Lash at thermal Tabacon River – Arenal – Costa Rica

Four Months of Traveling in Costa Rica

My Travel Route & What I Learned About Costa Rica

This is my last week in beautiful Costa Rica. I can hardly believe I ended up traveling around this tiny country for more than four whole months! But it’s true.

Even so, I haven’t seen the entire country. I missed most of the central mountains and the entire Caribbean Coast (though I’ll be passing through there in July from Panama).

Before coming to Costa Rica, I did not even expect to like it. I’d heard over and over again how expensive it is, how over-touristy and develop it is. That most definitely did not sound like my kind of country.

Given my druthers, I would have just briefly visited 2 or 3 key spots that sounded less developed and then have continued on my way south into Panama.

staying at Finca Rosa Blanca Resort

But then I was assigned 80 luxury and boutique hotels to inspect in Costa Rica, scattered all over the country. That’s a lot of hotels to visit! It has taken me an entire four months to complete my work.

Suddenly my job was taking over my travel life for a change! Instead of me deciding for myself where I wanted to go, in Costa Rica I checked out my staggering list of hotels and let that dictate my travel route through the country.

Before arriving I was mighty nervous about how much it would cost me to travel around Costa Rica for three or four months while completing my assignment. And, in fact, my first couple weeks were pretty pricy.

at the border of Costa Rica and Nicaragua

But soon enough I learned how to cut costs way down and before I knew it, and much to my great surprise, Costa Rica wasn’t costing me any more than neighboring Nicaragua, reputedly Central America’s cheapest country (It’s not any more, actually). So I calmed down and continued on my leisurely way through beautiful Costa Rica.

It turned out that my extensive hotel work was a God send. Thanks to my hotel inspections, I explored many wonderful places that I would have completely skipped on my own, believing them to be too crowded, too touristy, too ick. In fact, they were great!

And, of course, I got to see a lot of absolutely stunning properties. I got to see another side of Costa Rica from the budget traveler’s life.

In the process, I also got to see a lot of incredible vistas – of majestic Volcan Arenal, of panoramic coastal views, of San Jose and the central valley cities from high mountainsides, of wild animals and cloud forests.

So this particular assignment ended up greatly enhancing my travels and my appreciation of what turned out to be a pretty darn great little country.

Here’s the general route / itinerary I took during four months of extensive travels in Costa Rica

one of Montezuma’s wild Beaches

Month 1 – Guanacaste Province

Guanacaste is the country’s huge northwest province, including most of massive Nicoya Peninsula and a big chunk of interior land too. I had to visit 30 hotels, mostly at various beaches all along the peninsula, so I had the great pleasure of visiting 80% of the country’s stunning Pacific coast beaches in this region.

Guanacaste is amazingly arid. Dry and hot with dry tropical vegetation. It’s also incredibly windy in January and February!

view of Arenal Volcano from Observatory Lodge

Month 2 – Arenal Volcano – Monteverde Cloud Forest – Montezuma – Punta Arenas

These are Costa Rica’s most famous, most tourist-ridden areas. I would have completely skipped all of them, were it not for my hotel work.

Turns out Arenal Volcano is stunning. I got to observe it from a never-ending showcase of vantage points from 12 nearby luxury hotels. I also ended up taking a great boat service across lovely Lake Arenal to reach Monteverde Cloud Forest. I wrote about Arenal area here.

I had awful weather in Monteverde. But that’s probably the typical weather there in the clouds. Cold, wet, socked-in with clouds and fog, in addition to being windy and having bouts of intense tropical sunshine. I wrote about Monteverde here.

Montezuma (not to be confused with Monteverde!), which is the ONE place in Costa Rica I actually DID want to visit, turned out to be awful! Read all about that here.

And I oddly ended up in the port town of Punta Arenas for one entire week, catching up on my hotel review writing and enjoying a real Costa Rican town for a change

Teatro Nacional – San Jose

Month 3 – San Jose!

Yess sir, I ended up staying in the capital city for one entire month!

Most of that was due to hotel work. I had to visit 10 hotels in the city and several far out into the surrounding mountains.

However, I actually liked San Jose. A lot. I would have stayed 1-2 weeks on my own, completely aside from the hotel work. There’s great architecture, beautiful city parks, amazing hostels set in huge, historic mansions. And San Jose has the cheapest accommodations and groceries in the whole country.

One Week Visa Run to Nicaragua

visiting El Castillo Fortress don the Rio San Juan

Holy Cow – I stayed in Costa Rica so long that my 3-month visa expired! Lol. And I still wasn’t finished with my work and travels.

I made a one-week trip to the remote border at Los Chiles / San Carlos, Nicaragua. It was a great trip! I wrote all about the visa run here and the San Carlos area here.

Month 4 – Central and Southern Pacific Coast

Again, due to my hotel work, I spent one week each at Jaco Beach, Manual Antonio National Park area, Uvita Beaches and the remote Osa Peninsula. En route, I also discovered wonderful little Dominical Beach, my second favorite in Costa Rica after Playa Samara up in Guanacaste.

Jaco Beach is Costa Rica’s most developed and biggest party beach, due to being the closest beach to San Jose – 1-2 hours. Needless to say, not my kind of place at all. I had to visit three hotels there. Very luckily for me, I found a great boutique hostel just one block back from the beach. I loved it so much that I stayed an entire week!

