Dear Jennifer and Matthew, Coming from Denmark (Scandinavia) in February 2017, we have tried to plan our trip from your excellent trip planning advices. We are going to rent a car for the whole trip. 800 dollars seems pretty expensive for 11 days. What is your experience here? Upon arrival, we plan to spend 2 nights in San Jose and to continue to Tortuguero and stay there for 3 nights. Continue to Poas (1-2 nights) and from there to La Fortuna/Arenal (2 nights). After that we would like to vist both Samara (2 nights) and Monteverde (2 nights) before heading back to San Jose (and Europe). What destination do you recommend that we visit first? Second question is whether this itinerary may be too tight? Wanting to visit too many destinations in 2 weeks? Spending too much time behind the car windows. What do you think? If we should skip one of the destinations, which one do you recommend to save for another visit to CR? Thanks in advance for your help. We would be so grateful !!! Best regards Jeanette Kristensen, Denmark
Hi Jeanette,
Yes I would say that the itinerary is too rushed. You can make a visit to Poas from San Jose as a day trip instead and cut that out. Also, just go to Tortuguero for 2 nights and you will still be able to see mostly everything there. Spend those extra nights in La Fortuna and Samara. As for the car, it is high season in February so prices are high. What you could do is not rent the car until after Tortuguero (there are no roads there so you wont need a car). Shuttles or small plane flights to Tortuguero can be pretty affordable and Adobe, who we offer a rental car discount through, has Guapiles/Tortuguero Boat docks as a pick up option. That would cut down the price.