I went to CR four years ago and had a spectacular time. Flew to San Jose, went to Arenal / La Fortuna, Monteverde, and Quepos / Miguel Antonio Park. In 9 days, I saw a volcano, hiked around the volcano and through the jungle and the rain forest, rode zip lines across the rain forest canopy, swam under a waterfall, went to the mountains, went to the beach, heard and saw monkeys, lizards, sloths, and many other animals, rode horseback through the mountains and across a river, took a three hour sailboat ride, went to the famous hot springs, got a reflexology massage in a grass hut, toured a coffee plantation, rode a bus with locals and their chickens, had great food, did a little shopping, went to a couple cool art galleries and musuems, wore a t-neck and jacket and 2 days later a swimsuit, learned a little Spanish, learned a lot about the country, people, and environment, and always felt safe and comfortable. I went on a guided tour with Gap Adventures (gapadventures.com) on the 9-day tour. I think it was called the Quest adventure. They have dozens of differenet tours in CR, guided and independent. THe one I did was great, because they arranged everything from hotels to transportation to entrance fees to reservations. They got you to an area, told you what cool things there were to do, and then arranged for you to do whatever you were interested in. It was not a tour where everyone does the same thing at the same time and you are kinda trapped and on someone else's time table. You get the same guide for the whole tour and she knew the areas well and knew everyone in the areas we went, so she could always point us to the right people and places for what we wanted to experience. I frankly do not think I would want to try to navigate and drive through the country without a knowledgeable guide-- it's not like AAA will come get you if there is a problem and there is no mechanic or tire store around the corner. The roads are VERY rough and not well marked-- it would make a heck of an adventure, but just think about if that is the adventure you want, or if that would detract from the adventure you really want. I thought the loosely-guided tour was perfect and would highly receommend Gap, although there may be others that are just as good (I am not connected with them in any way, just a happy customer.) OH! One word of advice for San Jose-- If a man pinches you on the arm downtown, just say "No!" firmly and move on. That is the customary way that a man tells a uh, shall we say "lady of the evening" that he is interested. Some men just pinch anyone they think is cute, hoping she's a "lady of the evening"! You'll only experience it right in the center of downtown by the square, though, and if you say no then they apologize and leave you alone. Frankly, you likely won't want to hang out much in San Jose. One day for a musuem or two and the flea market is plenty. It is literally hard to breathe in the city because of all the pollution. Hope this helps. I'd be happy to answer any specific quetions if I can. --A.

Sorry, David, it's hard to take a picture of myself, LOL, and I was so busy in the kitchen I didn't even think to take a picture of Mother! Gina, that is indeed a "spray on" tan. You know she didn't get that tan in Michigan in May, it's 51F and raining right now, not much beach time. :-) RR, it was a bit crazy but it all came together in the end, although I only got out of the kitchen long enough to watch the cake cutting, the bouquet and garter toss and I had ONE dance with the groom. Other than that, it was all cooking, serving and cleaning up. Ah well, it kept me out of trouble and it was Ashley's party, not mine. She was happy, so it's all good! David, I do have a long weekend and I think maybe I'll make Elery take me out for dinner for my birthday. I'm sure not baking a cake... Oh, and for those who wanted a picture of Bruvver, before he ate cake and lasagna and had punch and ate too much candy from the candy buffet and threw up, while his shirt was still white, here's Bruvver: Annie Annie

I am home from vacation! It was wonderful, and the food and company along the way was the best. Annie and Elery were so gracious to feed us and everything she cooked was awesome. It was nice, after about a year of not feeling well enough to do most anything, to visit with good friends. Then we got to visit Nancy and Kim, and again were treated to a fabulous meal. We spent a lot of time eating and yakking and catching up. There is nothing nicer than getting together with good forum friends...especially those who cook as well as Nancy and Annie, LOL. Thank you ladies. (And Elery) Sherry

I consider this forum to be a community - at least that was how it started out. It is certainly not meant to be as narrowly defined as TripAdvisor, which is larger and varied enough to have many specific subforums. Gardenweb also has a travel forum, but it has very few posts, and so it is rather pointless to expect to get much information there. We used to have a dedicated "conversations" section in this forum, but it did not survive the transition from Gardenweb to Houzz, even though many people still wanted it. Since we no longer have that section and many of us still feel like a community, we occasionally have O/T threads - none of which are meant to offend. As for Alitatlia, I will say that I had a very good experience with that airline, but that was two years ago, and I would think that you would prefer to read more recent reviews, since the airline has experienced labor problems lately. I hope it survives, one way or another, as I intend to go back to Italy in the fairly near future, and it had the only non-stop flights from LAX to Rome. I posted the question on this forum because I am familiar with many people who regularly post here, I value their opinions, and I know that many have been to Italy in the past. If I post on TripAdvisor, I have to rely on the kindness of strangers, but I have gotten good advice there as well, especially for Fiji, and I learned about the Fiji forums on TripAdvisor on this forum. By the way, I did a Google search for Alitalia and did not find this thread or forum at all, and so I'm not sure how you found this!