You exceeded all my expectations

Dahl Vacation December 19th - 27th, 2011

Hotels:

Airport Hampton Inn: We stayed at the Hampton Inn two nights: upon arrival and right before our departure. It’s a nice hotel that has a 24 hour airport shuttle. They are close to a nice gambling casino and an El Poyo Loco restaurant. They can arrange your departure tax right at the hotel saving you from having to stand in a line at the airport. I costs you a few more dollars to do it at the hotel, but we found it worth it.

Arenal Observatory Lodge: We stayed at the Smithsonian Observatory Lodge the 2nd and 3rd nights up by the Arenal volcano. This place was very, very nice. Our room had a large window looking right out at the volcano. From right outside our door, we had a direct view of Lake Arenal. A great breakfast buffet was included in our room rate. They have walking trails on the property that are fun for all ages and “capabilities”. Their on-site bar and restaurant were great and the views from their deck include the volcano, lake as well as bird feeders. I got a lot of nice pictures of birds there. The staff was very friendly and helpful.

The lodge, because of its elevation, is often enshrouded in rain clouds. Don’t be surprised if you don’t actually see the top of the volcano more than a few minutes at a time. When we were there, we got two glimpses of it. (When we were at the volcano 5 years ago, we never did see it as it was enshrouded in clouds the entire time we were there).

We went to the Tabacon Hot Springs one day. The “volcano-warmed” springs are great and the facility includes a restaurant, dressing rooms with showers along with a pool with a water slide and a swim up bar. Although very pricey (I believe it was about $85 per person for the day which included our lunch), we’d do it again.

The only down side of staying at the Lodge is the rough dirt road that you have to drive to get there; I believe it was 8 miles. But since I grew up in the country in Eastern Montana, dirt and gravel roads don’t bother me; we just drove slowly and enjoyed the scenery.

El Encanto Inn, Cahuita – This is a really nice bed and breakfast in the small town (village?) of Cahuita on the Caribbean coast South of Limon. The inn is relatively secluded and they have an area that you can park your car off the street. They have several cabinas, a small pool and a “sanctuary” area that they can use for massages if you want one. The breakfast included fruit juice, coffee/tea, a variety of fruit, toast and eggs. The B&B is located within easy walking to distance to Playa Negra (maybe 100 steps from the front gate of the B&B) and “down town” where there are many, many bars and restaurants. Our favorite restaurants were Miss Eddies and the Cha Cha Cha. At the end of the dirt main street is the entrance to the Cahuita National Park where they have a trail about 1 to 1.5 km long, that runs parallel to the beach. The park is free, although they ask for a donation for entrance. We contributed 4,000 Colones.

TRANSPORTATION, Airline: Lessons Learned

This is where this narrative turns negative. We were scheduled to travel to Costa Rica on Friday, December 16th and return on Sunday, December 25th. Our Continental Airlines flight from Denver to Houston was delayed by 2 hours causing us to miss our connecting flight to Costa Rica. The next available flight for which we were able to get confirmed seating to Costa Rica was two days later, on Sunday, December 18. We chose to fly to Houston and stay over two nights to catch the Sunday flight. Because the delay was due to mechanical problems with the aircraft, Continental provided vouchers for our hotel and meals in Houston for Friday and Saturday nights.

Continental’s (and I assume all airlines) policy on providing vouchers is that you show up to the airport daily to be placed on standby and if you don’t get a seat, they provide another night’s worth of vouchers. The problem with that these days is that you waste all your time sitting in the airport waiting for the next flight that is already overbooked. A few years ago, when the airlines weren’t booking themselves to 100% capacity, that was not a bad option. These days, you will waste a huge amount of vacation time waiting for open seats. Due to the compassion and understanding of one of the Continental employees, they allowed us to not have go standby on Saturday, although we were still required to go to the airport to pick up another set of vouchers. Also, Continental allowed us to change our return flight from the 25th to the 27th at no additional charge. Long story short, we got to Costa Rica on Sunday and got the added bonus of seeing Galveston Texas on Saturday, our layover day.

As an added bonus, our returning Continental flight was also delayed by two hours causing us to miss our connection to Denver resulting in us getting to Denver at 9:30 PM instead of at noon as planned. The delay was caused by the fact that the crew got into San Jose late the night before and they are required by the FAA to “rest” a minimum amount of time before they can fly again. We found this out when the Captain made an announcement when we were on the tarmac waiting to push off…..and we were just sitting an sitting…

Lesson Learned: Frontier Airlines has a direct flight from Denver to Costa Rica. It may cost a little more than Continental or American, but you don’t have to deal with the ripple effect of missing connections.

TRANSPORTATION, Alamo Rental Car – NOT! Another Lesson Learned

I had reserved an Alamo car through their website because they were the cheapest provider at around $450 (first clue). When we incurred the delay in Houston, I called Alamo’s international phone number and easily changed the pick-up date from the 16th to the 18th. When we arrived in San Jose on Sunday, not only did Alamo not have any cars, but they had NO RECORD of our reservation. There is a row of rental car desks at the San Jose airport so I went to the to the one to right of Alamo (I don’t recall the name). Their cheapest fair was on the order of $1,500. After the clerk picked me up off the floor, he made a phone call to an off airport location (to his cousin?) and said that he could get me a car for around $600. So I slowly backed away from that fellow and went to Dollar Rental Car to the left of Alamo. I explained my predicament to the Dollar clerk and showed him my Alamo rental agreement…. Long story short, I got a Dollar car for a little over $500. The car was brand new and worked great.

Lesson Learned: First, don’t assume the websites of international rental car agencies are “fool proof”. The next time I reserve a rental car I’m going to call the rental car facility directly to verify that they at least have my reservation. Also, the probability is much higher that the company with the cheapest rental car will also be out of cars when you get there.

My Costa Rica Agency:

Lynn, thank you again for the help. Although you were only responsible for the Smithsonian Observatory Lodge reservation, you jumped in and helped me with my Caribean reservation as well and offering to check on my rental car (which I now regret….!). You were able to negotiate with both hotels and neither enforced their cancellation policy’s, so I incurred not extra costs for the rooms. You exceeded all my expectations. I’ve scanned your business card into my OUTLOOK and will recommend you in the future to anyone who is looking for a vacation to Costa Rica, Panama or Nicaragua.

Mark Dahl