I am taking my first trip to costa rica in a month from now and just had a few questions for some of you that have been there. The plan is for my fiance and me to rent a car in San Jose and make our way down the pacific coast for 9 days. We plan on hitting Jaco/Hermosa first, then Quepos/ Manuel Antonio, and finishing off the trip with a stop at Pavones. I have decided that we are going to rent boards instead of trying to deal with the headache American Airlines is eagerly waiting to give me. Which leads me to my first question, I was planning on bringing a shortboard, a hybrid, and a longboard on my trip, now that I am renting I would like to not break the bank in doing so. What do you think the best two board combination will be to get the most out of the breaks i plan on hitting (mind you whatever board I am not using my fiance will be)? Also in the whole renting of the car thing I picked a place out of “the surfers guide to costa rica” and went to make my reservation online today. The book made no mention of the extraordinary deposit that is held by the rental agency, they want to hold a deposit of $750 and charge me for the rental (i know security deposits are common place in car rental that isnt what i am asking) what I AM asking is if anyone knows of a rental agency that doesnt hold such a big security deposit? Well I guess that covers the questions I have for now but I would also love to hear some stories about other peoples experiences, pictures, places to go, things to see, stuff to do, where to eat, where to stay. etc
sounds like you had an awesome time. I am getting pumped with less then a month till take off now. The trip has been like a year in the planning and now its all coming together. so cool. thank you for the tips on things to check out and do.
Don’t bother with Jaco/Hermosa/Dominical/MA – all tourist hell-holes. Go straight to Pavones and don’t look back. Save your money lugging boards and renting a car and use it to book domestic flights to Golfito on Sansa or Nature Air. From there, it’s a short cab ride to Pavones. Once there, you will not want to leave. And don’t forget to take a boat ride across the gulf to Matapalo.
Enjoy!!
Have fun. I am totally jealous. I have this girl and a kid now, can’t save money, whaaa… I been there only 4 times, once a year, from 2001 to 2004. Several weeks to a month each time, two months the first time. I love it there. It’s all what you make. I rented a car for a couple days with my two brothers the last time I went. Way worth it. The other times and even most of my last trip, buses. Which is a blast, but yer more at the whim of everything from random landslides to checkpoints (nicaraguans are to them what mexicans are to arizonians), to waiting for every random human wanting to be transported from their finca to wherever. I stayed in places not everybody likes. I never wanted to stay in Jaco, but stopped there for a few hrs almost every time, to look fr boards. too frat crowd, bawdy. A lot for sale. If you are there for more than a week dont bother renting unless its a few bucks a day. You could buy a board there, surf the hell out of it, sell it to somebody on your way out. I think I would be depressed mildly to see what’s going on now with coastal CR. Every time I went, same towns overgrowing each year, locals move out, dumb shops open upwhere they lived, menus in spanish turn to menus in english, the eager young ticas speak english in the shops, what the hell. There are a thousand places a lotta people know I dont know there. It would be meaningless to judge me on this: Dominical you should check, yeah it can be crwded but yeah we shouldve gone in the 80’s or something whatever, woulda shoulda. It is overrun, but check out pyramis and the old spanish dude Angel who runs it. I dig it there. Dominical, I like, heavy smetimes, barrelly pumping beach break, good power. Nice vertical walls. I been allover that country, I think. Carribean side is cool. Matapalo, was pretty rugged I dunno now, fun. Opposite from pavones. Monkeys, macaws. Oh its mai, not guey, there…whatelse. Mani, not cacahuates. Que playo, not maricon…que tuanis…how cool. I forget whatelse. Can;t wait to go back. Pick cubensis in the field next to Pyramis in december/january.