Ideas please between Ometepe and my departing home from San Jose

As I try to finalize my Cancun to CR trip in March/April I would like ideas on what I might do with the less than a week I'll have before the end of this trip. New to CR and undoubtedly have to return to enjoy CR. I expect to head towards CR from Ometepe and assume have to fly out of San Jose.

So first challenge is what's the best path - the left or right side and assume stay in the North? Probably have less than a week and enjoy nature, scenery, knees don't like serious long hikes, like all day on a volcano, these days, will have moved through all the counties since beginning in Cancun.

CR seems to be more of a challenge to get the "highlights" list so far.

TIA for help

YOu could go to Liberia and visit the Rincon de la Vieja from there.Its a nice volcanic NP with some easy hikes,nature etc.You don't need to climb up much..a lot of the walks are pretty flat.

And/or head up to Monteverde and Santa Elena NPs...Monteverde is a nice (though cool and often rainy) place to hang out for a few days.Some good places to eat and to stay.Not a massive amount of wildlife but you can see something,and the flora is great up there in the cloud forest.

Not sure what the left or right side is? You can not cross on the caribe side from Nica to CR.

You can cross the main crossing on the CA1 Pan Am Hwy via ferry from Ometepe to San Jorge, and taxi hire to border CR, then buses every 30 minutes from border to Liberia, from border to Liberia is two hours.

The other option, if boats are running again, is to head from Ometepe to San Carlos, and explore the El Castillo areas, go back to San Carlos and get stamped out, then cross Rio San Juan at Los Chiles to CR Immigration. From here you can bus to La Fortuna or San Jose.

How many days do you have in CR? What are your interest?

Monteverde is very overrated, touristy, and far from anything, so getting there from Liberia is 4 hours on a shuttle, or all day on buses.

I would focus on Cano Negro, Tenerio/Rio Celeste and Rincon, before Monteverde.

You can also use Arenal area as a base, to explore Tenerio and Cano Negro.

Keep in mind the border with CR/Nica will be a nightmare of epic proportions, Easter Week, as 300,000-500,000 Nica migrant workers in CR head home for Easter, and then all head back to work. This is the biggest holiday of the year in Latin America...

Hi,
Do you understand the enormity and challenge of the route that you are taking on? Do you actually think that after 2 months and this length of travel, you will be wondering what to do with the last few days? My best advice is to break down Mexico and Central America into two parts. Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras for one 60 day trip. Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua and El Salvador for another 60 day trip. With what you have planned, unless you plan to fly in country, you will be spending much of your time on buses. I would rethink your plans and instead of already wondering what to do after 60 days on the road, I would just make a rough outline and see how far you get while having a great time along the way. It isn't about quantity after all.

Advise you fly into Cancun on a one way ticket, this way if you slow it down or get behind you can fly home from anywhere and your not committed to getting to San Jose, just saying. Mexico does not have the onward ticket thing.

Central America is larger then it looks on a map and travel is very slow. Again you could spend the time in the Yucatan, Belize and Guatemala and still not even get close to seeing everything.

There is soooooo much to see and do in just these 3 countries, your really looking at 2-3 trips for all these countries you want to explore..

Don't know your Nicaragua route but if you can cross over at San Carlos, you can fly there for cheap from Ometepe, and then make a B-line to the Caribe side of Costa Rica and hang out for a week, if you have the time. Cahuita and Puerto Viejo are very laid back, beautiful beaches and jungles, tons of wildlife. Hard to beat that side, IMO.

Not sure what the left or right side is? You can not cross on the caribe side from Nica to CR.

I'm pretty sure the poster is asking whether to go south on the Nicoya peninsula after Liberia, or use the mainland route that heads more directly toward San Jose.

Depends on whether you want beaches or mountains before you get to San Jose. The Nicoya peninsula has the best Pacific beaches. But if mountains are what's wanted, use the inland route and the suggestion for Rincon de Vieja is a good one, or go to Arenal volcano and do trekking there, or visit the area around Poas volcano north of Alajuela, and visit the La Paz waterfall park. You can get to the international airport in a couple of hours from there.

And I agree 2 months time is not much time to get from Cancun to San Jose (do you even have 2 months?) You're going to spend more time on buses than you think, and you're going to need to skip a lot of interesting places.

lucapal, seems to me that with limited time the northwest area between the boarder and San Jose has lots to offer.....thx for ideas...will now do some specific reading on ideas from all in the area. Use to love any and all hikes...took 11 days a couple of years ago to take my own pic of Everest and another wandering see what Killy offered ...lol...just that my knees have decided at times that a d-I-v-o-r-c-e would be good so have slowed abit.

mrmoto, thx, you up a couple of things I hadn't put much thought into yet...the Easter migration. Is that like the week or just days before and after? and probably less likely to involve the 'tourist lists' but more likely the bus transportation and border crossing? or more than that?

I'm pretty sure I won't have a full week left to plan with for CR...its one of those places I will likely return to...maybe with company sometime. After the digging I'm doing I'm sure I could say that about other places along the way like Guat and Nic

I have yet to read any suggestion that I could leave Ometepe by boat to San Carlos, look at a day or so on the river than cross at Los Chiles so guess I really have the best chance to use the time wisely on Western path as I think of it. What happened to that boat...not enough business, too expensive, sank....? Could look at a short flight but cost? We need to get Air Asia at work in CA!

Will look at your ideas...thx.

mstep, yep never enough time to do it all or spend the time most would like but better for me to do it the way I do to get a good taste rather than not at all...lol...so far. All my trips are between 5-8 weeks - this will be my 10th in 10 years to new places. I live near the beach in So Cal so beaches are not my first priority except to sometimes see what others offer. thx.

The Norhtwest area you mention is going to get my next 'discovery' time.

hernosajoe, agree with the overall time/places/travel time points you make - too much for most..so that's why I'm trying to lay it all out before I make bookings, commitments. You and Greggo's comments are valuable and so true in many ways...I bet I hope to return and do more another time in some areas....Lord willing. I do have to take a serious look at where I might be around Easter/Apr 15 after the idea arose in another post. As post in another response it looks like I will have to confine myself to the area between the border and San Jose/airport.

The week of Easter is where you need to plan ahead, April 9th to the 16th. Stay away from the beach, big lakes as well.
Don't just figure the 15th will be crowded and more expensive, the whole week will be.
Recommend NO bookings or commitments, except for maybe Easter, just go and enjoy.

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