Costa Rica Christmas Family Vacation Advice Requested

My husband and I just returned from CR a month ago. We had 8 days total (1 day travel there and 1 day travel back, so 6 days total to tour). With this amount of time, we chose to not go to either coast. We flew into San Jose, traveled to the Arenal area, then to the Monteverde area, then back to San Jose to return to the US. I'm sure Manuel Antonio would have been fantastic, but with the amount of time we had, we didn't include it.

It takes longer to drive from place to place in CR than you might think. There are mountains to cross and roads that aren't in the greatest condition.

So I think it depends on how much time you have to visit. If you have 10 days or more, I would include MA. If not, you might consider leaving out the coast.

Thanks, slbdaisy. We would like to center the visit in the Arenal/Monteverde area for our grandchildren and then go off on our own after they've returned. I think that would interest them most. We would like to be able to go to the Samara Beach area with them. We'll have to consult Google Maps.

Have been to CR several times visiting all the places you mentioned. Manuel Antonio NP still remains our favorite place. We saw more animals at Manuel Antonio than other places. At our hotel we saw several types of monkeys and sloths at the pool. In the park we hired a guide and saw lots of animals. I would not miss Manuel Antonio NP.

We also visited Tortuguero. While hot and humid in August, the animals we saw were amazing. We watched turtles lay eggs on the beach one night, frogs at the pool, bats, iguanas, toucans, monkeys and many other animals. It was our second favorite place.

We loved Arenal, but were disappointed in the Monteverde Cloud Forest. Visited Samara but were unimpressed with the beach as we are from California and used to California and Hawaii beaches.

Costa Rica is very family friendly and I am sure you will have a great trip.

We have visited CR once and loved it, but we did nothing like what you are considering.

We did do a 7 day Galapagos Islands cruise in 2022 with Celebrity Cruise Lines that was fantastic. The wildlife is amazing and so different as well as the scenic views. Also, the snorkeling is fantastic.

Solo birdwatcher here. I built a 16 day birdwatching trip in February in the central mountains you mention.
Some thoughts:
1. Driving does take longer than anticipated as roads can be bad.
2. Do Monteverde first, or skip. As mentioned some are disappointed with it. It is a vast cloud forest, so colder, wetter, more foggy. The actual Cloud Forest is quite dark with first growth trees.
3. Be very careful over the Holidays with security. There seems to always be an uptick in car and lodging break ins when there are lots of tourists visiting. Sometimes they are inside jobs with the AirBnBs so read reviews and be smart. The saddest story was a family who were delayed in arriving due to the weather. They had a villa with a gate and scrutiny cameras they felt would keep them safe. They were naive when they found the gate malfunctioning so not locking, and told the security cameras were broken. The family went for supper and when they came home the place had been striped of the cameras, laptops, even teen's name brand clothing. Others found the police stops and excuses for bribes were more frequent. All that being said, being careful doesn't mean you need to be warm of everyone. They are lovely people, but the few baddies mean you need to use your street smarts.
Santa Elena is the tourist town for Monteverde. That cloud forest is more touristy with adventures, etc.
I liked Curi-Cancha NP as it is a lower level, so less cloud and more open spaces to see and enjoy nature.
Monteverde does have an Orchid House however.
It is a day trek from coast to Arenal, and Manuel Antonio always gets the buzz about being excellent.
A thought is that you do beach and Arenal with your family. There are night tours for frogs and critters, sloths, boat rides and loads of adventure stuff. Put the car in a son's name and let them drive it back when they leave.
Costa Rica has these great shared shuttles between major tourist spots so you and your husband can get a shuttle to Monteverde from Arenal, then in to wherever else suits your fancy. If you are thinking to spend several days in each of a few places, a car isn't necessarily cost effective or necessary.

I appreciate all the comments. I had thought that the cloud forests were the places to be but now I'm not so sure. Please let me know what your favorite places/activities were. I will research Manuel Antonio. It appears to be not far from the San Jose airport. How many days would you suggest? Maybe see MA first, drive up to the cloud forests and stop midway for lunch. We are also looking at Playa Hermosa for the beach as well.

