Arenal Travel Forum

Whaddaya think? How long and how difficult would this be? I'm having a dilemma with my flight and luggage weight. Thanks.

Depends on how much time you have- it's doable (we did it a year ago almost back and forth just keep in mind bad roads conditions -especially in tabacon area (the rental companies do not allow to go there unless you have 4x4)- the av. speed is 30 km/h in the arenal/tabacon area and around 60-80 in tamarindo.

We took a bus tour from Tamarindo to Tabacon even though we had a rented 4X4. The bus picked us up at the Playa Langosta and made two other stops at resorts before we arrived at the tour headquarters where we changed buses. We were on the road from 6:45 AM to 10:30 PM and we will never do this again. Even though the drive time is about 4 hours and the roads are bumpy the scenery is absolutely gourgeous. Costa Rica is laid back and I would recommend the drive in your own vehicle so you can stop where you want and enjoy the drive. I would definitley follow the road directions given in the previous post. Tabacon is worth the extra trouble and is not that difficult. In addition we used a Garmin E-trek map GPS with North, Central and South American maps already loaded, very handy for $169.00. Have a nice trip!