marie7 asked 8 years ago
Hello, I’m going in January to Costa Rica (arrive in San Jose) & Nicaragua (depart from Managua) and I have some questions for my route! I will rent a car. I would go from San José to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca(3 full days / 4 nights). Then drive to Tenorio Vulcano Parc (2 full days/ 3nights), then to Dominical (4night/3days) and then to Tamarindo or Mal Pais (2full days). I\’m hesitating to maybe stay longer at first 3 places and skip Tamarindo/Mal Pais. Or is Tamarindo/Mal Pais something totally different ? It are all long rides… In Nicaragua i would go to isla de ometepe and the corn islands. I hope to see lot of animals (hope to see whales in dominical!), also a bit of surf (beginner – intermediate), kajak, rafting… Thanks ! Ps: This site has helped me a lot! (only problem now is that I want to see everything in CR ;))
Jenn and Matt Staff answered 8 years ago
Hi marie7,
Yes, those places are very spread out so you will be basically spending one full day (7 hours or so) traveling between Puerto Viejo and Tenorio, Tenorio and Dominical and Dominical and Tamarindo or Mal Pais. It might be better to do Puerto Viejo, then go over to Dominical in one big trip, then head north towards Nicaragua and visit Tenorio and Tamarindo, which are up north anyway. You could do a stop along the way in a place like Jaco, but Mal Pais is even more out of the way so we’d say skip that. Still a lot of traveling between destinations but the order might help you save some time overall since Tenorio is closer to Tamarindo and they are both closer to the northern border with Nicaragua.