10 days in Costa Rica in Oct - Is this itinerary doable

Hello everyone,

Planning a trip to CR for 10 days from Oct 20 to 30 and would love any thoughts on this itinerary and if we need a car.

Arrive in San Jose late PM
Day in San Jose
San Jose to Monteverde - Spend half a day
Monteverde to Arenal/ La Fortuna - Stay for 3 days
Arenal/ La Fortuna to Tortuguero - Stay 3 days
Tortuguero to Concepcion De San - Stay 2 days
On 30th leave from Concepcion De San to San Jose for late PM flight

Seeing this above itinerary
1) would we need a car?
2) this is also doable?
3) is Tortuguero a beach area? if not is there anything close by instead of going to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca

Any help is really appreciated

Arrive in San Jose late PM
Day in San Jose

Don't bother with a day in San Jose. Like most capital cities in Central America, it 's not chock full of things for tourists.

San Jose to Monteverde - Spend half a day

It's not adviseable. It will take you 4 hours to reach Monteverde from San Jose. Monteverde is reached via twisty slow mountain roads. Because of the transport time, if you go there, you'll probably want to stay 2 nights.

Monteverde to Arenal/ La Fortuna - Stay for 3 days

It will take you another 4 hours to reach La Fortuna starting from Monteverde.

1) would we need a car?

To go to Monteverde the public transport is extremely difficult, so yes you'll need a car. Also a car means you can go from La Fortuna to the la Pavona boat landing for Tortuguero much faster. If you used bus it would take 2x as long and you'd probably need to go through San Jose. And the car will need to be parked at the boat landing, since only boats go to Tortuguero. Car rental in CR isn't expensive if you reserve in advance, but you will need to pay for insurance at the rental car office, and the insurance costs more than the car rental.

3) is Tortuguero a beach area? if not is there anything close by instead of going to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca

There are beaches at Tortuguero. Sort of wilderness beaches with no services of any kind. Cahuita would be the nearest real beach town, way on the other side of Limon.

October is a very rainy month but the good news is that it is the best time of the year to go to the Caribbean coast. On that coast October is one of the most consistently dry months. The Caribbean coast is also a beautiful laid-back area. Monteverde would be very wet and muddy in October. San Isidro would be very rainy too.

With 10 days you could do this itinerary and you would not even need a car:
Tortuguero by bus/boat from San Jose (day 1-3). Boat to Moin, bus/taxi to Limon and bus to Cahuita (day 4). The National Park in Cahuita is amazing: beautiful beaches, rainforest trail and lots of wildlife (day 5). Then it is a short bus ride to Puerto Viejo and the beaches south of PV (day 6-7). We stayed in Manzanillo. Beautiful wild natural beaches, bordered by rainforest and lots of wildlife. You could then go rafting on the Rio Pacuare (day 8) and the tour company will drop you off in Arenal (day 9-10). You could get away with one full day in Tortuguero if you want to add a day to Arenal.
Or start with Arenal (take a bus from Alajuela). Shuttle to Tortuguero. Cahuita. Beaches south of Puerto Viejo. Rafting with drop-off in San Jose.

Arrive in San Jose late PM
Day in San Jose

Don't bother with a day in San Jose. Like most capital cities in Central America, it 's not chock full of things for tourists.

San Jose to Monteverde - Spend half a day

It's not adviseable. It will take you 4 hours to reach Monteverde from San Jose. Monteverde is reached via twisty slow mountain roads. Because of the transport time, if you go there, you'll probably want to stay 2 nights.

Monteverde to Arenal/ La Fortuna - Stay for 3 days

It will take you another 4 hours to reach La Fortuna starting from Monteverde.

1) would we need a car?

To go to Monteverde the public transport is extremely difficult, so yes you'll need a car. Also a car means you can go from La Fortuna to the la Pavona boat landing for Tortuguero much faster. If you used bus it would take 2x as long and you'd probably need to go through San Jose. And the car will need to be parked at the boat landing, since only boats go to Tortuguero. Car rental in CR isn't expensive if you reserve in advance, but you will need to pay for insurance at the rental car office, and the insurance costs more than the car rental.

3) is Tortuguero a beach area? if not is there anything close by instead of going to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca

There are beaches at Tortuguero. Sort of wilderness beaches with no services of any kind. Cahuita would be the nearest real beach town, way on the other side of Limon.

Thank you for the reply.
We are skipping Monteverde and decided to go Tortuguero then Cahuita for the beach and head back

Here's hoping you have a great trip. It will be rainy season still, but you hopefully will also get some sunny days.

Thank you mstep. Do you know much does it rain? Like through out the day or certain periods?

Typical for rainy season is sunny in the morning, then a big thunderstorm anytime from lunchtime or later, then sunny skies after the storm passes. But if a weather event moves through the Carib coast, it's possible to get a lot more rain than that. So cross your fingers.

October is the wettest month on the Pacific coast but one of the most consistently dry months on the Caribbean coast:
http://costa-rica-guide.com/travel/best-time/october/

If you are going to Cahuita do also check out the beaches, rainforest and wildlife south of Puerto Viejo.

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