Our Costa Rica Itinerary
Sharing where we stayed, what we did, how much it cost and our recommendations for your trip to Costa Rica!
Costa Rica is hands down one of the coolest places I have ever visited. If you are an adventurous person, love animals and appreciate nature, then you have to make Costa Rica one of your bucket list destinations.
Let’s begin by stating the fact that traveling is a total privilege. I am grateful to be able to experience this trip. My goal is to share our itinerary, so if you’re planning a trip, you can piggy back off of some of the things we did!
Travel Tips:
Fly into San Jose. Believe it or not, Costa Rica only has 2 airports, both are relatively small but San Jose is the one you want to fly into. It’s a 6 hour flight from Los Angeles, and the time difference is just 1 hour making it an easy place to travel if you have 5+ days!
Hire a transportation service. You may want to save a few extra bucks by renting your own vehicle but driving is different there. The roads are small, very windy and google maps doesn’t work like it does in the US.
Here’s an example, it was supposed to take us 6 hours to travel from La Fortuna to Manuelle Antonio if we took the main road, but our guide knew a secret shortcut which cut down 2 hours of drive time for us! They know where to stop for safe restrooms, food and you can think of it as getting to know the locals! We chatted with our drivers for every single one of those hours and learned so much about the culture and country. We used ILT Costa Rica Premium Car Service Company.
Decide on the type of trip you’re intending for! Are you looking to save money, or are you looking to splurge? That will be really helpful when planning where to eat and what to do!
Buy water shoes. At first I thought, ew those are ugly but my husband insisted on buying them for us. I am SO glad he did because those were the only shoes that I wore the entire trip! They are comfortable & are can get wet so it’s great to wear during rainy season! I didn’t wear any other sneakers while I was there - Linked here.
Don’t drink tap water. Troy got really sick from drinking the tap and we should have just spent some extra money going to local markets to get bottled water. We listened to the locals when they said the tap was fine (our gut is probably just different & not used to it). Big mistake on our end so make sure it doesn’t ruin your trip and drink bottled water!
Tip for all activities! I am surprised by the amount of people on our group excursions that did not tip. I work in the service industry with private catering and Troy ran a fishing charter for 3 years. One thing we have learned is you have to tip if you’re happy with service! Everyone there works so hard, and we tipped for everything; food, excursions, hotel staff, drivers. Just bring cash & make sure you’re prepared!
Travel Day:
We traveled from LAX to San Jose, Costa Rica, arrived at 10 PM and the transportation service took us to our hotel that night in La Fortuna. La Fortuna is located in the rainforest, in the middle of the country! It’s a beautiful place with high elevation. We stayed at the Amor Arenal Resort. The hotel is actually located on the actual Arenal Volcano, with complimentary full breakfast and absolutely incredible rooms. The hotel made us sandwiches that evening so we got to enjoy those for a really late dinner when we arrived.
You can see the volcano in the background of this photo! It’s from breakfast the first morning!
Day 1:
We got in around 3 AM the night before so we wanted to rest & relax today. We eased into things rather than going into a full 8 hour excursion. The hotel rooms are to die for, they are all individual casitas! Basically every single room is in the middle of the jungle, with floor to ceiling windows, each has a suspended outdoor deck with a heated spa outside. Total privacy & totally emerged in nature. This hotel ended up being a “wellness spa hotel".” We had no idea when we booked it! They had a meditation area, yoga deck, farm to table restaurants, hiking trails, spring water dipping pools, yoga mats in every room, full gym, and wellness spa!
We had our complimentary a-la-carte breakfast, which was all farm to table! They brought you a fresh juice of the day, coffee, tea, homemade bread basket (which had some of the most delicious pastries), apple cinnamon oatmeal, THEN your breakfast of choice! It was an absolute feast. Breakfast views are of the Arenal volcano!
We headed to Eco Termales, which was an awesome natural hot springs! There’s only 2 in the whole area, and the other one, Tabacon was fully booked so we chose this one! Just a quick taxi drive there! We got the 10 AM - 4 PM slot, and lunch was included. Lunch was nothing to rave about but the hot springs were incredible. This was $65/person with 5 pools, all with different temperatures. You could spend a few hours here!
We headed into the downtown area of La Fortuna that evening and had dinner at a local restaurant called Fusion Latina. It was recommended to get Patacones (we got ours with steak) and the traditional Casado (with chicken). We shared both and it was such a great experience!
