, which was slightly cheaper and a little less central, but still only 15 minutes walk to the Teatro Nacional. This hotel is formed of a series of interconnected houses and its labyrinthine hallways are a little hard to navigate, but the rooms are clean and comfortable, if a little spartan. A free and extensive buffet breakfast is served in the garden terrace each morning.
We took a public bus from San José to La Fortuna, which cost $7 and took about four hours — not much slower than a private minibus — so I would recommend using public transport at this stage. Do keep an eye on your bag on the bus though, as the on-bus policeman warned us.
This hotel was one of my favourites: the rooms are a series of canary-yellow cabins with private porches and amazing views of the volcano; we were in number 11, which had a front-row view. Breakfast is included and involves fruit and a choice of eggs on toast, yoghurt and granola or rice and beans.
 |
| Hotel Campo Verde, near La Fortuna/Arenal |
In terms of activities in the area,
several companies run combo tours: we did a four-in-one tour that included a river safari, a tour of the La Fortuna waterfall, lunch at a restaurant in town, a guided hike around the volcano and entry into and dinner at the
Tabacón hot springs. At about $220, this isn't cheap but is an efficient way of combining multiple activities, especially if you would otherwise have to factor in the cost of taxis.
The best way to get between La Fortuna and Monteverde is by
jeep-boat-jeep, actually a minibus-boat-minibus service that takes you from your hotel to Lake Arenal, ferries you across the lake and delivers you to your hotel at the other end. This costs $25 and takes about three hours, saving a good 90 minutes' driving on very poor, rocky, unpaved roads.
 |
| Hotel Mar Inn, Monteverde |
In Monteverde, we stayed at
Mar Inn, which was a little more rustic than some of our other hotels, but clean and perfectly nice. The staff were very friendly and helpful and can arrange pretty much any kind of tour or transportation you might need. I enjoyed relaxing in the hammock outside our room, watching the birds in the garden and enjoying the view over the town. NB: the hotel is pretty high up the hill and a short but very steep hike up from the town centre. Breakfast (scrambled eggs on toast or pancakes) was included.
We did an
amazing night hike in the cloud forest and got our adrenaline pumping with a
zip line canopy tour, among many other activities.
While in Monteverde, we discovered that it's actually quite hard to leave the cloud forest. We wanted to go to the beaches of the Nicoya peninsula but all of the public buses involved long journeys with multiple changes. Nor was there a car hire place in Monteverde and it would cost $100 for a car rental company to drop a car off there for us to return to San José. We decided to spend the $100 on two tickets on one of the tourist minibuses to Tamarindo and the roads were so bad, we were glad we weren't driving.
 |
| El Sabanero Eco Lodge, near Tamarindo |
 |
| Our cabin (the wifi didn't reach this far...) |
Our hotel,
El Sabanero Eco Lodge, was about 10 miles outside Tamarindo. Its main selling point is the amazing infinity pool, but the lodge was a nice place to hang out too. The rooms are small cabins, but not as well kitted out as at Campo Verde. I liked the cabins, though, even if it was a little disconcerting to wake up one night and find the cabin completely surrounded by a herd of cows! Don't come here without a car though; taxis into town are expensive and the buses are unreliable.
 |
| El Sabanero Lodge's amazing pool |
It is only about 100 miles from Tamarindo to Mal País, right down at the bottom of the Nicoya peninsula, but it took us most of the day to drive it. We drove to Playa Samara via the 'fast' (i.e. paved) roads and then went the scenic route for the rest of the journey, which involved almost no paved roads, lots of steep hills and several river crossings. But it was an adventure and the views were stunning! We were able to stop at a number of different beaches, and I really would recommend the drive — in dry season, of course.
 |
| Moana Lodge, including the sunset view from the cliff-top restaurant |
In Mal País, we stayed at
Moana Lodge, a lovely hotel on the cliffside above the town. The more expensive cabins have 180 views of the coastline; our room was lower down but well appointed and with a nice terrace. There is a cute pool, hot tub and chill-out area and the beach is only minutes away. The hotel's key selling point is its restaurant, Papaya, perched on the clifftop and offering amazing views of the coast and the jungle. A good and well presented breakfast is included; we also went for dinner one night, enjoying a selection of tapas as we watched the sunset.
MONTEZUMA
Originally, we planned to drive from Mal País to Quepos, via the Paquera–Puntarenas ferry, but after our epic road trip, we realised we had been too optimistic and had to cut our planned trip to the
Manuel Antonio National Park, a real shame, because who doesn't want to to go a national park brimming with cute monkeys frolicking on the beach? With hindsight, I would have cut a day from La Fortuna or Monteverde to have time to visit Manuel Antonio.
 |
| The Ylang Ylang Beach Resort pool, Montezuma |
Instead, we drove a little way along the coast to Montezuma, staying at
El Sano Banano Hotel. The main attraction was the access to the pool, beach and facilities of the hotel's more luxe sister hotel,
Ylang Ylang Beach Resort. El Sano Banano was cheap and cheerful — a little noisy at night but the pool was amazing.
To get back to San José, we drove 45 minutes from Montezuma to Paquera, where we caught the car ferry to Puntarenas, which took about 70 minutes and cost about $30. From there, it's only about 60 miles to San José. Because we were driving along Highway #1, we assumed the road would be relatively fast, but there was rarely more than one lane and we often slowed down to 20 mph. It was a scenic journey, though, and by this point we had learned to be grateful for small mercies: namely paved roads and no river crossings!
And now I just have to decide where to go on my next adventure!
No comments:
Post a Comment