misha2

Hope this one comes out under CR searches.

The cast of characters:
two sets of heat-averse grandparents (60's)with assorted back/leg complaints
two nature-loving/adventure-loving children (10&8)
one thrill-seeking husband (40)
one people-pleaser, slightly neurotic trip planner(late 30's)

The question:

Could a CR rainy-season vacation be planned that would keep all these people happy?

The answer:

Yes!!! Thanks to the help of so many people on this board and Neta from Finca Que Ama. Thank you, thank you, thank you all !!

Flew home last night and I still feel like I am floating after our near-perfect CR vacation. We're all already talking about where in CR we'd like to go next.

So here's a little synopsis in case anyone has question and I'll add details later.


Places/Hotels:

Arenal -- Lost Iguana -- luxury suite with lava shower -- 5

San Pablo de Turrubares -- Finca Que Ama -- 5 (really special)

Manuel Antonio -- Buena Vista Villas (formerly Tulemar) -- 4 -- some problems that great staff tried to resolve immediately --don't think I would stay here again though.


Highlights:

Everyone agreed that all the activities/tours we chose made the trip!

Best of the best were:

Arenal Skytrek/Zip line
Tabacon Hot Springs
Finca Valmy horse ride

Also fabulous:
Hanging Bridges
Sunset Tours Safari Float
Turubari Park
MA park tour

Food --
So many great experiences! Even the vegetarians in our group were satisfied.

Bad Food Experience: Tulemar Villas breakfast (bugs all over the fruit/jam -- repeatedly dirty and chipped dishes) and Vagabondo in Arenal(mediocre service and food)

More details later.

But, please feel free to ask any questions! I really would love to help since I am so grateful to all those who helped me.

faithie

Costa Rica does not have its own forum ...... Your original post was in the correct place . Under Latin America .

missypie

Are the Tulemar (now buena Vista)Villas the same as the Tulemar Bungalows? I'm serously considering the Tulemar Bungalows because we are a family of 5, plus they have their own beach.

misha2

FLIGHT/DRIVER/LOST IGUANA/GENERAL TOUR INFO


Flight/airport
Had a long, but relatively smooth flight to San Jose. Sat next to a fascinating Tica who convinced me that my next trip would have to include the Carribean coast.

Long (over 1 hour) custom lines. Next time I would really hustle off the plane and try to sit closer to the front.

Met the grandparents who had arrived several hours earlier and went out to meet the driver arranged for us by Neta, Jorge.

Driver/Drive
Jorge is wonderful! He speaks English, is honest, kind, considerate, punctual and has a clean ac van with lots of leg room. Also, he offers really reasonable rates and drives safely. He did so many little things that went beyond the call of "duty" and were a great testament to his sterling character. Even at the hotels we stayed in people came up to us to tell us how nice our driver was.

I am so happy we had decided to hire a driver. It allowed my husband (our usual driver) to sit back and enjoy. Plus, with such a large party (eight people) it was great to have someone help with all the luggage.

The drive to Arenal was nice. It gets prettier as you go along. Some of the roads were windy. However, I found this great natural product called Motion-Ease and not even my car-sickeness prone daughter felt nauseous once on the trip.

Before we got into Fortuna we saw the breathtaking volcano smoking in front of us! WOW! Pictures can't do it justice. We felt so lucky to see it and stopped to take pictures.

Lost Iguana

By the time we arrived at the Lost Iguana it was nearly dark already. But, it was still obvious how pretty the hotel is.

I am so happy we chose to stay there. The luxury suites with lava showers were fabulous. The views are amazing. Furnishings are perfect for the setting and the breakfasts were great! However, if staying there it's best to have a car.

One thing, there were some very small service hiccups at the LI. I think this is just part of it being new. However, you could tell the staff was very eager to please.

By the way, LI offers great tour discount to guests.

General Tour Info

We arrived too late to book tours the night before. So, in the morning we were not able to get the tours we wanted and spent a lot of time our first day just trying to organize our tour schedule. I later learned it was the last day of CR school holidays. So, that might explain the rush. However, next time I would book the first day's tours in advance. Thank goodness we already knew what we wanted to do!


HANGING BRIDGES

Fabulous! Great views, wonderful things to see. Kids loved the bridges. Granparents, who don't normally take long walks, were so enthralled that they didn't mind the physical exertion. This was the first thing we went to see and we couldn't get a guide. I would do this again, but, with a guide so that I could learn more about all the fascinating plants. All in all everyone loved this activity.

