so many places so little time
Replies: 2 - Last Post: Nov 28, 2012 7:05 AM Last Post By: scoot
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so many places so little time
Hello all,We will travel to Costa Rica February next for the first time.
We would like to see a lot of wildlife and of course a lot of nature.
We started to make a selection out of all possibilities. Our scheme up to now looks like this;
Alajuela - unknown - Tortuguero - Cahuita/Manzanillo - Alajuela
The still unknown part of our scheme covers a period of 6 nights.
We are thinking to spend some time (3 nights?) in the south, maybe Uvita area. We read about whalewatching over there and also the possibllity of visiting the Corcovado NP as a daytrip. And afterwards move to the north (arenal? Monteverde? Sarapiqui?)
Can anybody advise us in this matter? Where should we stay, what should we see?
Is the south a good combination with Tortuguero? Or is it better to skip the south and concentrate on the north?
Are there also possibillities for whalewatching in the north?
By the way, we are planning to travel by interbus/easyride or even public bus. Can anybody advice us on the travel time for example Alajuela to Uvita and from Uvita to for example la Fortuna?
Thanks in advance for all help!
1
for distances and travel times: http://www.yourtravelmap.comfor wildlife and "nature," you might take a look at this map. http://www.costaricanbirdroute.com/sites.htm while this is mostly about birds, all the areas mentioned are great for wildlife and don't have a lot of tourists.
other areas that are great for wildlife include tortuguero http://www.tortuguerovillage.com or the sarapiqui area http://www.selvaverde.com/lang/en/
if you are going to arenal, then you can do a day trip to the tenorio national park for the hike to the rio celeste or to cano negro wildlife preserve for a boat trip through the park.
uvita would be a good place for whale watching and you can do a day trip to corcovado from there as well as snorkeling at cano island. for more information http://www.tikivillas.com
i'm not sure just how much time you have in costa rica but try not to do too many things. you will find yourself exhausted from moving around so much without any chance to enjoy any one area. most areas where you go, such as arenal or uvita, you will be able to do many things from that one place. unless you have quite a bit of time - two weeks or so - it's probably not a good idea to plan on visiting both coasts. they are more than 8 hours apart.
so you could do this: alajuela, arenal, tortuguero, cahuita, alajuela - or
alajuela, sarapiqui, uvita, alajuela - or
alajuela, one of the locations on the bird route, cahuita, alajuela
it's usually recommended to plan at least 2-3 days in each area.
2
Some information about whale watching in the Uvita area here...http://issuu.com/philippe.costa/docs/ballena_tales__25Check back on the link for the latest issue of the travel magazine.
