Fiance and I are thinking about having a “destination reception” in Costa Rica. The travel agent is suggesting Jaco and a resort there called Villa Caletas (slightly north of los suenos). Has anyone ever stayed at Villa Caletas or have anything to say about the area of Jaco? Anything to say about the fishing and surfing in the area? Food, nightlife in the area?
I spent two weeks in Jaco about three years ago. Have you ever been to Costa Rica before? We stayed just outside the downtown of Jaco, rented a house, but fished out of Los Suenos Marina a few times while we were there, as well as some other places. The difference between inside a resort like Los Suenos and outside in the actual town of Jaco is night and day. The surfing in Jaco is awesome at certain times of the day, when the tide is right. Thats when all the locals come out as well, and the surf gets pretty big. The night life is fun, it can get pretty sketchy in certain areas as well. Check out the Beatle Bar and you’ll know what I mean. There are also several places nearby worth visiting… Manuel Antonio is definitely worth visiting. We went white water rafting one day, which I would highly recomend. Let me know if you have any other questions about it…
Thanks Hobcawman. I’ve been to Costa before but we stayed up north around Tamarindo and were only there to surf. I have several friends who have spent a lot of time there and they said the same thing about Jaco at night, prostitutes and drug dealers everywhere. We’ll be staying at Villa Caletas which is about seven miles north of Jaco on top of a cliff overlooking the bay where los suenos is.
I was kind of iffy about the whole destination wedding thing but now I’m getting excited, our agent is planning an offshore “tournament” one day with all our guests, we’re doing an inshore trip one day, and the rest of the time we’ll be surfing, oh and I’m getting married somewhere in all that.
How far away was the whitewater rafting? How long did it take to get to the state park and what can you do once you’re there? Were there any zipline jungle tour thingys nearby? What surf spots did you go to(playa escondido, roca loca, playa hermosa, etc.)?
Yeah ok, so you have a pretty good idea of what to expect having been there. We went down to Tamarindo for a few days after staying in Jaco and then inland to Lake Arenal (sp?) where the volcano is. That and all the hot springs around it are pretty awesome as well.
Yep, what you’ve heard about Jaco at night is true. There are some fun bars there as well, like the Monkey Bar where it seemed like a lot of American surfers in the area hung out. Some of the guys I was with did an inshore trip out of the are next to Los Suenos and had a good time, caught some Rooster fish. I only did offshore trips, about 5 I think, all were stellar catching dolphin, tuna, marlin, sailfish. We were down there about this time of year now, early May.
I don’t recall exactly how far the whitewater rafting was, but not really a ridiculous ride from what I remember. When you got there we loaded up in this big truck with a lot of bench seats, rode up the mountain, and put in on the river and came down. They have guides on kayaks that will shoot ahead of all the rapids with a high quality digital camera (they keep in a big case) and snap a ton of photos of each raft as they go through the rapids. It was only 50 bucks for the CD (about 10 a person) and ended up being pretty cool. I had just never done that before so I thought it was awesome. And of course the river and size of rapids, etc. probably depends on how the level is at the time you are there.
Manuel Antonio just has a lot of trails, and beautiful beach coves and cliffs with a lot of wildlife to see. This is where we saw a lot of monkeys. sloths, among other things. The hiking is nothing real strenuous so you could bring girls along. If you wanted to do something with them (girls on the trip) I’d recomend this, there is a lot to see and the monkeys get real close following you along. It was a pretty good little ride there maybe 1.5 to 2 hours or more, but I’m not totally sure, I’d check to see how far from where you are staying. The bridges can take a while to
I’m also considering a trip there for my honeymoon, which will likely be next March or April. Is the fishing good then? I’ll probably do 1 inshore, 1 offshore, and 1 scuba day then spend rest of week doing girly stuff, whatever that happens to be. Any leads on “nice” romantic places to stay would be great from any of you who’ve been there. This will be our first trip there.