Coming up soon --

Tabacon, Safari Float, Zip lines

faithie

They were called Tulemar Bungalows in the past .....

misha2

Oops -- my next post went up before I read the others. Thanks Faithie -- how embarrassing.

Missypie. They are on the same property and the breakfasts are at the same place Tulecafe (not so clean, but great views.)
The management is different. The villas are supposed to be newer/more deluxe. However, it seemed to me that the bungalow views were probably better and the bungalow pool seemed nicer. We could not see the ocean from our rooms because of how tall the trees were.

I, too, chose it for the private beach and because we were a large group. However, we had enough little problems (loss of water, ac issues etc) That I would explore other options before booking again.

It was great to have the beach there. But, since we were only there three nights we used the beach only once. The beach in the national park is really much more amazing. But, that could also be because we were there during rainy season and the Tulemar beach water was just muddy-looking because of the rain. The sand at Tulemar was also very dark and gritty the day we were there.

Having said this, the service was incredible!!! Adrian, the buena vista cincierge, made us feel so welcome and organized our dinners and outings perfectly! Victor, the driver, was so cheery and we never had to wait much. Also, on our (steep,long) walk back from the beach we saw a mother sloth with her baby. We didn't even see that at MA park!

One more thing -- there was this beautiful one bedroom bungalow (307?)(great view and decent decorating) with double beds in the bedroom and a day bed with a trundle in the living room. If you had that bungalow you could probably get away without even getting a second room. We had to move from that place because of water problems. But, if that was resolved..

I'd be happy to answer any other questions.

faithie

No prob. !!! Not an issue , just wanted to let you know you had been correct ! Great report ....

ljv

Hi Misha2...read your trip report and am really starting to get geared up for our trip. We leave on Aug.5. Hoping you could answer a few ?'s:
How high are the hanging bridges off the ground? Ditto for the Sky trek zip line? I have a fear of heights, but don't want to miss anything really great.
Do you know if Fortuna has a laundromat?
Finally, I'd like to know more about the Vinca Valmy trip.
Thanks! Lori

misha2

TABACON

Wonderful, mystical-seeming, simultaneously relaxing and invigorating. It was a Sunday night (after 7) and we almost felt as if we had the place to ourselves. The kids were delighted to go from one spot to the next -- excited by the new discoveries. Grandparents used the hot falls as a hydro massage on tired limbs and looked 10-years younger by the end of the night. Hubby and I enjoyed sitting close behind a waterfall. All in all it was a magical evening that I wish I could repeat!

misha2

ljv,

The hanging bridges are pretty high up. And, I did see one woman who was afraid of heights quickly passing through trying not to look around. However, the whole thing is not bridges. There are lots of lovely trails between the bridges.

The skytrek zipline ended up freaking me out and I didn't do it. I wish so much I had! My dad, husband and kids considered it one of the highlights of the trip and said it stopped being scary after the first line. They said the view of the volcano on one side and the lake on the other was breathtaking and the cables were long enough to actually enjoy these views.

I enjoyed the tram up anyway because of the wonderful guide Delroy -- he is from Limon and knew so much about uses of the plants and trees we saw on our way up.

I only learned after it was too late that I could have requested a guide to take me down, like they did for the kids. I, with all my fears, did that in Turubari on a zipline and it wasn't scary at all.

FInca Valmy was amazing. The wonderful Valentin picked us up from our hotel and took us to a small village. He chose just the right horses for us and we embarked on a delighful adventure riding through trails with valley views while eating fruit he picked off of the trees for us. We took a break at a private waterfall and swam there for almost an hour. Then we rode through streams, past a village to his farm where he plucked more fruits off trees and taught us about them. Then we were off to a fabulous french lunch at his partner's home where a wild toucan decided to come and visit and sit on a dining room chair. Sheer perfection!

ljv

Misha2...thanks for taking the time to post such excellent replies to my ?'s.Look for my trip report when I get back in mid Aug!
Lori

misha2

Good luck! You're bound to have a great time.

maryvh

Misha2 - I'm concerned! We are booked at Tulemar villas, #305 in February. For the most part, Tulemar gets rave reviews, including the breakfast. So, I was disappointed to read about your experiences there. We wanted to have ocean views but it sounds like you just saw the tops of trees. Should we reconsider staying at Tulemar?

lvk

Great Report, so far Misha2. It's bringing back fond memories of our multi-generational trip last year. We did almost all the same activities!

Can't wait to read the rest.

misha2

Thanks Ivk your trip reports are a big part of what inspired me.

