| Tips and photos of Costa Rica tourist attractions and tourist traps, posted by real travelers and Costa Rica locals. Map |
 | Costa Rica Tourist Traps | Tips 1 - 10 of 72 |  |
 Manzanillo by ABankerMU
Take the ticket! Apparently they are not nearly as expensive to pay as in the States. Our hotel contact told us that forty bucks would have been too much to pay for a bribe. We paid $100...
Wish I had a picture of this for everyone... Leave a Comment
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 It's not called
Cloudforest for nothing! by zweiblumen
Choose a day when it's not raining! Leave a Comment
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 San Jose by BEETLE_VERTE
When at home and looking at your guide book and maps, you might have, like I did, the impression you have to go to San Jose, at least to get in and out of the airport.
Well, you don't. San Jose isn't worth it (I think) and the airport is in fact in Alajuela. Find a nice hotel in Alajuela to pick you up if you need a place to stay the first night (our plane landed at 10 pm... we had to stay in the area!). The taxi ride will be shorter and you'll get a better surrounding than downtown in the capital.
If you really need to go, find a place in the west quarter. It's still close to everything but less unpleasant.
Use Alajuela as your base camp for the Central Valley activities you want to do. Leave a Comment
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 Bring Your Own Seat... in
Costa Rica by yelli
I put this under "tourist trap" because if you aren't expecting it, you could fall in.. thusly, becoming trapped.. hehe
The public toilets in Costa Rica often do not have seats. I can't think of any reason why... if you're lucky they will have toilet paper so I reccommend bringing your own TP as well.
If you're going on a long bus ride, often they will stop halfway through at a 'convenience' station... there will be a soda (have an empanada) and a restroom. Take advantage!
Bring some toilet paper! If you can fit a toilet seat in your pack you'll be in luck. Leave a Comment
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 Patrick, patiently waiting in
the minivan... by BEETLE_VERTE
This is the name of a Tour organiser in the san Jose/Alajuela area. They'll sell you local tours like Grecia, Sarchi, Poas or Irazu volcano, or longer expeditions in Tortuguero, Arenal volcano or tarcoles river. We found them in our hotel, almost as a "no name" tour. We bought an Irazu tour, the small one not including the Lancaster Gardens and Orosi Valley. We thought that 36$ per person was a fair price, considering we were staying in Alajuela, far enough from the volcano to ruined us in cab fare.
They picked us up near our hotel at 7h in the morning. Then we started the milk run in the traffic of san Jose, picking 5 or 6 more couples in different hotels and the guide, without regards for time, organisation or common sense. We were on the volcano at 11h and could only stay about 30 minutes before heading back down. Very dispointing after all that wait!
But it wasn't all. We got to wait almost an hour in Cartago for a minivan to pick us up and drive us back to the hotel (as the other couples were going on the big tour with of the gardens and valley). In the end, a regular taxi came by and drove us. It was 13h when we got back in Allajuela. For a 30 minutes walk on the volcano...
Of course, this Tourist Trap Tip dosen't mean you shouldn't go to the Irazu volcano. By all mean go, it's breath taking. But don't go with Expeditiones Tropicales. Take a cab, a bus, rent a shuttle, rent a car, but don't get in an Expeditiones Tropicales minivan...
The clerck at your hotel could book them for you so be sure to know witch company is going to provide the tour you bought at your hotel. Leave a Comment
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 Hummingbird at La Paz
Waterfall Garden by BEETLE_VERTE
We wanted to make the best of our last day in Costa Rica, but had to stay in the Poas Volcano / Alajuela area. A very friendly clerc at our hotel recommended that we go to La Paz: waterfalls, hummingbird garden, butterfly garden, orchids house... Yes, it was all that, but it seemed so fake and upthight after all we saw during our trip. The waterfalls were surrounded by gates and warning signs, the hummingbird garden was crowed, hot, smelly and we got bit by all kind of bugs feeding on the sweet treats of the birds, the orchids weren't in flowers... And each and every inch of the path were crowded with tourist... we often had to wait in lines. And it was very expensive: 21$ each.
www.waterfallgardens.com
6km from the international airport in Alajuela, near the Poas volcano.
