Costa Rica in December-last minute

Old Jul 30th, 2022, 05:44 AM
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Costa Rica in December-last minute

We NEED a vacation. It’s me, my husband, 17 yo dd, 15 and 12 yr old sons. We’re used to traveling in shoulder seasons and not having to follow school schedules, but all the kids are older and now we need to squeeze this trip in. We’re thinking Costa Rica in December . My original plan was to do two weeks, but one of the boys has a camp we just found out about it, so our available days are 12/17-12/25! I was going to split the trip between Arenal and Manuel Antonio, but now I think picking one spot allows us to see/do more. Normal for us is to pick a vrbo, but then we need to figure out grocery stores, meals, etc. I was looking to reduce my stress a little on this trip so we were thinking of staying at a resort/hotel. I’ve checked the Arenal observatory and the only thing they have left is La Casona. I’m not keen on sharing our space with others especially with Covid and teen kids, but it might come to that. Has anyone used those rooms? I’ve reached out to Los Lagos to see if they have anything available. Does anyone have any other suggestions of places that they know anything about? I feel like since this will be the only place we stay having a crappy place would really cast a pall on the trip.
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Old Aug 3rd, 2022, 09:11 AM
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We've stayed at the Arenal Observatory Lodge and love their grounds and all the wildlife. We stayed in a Smithsonian room, have not stayed in La Casona so no experience with those. Did you check Silencio del Campo? It's a popular place with families. You could also check Lost Iguana.
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Old Aug 3rd, 2022, 09:55 AM
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Thanks for the ideas. I quit and booked a VRBO. We’ll have a 4wd vehicle and I think we can make it work. We’ll have to work out some grocery stores, but everyone having some space should help.😀
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Old Aug 5th, 2022, 11:03 AM
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We went to the grocery store called Super Christian when we were there. Not sure if it's still there, but they had everything we needed. If you do VRBO, you may want to check on what kind of security they have. Friends of ours did that, and it was broken into while they were there. Probably very rare, but their phones, iPads, etc. were stolen. This was in Manuel Antonio, not Arenal but always good to check those types of things.
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Old Aug 5th, 2022, 01:38 PM
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I stayed in the lower level of White Hawk Villa at AOL. Was that booked also?

I think your timing is just too difficult to be able to have much choice.

I agree re the security issue. I did not know until I returned from CR that breakins of villas are not that unusual.
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Old Aug 5th, 2022, 02:28 PM
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The scariest thing for my friends is that they were there and sleeping. It happened overnight so pretty scary for them.
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Old Aug 7th, 2022, 10:15 AM
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I’ll check on the security, I didn’t see any mention of it, so…😬
Does it make sense since we only have 5 days in country to just stay in Arenal area or do we try to dip down to Manuel Antonio Nat’l Park for two days?🤔
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Old Aug 8th, 2022, 05:52 AM
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I'd just stay in the Arenal area with that short of a trip. We did an Arenal/Manuel Antonio combo for our first trip, but we had nine days. If you're flying into SJO, it will take about three hours to get from there to the Arenal area and then the same on your return day, so travel will eat up some of your time. Also they recommend getting to the airport three hours before your flight. There's plenty to do in the Arenal area. We usually stay four days when we go.
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