my ridiculously long Costa Rica HM Review with TONS of pics!!

I would add this at the end of my wedding review, but I want to wait until I get my proofs and I just can't wait to share my HM with you guys

I know a lot of people are going/thinking of going to Costa Rica for their HMs and right now there aren't a lot of reviews on here about Costa Rica, so hopefully this will be helpful!!

Travel Agency (see link) - A+++++++++ When we started thinking about going to Costa Rica for our HM, we didn't know where to begin. I searched on Google for 'costa rica HM' and the first website it pulled up was, conveniently enough, www.costawww.honeymoonincostarica.com . From the first time we went onto that website, we were sold! Although the trips were highly customizable, we looked at the suggested itinerary and hotels for the 'Boutique Honeymoon' and knew it was perfect for us. It had just the right amount of travel, activities and leisure time, so we booked it. They requested 10% down and then the remainder a month before. Once you pay off your balance, they sent a very detailed packet in the mail, listing everything you need to know about Costa Rica - what to bring, the fact that everyone takes US$, all your hotel info, a very detailed itinerary, etc. Once we arrived in Costa Rica, we received another huge packet, with vouchers for each of our activities. The other great part of this agency is that they took care of all of the travel arrangements between hotels/cities in Costa Rica for us and made them interesting (I'll get to that later on) They were on top of the ball, too, making sure that every part of our stay met our expectations. They really made this trip super simple and we got to see some amazing parts of Costa Rica that we probably wouldn't have selected on our own. In fact, booking the HM was probably the easiest part of our entire wedding process. They also have a sister website www.costaricaonlinetravel.com
where you can book regular vacations, as opposed to honeymoons. I would highly recommend them to anyone who's looking to travel to Costa Rica!

Sept 11 - Sept 13 - Xandari Resort, Alajuela - A++++++++
We took an EARLY flight direct from JFK to the San Jose airport, so we made it to Xandari by 11am. Although we were tired from getting up at 3am NY time, it was so beautiful, we didn't care. We had an 'Ultra' room, which had two double beds, a sitting area, little kitchen, huge bathroom and amazing patio overlooking San Jose. The hotel is located about 30 miles north and 3900 ft up in the mountains, so you have an amazing view of the coutry's capital.
out on our patio:

our room:


We didn't have any activities scheduled for our arrival, but we didn't need any. Xandari has a huge chunk of property, which includes an orchard and a river/rain forest hiking trail which overlooks 4 waterfalls, one being 110 ft high! we spent our entire first afternoon and our last morning at Xandari just hiking around.
the orchard:

the jungle trail:

at one of the falls:

one of the falls:


after a long hike, we went to eat at the hotel's restaurant. we'd only heard really bad things about the city of San Jose and weren't feeling quite adventurous enough to try and find a local place to eat, however we got to see an amazing sunset over San Jose!
San Jose at night:


The next morning, we got up EARLY for a full day tour. We started at the Doka Coffee Plantation, made our way to the Poas Volcano and ended at the La Paz Waterfall Gardens, which is kinda like a wildlife refuge, complete with hiking trails and more amazing waterfalls.
breakfast at the coffee plantation:
our tour guide, explaining how the field workers pick the beans:
what coffee beans look like before roasting:
roasting a fresh batch. it smelled amazing:
rows of coffee plants:
walking to the Poas Volcano - big leaf, small hand:
it was foggy, but made for some amazing pictures of the crater:
now color:
a toucan at La Paz Waterfall Gardens:
two parrots and a toucan:
i think he wanted to eat my thumbs:
a beautiful butterfly:

humingbirds in action!
in the frog house:



hiking to one of the waterfalls in the waterfall garden:

us, by the falls:

we were able to get really close:
now from afar


The next day, we were leaving Xandari around 1:30pm, so we got up early and hiked around more to see more of the hotel grounds and the artwork. The unique thing about this hotel was that the owner's wife was an artist and did ALL of the artwork in the entire hotel. It was amazing! [

i love how the water looks like smoke in this one:
[
this was the bar, painted by the owner's wife:
we planted a tree to 'erase our carbon footprint'


this was the 110 ft. falls:


Once we were picked up from Xandari, we started the 3.5 hr drive to Manuel Antonio and our next hotel, Gaia. Most of the drive was really interesting because you saw a lot of the countryside and many different towns. They also stopped at a fruit market so that we were able to taste the local fruits and of course, make any purchases we wanted. There are some strange fruits down there, I will say. We were excited because we bought a whole bag of Lychee, which we didn't even know they have down there. Overall, while I wasn't necessarily impressed with Costa Rican food, the fruit was some of the best I've ever had. They turned me into a pineapple lover!! I'm not even joking when I say I ate pineapple and papaya every single morning for breakfast.
we stopped at a bridge to take pictures of the lovely alligators:

