CITIES VISITED:
- Santa Teresa
- Nosara
- Monteverde
- La Fortuna
- Manuel Antonio
PRO TIPS:
- Costa Rica is expensive! Honestly not great for backpackers. I’d focus on the other countries in Central America.
- To set expectations it’s filled with lots of US tourists who are here on 1-2 week vacations so Costa Rica tourism really caters & charges $$$ accordingly.
- Life is slow in Costa Rica, so don’t expect anything to be on time.
- If you rent a car, make sure to rent a taller car than a tiny SUV. Ours bottomed out a few times on the very pot-hole ridden roads.
CITY: SANTA TERESA
HOW LONG: 3 NIGHTS
ACCOMMODATION:
I stayed at a cute hostel called Ico Living Hostel that wasn’t even listed on Hostelworld (I found it on booking.com). The beds were doubles not twins, which is a game changer. There were lockers, lots of hooks for wet swimsuits and towels, and the room was very clean. Wifi & AC worked great. There were two hammocks and lots of communal seating near the outdoor kitchen. Also it was a 5 min walk to the beach!! Overall would absolutely stay here again.
WHERE TO EAT:
Santa Teresa is basically a (longish) one street town that runs parallel to the beach. Near the hostel was Eat Street which was a hip, elevated outdoor food market with about 4-5 restaurants to pick from. I loved the smoothie bowls from here.
Gaucho Norte had some delicious but expensive ice cream!
WHAT TO DO:
It’s a beach town so the main thing to do is get surf lessons or just hang out at the beach!
I also took a day trip to go to Tortuga Island for some snorkeling, dinner, and swim with the bioluminescent plankton at night. Honestly, I didn’t love the tour. The snorkeling was pretty subpar, and I don’t need to spend the day in the sun, & the plankton weren’t that bright, so I should’ve just hung out at the shady beach in Santa Teresa, but you live and you learn.
OVERALL THOUGHTS:
I really didn’t like it here to be honest. The beaches were nice, but the place was overrun by Americans on vacation and it was SO expensive. I just felt like I wouldn’t be able to find “my people” here, and I was right. But if you like a lively party scene with expensive food & nice beaches, this might be your place!
CITY: Nosara
HOW LONG: 6 NIGHTS
ACCOMMODATION:
I stayed at a homestay with a local family which was arranged through my Spanish language school. It was a little far from the school which was not ideal, but overall I enjoyed my time there. It was a treat to have a private room for a week! The room itself was basic, but I’m used to that these days 🙂
WHERE TO EAT:
I honestly ate 100% of my meals with the family because eating out here was so expensive. Like $20 a smoothie bowl level expensive! The host mom made delicious food and it was included in the price of me staying with them so truly a win-win.
WHAT TO DO:
Nosara is known for its yogi vibe & gentle waves for learning to surf. While I didn’t participate in either, my friend Emilie was here at the same time and did both activities. She raved about it. I was busy doing language classes (but I low-key hated my school so I won’t even recommend it ha!). There are some cute shops and a weekly market with handmade crafts which is worth checking out. I bought a new jumpsuit from a shop in town which was very beautiful (both the shop + the dress)!
OVERALL THOUGHTS:
If you have a lot of money and love yoga, I think this place could be great for you. Check out Bodhi Tree – it’s magical!! As a backpacker who doesn’t do yoga, I didn’t really connect with Nosara to be honest.
CITY: MONTEVERDE
HOW LONG: 1 NIGHT
ACCOMMODATION:
We stayed at the Monkey Hostel in a private room with an en-suite bathroom. The hostel itself was pretty dingy but it has street parking and a decent breakfast. It was located near the town center with restaurants so that was ideal. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great haha.
WHERE TO EAT:
The only place I’d recommend was The Open Kitchen. The food was good, the vibes were great, and the service was fabulous. It certainly wasn’t cheap but there weren’t great options in town to be honest.
WHAT TO DO:
We went to Selvatura Adventure Park to do some ziplining & a swing bridge + canopy walk. Again it was fairly expensive but we had a blast. We paid around ~140 usd and it was about 3 hours worth of activities. Pro tip: bring a jacket as it can get cold, windy, & wet as you zoom through the canopy. We opted to take their free shuttle to as we were worried that our car wouldn’t make it and we were glad we did it. However, if you have a bigger car, you would be fine. But the shuttle times weren’t optimal for getting back so instead of waiting 2 hrs for the next shuttle, we hitchhiked back with a nice couple who happened to be getting into their car in the parking lot.
OVERALL THOUGHTS:
Other than doing the cloud forest walks & ziplining, you don’t need to spend much time here. It was incredibly windy and chillier than expected. We were happy that we only had one night here.
