Costa Rica Travel Guide
Rainbows | Waterfalls | Jungle | Wildlife | Beaches
Hey friends! I'm back from my trip and we had so much fun! It's taken me forever to put this post together but Costa Rica is beautiful and if you haven't been you need to go!! I put together this highly requested travel guide to try and answer all of y'alls questions and inspire you to go see it for yourself! One of the best things is that going to Costa Rica is surprisingly affordable. My round trip flight was under $300. The food was reasonably priced and often cheaper than what you'd pay here in America for the same or similar. The hotels were a lot cheaper too! The people are as sweet as can be and the views are literally breathtaking!
Use a Travel Agent
This was my first time using a travel agent! (I'll share her info below) I highly recommend it, specially if this is your first time in county! It was so nice to not have to worry or feel afraid, especially since it was just my best friend and I! What I didn't realize was that using a travel agent didn't cost us more money, they just get a piece of the pie! She is a Costa Rican expert so it was super helpful! She answered all of my questions quickly and was always sweet. She helped keep our trip within our budget as well. She set up everything for us and shared recommendations. She lined up our rides to and from the airport. We stayed at 3 different hotels and she set up the ride transfers as well. Our ride pickup/arrival times lined up with when check in/out time was at each hotel so we never had to wait around! It was so nice to not have to figure all of that out or have to worry about it! planning travel times to line up with our plane departure. She worked behind the scenes and made our trip seamless. We never had to worry about a thing, especially 2 girls being alone in a foreign country. It really put my mind at ease knowing that everything was lined up and
scheduled by an expert!
We used Rachel from Costa Rican Vacations. You can email her directly at Rachelpeck@goduesouth.com Tell her I sent you (Malyri Ryan) and she can book the exact trip we took and/or help you plan your own!
I was the most excited about staying at this hotel. It's at the foot of a volcano! 😍 They have individual bungalows with covered terraces that have views of the volcano. Sadly when we got there it was rainy and a cloud covered the volcano the ENTIRE time!!! 😭 I was sooo sad!!! Literally seeing the volcano from our room was the one thing I was most excited about. I didn't let it ruin my mood though. We still had a great time. The pic below is a view from our bungalow terrace. This was the most we saw of the volcano the whole time (the green mountain in the back of the pic). We loved sitting out on the terrace and listening to the birds and monkeys! The property was beautiful.
They have a beautiful restaurant on property that has floor to ceiling windows with a view of the volcano (pic below). The food was good! Breakfast was included and the lunch and dinner prices were fair! We did venture out into town by way of a taxi (which was $6 roundtrip). We got coffee, some passionfruit cheesecake and walked around the shops. There were a lot of excursions to choose from but we didn't do any of them because we were trying to stay on a budget. I really wanted to do the ATV tour of the volcano though!
This hotel is beautiful!! It's up in the mountains in the Monte Verde cloud forest. It has beautiful views of the town below and the Pacific Ocean. Keep an eye out for rainbows!! We saw at least 1 everyday! The hotel has been awarded for 5 levels of sustainability! They have several gardens on the property that they use at the restaurant and juice bar. The rooms do not have air conditioning which is something we were a little worried about, but when we were there it wasn't bad at all- it actually got chilly at night. We upgraded our room the first night we were there and we got to stay in the top penthouse suite (pics below). It was SO fancy! If you watched my story while I was there then you got to see a tour of it and all the pics (I saved all of my trip on my story highlights on instagram if you missed it). The staff was SUPER sweet and very thoughtful. Our first night there one of the staff members brought us up a plate of fresh fruit. We sat out on the balcony on the queen size bed swing and devoured it (check my insta highlight for the picture)!
The second night we stayed in a regular room and it was still really nice. The restaurant on property was really good. We ate breakfast there every morning. I totally recommend asking for a seat out on the balcony. The view is beautiful! I recommend the traditional breakfast- it was delicious (pic below). We had dinner at the restaurant the first night and it was delicious but very pricey! We spent about $100 for just the 2 of us. I would recommend at least going for dessert - I got the deconstructed lemon meringue pie. It was delicious! The juice bar was also really good everything was made fresh right in front of us!
The last hotel we went to was Costa Verde in Manuel Antonio! The view from our room was GORGEOUS (pic below)! This pic is unedited!! Can you believe that sunset reflection on the water?! The only sad thing is that right before I took this picture we had JUST got back to our room from the beach thinking the sunset was over! haha!! I would've loved to get a picture on the beach with pink water behind me! This hotel is located on the Pacific coast. It's hard for me to say this, but I think Costa Verde was my favorite hotel. It was just SO breathtaking. Even the view from the hotel restaurant (Anaconda Restaurant) was gorgeous!! Pretty much everywhere you looked it was picturesque.
Our room was nice but it wasn't anything fancy. It did have a mini kitchenette. The hotel gave free rides to several of the restaurants in the area which was nice. We ate at several of them. El Wagon has DELICIOUS pizza! El Avion has pretty views and the food was pretty good. The restaurant on property, Anaconda Restaurant was very nice and breakfast was included! The food was great and like I said before, the view was breathtaking (pic below)! I really enjoyed the traditional breakfast and the fruit juice of the day!
We did the Zip Coaster that's really close to the hotel. It was only $12 a person and it was SO much fun!! We even saw a sloth hanging out on the railing! You can see a video of my riding it on my insta story highlights on my profile! Look for the Costa Rica highlight! :D. It was amazing how many animals were just roaming around. We saw spider monkeys and lizards. There was even a toucan that would knock on our hotel room window every morning at 6:45! It was scary the first time haha, but it was so cool!
We also so this gorgeous rainbow right after dinner one night (pic below)! I don't think I've ever seen one that vibrant- you can see the purple!! The beach is right behind those tress in this pic! I would've loved to be on the other side of them and been able to have seen it while sitting on the beach!
I hope this post helps you if you are planning a trip, or that it inspires you to go! If you have questions about our trip, please ask me! Like l said earlier, I highly recommend using a travel agent! Rachel was amazing and will help you get your trip booked and you won't have to worry about any of the details!
