I am taking my family (children ages 9-17) to Costa Rica over Spring break. We are flying into Liberia and wanting to spend 3 days on the beach and 3 days experiencing nature and wild life (kayak, hike, hot springs, etc.). I'm trying to minimize time spent in the car. I'd love recommendations on places to stay to experience nature within an hour or so of Liberia airport. Did I mention, I don't like spiders so nicer accommodations please.
Posted by
Bend, Oregon
2545 posts
We stayed in Tamarindo for our beach days. It’s about an hour from Liberia. Do not plan on driving yourself after 6 pm, when it gets dark. And I mean DARK. No street lights or street signs.
If you want more lush rainforests, you’ll need to travel farther inland. We stayed about 3 hrs from Liberia at Chachagua Rainforest resort, and also at Baldi hot spring resort, near the Arenal volcano.
Fair warning: there is a VERY high likelihood of snakes, bugs, spiders, etc even in very nice accommodations. It’s the rainforest. If you go on the nighttime nature walk at Chachagua, you’ll see spiders the size of your hand (not kidding).
Also be aware that the distances between places will take a longer time to travel than you’re used to in the US. An hour really doesn’t get you very far.
Posted by
WI, WI
88 posts
We went February 2020, right before covid blew up. We rented a VRBO in the Guanacaste province. It was beautiful. We stayed in Playa Flamingo and there are loads of places on VRBO.
We flew to San Jose and rented a car, and it was about a four hour drive to get there. Being our first time, and having kids along, the arrival times were much earlier and we didn't want to worry about driving in the dark. But now that we've done it, if we ever did it again, it would be significantly closer to fly to Liberia, though it did cost more.
Our area was relatively quiet. We did go for an evening to Tamarindo, which if you want more lively area to stay, that would be it.
I would get a car again, it was helpful to have to get around, but it could be done without it if you pay for a transport service to take you places. As travel4fun noted, it takes forever to get anywhere.
I was surprised at how much things cost, I figured it would be significantly cheaper . Grocery stores and things close quite early as well.
We went to Cipanci National Wildlife Refuge and took a boat ride down the river. Lots of gators, birds, monkeys, lizards - beautiful. Though our boat died about 50 times and sometimes I wondered if we'd get back on the boat, but we did manage not to have to swim with gators.
We drove through Rincón de la Vieja National Park and there is a waterfall there that is relatively easy to walk to. You can swim at it. It is cold.
There are tons of ATV rentals, which we got one big enough for four, and rode it to a ziplining place (can't remember which, but there are numerous).
There's also a ton of horseback riding places, which we randomly chose one and rode through the trails down to the ocean. Sorry, I can't remember the name.
This was our favorite thing to eat - https://www.facebook.com/vidabowlscr - Vida Bowls.
Did an afternoon/supper/sunset sail with this one - https://www.panachesailing.com/
There was loads of time to explore wherever we stopped, swim, snorkel, paddle board, kayak.
Some of the group did a fishing trip, also loads of captains to take you out. I can't speak for it, fishing is not my thing. But they seemed to enjoy it.