The only issue I had with this drive was that there is only one way to drive into Manuel Antonio, which entails going over one bridge that is only wide enough for 1 car at a time. This bridge is only 4 kilometers (2.5/3 miles?) from our hotel, so we were at the very end of our drive when we arrived at the bridge. Of course, the day we were riding into Manuel Antonio, the bridge was closed, however our driver wasn't aware of this (because there aren't traffic reports). We ended up sitting in a stopped dead line of traffic for over two hours. DH and I eventually had to get out and find a bathroom because we had already been in the car for 3 hrs when we arrived at the bridge. However, we could've spent an extra $100 and taken a 20 minute flight into Manuel Antonio and then had the whole day to explore the city. Had I know anything about this, I probably would've opted to pay the extra money for the flight!!

Sept 13 - 16 - Hotel Gaia, Manuel Antonio - A++++
Gaia was another amazing hotel. It was very modern and contemporary, which turned my DH off a bit, but I just loved it. Manuel Antonio and the little fishing village it borders, Quepos, are two amazing little towns. It's kinda sad, but there is development EVERYWHERE. Like, million dollar homes going up at every corner. Of course, it's Americans/Candians moving in, but still, it's an up and coming place. These towns are right on the Pacific Ocean, which is probably why it's top notch real estate. It's a little weird though, to be looking at a million dollar home next to a shack with a tin roof. It kinda puts things into perspective a little bit. . .anyway, back to the HM. We had three nights at Gaia and unfortunately, due to the travel/bridge problem, lost an entire evening there. We arrived around 7pm and not having eaten anything since breakfast at 7am, we immediately changed and went to dinner, but not before making a little friend first - we called him our welcome frog:

Re: my ridiculously long Costa Rica HM Review with TONS of pics!!

The next morning, we got up bright and early (think 5:30am) so we had enough time to eat breakfast before our morning hike through the Manuel Antonio National Park. It's a combination Jungle/Beach. We had a guided tour for about 5 hrs, where we saw two different species of monkey, some little bats, sloths, birds, lizards, iguanas and we HEARD whales off the coast, but unfortunately didn't see any:
in the jungle, yet on the beach:




a happy iguana:
a sloth!
the best picture we could get of a screech monkey:
monkey!

another sloth:

Later on that night, we went into the town of Quepos for dinner. It was the Eve of Costa Rica's Independence Day, so there were fireworks on the beach, a parade of school children with these cool lantern things and just a ton of people milling about. Of course, we didn't bring our cameras, but it was a really fun night! The next day, on Independence Day, we had a Catamaran tour scheduled. We got to quickly pass through town as the festivites and parades were beginning and I wish we could've skipped the Catamaran tour and stayed to watch the parades instead! The ocean was choppy because the weather was bad and I get bad motion sickness, plus the chances of seeing whales and dolphins was slim because of the choppy seas. We did get to go snorkeling though, which we love to do and it was great! The water was so, so warm. I could've swam all day.
me, being an idiot at our hotel:
happy independence day, costa rica!

the boat:
the rough ocean water:


That evening, we went up to the bar at Hotel Gaia. They served tapas between 3-6pm for a great price, so we thought we'd take in a sunset, have a few beverages and a few little bites. Later on, we ordered room service for dessert. Definitely fun!
sunset from the bar:

Again, very early the next morning, we had to check out of Gaia and catch a short flight to our last stop, Punta Islita. I was a little nervous, especially when we reached the Quepos 'airport', which literally was roof and some chairs. We even saw a bunch of monkeys swing by in the trees, no joke!
this was the plane:
costa rica is beautiful from the air:

i survived the little plane! (i'm not a good flyer. . .)



Sept 16 - 20 - Hotel Punta Islita, Guanacaste - A+++++
This was a fantastic resort. All of the rooms were very private, the restaurants were great and the views were amazing. It was an interesting resort in that the resort was built before the town of Guanacaste and the town was subsequently built by the owner of the resort! Supposedly they have some very forward thinking environmental/economical programs going on in the resort/town, so much so that the president of Costa Rica was visiting the resort the day we left to discuss their programs. Overall, it was very interesting.
the view from our little casita:
immediately enjoying the hammock:
we had our own private pool:

