So I have a few specific Costa Rica posts planned for this summer but I figured I should start with a basic plan so you can follow along as more posts come out.
First off, why Costa Rica? Well it is quite simple actually:
- We only had a week so therefore is had to be relatively close to Orlando
- We wanted to do something international (passport stamps yay!)
- Will has always wanted to go to Costa Rica and since it satisfied the above two requirement…BINGO Costa Rica is it!
Monday
We arrived in San Jose Airport around noon only to spend the next hour and a half going through customs (this is always the worst part!). The moment we passed through we met our transport driver with Cuchi Tours. And Will was sneaky enough to have this AWESOME sign waiting for me 🙂
After checking in at our adorable AirBnb place in Jaco, it was a perfect time to walk around a bit and see the “town” if you can call it that.
Total Cost for Monday (including flights & AirBnb for 2 nights): $1,656.79
*Side note about transport: as you have probably figured out by now we are not rich and I like to do trips quite budget-friendly. The reason we went with private vans (average $150 per trip) rather than public buses (average of $6 per trip) is because I get really motion sick. Like I got sick while trying to paddle board in the ocean…so yeah…I was NOT about to throw up on my Honeymoon. And in all honestly, it was REALLY nice having someone we could schedule and meet us at our place. Personally, I think it was worth the added expense.
Tuesday
I can sum up Tuesday in one word: BEACH! That was pretty much all we did. The beach was gorgeous as you can see in some photos below, but Jaco itself I could really do without.
Total Cost for Tuesday: $90.76
Wednesday
I set Wednesday aside for travel from Jaco to Monteverde because I really had no idea how long it was going to take or the specific timing. It worked out that we got to Monteverde by lunch-time. Lemme just say that the views of the mountains and jungles were breathtaking and our AirBnb place was THE coolest. It was secluded and you could hear Howler Monkeys from our wrap-around porch. We spent most of the afternoon exploring around the town and the nearby hotel, Hotel Belmar.
Total Cost for Wednesday (includes 3 AirBnb nights): $614.06
Thursday
This was the day I was most looking forward to! We went to Selvatura Park in the Monteverde Cloud Forest for 5-hours of ziplining, hanging bridges, lunch, reptiles, amphibians, & hummingbirds. There will be a Cloud Forest specific post about the history of the place planned in the next few weeks but I’ll tease you with some photos first.
Total Cost for Thursday: $280.43
Friday
When I think of Costa Rica, one of the top things that come to mind is coffee. On Friday, we visited a coffee plantation & farm. I choose the Cafe Monteverde tour because they have a focus on sustainability. That being said, we had a great tour with loads of environmental information and a yummy tasting at the end.
Total Cost for Friday: $214.19
Saturday
It was time to leave! We pretty much got up, ate breakfast at Hotel Belmar and headed to the airport!
Total Cost for Saturday: $272.60
All in all, I enjoyed the trip but I think we could have skipped Jaco (mostly because we already live in Florida). Also, in case you are wondering I went over budget by $82.76 🙂
Here are the places I’d like to do next in Costa Rica:
JMF
Beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On Fri, Jun 24, 2016 at 6:23 PM, J is for Journey wrote:
> jessnettea posted: “So I have a few specific Costa Rica posts planned for > this summer but I figured I should start with a basic plan so you can > follow along as more posts come out. First off, why Costa Rica? Well it is > quite simple actually: We only had a week so therefor” >
Looks like you had a great time – we went to the Café Monteverde plantation too – it was great!
Gavin
I am currently writing a longer more specific post on Cafe Monteverde, it was such a great experience. My husband teaches AP Biology and I am sure he can use some information in his class!