Guanacaste, Costa Rica
I traveled to Costa Rica for my bachelorette trip with my two best friends. It was a destination I always dreamed of, so when I had two willing travel partners I jumped at the opportunity! We flew in and out of Liberia Airport, and concentrated our trip in the Guanacaste region. There is still so much more of this country to explore, and I will definitely be back.
Sunset from Riu Guanacaste.
The first part of the trip, I was lucky enough to be able to take advantage of my friend’s Marriott points to stay at El Mangroove. This hotel was quite beautiful, and fit in so well with the surrounding natural scenery. There were two restaurant options serving absolutely amazing food. At breakfast, we often had three to four drinks in front of us. Coffee, a mimosa, a smoothie, juice, water: there were too many good options to choose just one. All of the fruit was SO fresh, probably some of the best I have had in my life. The food was also delicious. I still think about a plantain dish that we had while sitting between the pool and beach. There was also a pool with lounge chairs and private cabanas surrounding it. A short walk from the pool was the beach, which we explored thoroughly. One adventure along the beach brought us into contact with what quickly felt like thousands of crabs surrounding us as the tide came in, which signaled our time to turn back towards the hotel! The hotel also had free kayak rentals, so we got a double kayak and headed out on an adventure around the sound where we were staying. There was a small, clean and accessible gym at the hotel as well.
The airport had the perfect sign to greet us ;)
One night, we took a cab over to Playas del Coco to explore and grab dinner and drinks. I have a silly tradition of visiting a Hard Rock Café in whatever country or city I visit, so we stopped at Hard Rock to grab some drinks. After, we wandered up and down the main street until we found a place to eat. I think this town would definitely be fun to visit during the day, as we could not see much of the beach or surroundings in the dark. The best part of Costa Rica is by far the people there. Our cab driver was so sweet, and he offered to come back to pick us up at a set time.
Sunset from El Mangroove.
The next part of the trip, we stayed at the all-inclusive Riu Guanacaste. There were a variety of restaurants with different styles of food to choose from. It was all quite good, and it was nice to have options. They also had nightly entertainment, pools with swim up bars, and access to a beach. I think the three of us found it hard to choose the pool when the beach was just steps away, but it was still very cool to have so many different options. My experience with all-inclusive has always been that it will never be the best quality, but for the convenience and what you get it is quite fun. There were a few bars down the street from the hotel, and we went out to a ‘club’ one night. I think we were the most enthusiastic about dancing and partying at this particular location, but we had an awesome time! The sunsets from the Riu were some of the best I have ever seen in my life. Every few seconds it felt like the sky would completely change colors, which meant I ended up with a LOT of sunset pictures on my phone (but have no regrets about this). One day there were even sting rays swimming around us in the water! I quickly vacated but my friends enjoyed the absolutely unreal experience of swimming with wild sting rays. There were also monkeys in the trees around the resort, which we heard but never actually saw. Another fun all-inclusive feature was the ‘bar’ in our room, featuring hard liquor bottles on tap…haha.
A trip to Costa Rica had to include visiting at least one waterfall and seeing at least one sloth. A concierge at El Mangroove set us up with a tour run by his friend, Diego (you can find his contact information at his Instagram). This adventure resulted in a day where we did so many awesome things and even ate some delicious local food from. Diego picked us up at the Riu, and we headed first to the Cataratas Llanos de Cortes, a beautiful waterfall. We swam at the base of the waterfall, and then hiked up to the top and back around to the van. Then we headed to a lunch location, which was literally off of the side of the road and had the most nondescript exterior. The food was described to us as a traditional Costa Rican meal, with rice and beans and vegetables, and I believe some meat option for the non-vegetarians (you can tell that this part really stuck with me as the non-carnivore of the group). We then went on a rafting tour, where we saw birds, crocodiles and more as we floated down a river. We ended the adventure with a visit to a sanctuary, where we were able to see adult and baby sloths and some unique frogs, all within a jungle setting.
View along the river raft trip.
At the top of the waterfall.
Another goal while we in Costa Rica was to have a surf day for one of my friends. We ended up heading to Tamarindo for the day, a beach town and popular surfing destination. My friend rented her surfboard from Neptuno Surf Shop. We spent the afternoon on the beach, enjoying the beautiful white sand and crystal clear water and trying not to get too fried by the sun. It was by far my favorite beach experience that we had in Costa Rica, and the surfing looked so fun. We walked and shopped along the main street afterwards, visiting a bunch of cute surf and tourist shops. We had lunch at Palapa Restaurant, where our table was directly on the beach, which is how I would like to eat all of my meals forever.
Another sunset picture from the Riu.
Overall, Costa Rica was definitely a trip of a lifetime. But I hope to be back to this area and to explore other parts of the country, and to do so with other friends and family. My experience here was full of beautiful nature, delicious food, and some of the kindest people I have ever met. Pura Vida is their phrase of choice, and it is so fitting for the whole experience. A few items on my list for my next visit are: visit and possibly hike the Arenal Volcano, find more waterfalls (Rio Celeste for one, but there are countless others), to explore more national parks and see more of the natural environment, and have a ziplining adventure. Basically, I will definitely be back!