We're in the beginning stages of planning a family vacation (ages 17-50s) for 12-18 people the week between Christmas and New Years (~7 days). We're looking to rent a large house with a daily chef, but also considering hotels/resorts.
Our initial idea is Costa Rica, spending a couple nights at Arenal National Park to see the Volcano, waterfalls, maybe white water rafting, and then spend the rest of the week by a nice sandy beach, probably Pacific side, to relax, play beach volleyball, etc.
If we do Costa Rica, any suggestions for the best beaches or recommended beach houses for our relaxing part of the trip? Alternatively, any suggestions for other central america regions that provide similar adventure (hiking, waterfalls, volcanoes, white water rafting type activities) and beach combinations?
Thanks!
Group Christmas Week Beach and Adventure Vacation
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Our favorite resorts in the Arenal area are the Lost Iguana and Nayara. If you can swing the cost, The Springs Resort and Spa looks pretty amazing, and they're running a Groupon right now. I don't know of many houses to rent in the area. For beach time, Manuel Antonio is very popular with families. Check out someplace like Tulemar Bungalows/Buena Vista Villas. I expect that prices are going to be extremely high for both Costa Rica and Belize during that time; they tend to skyrocket around December 15th and through New Year's.
In Belize, you could do a combo of the San Ignacio Cayo area for jungle time and then Ambergris for beach time. We loved Victoria House and Chaa Creek.
I just finalized a booking at San Ignacio (Chaa Creek) and Victoria House as mentioned above and the Christmas week is (1)in some cases 2-3 times as high price wise and (2) very limited space. You should probably spend some serious time seeing what is actually available to you for that time...I assume you are talking about this year. No point in considering things that are not available. We fortunately can go a bit later as we do not have to return until Jan. 13th.
I just came back from Nicaragua. Part of trip was at Ometepe Island where they have volcanos,hiking,waterfalls springs. We stayed at Totoco Lodge, but that may be too small for your group. The second part,the sandy beach, was in San Juan del Sur where we rented a house thru VRBO. They offered the option to hire a cook from the Morgan Rock Resort, which is just down the dirt road.
Been to Costa Rica and Belize. Nica seems comparable to CR before development. It is less expensive, beaches just as nice, and little English spoken.