Jaco/Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica area recommendations

At least once I’d take a cab across bay on the ferry from Puntarenas and over to Montezuma and the Cabo Blanco park on the bottom of that peninsula. Hike up the waterfall outside of Montezuma Beach…research that area.

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no matter how much detail I gave you on here there’s no way you guys will believe it’s true

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i would
buddy of mine from slidell owns the jaco bar...

The Cocal is the ho spot and where the boys go to blow up their marriages so don't wander over there. None of the hotels do it for me, it's better to get a residence. Jaco Bar is small and fun-I've had so many great nights there. Stay off the beaches at night unless you want to deal with some sketchy shitebags. I recommend the day trip to isla Tortuga from Los Suenos or deep sea fishing with Maverick. There are a bunch of good ATV trips. There is a "locals" beach up past Herradura that is slamming-the road is crappy. Lots of big arse Crocs in Tarcoles about 25 minutes before arriving in Jaco, that's a cool spot to stop on your way in and see the crocs from the bridge. Great place to surf and cool surf culture.Hartley Ranch has decent steaks. I eat cheap, but there are a lot of decent restaurants and seafood.

Ticos are awesome and honest. Just chat people up. Good seafood.

Adding to my original question.

I want to bring a few nice bottles of wine for the group. It's not extremely clear (to me at least) how much you're allowed to bring into Costa Rica. I am seeing 5L max, but I'm curious if anyone has any experience with that?

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After you go through their horrendous Customs that takes forever

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I will never forget that experience, coming and going. What a clusterfrick

I fly Spirit because their flight from MSY to Ft Lauderdale is not only faster than the United Houston route, but gets there before noon, allowing me to avoid the afternoon flight deluge. This thread has me contemplating a quick trip down there. God knows, I need it.

Man, that’s awesome! I’m so glad I was able to help. Do a trip report when you can and give us the details on your impressions. Have fun !

Alright, back home. Things our group collectively did:

- We had a chef and 2 person team come to the house Sunday night and do a sushi dinner for us (8 ppl). Excellent meal!! I would highly recommend this experience.
- Zip lined at Vista Los Suenos Adventure Park. No complaints.
- Deep sea fishing with Fish Hunter. Caught 2 tuna and 2 mahi. Ate on that for several nights. Delicious! The guide wasn't the most pleasant, but you can't hide the fact that we caught.
- ATV/Side-by-Side riding. 50+ mile round trip. Gorgeous waterfalls and an amazing view for lunch at the top of the mountain. We went with Jaguariders Jaugariders and our guides were legit. The ATV's were brand new and you could drive them like you stole 'em! Made our way up the mountain for a delicious lunch in an open-aired restaurant overlooking a gorgeous valley. I could have stayed there all day. Our only snag is that we paid one of the guides for drone footage and hi-def pictures, but have not received them yet. That would put a damper on an otherwise top ten day.
- We did a guided tour of Manuel Antonio National Park. This was cool and if you're in the area, I'd recommend it. Our guide, Henry with HP Tours (I believe?) spoke great english, had a great sense of humor and pointed out some cool wildlife. The first half of the tour is where we saw the most wildlife and I'd recommend staying down on one of the beaches. They were gorgeous! DON'T just show up to the park looking for a guide. A lot of scams down in that area. Also parking was a scam too. We worked through Henry to park in the right spot and get the best experience.

We won a delta waterfowl auction and used Ghydad Ventures to stay at their Villa de las Palmas Villa de las Palmas. The place was great and is located in the Hermosa Palms development. Yo-Yo's bar and grill in the neighborhood pool was excellent and Yo-Yo herself mans the bar. Very great atmosphere overlooking the Hermosa Beach. A surfer's dream spot! My wife and a few others did a massage at their spa and liked it.

Roberto was who Ghydad gave us as the point of contact and he is the one who basically out us onto all of these adventures. He also gave us the grocery delivery guy's number, who came in handy when we were running low on booze.

Things were generally more expensive, but not downright ridiculous. I would go back, but would do less touristy things now that "I've done it".

Saturday nights, apparently there are bars on the beach closer to Jaco that are solid places to watch REAL surfing. Not sure if it's a local competition or just a gathering of top notch surfers you can drink, eat, and watch do their thing. We found out about it on Sunday, unfortunately.

Of course we took the advice and loaded up as much as we could in the duty free at the San Jose airport. 100% recommend that. We used US dollars with no problem and most credit card transactions came with a 13% add-on....which I'm 99% sure meant cash was tax free and the 13% is their tax rate.

Getting in and out of their airport was not hard at all. It is the rainy season right now, so it may be that there are way less people.

All-in-all, pretty solid introduction to Costa Rica for us.

If I think of more, I'll add it!

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We did a guided tour of Manuel Antonio National Park.

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Did you get to the beach area for a quick swim and if so, what did you think?

I wish. The beach view was awesome. The first stop next to the bathrooms and that lookout tower were packed. But further down the trail was empty. Stopped at all of the beaches and got my feet wet, but didn't stay. Probably my only regret (not staying). I misunderstood the guide when he offered for us to stop at the beach. Pretty much ended the tour, so we opted to keep going. Second half of the trail looks like La and we didn't see much. It's a big loop, so we were basically just walking back to the entrance. By the time we realized we were back up front, we were ready to go grab lunch. If I go back, I'd likely skip the tour and head straight to the beach.