Costa Rica, December 2004- Good Hotels, Etc
From 18 - 28 December 2004, I was on a trip to Costa Rica to learn about the rainforest.. and have a good time! My sister was there a year previously, and came back raving about how tourist-friendly the country is.
My experiences echoed hers, and I would say to anyone: "If you want a great holiday in the sun, go to Costa Rica"!
I have no doubt that there are many, many nice places you can go. The ones listed below are excellent, but are here simply because they were the ones which took care of me. I have to confess that I do not travel on $5 a day... but not every 5 star hotel can justify the prices it charges. The hotels below were well worth what they charged. One of the joys of travelling to Costa Rica from the States is that your money goes a lot farther than it goes at home.
Hotel Borinquen
This is in the north of the country, on the western flanks of Rincon de La Vieja. (Near Liberia on the map, but well outside town in reality.)
The owners have carved a luxurious paradise out of the jungle. If you want "get away from it all", without giving up your comfort, you could do a lot worse. If all that bliss leaves you feeling a little lethargic, go for a ride on the horses the hotel provides, a swim, a sauna, mud packs from the hotels own volcanic hot spring. Been there, done that? How about zipping 2100feet across a valley not unlike the one in the early scenes of Jurassic Park. I don't know... not sure I want to... how high we were above the valley floor. (200'? "Enough", anyway!) And the 2100ft run is only the start....
Near Manuel Antonio National Park, south of San Jose, is the splendid Hotel El Parador. Sloths, squirrel monkeys, white faced monkeys, caracaras, etc, etc, in the hotel grounds! And first class service, food, facilities. Their web site:
El Parador
Need a hotel in San Jose because you're getting in early or leaving late? We used, and I liked, the Hotel Herradura, about 5 miles from the airport. I couldn't find a web site for them, but the following took me to information on it. If the link becomes invalid, just search Google for "hotel herradura" "san jose" (note and include the " marks.)
Hotel Herradura
I feel badly that I don't have proper URLs for all of the following, but a little digging may turn them up. I'll try to edit this page further, later. If you find any of the URLs, please forward them to me? (Here is how you can contact this page's author, Tom Boyd.)
There's an excellent butterfly farm near San Jose where they will tell you many interesting things.
Orchimex- ORCHid IMport and EXport, is a huge commercial grower, AND they offer very interesting tours of their orchid production facilities.
I THINK this is the URL...
We also had a marvelous journey through mangroves at Isla Damas. Well worth doing.
Croc river- Tarcoles River: Wonderful bird watching, in addition to "meeting" the crocs and learning about them.
River Trip Information
Want souvenirs? A visit to the village of Sarchi could be worthwhile.
Click here to visit page with photos from a trip to the Galapagos and Machu Picchu, October 2001.
Click here to visit page with photos from a trip to Botswana and neighbors, December 2004.
Click here to visit editor's freeware, shareware page.
Here is how you can contact this page's author, Tom Boyd.