Costa Rica in June/July

We are thinking of going to Costa Rica this June/July for a general
birding/animal-watching holiday.
(I realise that this is too early to witness turtles)
We are thinking of a couple of weeks (maybe) fly-drive
Any advice or recommendations of places that should be visited, or
avoided.
We live in the U.K. & could transit via a bewildering array of U.S. hubs:
either Miami, Washington-Dulles, Dallas, Houston Bush,or Newark.
Everyone says avoid Miami! Heads-up on the others anyone?
Thanks in advance
--
Chris Notton
Replace "nospam" with my surname to reply by email
Sostituisca il "nospam" con il mio cognome per rispondere
}////(*

x-no-archive:yes Chris wrote:

We are thinking of going to Costa Rica this June/July for a general
birding/animal-watching holiday.
(I realise that this is too early to witness turtles)

Leatherback turtles nest along the beach from March to June and Green
turtles from June to August. What you won't find are the songbirds
from North America wintering away from the snow and ice, as they will
all have gone home.

We are thinking of a couple of weeks (maybe) fly-drive
Any advice or recommendations of places that should be visited, or
avoided.

This is the beginning of the 'Green' season i.e. the rainy season,
which means it is only starting to rain. In the rain forest it will
rain all day. Other parts of the country will have showers in the
afternoons. Guanacaste, the driest part of the country, only sees
scattered showers in some afternoons. The temperature, however, is hot
throughout the country. You will find it very humid coming from the
UK.

In most cases, flying is better than driving. You will probably want
to go to the Tortuguero area for the turtles, and most travel there is
by boat. Drakes Bay is also mostly by boat after flying to the west
coast. You can drive to Arenal.

We live in the U.K. & could transit via a bewildering array of U.S. hubs:
either Miami, Washington-Dulles, Dallas, Houston Bush,or Newark.
Everyone says avoid Miami! Heads-up on the others anyone?
Thanks in advance

I always go through Miami because my daughter lives there but I'm
usually not coming into the country to Miami, I'm just flying from
Washington to Miami, so I don't have to go through customs. When we
did go through customs I didn't notice that it was significantly more
of a problem than in other places. Of course that was before 9-11 and
it may be different now. I personally would avoid Dallas, and I don't
like Dulles either. I've only gone through Houston once, and never
been to Newark.

http://www.crtravelexchange.com/intro.html is a travel agent based in
New Orleans who is very knowledgeable.


grandma Rosalie

In article ,
says...
x-no-archive:yes Chris wrote:

We are thinking of going to Costa Rica this June/July for a general
birding/animal-watching holiday.
(I realise that this is too early to witness turtles)

Leatherback turtles nest along the beach from March to June and Green
turtles from June to August. What you won't find are the songbirds
from North America wintering away from the snow and ice, as they will
all have gone home.

We are thinking of a couple of weeks (maybe) fly-drive
Any advice or recommendations of places that should be visited, or
avoided.

This is the beginning of the 'Green' season i.e. the rainy season,
which means it is only starting to rain. In the rain forest it will
rain all day. Other parts of the country will have showers in the
afternoons. Guanacaste, the driest part of the country, only sees
scattered showers in some afternoons. The temperature, however, is hot
throughout the country. You will find it very humid coming from the
UK.

In most cases, flying is better than driving. You will probably want
to go to the Tortuguero area for the turtles, and most travel there is
by boat. Drakes Bay is also mostly by boat after flying to the west
coast. You can drive to Arenal.

We live in the U.K. & could transit via a bewildering array of U.S. hubs:
either Miami, Washington-Dulles, Dallas, Houston Bush,or Newark.
Everyone says avoid Miami! Heads-up on the others anyone?
Thanks in advance

I always go through Miami because my daughter lives there but I'm
usually not coming into the country to Miami, I'm just flying from
Washington to Miami, so I don't have to go through customs. When we
did go through customs I didn't notice that it was significantly more
of a problem than in other places. Of course that was before 9-11 and
it may be different now. I personally would avoid Dallas, and I don't
like Dulles either. I've only gone through Houston once, and never
been to Newark.

http://www.crtravelexchange.com/intro.html is a travel agent based in
New Orleans who is very knowledgeable.


grandma Rosalie

Thanks Roaslie!
Methinks we have met before on rec.scuba??

