Honeymoon Part 2: Costa Rica

Day 1

After Cartagena, we spent two nights in Medellin, then headed to Costa Rica for a week! It was a decent travel day, with a layover in Bogata then landing in San Jose. We flew in at night, went to pick up rental car.

Based on our itinerary, we needed a rental car for the week, but it was an ordeal to pick it up. We went through Expedia for the rental, but once we got to the agency, it was almost double the cost with an extremely high deductable - they were trying to keep a $20K retainer but we were able to go with a less (but still obscene) option. I would recommend booking directly through the car agency if you’re planning on renting a car for your trip and doing some extra research into insurance and fees!

We drove to Hotel Grano De Oro close by in San Jose for the night. It was a quaint hotel, with an older crowd. The next morning we headed off for our roadtrip!

Day 2

On our way out of town, we stopped at Raw Co Juicery & Food for breakfast and picking up some amazing granola as a snack for the road.

We then made our way to Rescate Wildlife Rescue Center. Costa Rica is known for it’s amazing wildlife, and we throught visiting a rescue center would be a great way to see so many species that would be hard to see in the wild. The center had crocodiles, sloths, ocelots, and tons of bird and monkey species.

Next, we headed to Hacienda Alsacia, Starbucks’ only owned and operated coffee farm set on a beautiful hillside. I previously worked at Starbucks corporate including in 2013 when they bought the farm. Having heard so much about it working there, it had always been a long lost dream to one day visit. We took a farm tour where they highlighted the various steps in the growing, harvesting, and preparation process which was a fun throwback to my time at Starbucks since education was a huge part of working there. They have a beautiful visitor center with a tasting room and lots of great snack options. It is definitely worth grabbing a coffee and spending some time enjoying the beautiful views!

Lunch was the next stop on the road. We stopped at a cute roadside eatery Chubascos for a great plate of [Costa Rican] favorites.

It was then about a three hour drive to Arenal Volcano and the La Fortuna area. It was a windy, two-lane road with sheer jungle cliffs and outlooks along the way. Absolutely stunning - but also worth a warning if you get car sick.

After making our way a bit around Arenal, we arrived at our hotel for the next two nights - Tabacón Thermal Resort & Spa. When I had browsed around for a spot to stay, Tabacon had showed up with positive reviews and their hot springs looked cool. It might have been my lack of research, but I was expecting just a hot spring or two, but when we got there the resort blew us away! There were seemingly endless paths of pools with a mix of natural to a good old swim up bar.

We spent the evening sipping piña coladas in the pools then headed to bed!

Day 3

We got up early in the morning to head to La Fortuna Waterfall. After getting tickets there, we hiked down the long flight of stairs to the waterfall. We were able to swim into the pool under the waterfall, which was absolutely stunning and surprisingly hard due to the strong currents. We had forgotten to bring towels with us, so I recommend packing some to be more comfortable on the hike out. I was expecting the hike back up the stairs to take longer, but it was only around 15 minutes. D

After drying off, we then drove to the Arenal 1968 Lava Trail hike. This was an easy but fun hike through the jungle and over lava trails, with great views of Arenal. The trail wasn’t that busy, so it was fun to take our time wandering. There was an inner and outer loop available, so if you wanted to shorten your trip you could take the inner loop. There was a casual restaurant at the end of the hike where we grabbed lunch.

We headed back to our hotel and once again headed to the hot springs! We snagged a daybed in the hotel guest-only section so spent the afternoon reading, floating, and relaxing.

DayS 4 - 7

The next few days do blend together with lots of pool time at our hotel, so I’ll combine the last leg of our trip by sharing highlights from our time on the west coast of Costa Rica. On our fourth day, we hopped in the rental car and drove three and a half hours to Guanacaste Province along the Gulf of Papagayo. There are some off-road moments along the drive so we were glad to have a car with four wheel drive.

We pulled up to El Mangroove Papagayo, our hotel for the rest of the trip. The hotel was beautiful with two different pool areas, tons of different lounge, and a few restaurants. A public beach was between the hotel and the water, so during the days there were a lot of other people around. That was the only down side of the hotel, but it was still great!

In between pool time, we went stand up paddle boarding (which were complimentary at the hotel!), rented jet skis, read by the pool, and enjoyed their fun beach shack bar.

On our last full day, we drove about 20 minutes away down the coast to the town of Coco to take a sunset sail around the bay. It was a fun trip, with drinks included and a light snack. We wanted to go snorkeling but the wind was too strong, but we were still able to swim off the side and explore a different part of the peninsula. On our ride back to the marina, dolphins chased the boat which was amazing! After the boat we grabbed dinner at a beach front touristy restaurant then headed home.

While our hotel was amazing - Coco and the surrounding area by the hotel wasn’t our favorite. It was touristy, but not any of the fun or cute aspects that some tourist towns can have. I had heard great things about the area farther south along the west coast near Santa Teresa Beach, so if I were to go back I would definitely try a different area than where we were.

We flew out of Liberia to head home after three and a half weeks off from our wedding and honeymoon. The entire trip was so incredible and we’re so grateful for the adventure and time off to relax!

Our wedding photos just came back, so stay tuned here at KelseyThisYear.com for even more wedding content!