With a rich culture, lush rainforests, and incredible beaches, Costa Rica is one of Central America’s greatest escapes. This little country has so much to offer in natural beauty and culture.
Defined by its location between the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean, this country offers everything from black-volcanic-sand coastlines, to cloud forests, to white-sand beaches. During your trip, you can drink plenty of local coffee, zip-line, listen to reggae on the beach, and spot sloths and monkeys in the wild!
Costa Rica at a glance | What to expect
Language: Spanish is the official language of Costa Rica. But most people know English, so if you are not a Spanish speaker you should be good!
Currency: The official currency of Costa Rica is the Colón.
Credit Cards and ATMs: Credit cards are widely accepted in Costa Rica. However, the US dollar is also widely accepted. You’ll find that many hotels, restaurants, and tour agencies have their prices listed in dollars. If you do decide you want some local currency, you’ll find that Costa Rica has a modern and widespread network of ATMs. You should be able to find an ATM in all of the large tourist destinations.
Plugs: The plugs in Costa Rica are type A and, the same as in the US. You won’t need an adapter if you’re traveling from The States.
Safety: Costa Rica is generally a safe country to visit. Like most destinations around the world, you’ll want to use common sense and take extra safety precautions as a solo traveler like not walking alone at night.
Weather: The best time to visit Costa Rica is during the dry season, from mid-December to April. But of course, with perfect weather comes large crowds and high price tags. If you don’t mind a little rain, visit during May and November when prices are low, and the tourists are gone. Showers typically only last a couple of hours so it won’t dampen your vacation too much.
Food and drink:
- Casado – Found in nearly any soda (small restaurant serving typical Costa Rican dishes) across the country, casado is the fixed pairing of white rice with a side of savory black beans, a vegetable side (like cabbage slaw dressed in citrus), and a protein — usually a fish fillet,grilled chicken, or pork chop — smothered in sautéed onions.
- Gallo Pinto- rice and beans mixture usually served for breakfast
- Patacones (fried plantain chips)
- Ceviche (citrus and seafood heaven)
- Imperial Beer is the local Costa Rican beer
- Coffee – Costa Rica’s recent history has been largely shaped by coffee, and the country’s beans rank as some of the best in the world.
Costa Rica is a small but mighty country. You can visit many different parts of the country in one trip. I highly recommend renting a car if you are visiting Costa Rica. However, the driving in Costa Rica can be tricky. Between mountains, dirt roads, etc…, but still recommend getting a car to get from point A to point B. With this note however, even though it may look like a small distance on a map it could take hours to get to your destination many times because you are driving through mountains and rain forests with very winding roads.
We decided to visit 3 towns during our week in Costa Rica – La Fortuna, Monteverde, and Manual Antonio. Each town is known for something different and has different geography. Let’s get into the itinerary!
La Fortuna is home to the Arenal Volcano. La Fortuna is a town full of things to do. It is quite touristy so it can be a little pricey. Since we were more on a budget we found certain excursions were way cheaper to book in other parts of Costa Rica.
Monteverde is a luscious, ecologically diverse area high in the mountains. True to its name (Green Mountain), It’s popular for those who want to get into nature and enjoy all that the area has to offer, from rare and unique cloud forests to ziplining and coffee tasting. Walk among rainforest trails as the treetops sing with exotic birds and the sound of tropical frogs croak in the background.
Manuel Antonio is home to Manuel Antonio National Park. This is the most visited national park in Costa Rica due to its abundance of wildlife and flat main trails. The town has a central downtown area near the national park with some shops and restaurants across from Manuel Antonio Beach.
7 Day Costa Rica Itinerary
Day 1: La Fortuna
After flying into San Jose International Airport, it will be about a 3 hour drive to La Fortuna.
We checked into our hotel – Hotel Secreto – and it was the perfect location. Down a quiet street, but still right in the middle of the action of La Fortuna. We mainly chose this hotel for the location, and the fact that it had a pool and free breakfast each morning.
We started our first full day in La Fortuna, heading to La Fortuna waterfall. It was an $18 entry ticket per person, but this was one thing we really wanted to see. It opens at 7am, and I recommend going early. We hiked down the 500 steps to the bottom of this amazing waterfall. Be sure to bring your bathing suit because you are able to swim in the base of it weather permitting.
Next up, we decided to hike around the volcano. There are so many trails, but we chose Arenal 1968 which was $17 per person for an entry ticket to the park. There are 3 different hikes to chose from. We chose the middle length and it was lovely and a moderate level. At the top of the hike there is a small cafe so you have to enjoy a cold beer as a reward.
After both of our hikes we were ready for lunch! When in Costa Rica you have to eat at a soda – a small restaurant serving typical Costa Rican dishes. After walking past this one 3 times we finally saw the small sign and enjoyed a couple casadas. It was delicious! The food in La Fortuna was not my favorite, but I really liked this soda.
For dinner we drove out of down town and headed to Restaurante Tiquicia. It was Costa Rican cuisine under a thatched roof with live music. I had the best mojito ever here – I recommend this dinner spot, but make a reservation if you can!
