I will be in Costa Rica for 10 days (9 nights). What is the best itinerary?

#1, Go where tourists don’t go. That’s the ideal vacation for me. Having grown up in a tourist town, I loathe tourists and touristy things. [biased, obviously :)]

I just spent a week in Puerto Viejo in Limon province. Very out of the way, backpacker tourist (as opposed to middle income families), beautiful black sand beaches, and pretty cheap. Before we left the US we aranged for a van to take us the 4 hours from the airport. Our hosts at our cottages made the travel plans for us. Great zip line tour nearby, too!!

We flew into San Jose – went to Arenal for 2 nights, Monteverde for two nights and then a few nights at Manue Antonio for the beach and monkeys. You could make it 3 nights in each place. We rented a 4 wheel drive Jeep and drove between places; the roads are very rough and it takes a long time; particularly around the lake from Arenal to Monteverde. All well worth it though and the people are very nice. English not a problem. Our kids did the zipline while we did a canopy walk near Monteverde.