I'm going to Costa Rica for 7 days. What should I do while I'm there? I'm totally open to anything.

Question

I'm going to Costa Rica for 7 days. What should I do while I'm there? I'm totally open to anything.

Answer 1

I recommend taking a one-day trip to Isla Tortuga. It is about a 2-hour bus ride to Puntarenas, a port, and then another 90min ferry ride (your tour company should provide lounge area and music and drinks on the boat... we used Calypto tours). Anyways, Isla Tortuga is actually a sort of, I dunno, peculiar destination. On the one hand, it is nearly a deserted island, but on the other, it is basically used solely for taking tourists to for a day on the beach... HOWEVER, there are usually not too many people on the tours at once, and what I found really special was the hike I took. Basically, you will see one beach sort of stretching along and slightly around the front part of the island, and if you go to the end of that beach, you will see a long palm tree growing sideways and overhanding the beach. This is the end of the beach. Behind it, you will see foilage and a sign saying "End of Public Zone"... Go a bit into the foilage anyways (you will see some houses, maybe of local tourist workers?, on the left side amongst the foilage), and in about 50-100 feet, you will come across some steps. Just keep following them up and you will be taken to, basically, a trial with marked checkpoints. I am not sure why it is considered outside of the "public zone," but it definitely looks like a specific hike designed for people who want to hike to the top of the island. Anyways, I was the ONLY person on the trail, and I was able to get some AMAZING photos, far from the relaxed party scene of the beach. I climbed the top of the island and basically got tremendous views of the other side of the island.

Here are some pics that I took last Sunday, in fact (I am currently studying abroad in Costa Rica):

boat ride to Isla Tortuga: http://photos-g.ak.facebook.com/photos-a...

beach at arrival to Isla Tortuga: http://photos-h.ak.facebook.com/photos-a...

that sideways-growing palm I referred to, which, before we left the island, me and my friend climbed for this photo! :

http://photos-584.ll.facebook.com/photos...

See, towards the left side of that pic, there's a sort of "step-up"? If you go there, and then just forward into that foilage a bit, you'll easily find the steps I am talking about.

one of the views on my hike, view to the side of island, but not towards direct opposite side of beach: http://photos-584.ll.facebook.com/photos...

view directly to opposite side, on top of island:

http://photos-584.ll.facebook.com/photos...

another great view: http://photos-c.ak.facebook.com/photos-a...

Answer 2

I was just there with my soccer team. You should go zip lining, surfing, scoba diving, hike through the rainforest, visit Jaco Beach its beatuiful, eat there food make sure you buy there suace they put on the rice yummmm me and my teamates regret not buying that we talk about it sometimes haha. have fun!!! its beautiful

Answer 3

Try the Zip Line. Amazing!

Answer 4

Theres lots to do in Costa Rica ive been living here for about a year now. It really does depend on where you are staying but definetly go to a volcano called Arenal and Rio Celeste is on the way and gorgeous http://www.google.com/search?q=rio+celes...

And of course the beaches are insane!! Samara is a beautiful beach in Guanacaste though i have to warn u its winter here so u will be here during the rainy season. Go on a canopy tour aso they're so  fun. Good Luck !!

Answer 5

Zip line and make sure you go to see the mountains and coffee plantations you can see the volcanoes at the same time in some cases.

Answer 6

The best thing to do is to see the pacific coast, the central mountains and the Caribbean sea because you would get a taste of different parts of Costa Rica.  

If you hit the pacific coast you should go to any beach on the Nicoya peninsula on the west coast of CR here's a link with some pics of it http://nicoyapeninsula.com/general/map.h...

some nice beaches there are Montezuma and Playa Tambor but any beach there is nice.  Then when you go to the central part you can go to the Volcan Arenal and then from there to Monte Verde and jump on the cable sliding and hike tours in the cloud forest there, heres a link with pics of the central part http://www.monteverdeinfo.com/ and then after that go to the east coast of the country which is the Caribbean sea and take a look at the beauty of those beaches because the pacific and Caribbean have there differences but they are both nice and offer diverse cultures and foods if you have a short amount of time but enough funds to spend you can see different parts of CR with Nature Air, they provide air transportation to 17 different parts of CR and not at a high cost, check out this link so you can see what I'm talking about http://natureair.com/destinations/index....   But that's just another opinion on what you can do but CR has so many things a person can do from fishing, scuba diving, white water rafting, ATV riding in trails, dancing, horse back riding, bungee jumping, surfing and even more so those are some tools on doing your research but take all the info you can so you can deside what you like from all you see. Have fun !