Just back from Costa Rica, and it exceeded all our expectations! We’ve been to Hawaii, and CR felt very similar, but with wildlife viewing on steroids! I’ll try to write up a review this week if I have time, but some initial thoughts and a few pics:
1) Los Altos is totally worth it! We stayed for 5 nights. Breakfast was great every morning. We enjoyed the pool and hot tub, beach is no Punta Cana and isn’t the best in the area but we did go twice because of convenience, and enjoyed it. The complimentary drinks and snacks in the room were a really nice touch. The residence is almost bigger than our entire house
we loved it!
2) Driving was mostly fine from San Jose to Manuel Antonio, to Dominical for a day trip, and around MA and Quepos areas for dinner. If you aren’t used to driving on hills, be prepared! It made me nervous but it was ok. The roads are in better condition than I expected!
3) The attitude of the Costa Rican people we found was a lot better than some other Latin or Caribbean countries we’ve been to where they try to scam you or ask for money a lot. We found it more laid back and the people were so nice.
4) We’ve never seen so much wildlife in our life! Sloths, coatis, capuchin and squirrel monkeys, iguanas, boas, agoutis, so many parrots, scarlet macaws outside our balcony every morning, etc etc. We were in awe every day.
5) Our favorite excursion was to Nauyaca Waterfalls. Seriously incredible. Go if you can! We drove there, and then took a pickup to the falls instead of hiking it. The drive to their parking lot is not for the faint of heart though. It is a seriously steep hill for 2km+ and I was freaking out
6) Drink lots of water!! I got heat exhaustion our last full day there and passed out on the hiking trails. I underestimated the humidity. It was 90 degrees and 85% humidity, and I wasn’t drinking much water every day so I was seriously dehydrated. I was drinking mostly coffee and juice at breakfast, and then happy hour drinks in the evening, and my water consumption compared to when I’m at home was seriously lacking. Only thing I’d change is paying more attention to this!
7) I didn’t find the mosquitos to be as bad as I expected. When I’m at home and go outside at dusk, I can easily get 20 bites in 5 minutes. I’m a mosquito magnet. I got a total of 7 bites over our 6 day trip, and most of them were on the last day when I forgot to apply bug spray.
I’d be happy to answer any questions you have! We loved this trip, and thanks to all here that already went and recommended it. Would have never knew about the redemption without yall!