Before starting another long long week, to freshen things up, I’ll take you with me to a wonderful trip to Costa Rica
! I visited Costa Rica a few months back, and just for a 3 day trip but I managed to cover a whole lot in these 3 days and had a beautiful trip! Starting off I went with 2 other friends and we took our flight from Orlando Friday afternoon. It was a direct 3 hour flight taking us to San José which is the capital city of Costa Rica. In case you’re interested in going there, you don’t need to get a visitor visa if you have a valid USA visa. You do need your passport to travel and it will be stamped on entry and exit and also need all relevant documents to re enter the states.
So after the technicalities let’s get on with the fun
landed at San José Friday night and it took a long time to complete customs and immigration so by the time we reached where we were staying it was already late evening. We rented a car for the whole trip from the airport itself. We went in May and it was rainy constantly.
We stayed at a hostel in San José, I’ll give the names of the places at the bottom in case you’re interested in knowing. It was a co-ed dorm kindof hostel with individual beds and it was quite comfortable and clean, with super cool lounge space and great local breakfast in the morning !
Since it was quite late to explore the city when we reached, we decided on this one place. We went to Mirador Tiquicia- which was in one word – mind blowing!!! It was a semi open restaurant near the highest point of San José and with a stunning view of the whole city!! The food and drinks were great too. I highly recommend this place ! We had a lovely time there just relaxing with some local music playing.
After this we explored some of the downtown San José just by driving around as it was raining a lot by then. Next day, early Saturday morning, after a hearty breakfast at the hostel, we left San José to our next stop Arenal, which was about a 3 hour drive or 133 km. On the way, we we stopped in Cartago at this beautiful church Basilica of our lady of the Angels.
This was such a stunning site to just look at. And we reached when their morning service was going on and it was so peaceful to be there.
Next we went to the Doka coffee estate in the province of Alajuela. Costa Rica produces some of the most amazing coffee beans of the world and the coffee estates are a must visit here. We were given a complete tour starting with how the coffee seed(?) is planted up to the coffee being dried and roasted. We got to taste some of their best coffee and ah I wish I could bring that fresh coffee aroma to you guys! Pure bliss! And we set on to reach Arenal which was another 2 hours on the road. That journey was a trip by itself with such gorgeous views and fresh fresh air! Ah I want to go back! reached Arenal in the evening and headed to the top highlight of the trip ! Arenal is known for the Arenal volcano which is an active volcano of the height of 5300 feet and can be seen anywhere from Arenal and the province of La Fortune as a high mountain. That day was late to spot the mountain but not too late to enjoy its other benefits!
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The volcano being active and huge, creates a number of hot springs in the area which have been made into resorts by private owners and are available for visitors. Saturday evening we headed to the Baldi hot springs which has about 30 springs varying in temperature ranging from approx 90 to 150 F. Woah I know right !!
So we got into our swimsuits and had the most relaxing mind blowing experience ever. We tried numerous pools and had an amazingggg time I have absolutely no words for this. You MUST go to the hot springs. I wish we had more time to spend there.
After spending a good 2 hours or more in the pools we were starving and had the buffet at the Baldi resort itself. I can just say that we slept like logs after that !! We stayed at the Arenal hostel resort there , we had a room to ourself here and this hostel was super nice as well. Next day morning we headed for some hiking in the Arenal Rainforests.
We went to the Hanging bridges hike and before I say anything else, I would like you guys to google it and see the pictures because the best of the best photos I could possibly take can never do justice to the actual beauty of the place. OMG! Such a beautiful experience, so much pure nature with no modifications and just pure beauty! Mother Nature truly is great.
I know it sounds very cliched but I genuinely felt so calm there. You really need such getaways from time to time, away from the bustling city life and being in the open with no thoughts or worries. Bliss!
The hike had multiple hanging bridges, I truly had many deep-thinking-philosophical-epiphanies while in Costa Rica and the bridges were the major one. I was quite scared when stepping on the first bridge we came across and felt I couldn’t do it. But I did it and looking back, on the other side it was an amazing feeling.
The hike, as I mentioned, was free of man made structures as much as it could be. The path was a one person path and only had railings at some places. They have a few observatory decks along the way and I think just one stop for restrooms and water cooler.
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The length of the hike is around 2 miles with 16 or so bridges in between , 6 of them hanging. The hike has a 60 feet waterfall along the way. It took us well over 3 hours to complete the hike. This was contributed by the fact that- while on the last one fourth of the hike, it started POURING, and while we did have rain coats it got quite difficult to walk, very slippery and the hike doesn’t have any options to stop in between as it’s a constant one person path so you need to keep going or everyone behind you stops and can’t pass. So we kept going and the sight of the exit was a eureka moment for me hahah!! t, hungry and tired, we headed to the Arenal national park for good views of the Arenal mountain. Luckily the sky cleared and we got a decent enough view of the volcano. Along with a hearty meal! Rest of Sunday evening we relaxed at the hostel pool and spent it exploring local Arenal shops and restaurants. day morning we woke up, soooo not ready to head back. We had our flight in the afternoon, from San José airport back home to Florida and well that’s that! We really wanted to visit the Poas Volcano but the time we were there it was closed as the volcano had erupted a month before that. all in all it was a beautiful and super short holiday. I would loveeee to visit Costa Rica again especially for the hot springs
anyone visiting the place – my tips would be definitely carry rain jackets. Carry comfortable clothes and shoes. It’s also recommended to have some sort of mosquito repellent cream when you hike , although we didn’t have one but it’s better to be careful! The food was just amazing throughout the trip we never had to go to any fast food places, the local food was delicious and had so much options for vegetarians as well.
We did not have any problems with safety, even spending time outside at night. I do recommend renting a car it’s not too expensive and it gets super easy and safe to travel when you don’t have to worry about how you’re going to get to the next place at any time. ces I stayed at –
San José – Fauna Luxury Hostel
Arenal- Arenal hostel resort in La Fortuna.
So that’s all from Costa Rica. Have you been there do share your experience with me!! And if you’re planning to visit and have any questions shoot away
you can also tweet me or catch me on Instagram. Hope you enjoyed the post. Have a great week you guys.
