January, 2024

Costa Rica is a beautiful country with so much to offer. Jungle, animals, culture and a wide assortment of beaches are just a few of it’s attributes. It’s stability and good infrastructure has contributed to it being the most expensive country in Central America. It can still be somewhat budget friendly if you’re careful.

Liberia Airport to La Fortuna

This trip was for my daughter who (EEK!) turned 40 on the trip. I’ve never been one for gifts of “things”. To me there is no greater gift than travel and experiences. Melanie loves the beach but I convinced her that she couldn’t visit Costa Rica without seeing something of the wild life. Our first stop was La Fortuna. In the end she had to admit it was her favourite!

I’d researched various ways to get from Liberia airport to La Fortuna. There’s a bus but it involves changing in Liberia and takes hours to get there. The shared shuttle leaves at 3:15 pm and I was concerned we’d miss it if there was even a slight delay in our flight. I got quotes from several companies and all were over $200USD for the 2.5-3 hour drive. The best option ended up being the private transport arranged by our hotel. ($160USD) 

La Fortuna

Xilapalo turned out to be a fantastic choice and I highly recommend staying there. It’s right in town but backs onto a jungley area with a great view of Arenal. Armondo sets up bird feeders with fruit every morning so you can eat breakfast and see an amazing array of birds. We saw THREE different varieties of toucans on the 4 mornings we ate there. The rooms are large and the AC works great. It’s very clean and there are lots of places to sit and relax AND they have a nice pool. The desk staff will book any activity you want and offer a discount on most of them. 

Adventure in Fortuna

White water rafting was intense, but a lot of fun. I signed up for class 2 and 3 but ended up doing class 3 and 4 – something to do with the river conditions. I highly recommend Arenal Rafting. They were great! Find them here: https://arenalrafting.com/arenal-rafting-tours-la-fortuna/balsa-river-white-water-rafting-class-3-4-la-fortuna/

Zip lining at Los Lagos was great fun! Not as intense as some courses but enough for us and felt very safe, as safe as you can be zipping through the tree tops on a cable. The hot springs there were really nice too with a great range of pools. 
Go on Armondo’s sloth tour. He knows where to find them. In the evening he led us on a walk through the trees behind the hotel and found lots of frogs and critters. Sometimes he finds sleeping birds.

Click here for Xilapalo Arenal, La Fortuna

Montezuma

Melanie wanted to go to the beach and I wanted to avoid the heavily touristed areas. Montezuma seemed to fit the bill. We took a shared shuttle there from La Fortuna which takes about 6 hours. ($72 USD p/p)  It’s only 240 km but everything takes longer in Costa Rica as there’s no such thing as a straight roads. Montezuma is a cute little town with lots of choices of places to eat and beaches to explore. Plus it’s got a pretty amazing waterfall. The entrance is just a 15 minute walk from the Hotel Tajalin. 
The hike in is a bit of a challenge but that makes it even more fun. 
On Melanie’s birthday we did a trip to Isla Tortuga. We took an excursion that offered 2 snorkelling sites and lunch. The snorkelling wasn’t great but we did see a few fish. Lunch on the beach was nice and the swimming there was really nice.
We stayed at Hotel Tajalin. It’s very basic and a little run down but it’s clean and pretty much right on the beach. The included breakfast was nice too. 

Click here for Hotel Tajalin

Brasilito

I booked the shuttle with an agency in town. There was some confusion over whether it would go as far as Brasilito as they generally just go to Tamarindo. Tropical tours kindly took us all the way. You can book shuttles online but you’re better off in person as it’s cheaper if you pay in cash. $60 USD per person was pretty reasonable.

It took her a while to find our reservation but eventually we got to our room, checked in and set off to explore the beaches. A 10 minute walk across Brasilito beach gets you to Playa Conchal which is a gorgeous spot covered in sea shells. There’s even some decent snorkelling there. The only down side is that even without parking or road access, it’s been discovered and was always busy. It’s a great place to relax though as the shells are actually quite comfortable with a towel on top. Vendors come around with drinks too. We had a delicious passion fruit smoothie. Expensive, but tasty!

Braslito Hotel is great but you might want to book direct to insure you get to STAY in your room. Check it out here: https://www.brasilito.com/

There are 2 Sodas in town that serve a great breakfast and one on the beach that’s excellent for fish with a great view of the sunset. We were really enjoying it there when I got a message while on the beach that we had to check out. Weird as I’d paid for 2 more nights. We went back to the hotel to settle it and discovered that yes, we were being evicted. Apparently there was some mix up with Expedia. Ok then! That’s a new adventure. I’ve never been evicted before! The hotel refunded me for all 4 nights and I quickly found a place in the next village. We packed up quickly and took an uber to the Curiol boutique Hotel in Protero. Our room was actually a glamping tent. It was comfy, though hot at night since no AC but the pool was lovely and we enjoyed our last day just relaxing. Protero beach is nice but it’s the fine, black sand that gets in everything. I much preferred Brasilito. 

Find the Curiol Hotel here: Curiol Boutique Hotel It’s a lovely place if you want to do a lot of relaxing. It’s very quiet, though right in town, and a 10 minute walk to the beach.

Thus ends another great trip to Costa Rica. It’s an amazing country and I’ve visited a few times as there’s so much to see. You can’t go wrong no matter where you go!

Other posts on Costa Rica can be found here:
Trek Hidden Costa Rica. Into the jungle we go!
Cahuita. Caribbean Costa Rica! Just the grandkid and me
Dominical & Uvita beaches plus cave dwelling at Daimonte. Costa Rica has everything!
Costa Rica
http://www.mytripjournal.com/dejongcostarica