The fam and I are going to CR in the near future. Flying into San Jose but only staying overnight before we head out into the wild. We're of course stopping by the Arenal volcano and then going to Manuel Antonio park. Any suggestions on "must sees" or "must do's"? We will be there for about a week.
Oh darn, have you already gone? I stayed around Arenal and we did quite a bit of outdoor activity. My favorite was taking a guided canoe tour and getting to see lots of local wildlife like monkeys, iguanas and poisonous frogs. The various hot springs make for a decent and if you stay at the right resort it might actually have hot springs built in. I wouldn't recommend the canopy tour we did (ziplines). Nothing more embarrassing than getting stuck out in the middle several times and having burly guides come rescue you after your body gives out from the exhaustion of trying to pull your own weight up.
We did go. We stayed in near Arenal at Tabacon which was nice and had a great hot springs set up on site. We then went over to the Pacific coast and stayed near Manuel Antonio Park. My favorite part was rafting the Savegre River. Great rapids, warm water, strong current. We stopped halfway down and swam around this beautiful waterfall. Costa Rican roads are gawdawful. Getting anywhere takes forever. I am surprised with all the tourism that they don't make a point of creating a good national highway system.