Not sure if you have found this blog site in your research, but it might help determine whether there is enough to do in the cloud forest. https://www.twoweeksincostarica.com/ There family is a little you get, but gives an idea.
I am retired and as a birder, my focus may be different to multi generation travelers. My favorite place was the biological research station at LA Selva, and The Bogarin Trail in La Fortuna. I was based there instead of Arenal. The Bogarin Trail is a sloth reserve with many birds, night visits for darting frogs, flat paths and shelters for the inevitable (even in dry season) showers.
Santa Elena is more touristy with a lot of activities. Monte Verde (village) is the older original homesteading area by the Quakers, so services are limited, and more with a hippie vibe. But the original Quaker dairy is still around, there is a bus from Santa Elena to Monteverde cloud forest.
I should mention, the area is very hilly with steep one way streets in Santa Elena.

We flew into Liberia and rented a car to drive to LaFortuna. We stayed there for three nights, but it was lovely, and I wish we would have stayed a few more days. I loved the ziplines at Sky Adventures Arenal Park.

We then drove to Tamarindo, returned the car, and spend a couple weeks in a cute little hotel a few blocks off the beach. Our activities included monkey watching, horseback riding and a VERY long day trip to Nicaragua.

Thank you MariaF for the additional information. I'll be researching Curi-Cancha NP.

Mnannie, I will be researching Sky Adventures Arenal Park as we do want to zipline. I'm thinking my grandsons are too young but can be in a gondola.
I'm currently looking at AirBnB and VRBO for homes with air conditioning not so much because it will be hot but because of humidity. It looks as though Christmas time is popular. If anyone has been at that time, is anything open on Christmas Day? I know the country is quite Catholic, so I'm doubting that much will be open. Maybe beaches are open??

I did 5 school trips to Costa Rica with the high school where I taught. I actually remember being really impressed with Monteverde and Santa Elena and the whole cloud forest experience (didn't see many people, town was quiet)---this was 2007, so maybe things have changed there. Really liked the lodge where we stayed. We saw no one else on our cloud forest guided hikes and I still have a vivid memory of seeing a quetzal when we were ziplining. Loved La Fortuna each time we went there, especially the organic farm tour that we always did, eventually staying in cabins on the farm as well. Rincon de la Vieja National Park in the NE corner of the country was very rich with wildlife--did horseback riding there. My favorite area is the Osa Peninsula--Corcovado National Park and Golfo Dulce in the SE corner of the country. That was considered the most "untouched" and wild natural part of the country, but from what I have read it has become a bit more "touched." Trees were full of scarlet macaws right along the beach, like Xmas ornaments on the branches. I also really enjoyed the SE corner of the country in Puerto Viejo, that has a very Caribbean cultural and beach scene. Most of my wildlife encounters were from doing volunteer work at a wildlife rescue center on two of the trips, which was outside of La Fortuna, as well as a turtle research project in Osa. One thing I will say about looking for wildlife in Costa Rica--it is hard to plan. Most of the wildlife I found was a surprise--a quetzal, poison arrow frogs, a coral snake, coatimundis, monkeys, toucans, tree frogs. Some was more planned--crocodiles below a bridge, iguanas in hotel courtyards, hummingbirds at every lodge feeder, and parrots outside dining rooms. One year we combined Costa Rica and Nicaragua and another year we combined Costa Rica and Panama (where we worked at a manatee research project). I used the Lonely Planet Costa Rica guide as my reference over the course of the 5 trips.

You've given me more to explore, Pete. Sounds like you had some wonderful times. Thanks for the suggestion of Lonely Planet. I will purchase that.
Currently, we are exploring La Fortuna, the cloud forests, Children's Eternal Forest, Arenal Volcano National Park, Tarcoles, Esterillos Este and Manuel Antonio.

We took our kids to Costa Rica over Christmas some years back. We flew into San Jose and spent two nights at Arenal, then did a horseback ride to a pick up for the rest of the drive to Monteverde for 2 nights and then had a car service drive us to Manuel Antonio for 4 nights. Without a doubt, Manuel Antonio was the highlight. The other two places were interesting but cooler and misty with good birding but not much else in the way of animals. MA was awesome, sloths, monkeys, etc. Warmer and a lot of variety of things to do. Beach, the animal viewing, a spice farm tour, etc. Costa Rica is a great family destination, enjoy!

Thank you, Beth. How many days did you actually go to the MA National Park? We're trying to determine just how much time we would like to be in each place: Monteverde Cloud Forest and Manuel Antonio National Park, especially. Also, how was the weather the year that you visited? Were restaurants, venues, etc. open on Christmas Day? Thanks!