I lost my younger brother unexpectedly just days after getting back from this trip, so I put everything aside to grieve. It took a long time to come back to all the photos and video taken and make a video. I'm glad that I eventually returned to look through pics/vids. It was such an incredible trip.

We are a budget-minded family of four with a goal to visit one country (or a couple close together) each year (starting 2022). Our bucket list is long. Costa Rica was at the top of the list, and it helped that tickets from Atlanta were not as high as most other places. Here are our top tips of things we were glad we did.

1) We loved staying at AirBnBs or VRBOs at each location and shopping locally for food. We stayed 2-4 days in each location.

2) Pay for the parks. The entrance fees may seem steep, but we understand that this revenue really helps the ecotourism industry and all of the parks were in incredible shape and worth visiting.
We especially recommend the Santa Elena reserve in Monteverde. It was everything people said it'd be.

 3) We did not pay for the guides. We can see the merit in it, but we saw plenty without them and felt our kids' attention spans were too short to appreciate "ALL" there is to learn about the plant and animal life.

4) Plan exactly where you want to go and research all about it. While spontaneity is great, there is SO much to do and see, and prepping was everything to make the most of time. Also, it helped to be prepared for the upselling in front of Manuel Antonio everyone forewarned against. Next time, we'd like to go horseback riding and canyoning.

5) Yes, the water is great.

6) The roads are everything people said they'd be, but I grew up on dirt roads in TX, so this was no big deal. Water does wash out some of the gravel roads at some points, but most will be paved. Use Waze. We followed recommendations for Wild Rider car rentals, booked a four-wheel drive mini-suv, and had no issues. You'll be very happy booking with them, too. They're one of the top-rated rental places.

7) HIGHLY recommend Brett's Boards. Cannot say enough. Same with Sky Adventures and the Don Juan tours.

8) I speak intermediate-level Spanish. While we heard that you don't need to know any Spanish, I was glad that I could speak so much Spanish considering we never stayed anywhere near a resort at any point. 

9) Costa Rican residents are some of the nicest people we've ever met. Please be kind back. The sodas were like eating at someone's home.

10) Costa Rica is extremely affordable. With that being said, expect the tourist travel activities to not equate what groceries and small sodas charge. It's not the same thing. We heard complaints about the prices of activities, so we picked activities we thought would be best for the amount of time we had and the prices we wanted to spend. I've been all over the US and in a few countries in Europe, and every activity was well within those ranges, but for some reason, some people expect it to be much cheaper.


Music Credits:Envato Stock
LVNDSCAPE: "Dive with Me" (ft. Cathrine Lassen)
LIQWYD "React" 
LIQWYD "Fresh"

свернуть