Maryvh,

We ended up staying in 203, 309 and 209. 203 had no ocean views and was right above the pool. 309 and 209 had very obscured views. There was a room high up behind 203. If this was 305 then it will have a wonderful view. I strongly suggest calling the Villas directly and asking to speak to Adrian. He told me that had I talked to him earlier he would have made sure we had rooms with views.

The breakfasts were good. And, the view from the Tulacafe is beautiful. However, unlike other places they did not place nets on their fruits,jams, etc so these were covered with insects. The insect situation will probably not be that bad in Feb. Plus, there were so many people asking about nets they might have them by then. Our consistently dirty dishes might have been some kind of temorary dishwasher problem.

Basically, the service is so good that if, after speaking to Adrian you can be assured of the view (be really specific that you don't want trees covering the ocean) you will probably love it.

Also, there is a lot of construction taking place. You might want to make sure you are not near this.

misha2

Sunset Tours Safari Float

We loved the sunset tours safari float. It was serene and beautiful. We saw lots of animals and stopped at the small finca of 93-year-old Don Pedro. He was inspiring and charming. We had coffee there while eating home-made cheese , yuca bread and fried plantains his daughter made.

On the way back stopped at a place (Iguana Tree?) where the kids fed lettuce leaves to the Iguanas

That afternoon skytrek/zipline:

For more info see reply (7/26) above

Next morning -- the children's home/Sarchi and Finca Que Ama

Home for orphans/victims of violence

I debated about even mentioning this. But, it was so meaningful for my children that I had to share it.
My kids had held a lemonade/toy sale and used the money to buy some small school supplies for Costa Rican kids. Thanks to help from Elaine at LI, Paolo at sunset tours and the marvelous Jorge we finally tracked the place down. We initially felt so awkward handing out these small gifts. But, the chldren who recieved them were so happy that it eased our embarrassment. We had extra supplies and were lucky enough to be allowed to visit the school around the block. I just love the warm and welcoming attitudes of almost all the Ticos and Ticas we met.

Sarchi --

We just went to the cooperative shop at the edge of town. Lots of variety and good prices. If you only have a few souvenirs to buy and are going to MA go to Kids Saving the Rainforest in the Blue Monkey hotel. 100% of the profits go to help Tici monkeys. Although they did not have a huge variety, their prices were competitive.

Oh yes, we really enjoyed a fast but tast bite at Soda Shwarma in Sarchi close to the artisan's coop.

Next to Finca Que Ama:

How do I even begin to describe Neta and Arbel's warmth, charm and humor? My Mom said it best when she said Neta and Arbel mader her feel "like we've come home." They really have a great way of making everyone feel special.

The landscapes were breathtaking on our way to Finca Que Ama. And, the famous views from their balcony were just as beautiful. Each casita is set along the mountain and each has a wonderful serene interior.

The setting and the company would have been enough to keep us raving about this place. But, oh my the meals were fabuous in their own right, too. All eight of us agreed that the meals at Finca Que Ama were our favorite. The next morning after a reluctant goodbye we went off to Turubari park. I have to say that we all wished that we were going back to Neta and Arbel's place that night instead of heading right to MA. I was relieved that we had decided to spend our last night there as well. One night at Finca Que Ama would not have been enough.






There are lots

misha2

Okay, I better be a little less long winded and finish up the report before I head out of town again.

Turubari park

-- great guide and service -- learned a lot. I liked the zipline, butterfly garden and rainforest tour. Hubby and his Dad loved superman cable. Kids loved zipline, butterfly garden,the maze and watching the sugarcane to sugar process.

Then were off to MA. I think I've discussed most of our experience there above.

MA national park

Beautiful beach, lots of animal viewings. But, we went at 7:45 and there were already lots of people there. Had a fabulous guide I learned about from this board -- Alberto. I would book him directly before going, though. We booked him through the hotel and it seemed a little pricey. Then again, everything seems pricey multiplied by eight and I would do it all over again because he was so knowledgable and quite attractive

Have to mention one more time -- don't miss Finca Valmy!

One tip I would offer is we found that if you have to budget -- stay in a cheap hotel and use your money for tours/guides. Having one always enhanced our experience.

To sum it up:

I can't imagine a more wonderful trip!! My weather fears didn't materialize. All of us did things we have never done and never thought we would do. I feel so grateful to have all these memories and wouldn't have them without the help of so many fodorits. Thanks!

Well that's it. (By the way, I never realized writing a trip report would be difficult. I just wasn't able to bring our trip 'alive' the way so many others have. Hats off to all of you who do that. )

I'm open to any questions.

maryvh

Thanks, misha2, for your reply. I will take your advice and call Adrian at Tulemar villas and make sure we have a view. Great trip report!