The nice thing about Costa Rica is that it is small enough that you can see a lot of the key sights in two weeks. Most visitors head out of San José pretty quickly and then visit La Fortuna and the Arenal Volcano and the cloud forests at Monteverde and Santa Elena. This itinerary takes about a week, leaving you with another week to spend on the beach, and this is when you have a choice to make: Pacific or Caribbean coast? 

There isn't a huge amount to do in the towns of Monteverde and Santa Elena — the restaurants tend to be touristy and overpriced — but we did manage to find a few nice places to go. Top of my list was The Common Cup, an independent coffee shop serving espresso drinks made with Monteverde coffee roasted on site. Plus, they do a good line in latte art. Yesterday, I tried a cappuccino, which was too milky for me; this morning's macchiato was much better: rich and creamy.

When you're staying in Monteverde, Costa Rica, most of the activities are in or near one of the cloud forests. The two largest are the Monteverde reserve and the Santa Elena reserve, but I still haven't worked out which is which, especially given the two 'towns' of Monteverde and Santa Elena are next-door neighbours, and neither consists of anything more than a few unpaved roads on the hilltop, with a handful of sodas, touristy shops and hotels.

We left our lovely little cabin at the foot of the Volcán Arenal early this morning (we were staying at Hotel Campo Verde and I would highly recommended it).