CITY: LA FORTUNA
HOW LONG: 4 NIGHTS
ACCOMMODATION:
We stayed at the Hotel Arenal Lodge and it was quirky to say the least. It’s situated on 2000 acres of gorgeous tropical forest where you can’t seen any other signs of human activity. To get into the property you must drive on a precarious 2km road, but once you are in, it’s an adorable, rustic, well-loved lodge. There’s a pool & two hot tubs. There are STUNNING views of the Arenal Volcano. The staff were so kind and our room was beautiful. It had two queen beds + a big balcony that looked directly at the volcano. It had two big rocking chairs + enough space that we did yoga & morning workouts in the mist. However, because the road was a little gnarly, we always came back before dark so every meal was at the hotel. Luckily the food was very good and fairly reasonable compared to other restaurants in the area. This place isn’t the most luxurious place in La Fortuna area, but we thought its value was stellar and we kinda fell in love with it by the end.
WHERE TO EAT:
We ate the free breakfast and the paid dinner everyday at the hotel 🙂 We had one lunch at The Springs where we spent two days going to their hot springs. It was overpriced and not that good. The other lunch we had a smoothie bowl from Jungle Bowls in the main city center. It was pretty good, although of course expensive.
WHAT TO DO:
We enjoyed doing some walking/hiking through the 2000 acres at our hotel, but the main highlight was doing a two day pass at The Springs Resort. This place can cost $750 per night to stay so we were happy to just spent $130 for the (two) day pass. This place is FANCY; there are three different hot springs areas, including some down by the actual river. You can get a massage, go tubing, play ping pong, get a drink at the swim up bar, read your book in a hammock, and just stare at the beautiful views of the Arenal Volcano. Oh and dip into any of the 20+ hot springs that vary in temperature. This place gave us White Lotus vibes. We would definitely recommend this place for a visit.
OVERALL THOUGHTS:
It was nice to have a break from the heat in this location. We even needed jackets at night! This was my favorite stop on our trip to Costa Rica. I loved spending time at the hot springs but also loved playing cards in our lodge with the views of the volcano. We saw lots of cool animals like frogs, tapirs, and lots of colorful birds, including my new favorite the Scarlet-Rumped Tanager.
CITY: MANUEL ANTONIO
HOW LONG: 4 NIGHTS
ACCOMMODATION:
We stayed at Igloo Beach Lodge, which is ideally located about a 15 min walk to the National Park Entrance & it’s a 1 min walk to the beach. It’s very “instagram-y” with its white igloo rooms all surrounding a cute pool. There’s lots of comfy lounges to lay in the sun or shade & read. The rooms were cozy & nice. Our room was on the bigger side as it had two double beds + a shower room + a toilet room. The only weird thing was due to the dome shape, the acoustics were WILD. When Emilie & I were in our respective beds, we could whisper and it sounded like we were in each other’s ears via noise-cancelling headphones. It was fun and also caught us by surprise every time it happened haha.
WHERE TO EAT:
Thy mystery continued where there were no great restaurants. We walked to the area around the park entrance for dinner one night and most places were empty. We are guessing most people eat their meals at their hotels but it makes everything feel eery if you don’t. Food was just really not the highlight in Costa Rica.
Bar & Restaurant El Chante was the only place I’d recommend. Great food – especially anything with chicken in it!
WHAT TO DO:
The main two attractions are visiting the national park + enjoying the beautiful beaches!
When visiting Manuel Antonio National Park, I highly recommend signing up for a guided tour. We just booked through our hotel. They are unbelievable at spotting the animals throughout the jungle. There is no way Emilie & I would’ve seen 90% of the animals are guide spotted! Also he came with a portable telescope so we were able to see up close and personal the animals. It was awesome! There is also incredible beaches within the park. I definitely recommend planning to stay the afternoon with a book & swimming in the ocean (this beach is far more swimmable than the one outside the park we went to). There are plenty of walking trails and usually where a crowd has gathered you can bet there’s a cool animal to see. We saw sloths, birds, lizards, spiders and more!
We honestly couldn’t find much more to do here outside of going to the park, so we hung by the pool, went to the beach down from our hotel, and got a massage. We read soooooo much! We also played lots of cards. It was a very lovely place to chill and be very relaxed. Sunset swims were a must.
OVERALL THOUGHTS:
Outside of the fact that we never could find great food or even affordable food, Manuel Antonio was pretty beautiful from a nature perspective. We ended up enjoying our time here, but I don’t feel the need to race back.
BUDGET FOR 19 DAYS IN COSTA RICA:
Holy moly I was not expecting Costa Rica to be this expensive. I mean at one point I literally paid $20 for a smoothie bowl – eek!
- Accommodation: $1285 ($68 per night) – Lots of hotel nights drove up the cost here.
- Food: $420
- Activities: $860
- Local Transportation: $540 – this includes my half of the rental car
- Miscellaneous: $200 (new jumpsuits, postcards, & stamps)
Total: $3305 (Daily average: $174)
Transportation to next destination: $313 for my flight to San Francisco
The Pursuit Of Travel 