I guess it's a good place if you don't get to spend some time up north around La Fortuna, Santa Elena or Monteverde or if you have mobility problem (the path are paved and very safe, you wont have to walk too much and a shuttle will take you back to the entrance at the end).
If you really have to go, try to make the best of it. Go early or late during the day so it wont be too crowded. Step aside for a few minutes to let a group pass. Spend some times in the restaurant drinking (free) coffee. When you stay quiet and everything calm down, hummingbirds and numerous other birds will come to eat around you in the feeders. We really enjoyed that! We even saw a Violet Sabrewing hunting small bugs.
Maybe because we had some practise before, but our best hummingbird and butterfly pictures were taken there... ! See the travelogues in my alajuela page.
In Santa Elena and in Monteverde, at the end of the path of the park, there's a little hummingbird garden. We saw there much more species and had the time to wait and capture beautiful pictures as it was less crowded.
In Fortuna, try the Danaus reserve. Much smaller, much friendlier and much cheaper. And you get to help the kids as it is a educational center. Butterfly and colorfull birds feeding on banana too, but also different wildlife.
The Rio Fortuna Waterfall was by far more impressive than those presented here (more than twice as high). Less crowded again, more wildlife (we saw our first toucan there!) and cheaper.
About anything you'll do and anywhere you'll go in the Monteverde and Fortuna area will be the same or better as this, less crowded, cheaper and create a more "real" experience... Leave a Comment
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 Stranded in our hotel...! by BEETLE_VERTE
IF you don't have a car, any hotel between Villa Romantica (Quepos) and Costa Verde (Manuel Antonio) could become a tourist trap... Nothing personnal! It's just that before our trip, when we were trying to book a hotel in the region, we didn't really knew that the two cities are separated by a hill. Only that there was about 5km between them. So picking any hotel in the middle would allow us to make the trip by foot... Mistake!
We either ended up standed in our hotel, missing out on the cities and activities, or paying 2-5$ a taxi trip every time. So our decision to choose our hotel by price range (there was so many good choice, we had to make our minds!) was oblivious to the fact that one day would cost around 10$ more because we were on the hill...
If you want an hotel in this region, and there are many really good ones, rent a car or forsee taxi fares in extra.
Or choose an hotel downtown either one of the cities. Quepos is more the fisherman kind, Manuel Antonio the beachman kind!
And again, I'm not badmouthing anyone. Those hotels are more than nice. It's just that no one told us before, so I wanted you to know! It's one of the thing I wish I had done different for the trip, because I'm sure we missed out on so many things!!
Same thing later happened in the Santa Elena / Monteverde region, but this time I had nothing to do with it! It's just that there's no real downtown there, nothing is close to anything. Choose your hotel carefully (so they'll be close to what interest you), rent a car (but roads are horrible to drive there) or lavish on taxis and shuttles. Leave a Comment
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 Organized tour by BEETLE_VERTE
For some people, the organized tour might be a good compromise (between seeing it and not seeing it!). Shop around, negociate the fares, even try to see if someone traveling or staying at your hotel is interested in the same tour (maybe you could split the cost).
An example: when we wanted to see the Poas volcano, our hotel proposed (at first!) a 120$ per person fares. The entrance is 6$... Of course the 120$ tour had a lot to offer, but too much and not fitted to our need. And still too expensive! We paid our entrance fees alone and hired a cab driver (without negoiating... don't do that! always negociate!!) 60$ for the day to take us everywhere we wanted. Leave a Comment
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 largest butterfly cage in the
world by zrim
See the butterflies, the hummingbirds and the impressive falls. Make the most of it--it is tropical Costa Rica and not all that bad.
Any national park or preserve. Leave a Comment
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One of the tours we took waas a multi-part tour.
Going on a preserve hike, snorkeling and other site seeing.Each section was $35 or all three for $70...
The Forest tour was great so was the water fall and shopping but the snorkeling was not great...
We had to use there equipment which was sub par, breather was leaking and fins were way to big and one was broken.
Besides that I have been snorkling in saint lucia and other places , this did not compare.
The best part was island shop and beach that we stopped at, it was fantastic.....
If you do want to snorkel please try to bring your own equipment. It will make life a little easier.
If you stick to the Curu preserve and montezuma trip you will have a great time....well worth the $60 Leave a Comment
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