Costa Rica was the third new country I visited this year! Back in December, when we passed through Boston on our way to Quebec City for my 30th birthday, we spent a night at my friend Morgan’s place. Morgan told us that she really wanted to go to Costa Rica but couldn’t find anyone to go with her.
“We’ll go!”
Four months later, in April, the three of us set off for a week in Costa Rica. We flew into San José and traveled to the Manuel Antonio/Quepos area, where we spent most of our time. Here’s what that was like!
Travel Day: Saturday
Matt and I were flying from Kansas City to San José, but not the “easy” way. With Southwest points, we flew from Kansas City to Houston, Houston to Fort Lauderdale. From there, we took the Tri-Rail to transfer from the Fort Lauderdale airport to the Miami airport. (I’ll have a post on that sometime in the future!) Then, we flew from Miami to Panama City, and Panama City to San José. Yeah, it was a long day… but the flights were super cheap!
Morgan, who was flying from Boston, was scheduled to get in around 9 p.m., and we were scheduled to get in around 9:30. Our plan was that she would wait for us, and then we would figure out how to get to our hotel in San José for the night. But the universe decided that it was not so. Her flights got canceled/delayed throughout the day due to bad weather, which meant that, after shuffling her flights around a few times, she wasn’t going to get in until around 12:30 am. When Matt and I arrived, we decided that he would take an Uber to the hotel and get us checked in, while I waited for Morgan.
I didn’t want to leave her alone, arriving into a new country for the first time and not speaking the language. I pulled out my Kindle and found a 24-hour cafe in the airport to wait for her. Once she got in, we grabbed an Uber and headed to our hotel in San José.
Day 1: Sunday
San José is in the central part of Costa Rica, and Manuel Antonio is in the south, about 3-4 hours away. We had a few options for getting there: flying, renting a car, hiring a driver, or taking the bus. One of these options is a lot cheaper than the others — taking the bus — and that was what we chose.
There was limited information available online about how taking the Tracopa bus from San José to Manuel Antonio would work. But I was able to find the name of the bus terminal, the schedule, and find out the fact that you can’t buy tickets in advance. Our goal was to take the 9 a.m. bus, which would arrive in Quepos (the biggest town near Manuel Antonio) at 12:22 p.m.
Knowing we were going to be taking the bus, we booked a hotel that was only about a 5-minute walk away from the station. (Our hotel was called 935 Lodge, and I highly recommend it!) To make sure we were able to get tickets, we arrived at the bus station at about 8:15. I went up to one of the ticket windows, told them I wanted the direct bus to Quepos, and paid for our tickets in cash. It cost about $10 USD per person.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from the bus, so I was mentally prepared for the worst. But I was pleasantly surprised! The bus was comfortable and had air conditioning (a true blessing). About halfway through the trip, we stopped at a rest stop for about 15 minutes for everyone to use the restroom and grab some snacks. We arrived in Quepos right on time, just over 3 hours after we’d left San José.
After getting some lunch in Quepos, we flagged down a red taxi and asked him to take us to our lodging, Casa La Paz, closer to Manuel Antonio. We met the house manager, Lorena, who showed us around our beautiful new home for the next week! Not long after arriving, we changed into our swimsuits and figured out how to take the public bus down to the beach, Playa Espadilla.
We got to Playa Espadilla about an hour before sunset, and it was one of the most amazing beach experiences in my entire life. (I live in Missouri, an extremely land-locked state, but still.) The sand was soft, the water was the perfect temperature, the waves were gentle, it wasn’t too crowded, and the views were gorgeous.
Day 2: Monday
On Monday morning, we hit the ground running with our activities. I used Viator to book several activities in Costa Rica for that week, and our first one was this ziplining excursion that included ziplining into a waterfall!
Around 8 a.m., a driver and the activity guide picked us up from our place. We made a couple more stops in the surrounding area and Quepos to pick up two other couples, and then we were on our way to the rainforest. Our guide was a Costa Rica native named Enoch, and we spent plenty of time talking with him during the drive.
