Costa Rica - Hotel recomenedation / dive outfitter

[bikefox]

I will be there from July 10 to August 4th. I staying a little too far south to dive with Rich Coast, but I might try to make it North for a dive or two.

 

[kent_1848]

I will be there from July 10 to August 4th.

Holy Cow, now that is what I call a vacation! We will be diving with Rich Coast July 30th through August 5th, maybe we will see you there.

 

[bikefox]

Not totally a vacation. I'm taking a Spanish class. I could have taken the same class at the local community college, but the ecology was not as good!!!

 

[kent_1848]

My wifes friend (swimsuit model, God she hates it when I say that ) , who is actually going with us even though she doesn't dive, just took a Spanish class in San Jose for a month. Talk about a small world.

 

[bikefox]

I was going to take a class in Playa Del Carmen but my non-diving friend decided he would like to go. Lucky he is big into surfing so we thought Costa Rica might be fun. A swimsuit model huh??? Where are you staying again??

 

[kent_1848]

We are going to be at Villa Flores, and diving with Rich Coast. Have you dived with them before? Feel free to come up any day, and we can party together. Just ask for Kent Broeckelman at Villa Flores.

 

[SoCalAngel]

I just got back from CR on June 25th. We (my sons and I) spent three days of diving out of Playa Hermosa (in Guanacaste). The diving was ok. Water temp was awesome, at 80-82 F, but vis was marginal, with only MAYBE 30 feet average.

I dove with Diving Safaris, booked through Bill Beards. Price was good, but I was limited to no more than 40 minutes dives, or 1000 psi. Most of the time I came back with 1400-1600 psi left. They only do two tank boat dives, unless you are part of a class. The afternoon one tanker always seems to get cancelled. So does the night dive. I felt cheated.

I was put on boats with resort divers with little to no experience. I told them I wanted to go to Catalinas Island or more advanced sites or to be part of a three tank dive day or to go on a night dive or to just rent tanks for shore diving. They denied me on all counts.

However, I did see eagle rays, white tipped reef sharks, huge diamond rays, and a sea turtle underwater. These were all very cool!

The best part was the land stuff. We went to the "Congo Trail" zip line canopy tour - saw howler monkeys. We went white water rafting on the Colorado river. We drove up to Arenal, an active volcano, sat in hot springs, went horseback riding, another canopy tour, and woke to blue macaws squaking in the wild. That was totally awesome!

Overall, Costa Rica was cool for the non dive stuff. For diving like crazy, I would put my money in La Paz, Baja California....better dives and more diving maniacs!

 

[SterlingDiver]

I just got back from CR on June 25th. We (my sons and I) spent three days of diving out of Playa Hermosa (in Guanacaste). The diving was ok. Water temp was awesome, at 80-82 F, but vis was marginal, with only MAYBE 30 feet average.

I dove with Diving Safaris, booked through Bill Beards. Price was good, but I was limited to no more than 40 minutes dives, or 1000 psi. Most of the time I came back with 1400-1600 psi left. They only do two tank boat dives, unless you are part of a class. The afternoon one tanker always seems to get cancelled. So does the night dive. I felt cheated.

I was put on boats with resort divers with little to no experience. I told them I wanted to go to Catalinas Island or more advanced sites or to be part of a three tank dive day or to go on a night dive or to just rent tanks for shore diving. They denied me on all counts.

However, I did see eagle rays, white tipped reef sharks, huge diamond rays, and a sea turtle underwater. These were all very cool!

The best part was the land stuff. We went to the "Congo Trail" zip line canopy tour - saw howler monkeys. We went white water rafting on the Colorado river. We drove up to Arenal, an active volcano, sat in hot springs, went horseback riding, another canopy tour, and woke to blue macaws squaking in the wild. That was totally awesome!

Overall, Costa Rica was cool for the non dive stuff. For diving like crazy, I would put my money in La Paz, Baja California....better dives and more diving maniacs!

.........you said it like the conclusions I have come to gleaning several other posts. I am hopeful to do CR in the future, but will not expect too much of the diving.

Topside it sounds like a great destination.

Good Diving,

Dave

 

[cdiver2]

If you're going to Guanacaste...I personally recommend The Flor De Itabo Hotel. they are very nice...clean...and cheap. they have small villas if you want also which can hold at least 6 people if i remember correctly. they also just have regular hotel rooms. Also another place is Ocotal Hotel...i have never stayed there, but i know alot of people that have stayed there and they say it's really nice. I have dove with them and they were great.

Whilst Ocotal has very nice accommodation, good food and is gated armed guards on the gate and roving I had a bad experience there. In short, armed guard moved me from the parking spot I had picked and told me where to park. Next morning we found the car had been broken into and I was about $1000 lighter, It was then that I realized that the parking spot the guard had directed me to was screened from view more than the spot I had originally parked in !. On reporting this at the front desk and stating I suspected the guard I got very little help. The only help I got was they called the police (I think) at my insistence. I was told the police would not come out but I had to go to them in a town 30 miles away (this on the day we were leaving). Next problem, unknown to us there are a number of police stations and each one only deals with certain things. After walking around town for an hour we got the right station (3rd one).

 

[jairbel]

I highly recommend Rich Coast Diving in Playas del Coco. They are really great and professional! Plus their boats and equipment are outstanding.