Costa Rica | 2022
Dan and I adventured to the beautiful country of Costa Rica in November. It was our first big trip together in 2021 and it ended up being (maybe) the most memorable trip we’ll ever take, because on the first day of our trip he asked me to marry him at sunset overlooking the valley (see pic two)! That’s another story for another post though :)
As I’ve gotten more experienced with travel, the more I look to travel blogs and seek out people who have done what I’m looking to do. I find their perspectives so valuable! I also LOVE travel planning. I’m someone who likes to have an itinerary to use as a guide throughout our trip. This way before we even hop on the plane, we know we’re going to get everything in that we want to see. For us, these itineraries are flexible, we might move a hike from one day to another or choose to adventure on a day that was left unscheduled. Whatever we end up actually doing, I love going into the trip with a solid plan whether or not we stick to it perfectly. Below I’ve written out our itinerary for this trip. Feel free to save this post for later if Costa Rica is on your bucket list!
Day 1: We arrived on our Southwest flight from Chicago to Liberia. This airport is closer to the pacific coast of Costa Rica. Another popular option is the San Jose airport which is more central and will be closer if you’re heading to the Caribbean side. We took a shuttle from the airport to our rental car service and then headed into downtown Liberia to get SIM cards for data. After that was taken care of, we drove to our first AirBnB in the mountains and near Lake Arenal, it was a little over a 2 hour drive. This stay was so unique, it’s an old school bus that was gutted and essentially turned into a tiny home on a big plot of land with an incredible sunset view. The direct link is below!
Day 2: We drove out to Parque Nacional Volcán Tenoria (Tenorio Volcano National Park) and did the Rio Celeste hike which you can see in the photo below the skoolie. It was stunning! Despite the 2 hours of intense driving down dirt roads with massive potholes, we both thought this hike was so worth it! On this hike we also saw several monkeys and a hot spring! You do have to pay a few bucks to park and do the hike so that’s just something else to be aware of.
Day 3: Another day, another waterfall! This day we took our newly engaged selves to see La Fortuna waterfall. The drive from the Skoolie AirBnB offered amazing views of both Lake Arenal and Arenal volcano. We got to La Fortuna early (around 8am) to beat the crowds, which really worked in our favor. At one point Dan was the only one swimming and I easily got my solo pic in front of the cascade. I also think it helped that we were there the first week in November which is off season :) From there we drove over to the Mistico Hanging Bridges park. This was a hike that was deeper in the rainforest and had several suspension bridges along the way. Afterwards we had a delicious costa rican lunch in the restaurant on site. Again, both of these hikes and experiences had entry fees of about $20 USD.
Day 4: This day we spent at our next AirBnB. We wanted to spend part of the trip hiking and in the mountains and the other part lounging by the ocean. So this AirBnB was about a 10 minute walk to the beach and it’s where we spent the rest of our trip. It was listed as a “workation” stay which was perfect because I spent most of this day doing grad school work.
Day 5: This was another low-key day spent swimming in the ocean and walking around the little beach town of Playa Coco and eating some authentic cuisine! Our AirBnB also provided access to a nearby resort pool so we checked that out for a few hours as well.
Day 6: We drove back towards the mountains for a day at Rio Perdido resort. We purchased their day pass option to check out their facilities which included hiking, thermal pools, a swim-up bar, a 5 course meal, and a dip in the thermal river!
Day 7: Our last day! From our Playa Coco accomodations we drove out to Tamarindo beach. This was clearly the more popular beach on the west coast. There were so many restaurants, shops, and things to do like surf lessons and beach massages. Unfortunately, we got a little rain this afternoon so we posted up with some cocktails and did some souvenir shopping. We spent our final evening celebrating our engagement at a restaurant called Sentido Norte. The food, overall vibe, and scenic views at this spot were unmatched (see the photo above)!
And that’s a wrap! Let me know if you have any questions about our time in Costa Rica in the comments below :)