After leaving everything in the bus — not even bringing our phones, wallets, etc. — the tour group helped us put on our gear and we began our trek through the jungle, ziplining and rappelling our way through! I’d never done anything like that before, but it really wasn’t that hard, and the guides provided good instructions and made me feel safe.
The highlight of the tour was ziplining into a waterfall! Then, we unhooked our D-clip from the track and dropped ourselves right into the pool of water below. That’s why we didn’t bring anything with us. 😂 Fortunately, the guides had a camera and took photos for us throughout the day. To wrap up, we were provided with fruit and snacks at a little picnic area before hiking back to the van. When we got back to town, they gave us a full Costa Rican lunch before driving us back to our hotels. We had a great time and I highly recommend this experience!
Later that night, we had dinner and a beautiful sunset view in Quepos at the Double Hook Sports Bar, which had good food and great prices. Enoch, the ziplining guide from earlier that day, even joined us.
Day 3: Tuesday
Tuesday morning, we had yet another excursion booked through Viator. This time, it was a tour of a chocolate and coffee farm. Once again, we got picked up at our place which was super convenient.
When we arrived at the farm, we joined up with the rest of the group as the guide, Juan — who is the owner — shared information with us (in English and Spanish) about the Costa Rican chocolate and coffee industries. After that, he led us through a path and talked about the different plants, animals, insects, and how the ecosystem works together to produce the cacao and coffee.
Next, we went to another covered area where we got to taste cacao and mix it with different fruits and spices to make different flavors. We also got to try cacao nibs, coffee beans, and even some Mexican hot chocolate like the Aztecs used to make. Finally, we got to try a drink called “agua de sapo” (frog water) that was made from sugar cane also grown on the farm.
After getting dropped off at our hotel again, we got lunch at a restaurant near our place called “El cerdo feliz” (the happy pig.) And then we went back to the beach! The waves were a little rougher than on Sunday night, but we still had a good time.
Day 4: Wednesday
Wednesday was our only day of our trip without any concrete plans. So, of course… we opted for a beach day! Matt wanted to try surfing, so when we got to Playa Espadilla again, he found a place to rent surfboards by the hour.
Unfortunately, the water and waves were extremely rough that day. Matt and Morgan both lost their sunglasses during the same big wave, which really sucks. I stayed a bit closer to the beach because I was wearing my contact lenses and didn’t like getting slapped in the face repeatedly with salt water. 🙃
A few hours later, we were ready to head back to the hotel. As I took a nap on the couch, I was awakened by Matt and Morgan telling me there was a large troupe of squirrel monkeys just outside our place! We watched for about 20 minutes as they raced through the trees and over power lines. Just a few minutes later, a couple of toucans perched themselves in our trees.
Later that night, we decided to check out another beach that Enoch and the house manager, Lorena, had recommended to us: Playa Biesanz. Choosing to do it at that point in the day was a slightly misguided decision, as Playa Biesanz requires a slightly treacherous hike through thick forest to reach. By the time we got there, the sun was almost entirely down. We thought that would be okay, since we didn’t intend to swim — only watch the sunset — but it was tricky to find our way out of the forest without any light. And with how isolated that beach was, we had a hard time getting a taxi back to town.
Day 5: Thursday
On Thursday morning, we had our final activity booked: a private, guided tour of Manuel Antonio National Park. Pickup was bright and early at 7 am, to see the animals before the heat of the day set in. But just as our guide arrived outside our front gate, the most amazing thing happened: someone walking down the gravel road near our place told us he had found a sloth just steps away.
We excitedly walked the handful of steps from our front door, and there it was: a cute sloth just 10 feet from the road, at eye level, hanging on a tree and looking toward us, unconcerned. We snapped our pics as our tour guide told us that was the closest we’d get to a sloth that day — which turned out to be true!
Once we got to the Manuel Antonio National Park entrance, we had to wait about 10-15 minutes in line to actually make it into the park. Though our guide told us that just a couple of weeks before, during peak spring break weeks, the line stretched for blocks down the road as people waited hours to get in.
