AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Talk Belize Travel Costa Rica

Hey Larry, Where did you and Amy stay? I am two weeks and counting until my trip. Wow, saying that out load makes me excited. I've been so busy at work I haven't had a chance to think about it much.

I am spending my time on the Pacific coast and will do day trips to other parts.

What would you say was the highlight of your trip?

I am eagerly awaiting your reply

MEL AND GELA, john from denver here, and susie and i went to c.r. last sept,(beginning of rainy season and thus low season) and had a fab time great people, and food was good if you eat local,stay away from the hotels, they try to cook like americans and F--- up the food with bad sauces!! However the local stuff as usual is where its at and thats why we visit other places yes? found the roads to be good generally..have been on worse. we started in S.J. and went the next A.M. to the east coast to tortuguera by bus and spent 3 days at the turtle lodge and it was smashing!!at that time the giant green turtles were laying their eggs, very cool! went a a river tour and jungle tour saw all the monkey's and sloth and the tiny green poison tree frog and too much to list, back to s.j and went on white water raft,pacquero river 25-30 miles, very fast water and good run..having done lots of stuff in colo. and also having done thie grand canyon..this was a lot of funand just a day trip!!well worth it!!then got our 4x4 and took off and went toward the west coast and stopped at the mud pots and did some hikes and swam in a mountain pool with falls coming down and went thru liberia, just way too much to do and not enough time ..definitely willgo back..went on to playa flamingo and stayed at the (sorry it's not like us!!)best western playa flamingo !!it was super and more than we usually do air and cable and 2 king beds and breakfast for 60 u.s. (remember low season)168.00 normal. the beach was right across the streetfromm where we had breakfastand no hastle with any one 8 paces and you were there or you could stay at the large pool with swim up bar and relax there also very cool. we dove 3 days and it was quite different..lots of fishes but not much coral or veg but i would swim into HUGE schools of fish and they would just envelope me!!some very cool and different diving . we used some very good web sites www.flamingo-info.com and www.hotels.co.cr and www.1costaricalink.com and www.visitcostarica.com we hope you all have as much fun as we had!!email me if you think of any q's i might be able to help u out with, fmbjohn@hotmail.com bon voyage

Thanks everyone for the travel reports and all the websites. I bought the Moon Handbook for Costa Rica for quik info, which was good advice. We usually go to Mexico and Belize, but it has been years for my wife and myself to return to " Ticalandia". We will be in the Dominical area south from Quepos area staying where the Baru river touches the Pacific ocean. I am going to fish like a fool, there are baysnook or rainbow bass in the river, and the Pacific side is famous for rooster fish, wahoo, barracudas, etc. If i can remember the Costa Rican's Spanish is alittle bit differant then the yucatan and Belize. Our national family hosts mumbled and cut off 1/3 of the words, of course they thought we had weird accents. Central America is such a kick, I love the area. Europe is wonderful, but I prefer the tropics..........best-wishes, mel s.

Gela, We stayed at the Fiesta Resort on the Pacific side. We read mixed reviews on it but we really liked it. The people were great and the food was also good. As for our highlight, I would have to say the day we went for a drive with a Costa Rican guy we met named Merlin, He was born in CR and but moved to California when he was 10, He moved back to CR four years ago. It was nice having someone fluent in Spanish and in English helping you out, plus he was a great guy. Anyway we hit some of the local bars and shops and just had an all around great day. Hope you have a good time, write back and tell us about your trip. I think we are looking into Honduras next year except Belize is always on our minds, of course you understand that. Later ML

That's a pretty cool story. Don Merlin sounds like a great guy. Honduras can be interesting, but it has been 18 years for me to travel through it. We used to live near the border with Guatemala and Honduras, so we used to go down and see the ruins of Copan. The ruins have incredible stellas with great details. The bay islands were nice too. Utila was very laid back, and the fishing and the snorkeling was great. Belize is always on my mind too, but sometimes you have to spread out and see something else. My wife and myself speak spanish so we can wonder about the central American area. The airfare for Costa Rica was cheaper then Belize in our situation, so hello Ticalandia. We will take off in mid-June. Best-Wishes, MS

Dogamatic & Mel S

My family is going to Costa Rica in September. I would be really interested in trip reports when you get back. We are thinking of going to the Pacific coast. Not sure we have time to visit both coasts in a 1 week stay. Any insights you have about where to go, what to do, where to stay (or not to stay) would be greatly appreciated. Also, do you know of a message board for Costa Rica? I found 1, but hardly any information, and very few posts. People are asking questions, but no one is answering. Sure wish there was one comparable to this one, but I'll take any help I can get. Thanks in advance -- Kathy F

Hello Kathy, we've been watching these two message boards these days : http://www.lonelyplanet.com/ & http://www.frommers.com/ , They are pretty active. Costarica.com is a nice website with quite abit of info. Best-Wishes, Mel S......PS I love that dancing K !

Mel S

Thank you so much for the links. Lots of info!

Kathy

do yourself a favor and purchase the Moon handbook for Costa Rica. It's inexpensive and chock full-o-information, i used amazon.com.

When I went to CR in November, I took the Lonely Planet travel guide and it was just about right on with everything.