Pip pip
--
Chris Notton
Replace "nospam" with my surname to reply by email
Sostituisca il "nospam" con il mio cognome per rispondere
}////(*

Somebody wrote:

We live in the U.K. & could transit via a bewildering array of U.S. hubs:
either Miami, Washington-Dulles, Dallas, Houston Bush,or Newark.
Everyone says avoid Miami! Heads-up on the others anyone?

I wish I could avoid Miami all the time, but as a practical matter,
I often cannot.

Of the other Airports, Newark probably would not be my first choice.
Dallas might be. I have no experience with Washington-Dulles or Houston.
I'd also take into account the cost and the convienience of the schedule.

--
Charlie Hammond -- Hewlett-Packard Company -- Ft Lauderdale FL USA
-- remove "@not" when replying)
All opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily my employer's.

x-no-archive:yes

Chris wrote:

In article ,
says...
Chris wrote:

We are thinking of going to Costa Rica this June/July for a general
birding/animal-watching holiday.
(I realise that this is too early to witness turtles)

Leatherback turtles nest along the beach from March to June and Green
turtles from June to August. What you won't find are the songbirds
from North America wintering away from the snow and ice, as they will
all have gone home.

We are thinking of a couple of weeks (maybe) fly-drive
Any advice or recommendations of places that should be visited, or
avoided.

This is the beginning of the 'Green' season i.e. the rainy season,
which means it is only starting to rain. In the rain forest it will
rain all day. Other parts of the country will have showers in the
afternoons. Guanacaste, the driest part of the country, only sees
scattered showers in some afternoons. The temperature, however, is hot
throughout the country. You will find it very humid coming from the
UK.

In most cases, flying is better than driving. You will probably want
to go to the Tortuguero area for the turtles, and most travel there is
by boat. Drakes Bay is also mostly by boat after flying to the west
coast. You can drive to Arenal.

Incidentally, what we did (in Feb) was an overnight trip to Tortugero
(actually Parissima) by bus with a section through the banana
plantations and a night boat tour (caiman) and a day rain forest tour
where we saw a toucan and some poison arrow frogs in addition to
howler monkeys, and then we rented a car and drove to Arenal and saw
the volcano erupt twice. It took a full day from there to drive to
Monteverde (they have awful roads on purpose) and we stayed there two
nights and then drove back to San Jose. I'm glad I went, but if I
were going to eliminate something, that would be it. Then we took a
little plane to Palmer Norte, and then a school bus and then a boat to
Drakes Bay where we had trips to Corcovado and Canos Island.


We live in the U.K. & could transit via a bewildering array of U.S. hubs:
either Miami, Washington-Dulles, Dallas, Houston Bush,or Newark.
Everyone says avoid Miami! Heads-up on the others anyone?
Thanks in advance

I always go through Miami because my daughter lives there but I'm
usually not coming into the country to Miami, I'm just flying from
Washington to Miami, so I don't have to go through customs. When we
did go through customs I didn't notice that it was significantly more
of a problem than in other places. Of course that was before 9-11 and
it may be different now. I personally would avoid Dallas, and I don't
like Dulles either. I've only gone through Houston once, and never
been to Newark.

http://www.crtravelexchange.com/intro.html is a travel agent based in
New Orleans who is very knowledgeable.


grandma Rosalie

Thanks Roaslie!
Methinks we have met before on rec.scuba??

Pip pip

probably but I no longer monitor that ng anymore. I've reduced the
ones I follow to 4 - misc.kids, misc.kids.moderated, this one and
rec.boats.cruising. No longer do rec.scuba or the air travel group.
You might ask them about the airports.

http://www12.virtualtourist.com/m/4a9c6/9ca/


grandma Rosalie