As soon as we checked in, we sat down for some lunch, since we hadn't eaten yet that day. We decided to check out the beach and pools since the weather was so gorgeous. The beach is a black sand beach. The sand is very fine, so the water is fairly muddy up on the shore, but is very blue further out. Because of the time of year though, the water gets pretty rough (you could see the currents from far away), so you don't want to venture out too far, although we learned that the surfing is HUGE down in this area of Costa Rica. Anyway, we just spent the rest of the day by the pool. . .until the rain started. . .
here comes the rain:

. . .the rain didn't really stop the remainder of our stay in Costa Rica. We had signed up to take a Kayak tour the next morning at 8am and ended up having to cancel because of the weather. Of course, it cleared up for a little while, but we took that time to walk the beach.
an interesting lizard:
the beach:

we made a friend at one of the tide pools:

we were shocked to find sea urchin in the tide pools:
splash!:

once we returned from the beach, we grabbed some lunch and then the rain started again, so we hung out in our room the rest of the day. we just enjoyed the opportunity to relax, read some books, play cards and just be together with no interruptions! we went to dinner at the hotel that night and met a very nice couple from CT who owned a house not too far from the resort. we also made friends with a little spotted skunk (which looked more like a black and white chipmunk) who tried to jump on the CT couple's table and eat their bananas flambe, while a raccoon ran across the bar, trying to steal bananas. who knew we were going to have dinner and a show? it was a really fun night.

the next day, we signed up for a zip line tour and luckily, it stopped raining about an hour before the tour so we were able to go.
DH, all strapped in:
there i go:

that night, we decided to brave the rain and go to the one restaurant in town. it was a fabulous decision. the place was open air and was PACKED with local people. plus, they had the cubs/indians game on and although i'm a diehard mets fan, i just love watching baseball in general. this was some of the best food we had on the whole trip. it wasn't pretentious in any way, like some of the resort food starts to be, but it was simple, fresh and good. we drank a bunch of beers, ordered appetizers, entrees (which came with salad and rice) and a cup of ice cream for dessert and it was $50. and we had a GREAT time.
getting ready to bite into one of their 'house specialty' hot pickled peppers:


DH thought it was HOT:

the next day, which was our last full day, was a packed day for us. we started with a 2 hr horseback riding tour through the jungle, the town and then onto the beach. again, it rained all through the night and stopped about 10 minutes before our tour was scheduled to begin. we really thought we were going to have to cancel, but luckily we didn't have to. and we probably had more fun on this tour than any other we took our entire HM

we saw a whole group of howler monkeys, who were howling! it was super cool:


the center of town and the school:
they made our bed all pretty:

when we got back to the hotel lobby, one of the front desk workers pulled me aside to tell me that my flight from Punta Islita to San Jose the next day was cancelled. they call everyone's airlines the day before they check out to ensure everything is ready to go and i'm certainly glad they did! they immediately called our travel agency, who took care of the whole thing. it turned out to be just a glitch in the airline's system, but i'm still glad they checked. both the hotel and travel agency handled the situation perfectly.

we relaxed for another few hours before we had our couple's massage, which was included in our package. DH had never had a massage before, so he was a little apprehensive, but I think he really enjoyed it in the end. I've gotten massages before and have always been interested in the hot stone massage, so I tried that and it was awesome. Once we were nice and relaxed, we went back to our room to get ready for our 'romantic dinner for two'. This was something else that was also included in our package. We didn't really know what to expect, but were looking forward to it nonetheless. Luckily, the weather held out and although it was overcast, it was not raining. The hotel has a little courtyard in front of it's restaurant, so they put our table out there, so we were overlooking the ocean. we were able to enjoy a three course meal and the only cost to us was the bottle of wine, as the meal was included in our package. it was a really great way to end our trip.
our table:

Re: my ridiculously long Costa Rica HM Review with TONS of pics!!

sadly, we checked out early the next morning. we had a flight from Punta Islita to the San Jose airport at 9:45am. It was delayed an hour, due to weather, but that didn't matter. Our flight to the states didn't leave until 6:20pm, so we had many, many hours in the airport. We managed to bide our time well and actually checked our luggage and then hopped in a cab to a local strip mall. It was your standard mall, but we were able to grab a decent and not airport-expensive lunch. we also browsed the duty free shops for many hours! in the end, our flight to the states was also delayed almost an hour, so we didn't get into JFK until 2am. by the time we got through customs, got our luggage and got to my parents house, it was almost 4am! still, we didn't sleep late that day and got up to spend Friday the 21st on the beach. we spent sat on the beach as well, until we caught our flight home to Tucson. and man, were we sad!!