As we went through the park, our guide carried a spotting scope we could use to look at the insects and animals he found. It was actually insane the things he noticed with the naked eye, that we would have never been able to see on our own. We did see several more sloths, including two mother-baby pairs, but they were nowhere near as close as the one outside our place that morning.
At the conclusion of our tour, we decided to stay and check out Manuel Antonio beach. Since it’s part of the national park, you normally have to pay to get in. Already having paid our entrance fees, it was a no-brainer to stay, and we’d planned ahead so we had our swimsuits. The water there was fairly calm. One interesting and scary thing that happened that day: as Matt, Morgan, and I swam 50 feet from the shore, a bunch of spiky fins suddenly appeared out of the water near us, and we paddled away as fast as we could. Later, I did a bit of research and determined we’d encountered a roosterfish.
It was our last night in Manuel Antonio, so we spent the evening checking out different restaurants and bars in the area. The power also went out twice in our neighborhood! Luckily, it was back on by the morning when we had to pack up to leave.
Day 6: Friday
Casa La Paz, where we stayed, was amazing!
We had to check out of our place by 11 a.m. After packing up — which wasn’t too hard since we’d all only packed a backpack for the week — we decided to grab some souvenirs. One of my favorite things I got was a canvas painting of a sloth that I’m going to hang on my gallery wall in my office at home.
Then, we grabbed a taxi to the bus terminal in Quepos where we’d arrived on Sunday. Just like last time, we bought our tickets at the window and waited for the bus to San José to arrive. Since Quepos isn’t the starting point of the trip — Manuel Antonio is, though I’m not sure where — the bus didn’t pull into one of the docks. It just stopped for a few minutes before continuing on, so be sure you’re paying attention when it arrives.
We caught the 1:15 p.m. bus, which was scheduled to arrive in San José at 4:39 p.m. Unfortunately, there was quite a lot of construction and traffic going into the city at that time on a Friday, so it was a bit delayed. However, just like on the way, the bus was comfortable and made a stop halfway for bathroom breaks and food.
That night, we stayed at the Holiday Inn-San José Aurola, which was nice and very affordable. Also, it was a pretty straight shot to the airport for the next morning, which was convenient, too.
Travel Day: Saturday
Saturday was just a travel day. Our flights out of Costa Rica were at about 9-10am, so we didn’t have to leave for the airport too early. While Morgan experienced more travel woes throughout the day, she eventually made it home to Boston.
For us, there were a couple of annoying hiccups. First, when we connected in Panama City, we had to go through gate security again before boarding our flight to Fort Lauderdale. The worst part was you had to throw away all your drinks again and there was nowhere to buy new ones or even use the bathrooms. This will be a consideration next time I’m looking at a flight that connects in Panama City.
Second, we had to essentially sprint through the airport to make our connection in Fort Lauderdale. I knew we were cutting it close with only one hour between our Copa Airlines flight from Panama City to Fort Lauderdale, to our Southwest flight from Fort Lauderdale to Kansas City, but I figured we’d be okay since we have Global Entry. And it seemed it would be worth the risk to catch a direct flight back home to KC.
Our flight arrived to Fort Lauderdale early, which seems like a good thing in theory, but there was no gate available for our plane to pull up to. Which meant we had to sit on the plane and wait for 20+ minutes, putting us even further behind than if our flight had arrived on time. Fortunately, Global Entry was quick as always, TSA Pre-Check was equally fast, and we made it to the Southwest gate for our flight with minutes to spare. And then, one flight later, we were home. 🏡
Well, that was our Costa Rica trip! I’ve still got lots more to say and share about Costa Rica, Manuel Antonio, taking the bus, and more. So stay tuned!
And here’s Matt’s video version of this trip review.
What questions or thoughts do you have? Would you ever visit Costa Rica? Let me know in the comments!
-Cathy
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Originally Published on June 27, 2023.
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