Day 2:
Excursion day! Of course, breakfast first then off to the Místico Hanging Bridges hike! We hired a private tour guide for these two excursions because we wanted to be able to ask all of our questions and take our time looking at all of the animals and wildlife. There were plenty of group tour options. I recommend getting a tour guide, because they find lots of awesome wildlife with their telescopes! We walked all throughout the hanging bridges, overlooking all of the rainforest canopies and it was some of the most incredible views I have ever seen.
After about 4 hours, we made our way to the La Fortuna waterfall, (which was included in the tour). It’s 500 steps to get down to the vast waterfall. It’s 70 meters high, and there are huge volcanic rocks at the bottom. You can bring your swimsuit to swim at the base too! You’ll be sore the next day with all the steps you have to climb but it’s great exercise!
We booked our tour though Jacamar Naturalist Tours and they provided all transportation, water and a delicious lunch afterwards on their farm. 10/10 recommend booking through them!
That evening we got a massage at our hotel which was the most relaxing experience! The spa was in the middle of the rainforest with sounds of the nature all around us. Best massage I have ever gotten… Perfect after a long day of adventure/walking!
Day 3:
Every morning the hotel offers free yoga to its guests, so I took an early morning yoga class while Troy used the gym! We had breakfast, then we hiked on the property before getting ready to leave! Our driver picked us up and drove us all the way to Manuelle Antonio. This was supposed to be a 6 hour drive, but it took us 4 hours with his secret roads! If you have to make the drive, ask them to take you on the shortcut too!
We stopped at a few places to see some wildlife, and one of those places was the Tarcoles River to see all of the crocodiles!
That evening we made it to our incredible hotel called Arenas Del Mar. It’s a beachfront hotel on the coast, right next to the Manele Antonio National Park. We were greeted with adult beverages, monkeys and an awesome room. Every room came with an outdoor kitchenette, with snacks, drinks, coffee and tea. That evening we went to the restaurant onsite and it was great food!
Day 4:
We woke up early and walked on the beach all the way to Manuele Antonio National Park. We found sloths, monkeys and put our feet in the water as we strolled over there. You want to make sure you get tickets to the national park. You can go with a guide or not! We opted to go without one because we had already had a guide in La Fortuna, but it’s up to you! Tickets are under $20 to get into the national park. You can bring your bathing suit and relax on the ocean after the exploration, it’s absolutely gorgeous.
On our way home, we found a cool food truck we stopped at. I got a veggie burrito and smoothie & Troy got calamari! That night we went to an Israeli restaurant which was delicious!
Day 5:
Troy got really sick today, we think it may have been from the water. They had told us that it was ok to drink tap and we believed them… But we cancelled all plans this day and I made my way into town to go to the grocery store + pharmacy to pick up some electrolytes and medicine for him.
Day 6:
We went searching for sloths, monkeys and other wildlife. Troy was feeling a little bit better but not enough to do anything crazy. We cancelled our excursions again and I spent some time soaking in the sun and reading at the beach while he rested in the room.
I did manage to eat a large breakfast at the beautiful restaurant on property.
Day 7:
Troy was feeling better, so we went zip lining! This was by far one of the best parts of the trip! Our tour included transportation to/from our hotel, we drove through the palm plantations, and the staff were awesome! I didnt take my phone with me on the actual zip lining but I screamed and laughed so much during the adventure. 10/10 reccoemnd. We booked with Safari Adventures. They provided us lunch before we headed back to the hotel after zip lining. Even if you’re afraid of heights, you gotta do it!
They had fresh coconut water at the hotel every day for us with their coconut straws! I loved that it was a sustainable hotel!
That night, we booked a night hike/tour with our hotel staff and we saw so many incredible animals. 10/10 do the night tour. You’ll see some awesome things at night you cant see during the day! We even saw lot’s of sloths sleeping!
Day 8:
I took a complimentary yoga class at the hotel, we had our a-la-carte breakfast, we went hiking onsite, looked for more sloths and monkeys then got a massage at the wellness spa. Our driver picked us up and we went back to the airport for our flight. We were on a red eye, so we had a long day but it was not stressful and worth it after the great trip!
I wish we could go back already, there was so much more to see there! Comment below if you have any questions, or even have recommendations for what to do in Costa Rica! We can create a little forum here for everyone to look at!
Feel free to drop any questions you have below! I am happy to answer them to the best of my ability!
