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Costa Rica in 10 days

Myself, my husband and our adult daughter will be going to CR for 10 days at the end of April/start of May next year and I am wondering if what I am hoping to do while there is realistic.

This is our first trip to CR and our goals are to see rainforest wildlife, do some class 3/4 white water rafting, hike to a swimmable waterfall, zipline, visit a hot spring and spend some time at a beach.

I'd prefer to fly into SJO but flights from and back to Toronto have horrible departure and arrival times and are more expensive so we'd like to fly into Liberia instead. We would rent a car.

Thinking we would start out in northern Guanacaste for the waterfall hike ( La Leona or Oropendola), then drive to La Fortuna for ziplining at Sky Adventures and a visit to Tabacon hot springs.

Next drive to Pacuare river for white water rafting before heading to the Cahuita for some beaching and rainforest animal viewing before flying with Sansa back to Liberia the morning of our departure.

I am normally an ambitious traveler but not sure if this is overly ambitious.

Thanks for your feedback.

Posted by
211 posts

Unless you have already done so under a different forum-name, you may want to sign up for the TripAdvisor forum, and post your questions there. This Rick Steves site is mainly for Europe-bound tourists, and though this section may be called "Beyond Europe," many knowledgeable Latin America tourists won't know it exists.

Posted by
396 posts

Thank you. I am also on TA, but it's shocking to me how little action that forum gets, given what a popular ( and complicated) destination CR is!

Posted by
1332 posts

My husband and I took our family to CR for Christmas, 2023. Our path was different from yours: Monteverde Rain Forest and Manuel Antonio National Park for a total of 12 days. It was fabulous. We did fly into and out of SJO, though and drove to MRF the day we landed. One thing to know, if you're packing in many sights, is to plan on driving taking much longer than you'd think. You should rent a four-wheel/all-wheel drive car and count on a road trip taking twice as long as you'd think. The roads that we were on were filled with potholes greatly slowing us down. Both cars that our family rented ended up with punctured tires from whatever we picked up on those roads. We were warned also not to drive any distance at night since there are few road signs and no lights. Furthermore, gps can be unreliable. It is a wonderful country with so much beautiful scenery. We did the white water rafting and horseback riding which was breathtaking. Again--the scenery!

Posted by
1307 posts

When you say drive to Pacuare river for rafting, you need to think the details. The drive from one place to another. Maybe a whole day for just that.
You can't go 2-4 hrs and make the rafting trip the same day.
Sometimes in CR it is easier to do a day trip and not yourself plan trip. Driving in CR is longer than you may think. Daytrip is so much more efficient.