Costa Rica

This year, because of schedules we took our family vacation over Christmas. We decided to go to the beautiful country of Costa Rica! If you have never been to Costa Rica you should definitely put it on your list. I was surprised by how mountainous the country is. Flying into San Jose we could see volcanoes and mountains, it was just gorgeous! Costa Rica is the perfect mixture of mountains and beach. Because we were there in December the rainy season had just ended so the grass, forests, plants, and everything was so lush! The beaches are not the white sand and crystal blue waters that you would expect, like in the Caribbean. We were only on the Pacific Coast and there the sand was darker and the water was a little murky. From volcanoes to beaches to jungles Costa Rica has so much to offer!

View over the mountains to the coast

Costa Rican Beach: Manuel Antonio National Park

Where We Stayed:
We stayed in the town of Atenas which was about an hour north and slightly west of San Jose. It was voted as having the best climate in the world! And from my experience, it did! The weather was low 80s every day and 60s over night. Sunny majority of the time. We chose Atenas because it was a central location that allowed us to go everywhere we wanted to. Most places we visited were about 2-3 hours away. So if you don't like driving too far then you may want to stay somewhere else. Atenas is in the mountains so distance wise places may not be too far away but it takes awhile because you wind along the mountains. If you get car sick easily take that into consideration when planning your trip. We rented a house off of VRBO. It was our first time using VRBO and let me tell you, we had an INCREDIBLE experience! Our house was stunning, the grounds were well maintained, and the view from our house was incredible! We had one main house, a little cottage (where the hubby and I slept), and the gardener had a house on the property as well. It was nice to stay in a house as we were able to prepare some of our own meals and didn't have to eat out for every meal. There was a grocery store in Atenas that we did our grocery shopping at. Staying in Atenas allowed us to visit places further south and also north toward Arenal.

The cottage on our property

Our VRBO house

One of the rooms in the main house

The view from our pool

Looking from our back patio over Costa Rica

The view from our outdoor dining area looking back at the house

We had our own orange trees and could make fresh OJ

The grounds of our house

We saw many beautiful birds as we sat out by the pool

We even were able to see several toucans

The sunset from our back patio

What We Did:
We didn't spend too much time just relaxing. We started our days early and went exploring the country.
El Toledo: A family owned coffee farm outside of Atenas where we took a coffee tour. We were able to see the coffee being roasted, brewed, and grown. The farm does not look orderly like American farms do. It looked like a forest, plants are planted among the coffee to help with fertilization, bugs, etc.

Adventure Park in Miramar: We went zip-lining and repelling over 25 zip lines and 11 waterfalls. We repelled down 2 of the waterfalls. The zip-lines went through the forest, we had to drive further up the mountain to begin out trip. Our tour included lunch at the restaurant.

View from the restaurant at Adventure Park

Manuel Antonio National Park: We spent the day hiking around, seeing many animals, and exploring a beautiful beach. The beach in Manuel Antonio had the white sand and extremely clear blue water that you would expect. It was the only beach that we saw like it in Costa Rica. I would definitely recommend hiring a guide in the park. The guide helped us to see sloths, monkeys, birds, and all sorts of animals that we would have otherwise missed. It was extremely hot here as it is further south. Make sure you take lots of water and dress accordingly!

Sloth

Bird we saw as we hiked through the park

Wood pecker

Capuchin Monkey, they were everywhere on the beach!!

The beautiful Manuel Antonio Beach

View from a lookout on our hike

Arenal Volcano: Unfortunately, this was the one day where the weather could have been much better. It was cloudy and rainy so we were unable to see the top of the volcano. We did a nice hike to the volcano through the rain forest. Since this is a rain forest area the weather can be unpredictable.

Hanging Bridges: This was about 20 minutes from the Arenal Volcano. There were suspension bridges throughout the rainforest that you crossed as you hiked. It was something different and I really enjoyed it. We were able to see different wildlife as we hiked.

San Jose: We explored the markets of San Jose, I think we may have chosen the wrong day to go because it was Christmas Eve and it seemed that everyone was out shopping so the city was extremely crowded!

Crocodile Man Tours: We took a boat tour on the Tarcoles River. We were able to see crocodiles, scarlet macaws, parakeets, and king fishers. The guide was funny and very knowledgeable.

Scarlet Macaw we saw while we waited for our tour to start

Jaco: We didn't spend too much time at this beach because it was hot. The sand was darker and the water wasn't very clear. Since we had a pool at our house we didn't spend too much time at the beach.

Where We Ate:
Gellys: Located in Atenas, the food was very good and extremely cheap. Six of us ate lunch and dessert for around $35 total.

El Avion: Located near Manuel Antonio National Park. It is an airplane turned restaurant on the edge of a cliff. It overlooks the Pacific Ocean and would be a great spot to eat dinner as the sun sets. The food was very good hear but more expensive.

Jalapenos: Located in Atenas. This is a steakhouse, the food was delicious! It is more on the expensive side. Our waitress did not speak any English, we were able to get by with our broken Spanish.

Costa Rica was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to and was definitely at the top of my list for best vacations!