Costa Rica - Rainforest, volcanoes and sloths.
My family (two adults and two children aged 11 and nearly 9) flew from London to Liberia in the north of Costa Rica just before Easter. The children were the perfect age for this adventure, old enough to take part in thrilling activities and malleable enough to follow me around according to my travel desires! I planned a holiday of two halves. The first half was spent in the mountainous volcanic region and the second half was planned for mooching along the beaches of the Pacific Coast.
Upon landing in Liberia and collecting our hire car we headed towards the first steaming volcano, Rincon de la Vieja, and stayed at a beautiful Hacienda for a couple of nights. Many activities were available here, we found a waterfall to swim in followed by lovely hot springs (and optional mud). We were off to a good start. The Hacienda had a lovely pool area where we enjoyed tasty nachos and I enjoyed my first pina coladas. Next stop was La Fortuna, near the famous Arenal Volcano (thankfully dormant currently) which was around a three hour drive. To break the drive up I booked a tubing trip on the Rio Celeste, an amazing blue river. It really was blue and it was fabulous floating along the river under the rainforest canopy listening to the chirping birds above.
La Fortuna is a small town, really it is the hub of all the adventurous activities you can think of. You name it you can do it from here. There are lots of hotels, restaurants and tour companies to choose from, I’d advise to do lots of research so you get a good one. While here we did ziplining with spectacular volcano views, a quad bike tour which was very exhilarating (not for the feint hearted) and took a walk around the Bogarin Trail to see if we could spot any sloths. We got lucky and spotted three sloths, along with basilisk lizards and tropical birds. Food in the sodas (fast food type restaurants) was good and tasty, we particularly loved the meat empanadas, yum.
After three nights here we left and drove around Lake Arenal to the Monteverde Cloud Forest. This was a good stopover, a decent choice of restaurants and tours here too. We found ourselves on a coffee, chocolate and sugar cane tour which was interesting and tasty! The main reason for being here though was a night tour through the rainforest to see some creatures. We found a guide called Donald who was brilliant and very skilled at spotting things which we would never have seen, tarantulas, a pit viper, poisonous frog, walking sticks (this is what they called stick insets hilariously), headlight click beetles, scorpion and roosting birds. It was amazing to see all this and kept the children quiet for a couple of hours.
By this time we had nearly had our fill of adventurous activities so it was time to head to the beach. We caught a car ferry across from Puntarenas to Paquera and made our way 10 minutes to the most beautiful hotel. The grounds of the hotel were so stunning, green with lots of bright tropical flowers and in the background the sparkling Pacific Ocean. And the quiet, oh the quiet. A large pool and great restaurant topped it all off. While here we made our way to a place where we could take part in a night time kayak in the bioluminescent waters. This was the most magical experience, swimming in the sparkly, glowing water. It was like we were in Avatar!
We followed this stay up with two more beach stays as we headed in the general direction of the airport. First was Samara, a cute little town set up for tourist trade. Nice long beaches backed by palm trees in this area, boat trips and amenities available. We found a great restaurant on the beach and were treated to a fire throwing display, exciting. From here we made our last stop at a stunning hotel oasis on Playa Hermosa. It was a hotel blended into the rainforest, with an oasis of a pool, right on the beach. While we were relaxing in the pool on our last day a troop of Howler monkeys came into the tree canopy above us which was very special. They were the final tick on our list of wildlife to see in Costa Rica.
Logistically, the driving was very easy. The main roads, there aren’t many of them, are good condition and there isn’t much traffic on the road so navigating is fine. Side roads can be full of potholes but as long as you take it slowly it is ok. Distances aren’t huge so a multi-stop itinerary is very doable. We didn’t feel rushed or stressed moving around at all. Activities are quite expensive so needs to be accounted for. Eating out adds up too and most of the prices were more in line with costs in the USA.
As we made our way the short 25 minutes back to the airport on the final morning, this allowed me time to reflect on the adventure. It was the best holiday we had ever had, we had created lifelong memories together. I was in love with this country and 100% certain that I should move there!! Or at least go back another time to explore the rest of it.