Costa Rica 10 night itinerary suggestions

I've done the trip both ways - with Monteverde and without. I'm sure that you're going to get lots of responses on the other website (and maybe here) that you should choose other areas of Costa Rica but I think you've chosen good spots for a first visit.

One thing we did on our second visit was to leave San Jose right upon arrival. The first time, we went to a hotel for the night and it was really a waste of time. On our second visit, we flew from Seattle, connected in LA and got to Costa Rica at about 4. We missed the last shared but out to La Fortuna so we spent the money on a private ride with Morpho Vans. It was worth it at about $150 as they picked us up at Arrivals and drove us right to our La Fortuna hotel - it took about 3 or 4 hours, I think.

There are a ton of bus lines that offer scheduled rides from many towns within CR and so you can easily get around that way. We ended up using Morpho Vans for all of our transfers due to a health issue of mine - I wanted to make sure we could stop when we needed to. It was really not that pricey.

One thing to keep in mind is that traveling between cities is slow due to very slow roads - narrow and winding in many areas.

One thing to look at near La Fortuna is Proyecto Asis, a wildlife facility you can tour. It was awesome. Also nice near La Fortuna is Don Olivo's Chocolate Farm tour. We did a Cano Negro boat ride from La Fortuna and I felt the van ride to get there was way too long and the van used was so crowded with tiny seats - I would look for a different way to do a boat tour.

In Manuel Antonio, we used Manuel's Tours for a private guided walk through the National Park and that was absolutely awesome.

If you want to read about the details of our trip, look in my bio or PM me. I write a blog of my travels and Costa Rica is in there in depth.

You're gonna love Costa Rica!

I've been there for 3 trips (each > 8 days), with each of them being to Manuel Antonio. Never ran out of things to do, though admittedly included things like white water rafting, ziplines, ATV tours and such on those trips. Those more active outings were the exception, however, as the focus of each trip was more on nature hikes - visits to wildlife rescues, walks through national parks, easygoing mangrove kayak tours, sunset boat tours, and days at the beach. There's several great beaches in the area!

Will you be renting a car, and taking yourself between the different options?

Honestly I'm tempted to sing Manuel Antonio's praises and suggest you make that the focus, but I can't bring myself to do so. As you likely know, one of the most fascinating things about Costa Rica is the great natural diversity found in such a small area - the beaches and areas in the north of the country are so different from those around Manual Antonio; cloud forests are so unique and different from other rain forest areas; the more mountainous parts of the country offer up entirely new and different things. So there's something to be said for including as many "home bases" as possible, and then really focusing your itineraries and plans once there (which is to say, don't go overboard on hot springs when in the La Fortuna/Arenal area if you only give yourself a couple days there; see which place might offer the best night time nature hike so you can plan for that in the best possible location). While on one trip I did spend a couple days around San Jose and Atenas to check out the area and visit friends, I'd otherwise just driven directly to Manuel Antonio from the airport after landing. Saw no real need to spend a night in San Jose after the flight. That's entirely your call as only you know if the flight will wear ya down or what time ya land but consider you might not absolutely have to give yourself those San Jose nights if you don't want to.

Thank you both! We will definitely cut the arrival night in San Jose if we arrive early enough to head straight to Arenal.

I've done a lot of research on the destinations, and concluded there are reasons certain areas are so popular, although I remain interested in other perspectives. We have traveled to enough touristy destinations here and abroad that I think we can manage our expectations, being active earlier and later in the day, with a rest in between. I have not decided yet whether to use private transfers or get a rental car. I'm leaning towards private transfers, then we could just rent a car for a day in La Fortuna and Manuel Antonio area if we feel the need, but it also depends on where we decide to stay.

Taxis and such are an option! Usually where you stay can help out with stuff like that. I tended to enjoy renting a car for the freedom it provided, but I also did a lot of random driving around. Usually if you book a tour or excursion they can pick you up from your hotel or villa.

If you do plan some nature walks and such, I'd consider getting a guide when it's an option. For Manuel Antonio National Park, for instance, it really came in handy hiring a private naturalist guide for wildlife spotting. They seemed so adept at spotting a sloth up in a tree I jokingly started thinking to myself they must have been planting the sloths in the trees themselves. The naturalists would spot animals other groups would just walk right by and not notice; some friends had gone on a walk through the park a day or two before us on their own and didn't see a fraction of the different species I had.

Thank you 1885 BD. We will definitely do at least one guided walk in each location.

I would stick with Plan 2. I really liked both Arenal and Monteverde and they were both very different. Agree to hire a guide as I would have missed so much if I was to go for the hikes on my own. Can't help you with Manuel Antonio as we did Arenal/Monteverde and beach time in Samara. We had rented a car and it was so nice to get around and very easy. Costa Rica is incredible, you will enjoy yourselves no matter what plan you end up choosing!

Don't mean to be Debbie Downer, but if you imbibe you might want to read this article.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/21/americas/costa-rica-alcohol-poisoning-methanol-intl/index.html

If you are renting car and would be driving in the dark, don’t, signage is not good, roads are narrow and windy to Arenal, and many people walk in the roads. Ask your hotel if they can arrange a transfer from San Jose to Arenal, then rent a car the next day. We did that and was a good decision, Also flew from SFO.

We’ve stated at two places near San Jose, one on the way out, and the other on the way in, both were fabulous. I need to do some digging to find the names of the places.