jmreid asked 8 years ago
I’m planning a 2 week vacation, with my college daughter, Mid-late July. We are want to visit La Fortuna, Monteverde during the first week and the last week in Antonio Manuel(already booked Airbnb for the week). Where would you also recommend visiting? Would we be able to squeeze in Puerto Viejo(preferred, I heard it wonderful to snorkel, has blue hole, and Jaguar reserve)? or Guanacaste beaches? Also would you recommend renting car or rely on shuttles etc.. I’m not to excited driving on single lane, hairpin turns, cliff on one side, potential washed out roads. Lol. But love the flexibility of driving. Can you also recommend mid-level, safe, places to stay in LaFortuna and Monteverde?
Jenn and Matt Staff answered 8 years ago
Hi jmreid,
You’d probably want to spend at least 3 nights in La Fortuna/Arenal and 2 nights in Monteverde. So with the week you already have planned in Manuel Antonio you only have a couple more days. Puerto Viejo de Talamanca is really far from those places so we wouldn’t recommend it. If you wanted to snorkel, you could go south of Manuel Antonio to the Costa Ballena region for a couple nights. From Uvita you can get a snorkel tour to Cano Island, which is one of the better snorkel spots in the country. Shuttles work fine for those destinations but once you get to each town you will be limited in how much you can explore. Check out our La Fortuna Post for more hotel recommendations, but we liked hotel Monte Real as an affordable option. We’ll be coming out with a hotel guide for Monteverde in the next couple weeks so stay tuned for that or subscribe to our email list to get it sent to you automatically.