Costa Rica in July - skip Monteverde?
We are traveling to Costa Rica with another family in July and working on our itinerary (at least lodging) now. We are there for 10 nights, flying in and out of Liberia. We were tentatively planning Arenal (4 nights), Monteverde (2 nights), Samara beach (4 nights). We don't need airport hotels - plenty of drive time with our flight schedule.
The more I look at it, I'm tempted to drop Monteverde. The drive sounds somewhat unpleasant (we will have 4WDs) and the activities look like they are pretty pricey for what they are (I'm referring to the actual activities, not the location!). I could get past all of that if it didn't seem like it would be so touristy. I think Monteverde on the heels of Arenal may be too many people for what we're after.
I'm tempted to skip it to add in a more off the beaten path location - maybe Bijagua, or somewhere with good access to Rio Celeste?