overall, we loved costa rica and would really like to go back someday. my advice to anyone going during the rainy season is to be prepared for more rain than you expect. they even told us that it rains much, much more in october and november than it does in september and it certainly rained a lot! also, bring way less than you think you need. not knowing the climate or how much rain to expect, we both greatly overpacked, which was just a pain since we changed hotels so frequently. also, if you're going to the volcanos or staying at a hotel with any elevation, be prepared to be cold. we laughed when they told us about the extra blankets at Xandari, but we needed them. I was really upset I didn't have one single long sleeved shirt or sweatshirt because it gets cold at night up in the mountains! i would also recommend trying to learn as much about the towns you are visiting before you go so you can experience more than we did. we really wish we had more time in Quepos/Manuel Antonio and had we done any sort of research before going, we may've changed up our tour schedule. but overall, it was AWESOME. thanks for reading and to all the girls heading down there later this year, ENJOY and bring back more pictures!!!

Re: my ridiculously long Costa Rica HM Review with TONS of pics!!

SO beautiful! I spent a month in Costa Rica in college and you made me homesick for it!

Re: my ridiculously long Costa Rica HM Review with TONS of pics!!

Great Review!!!!!!Love the pictures. Looks like you guys has a wonderful time.

Re: my ridiculously long Costa Rica HM Review with TONS of pics!!

THanks for the review!! That was awesome and SO helpful! I thought the rainy season ended at the end of October. Ugh that stinks! If I blew my hissy fit for a pool I can't swim in I'm going to be pissed! But thanks for the heads up!

Re: my ridiculously long Costa Rica HM Review with TONS of pics!!

Congratulation again!! Looks like you had a great time.... I love the pictures.

Re: my ridiculously long Costa Rica HM Review with TONS of pics!!

Gorgeous pics! Wish I was there! Thanks for posting!

Re: my ridiculously long Costa Rica HM Review with TONS of pics!!

Great review. Very informative!

Re: my ridiculously long Costa Rica HM Review with TONS of pics!!

WOW!! great review! Looks like an amazing trip! I would love to go to Costa Rica some day! Thank you for sharing!!

Re: my ridiculously long Costa Rica HM Review with TONS of pics!!

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Posted by GinaZ

WOW!! great review! Looks like an amazing trip! I would love to go to Costa Rica some day! Thank you for sharing!!

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I agree...I wanted to go for our HM, but DH wanted an all inclusive...

I would've MUCH preferred CR over Mexico!

Re: my ridiculously long Costa Rica HM Review with TONS of pics!!

OMG I LOOOOOOOVE IT!!! IM GOING THERE IN FEBRUARY ON A COMPANY TRIP!!!! I'm so psyched now!!! We're going to the Jaco area and staying at the Marriot- any advice? Any tours that were worth it or not?

You guys seriously look like you had an AWESOME HM!!!!

Re: my ridiculously long Costa Rica HM Review with TONS of pics!!

Great Review!!!!!!
Love all of the pictures and it looks like you guys had a wonderful time!

Re: my ridiculously long Costa Rica HM Review with TONS of pics!!

Wow! What an amazing trip! I really want to plan a trip there after seeing these photos!

Re: my ridiculously long Costa Rica HM Review with TONS of pics!!

OMG we just got back from the same exact trip but we were a few days behind you we got there 9/16! We booked through CostaRicaOnline.com.

Loved looking at your pictures! Makes me wish we were still there I miss the yummy fruit in the morning.

We loved Cambute too!!!! We even did the zip lining, and horseback riding tour too. Who were your guides?

Re: my ridiculously long Costa Rica HM Review with TONS of pics!!

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Posted by Lori91407

OMG we just got back from the same exact trip but we were a few days behind you we got there 9/16! We booked through CostaRicaOnline.com.

Loved looking at your pictures! Makes me wish we were still there I miss the yummy fruit in the morning.

We loved Cambute too!!!! We even did the zip lining, and horseback riding tour too. Who were your guides?

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OMG! That's hysterical! Too bad we didn't run into each other!! Our tour guide for both the zip lining and horseback riding tours was Bo. He was super cool!! Wasn't it just an amazing trip?!

Re: my ridiculously long Costa Rica HM Review with TONS of pics!!

Looks like you had an amazing time. Thanks for sharing. Your pics are great.

Re: my ridiculously long Costa Rica HM Review with TONS of pics!!

Great review! Your pictures are beautiful... the color is incredible! Makes me want to take a vacation!

Re: my ridiculously long Costa Rica HM Review with TONS of pics!!

wow looks like u had a great time...great review can't wait to read ur wedding one!

Re: my ridiculously long Costa Rica HM Review with TONS of pics!!

Yes, it was a fantastic trip! I wish I was still there.

I forgot our instructors name all a sudden - but here is a picture of him. He was so sweet.