Best part of Costa Rica to visit for 7 days

We split a week between a stay near the Arenal volcano (Chachagua resort) and a few days at the beach at Tamarindo. Fly into/out of Liberia. It depends on what you want to do & see. Costa Rica is very diverse.

We also split our time between Arenal (Tabacon Resort-gives you free access to the hot springs, as well as access to an guest-only, adult area), and Manuel Antonio.

Hi Elizabeth,

We did the same thing. Four nights Arenal - Hotel Arenal Springs Resort & Spa and four nights Playa Hermosa - Hotel La Gaviota Tropical. It was about eight or nine years ago, but it looks like both hotels are still getting good reviews. To this day, Costa Rica remains our top trip for the most fun. So much to see and do and the people are awesome!

Costa Rica is not known for their cities they are known for their diverse nature. You want to pick a region and stay there: https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Costa_Rica. I visited the Osa Peninsula where body surfing is spectacular and you don’t have to worry about the current. There’s also a rainforest worth exploring.

With only a week, I'd spend it all on the beach. I liked Tamarindo.

My husband, two adult sons, daughter-in-law, 7 and 9 year old grandsons and I just returned from Costa Rica. We spent six days in the Monteverde Cloud Forest area and five days in the Manuel Antonio area. Those are two very different areas of just around a two-hour drive from each other. The MCF area was misty and @ 65 degrees F; the MA area was @86 and humid!. I'm not an expert on microclimates but I'd say that CR has many microclimates--you can go just 10 minutes away from one area to another with a great deal of difference. My favorite was MCF for the lush beauty, mountains, wildlife, etc. (Since you've already been, might you want to try beach areas and/or volcanic areas?) The younger set loved the MA area, especially the home we rented that was on the Pacific Ocean. In many areas of CR you can zip line, horseback ride, swim, hike, see wildlife, etc. I'm not sure what you mean by "cities" in CR. Jaco is a beach town that was overcrowded with dense traffic (I'm from NJ and my son lives on Long Island--I know dense traffic!) They spent a day at Tabacon Springs and paid $85 for the day--the public hot springs were overcrowded. They loved it! Also, I think in February certain areas of CR can be extremely hot and humid.

I did 5 trips with high school students to Costa Rica for ecological travel and community service. My favorite areas were way south on the Osa Peninsula, way up north in Guanacaste, and Puerto Viejo, on the Caribbean coast. All of our trips were in February.

Thank you for these suggestions. Which airport should I fly into? We are booking on American Airlines.

We always flew into San Jose except for the one time we did a combined Costa Rica/Nicaragua itinerary, and we flew into Liberia.

Where to fly into depends on where you will be located in Costa Rica. San Jose is better located for Manuel Antonio and Arenal.

If you choose not to drive, Morpho Shuttle is an excellent option. We used them 3 times (SJ to Arenal, Arenal to MA, and MA to SJ.) Each time they were prompt (a bit early, even), clean, comfortable, and friendly. Each time, the driver stopped to allow us to see some interesting sights (a baby sloth in a bush, trees filled with dozens of macaws, the infamous "crocodile bridge"). https://www.morphovans.com/