Costa Rica

Over the weekend, I was having a conversation with a friend who visited Costa Rica, and I was reminded of the incredible adventure I had the privilege of experiencing with my husband on our honeymoon.  I decided the trip warranted a dedicated blog post with detailed reviews 🙂

Surfing

Costa Rica was amazing.  No doubt.  Would I go back?  Um…I wish I could go back now…like tomorrow maybe.  It was our ideal honeymoon.  Adventure and romance all in one.  When planning our trip, we knew we wanted to have an active vacation – our main priorities were learning to surf (which we had both always wanted to try),  relaxation, and general adventuring 🙂  Having no idea what we wanted to do other than that, we contacted Lindsay Heabel with Here Today Gone to Maui travel services (now http://www.jettoparadise.com/).  I found her website online, thought the name sounded fun, and checked out their website.  I immediately came across a honeymoon survey on the site, which asked questions about Kent and I, our personalities, and the types of things we were looking for in a honeymoon.   I thought this was a great idea and hoped they could help us find a location that would be perfect for us. They did it!

Arenal Volcano

The hotels we stayed in were wonderful, and Lindsay also booked our flights and transports (using Swiss Travel Transfers) to and from our different locations so we never had to worry about where we were going or the fact that I spoke no Spanish at all.  Kent took Spanish way back when in high school, but I know NOTHING.  As a matter of fact, after exiting a cab ride, I promptly told the driver “Grazie!,” and was very proud of myself for about 10 seconds until I realized I wasn’t in Venice. Doh!  Kent just smiled at the cab driver and ushered me away as quickly as possible.

Horseback Riding

We decided to create a honeymoon registry (we used honeyfund.com), and we had a blast going on all of the excursions our friends and family gave us as gifts.  We took pictures of all of our adventures and sent them out in our thank you notes 🙂  Our hotels offered many excursions, and we also went off the beaten path to find a few gems.  I did a ton of research to find the best adventures out there, and I wasn’t disappointed in the result 🙂

We stayed at the Arenal Nayara for a few nights, located by the Arenal Volcano in the middle of the rainforest, and then moved to the Westin Playa Conchal, an all-inclusive resort located on the Pacific coast.  These accommodations are probably on the top list of my favorite places I have ever stayed in.  Ever.

apparently there were also orange drinks involved

We achieved our goal of learning to surf, repelled down a waterfall, ziplined across the mountains, went horseback riding through a creek, hiked to a waterfall, hiked to the Arenal volcano, had a hot stone couples massage while listening to an actual babbling brook (no sound recordings here folks), went to see a circus show right where we were staying (complete with fire juggling), paddled around crystal clear water in a kayak, snorkeled on the coast, and still managed to relax with an innumerable number of little pink adult beverages that we can’t remember the name of.

Over the next few days/weeks, I’ll be reviewing each of these amazing experiences and places, so stay tuned for more details!  In the meantime, here are some Costa Rica tips:

1.  Learn these two phrases: “Gracious!” (NOT grazie…ahem) and “Dónde está el baño?”

2. Don’t drive unless you really really like off-roading – for hours.  The roads are terrible, and there are no street signs to be found.  I was soooo happy to have transport.

3. Bring lots of yoga/running pants – they were the perfect attire for most of our adventures, and I ended up having to hand wash the two pairs I brought over and over.

4.  If going on a honeymoon, don’t forget to tell your hotel/flight people.  We received lots of free bottles of champagne 🙂

5.  Bring a waterproof camera – I’m so glad we had our Nikon Coolpix.  Everyone was jealous 😉 Also be sure you have some way to secure the camera to your person so it doesn’t go careening down a mountain – we had to create a wrist strap by buying a hat at a souvenir shop, disassembling to acquire the chin strap, and making do (it actually worked quite nicely, and now, two years later, it is still in use).

6.  Don’t leave your food on the ground at the Westin, unless you want to attract Coati, who will, while looking very cute, steal all of your pizza.

7.  Sloths.  That is all.

8.  Prepare to see many iguanas.

9. It’s a rainforest.  Meaning it might rain.  And thats okay…and actually quite fun.  But remember, bring extra clothes (see # 3)

10. Have fun!!!!!!