Costa Rica itinerary check

I did 5 trips to Costa Rica with high school groups. We never went to San Jose as a part of the trip--we would head out to the countryside to a lodge as soon as we arrived. We went to La Fortuna on each trip (we always stayed at the same organic farm there), and one time to Monteverde. Have not been to Manuel Antonio. We did other national parks further north and further south, and on the Caribbean side. Spending extra time would have to do with what interests you--the cloud forests of Monteverde, the volcano, rain forests, and town of La Fortuna, or the coast/rainforest/beach of Manuel Antonio. I actually would have liked to spend more time on the trails of the Monteverde area, though I think it is more popular now than when I went in the early 2000s. Be aware that driving can be rough, depending on what part of the country you are in.

The airport is a good distance NW from the city of San Jose. There are many hotels in the area around the airport. It is common for people to stay at one of these since you are often arriving too late to get to your next destination. You don't want to go into San Jose for the night, lots of traffic and it would be the opposite direction for La Fortuna. I'd guess the majority of tourists have never been into San Jose proper, it just isn't why people go to Costa Rica. There is no reason to fit it in unless there is something in the city that is of particular interest. You already have lots of driving in a short trip so make your final night back near the airport and add a night elsewhere. We used private and shared transport not driving, but I'd guess that you need to take the estimated driving times with a grain of salt- especially in and out of Monteverde. Small winding roads and some with loads of potholes makes it slow going. The Costa Rica TA forum has lots of good information.

Great tips, thank you both! I haven't thought about checking TA, I'll look into that, too.

Definitely don’t go during the rainy season. Look it up! Heavy downpours make driving difficult. As far as were to stay, it depends on what you like. We stayed at the Orchid hotel one night and the car rental brought the car to us. It’s just a run of the mill motel like lodging. The restaurant walls and ceiling were papered with photos of Marilyn Monroe. It was a hoot.
We met several people there whom we saw again in other areas of CR. They took a tourist bus from place to place. I don’t remember the name of the bus company.
We drove south and did nothing in the north.
Don’t underestimate the driving times. Add a lot of hours if it rains.

Thanks Diane, the Orchid sounds fun!

I agree that you're better off adding a day to one of your other destinations rather than in San Jose. Which depends largely on what your family's interests are.

What activities are you planning in each destination? Do you want an extra day of hiking, doing zip lines, seeing wildlife, visiting coffee plantations, visiting waterfalls? Or would you rather have more time relaxing at the beach?

You can't go wrong. All options will give you plenty of pleasure. Just read your guidebook and see which things you want to do at each destination and then you can decide where to add a night.

Enjoy your trip!

We just returned from Costa Rica with a similar itinerary to what you have planned. My opinion, San Jose is a nice overnight stay if you are arriving later in the day as the drive from San Jose to La Fortuna is around 3.5 hours depending on traffic. But I don't think you need to stay two nights at the end of your trip. Maybe stay just on Monday before your flight home and use that extra day in La Fortuna. If you can add one extra day to any of your three stops, La Fortuna/Arenal area deserves that extra time. So many things to see/do there.
I also agree with the prior post to make sure you pad your drive times between locations...particularly from La Fortuna to Monteverde. The roads around Monteverde are narrow and winding and not always paved. We even had a creek that overflowed onto the main road after a morning of constant rain. We had transport arranged between locations and was very happy that we did not decide to drive on our own. In general, most of our transport was through Jacamar Tours. They provided us with transport and amazing drivers. (just in case you are interested in looking into this)
Enjoy your trip!