resort thanks to being seriously ill. BUT that was not the fault of the hotel, we caught someone's cold on our way to Costa Rica and that pretty much ruined our honeymoon.
The first two days we were there were OK though - we went hiking to the La Fortuna waterfall. It was pretty much an all day tour - the hike was a few hours but through some lush rain forest. At the end of our tour they provided us with a lunch that was so good that I'd do it all over again just to eat that.
We also took the hanging bridges tour (both this and the waterfall hike were through Desafio) which was more low key and we nick named it "the old people tour" since we were the youngest by a few decades.
We did love the hotel - we didn't go into town other than to a private clinic and a pharmacy - and the food was great. I loved eating the fresh passion fruit and plantains for breakfast. The staff was incredibly friendly and helpful in canceling tours we weren't going to be able to go on and also arranging the visit to the private clinic.