Panoramic view of Manuel Antonio National Park

Manuel Antonio National Park is the country’s most famous and most visited NP. It’s on the coast with beautiful beaches and a jungle-clad mountainous peninsula filled with wildlife. Apparently during high season – Dec through April – the park can be completely packed with people. Ugh.

Again, I only went there because of 12 hotels I had to visit. Some of those hotels are truly amazing! They also gave me some fantastic panoramic vistas over the Pacific coast and the NP.

Although it’s expensive to enter the park, an equally-beautiful free public beach leads right up to the entrance. So at least visitors can choose if they want to pay or not. I took one day off to enjoy the public beach on a wonderfully sunny day before I left the area.

Uvita is a tiny coastal community at the entrance to Ballena National Park. It costs $6 US to access the beaches there… or you can sneak in, like I did. Lol. It’s a stunning beach backed solely by thick jungle.

Best of all, there’s an amazing hostel built entirely of wood, situated up in the hilly jungles above the beaches. Cascada Verde Hostel was another one of those that was so wonderful I stayed a week. The only downfalls were the guests – very noisy talkers and heavy smokers. Boo!

ferry boat on Sierpe River to Drake Bay – Osa Peninsula

Osa Peninsula is one of the most remote areas in Costa Rica. It’s situated at the far southwest corner, near the border of Panama and is a densely-forested tropical jungle area full of rivers, mangroves, beaches and the famous Corcovado National Park.

I visited Drake Bay a few days and Puerto Jimenez a few days. At both I had to review luxury jungle hotels. I was fortunate to be invited to stay over night by two of them! And that really gave me a fabulous end to my 4-month explorations of Costa Rica!

Soda in Costa Rica

Things I learned about Costa Rica

Interesting Things to Know about Costa Rican Culture

* Locals call themselves Ticos (guys) or Ticas (girls)

* Ticos say “Pura Vida” for just about everything, call small local restaurants ‘sodas’ and seem to love corrugated metal sheeting. Here are 9 things distinctly Tico that I noticed while there.

Toucan at La Paz Waterfall Gardens

Good to Know for Budget Travelers

* Careful budget travelers can visit Costa Rica for the same cost as all other Central American countries. I averaged less than $600 US per month!

* Food is expensive in Costa Rica! I mean US prices or higher, including fresh produce, meats, cheeses, groceries and meals at restaurants. But if you buy groceries and cook all your meals, you can really decrease your food budget. I managed to eat for an average of about $6.50 US per day throughout my travels.

* Visitors have an excellent chance to see Costa Rica’s exotic jungle creatures without entering expensive national parks.

I’ve seen three species of monkeys, sloths, butterflies, tiny leaf and poison dart frogs, coatis, coatimundies, Scarlet Macaws, toucans, hummingbirds and an armadillo, all without ever paying a fee. I saw them at hostels, beaches, on jungle trails and even in towns.

statue in Parque Nacional

Good to Know About the Capital City – San Jose

* San Jose is easily the best capital city in Central America. It has stunning architecture, great city parks and the cheapest hostels & food in the country. I wrote about San Jose here and 10 Free Things to do There.

* San Jose, the surrounding central valley & mountains have a surprisingly chilly to cold climate.

Costa Rica’s Wonderful Natural Places

* Costa Rica has a huge diversity of natural habitats and geography, including dry tropical forests, cloud forests, jungles, pine forests, volcanoes, highland valleys and others.

* Costa Rica has dozens and dozens of gorgeous, little developed beaches, backed solely by dense vegetation and tropical trees. Read about CR’s Pacific Coast Beaches here and Stunning Playa Samara Beach here.

directional sign at Monteverde

About Tourism in Costa Rica

* Costa Rica is not at all over-developed! Yes, there’s a lot of tourism. But even the most famous, most developed places in the country still have pristine nature and are nowhere on the scale of developed tourist spots like Kuta Beach, Bali or Hawaii or Koh Samui, Thailand.

* Costa Rica has dozens and dozens of absolutely amazing luxury hotels – both large, resorts like Four Seasons, and tiny boutique hotels with just 5-10 luxurious villas.

* Costa Rica has the best bus system in Central America. Buses are modern, comfortable (even luxurious), extremely inexpensive and run quite frequently to just about everywhere in the country.

* There’s a LOT of petty theft in Costa Rica. Traveler’s be warned! Probably more than in other Central American countries, which is a surprise…perhaps until you find out how expensive it is to live here contrasted with the low wages. I’ve often wondered how Ticos can even afford to eat and keep a roof over their heads.

at ARenal del Mar Resort near Manuel Antonio

Summary

So my un-intentional 4-month travels around Costa Rica proved to be really fantastic! I enjoyed dozens of gorgeous beaches, volcanoes, lakes, cloud forests and jungles. I saw – and heard – lots of amazing wild animals and birds. I stayed at a lot of great little hostels and visited even more stunning luxury hotels and resorts.

I learned a lot about Costa Rica. And, most of all, I found out that Costa Rica is a fantastic country. Despite it’s thriving tourist industry and great popularity among Americans and Europeans, the country is not over-developed at all. Their diverse natural habitats are all pretty well intact.

Thank goodness I contracted my great hotel assignments so that I could discover how wonderful the country is!

I”ll be writing about the costs for budget travel in Costa Rica, money saving tips and about some other destinations I visited… all coming soon! Check back to learn more about wonderful Costa Rica…

Happy Travels, Lash

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