Day 2: La Fortuna
La Fortuna is known for the Arenal Volcano, which makes hot springs extremely popular and a must do. There are so many different options. You can stay at one of the fancy resorts, buy a day pass to a resort, or check out the free ones (just be aware of pick-pocketers and people who will try to sell you parking for $$$, when it is indeed free). We decided to go for the day pass option, but wanted a budget friendly one – some day passes are upwards of $150+ a person.
We found Hotel Los Lagos resort that offered a day pass of $25 a person. You can pay with cash right on-site! You could choose a higher option if you wanted to include a meal, but we only wanted to spend the first half of our day here. It was lovely. There were so many different types of springs to enjoy. From super hot to cool, to private to public. The grounds were stunning and we really enjoyed our time here!
We spend the rest of our afternoon strolling around La Fortuna and checking out some bars and shops.
For dinner we wanted some seafood so we headed to Marisqueria Snapper’s House and it was delicious! The staff was so friendly, the seafood was delicious, and their patio was so cute! Highly recommend.
La Fortuna is a pretty sleepy town, but we found some places for live music that were fun! As you walk around the streets you will find many so just pop in and grab a drink! Here are a couple we liked:
- Lava Lounge and Bar – good local craft beer
- Nanku – live music (food way overpriced, only grab drinks)
- Pollo Fortuneño
Day 3: Monteverde
We headed out early to our next destination – the cloud forest in Monteverde. Even though Google Maps says ~40 miles, the journey itself takes around 4 hours. Winding up mountains and jungles and gravel roads – it was quite an adventure. We only had one night here so we wanted to make the most of it!
We got to our adorable Airbnb in the afternoon. Casitas del Bosque Monteverde is hard to find, but a true hidden gem. It is a wooden lodge that is owned by the most adorable couple. This property offers access to a terrace, free private parking, and free Wifi. Rooms are fitted with a patio with views of the garden. They cooked us breakfast in the morning, and it was a lovely stay! Just note – they only accept cash payment!
Michael and I try to find a brewery every place we go, so we headed straight to Monteverde Brewing Company. We did chose this one because they had a mermaid beer – spoiler alert all the beer was so good!
After fueling up on some beers we headed to the Mistico Park Hanging Bridges. These were on my list! The walk is about 2 miles (easy) and you get to go over 8 hanging brides. It was rainy when we did it, but it was so surreal you felt like you were literally in the clouds! We didn’t see any animals, but if you opt for a guided tour I am sure you will see more.
Our hotel set us up with a night walk. We were really excited to see animals and bugs, but to be honest we were a little disappointed. We saw lots of sleeping birds and learned facts, but didn’t see anything cool.
Monteverde is a VERY sleepy town since most activities are quite intensive and tire you out. We found a little Mexican spot for dinner and then headed back to our hotel for a bottle of wine and listened to the rain!
Day 4: Monteverde/Manual Antonio
We woke up early to head to Michael’s requested activity: ziplining! I was very surprised that this was what he wanted to do since he is scared of heights. We knew we wanted to zipline is Monteverde because it was WAYYY cheaper than La Fortuna, and thought it would be unique to do in the cloud forest. We went with Xtremo Park because it was budget friendly and we loved the package. They have the longest zipline in Costa Rica.
I have ziplined many times, and this hands down was my favorite experience. The guides were fun, we felt super safe, and the ziplines were crazy! You were hundreds of meters up above the top of the trees going over massive valleys. We even did a HUGE Tarzan swing which was super scary but so fun!
After our adventure we hopped in the car and headed to the beach – Manual Antonio! It is about a 3 hour drive, but it was enjoyable because the sun was shining and we saw our first glimpses of the ocean. Manual Antonio is home to Manual Antonio National Park which is the main attraction to the city. Most of the hotels/restaurants sit on top of the hill and you can either walk or take a bus down to the beach/park, but we wanted to stay near the beach so we chose, Millenniun Manuel Antonio. We loved the location, free breakfast, pool, and close walk to the beach.
We hopped right to the beach after our arrival to soak up some sun before heading to dinner at El Arado. Manual Antonio is known for their fresh seafood and especially red snapper. So that is exactly what we had, ceviche and red snapper. It was delicious and there was live music.
Day 5: Manual Antonio
I highly recommend hiring a guide for Manual Antonio National Park. We found ours on Get Your Guide, and we were very thrilled. We met them at 8am (park opens at 7:30) and off we went. We walked through the park and saw so much wildlife. From monkeys, to snakes to frogs and sloths – this is exactly what we were hoping to see! We saw more things with a guide than we would have on our own, they bring their own telescope so you can get the perfect view and photos while keeping a safe distance.
One note about the park – you cannot bring any plastic (including water bottles) or food into the park. They will check your bags before entering and will make you throw them away. So plan on bringing a reusable water bottle.
After the tour, we ended at the beach in Manual Antonio National Park. There is a public beach right outside the park, but the beach in the park is pristine! There are 2 sides of the beach, and we recommend going to the right side that is a little further down, it was empty and just stunning!
Since you aren’t allowed food in the park, once we were starving we left the park and headed to the public beach. We were able to get 2 chairs if you ordered menu items from an adjacent beach bar. We found this cheaper and we were able to make sure our belongings were watched after when we were in the water.
Happy hour is HUGE in Manual Antonio and we went to El Avion which is a hotel that is basically made out of an airplane sticking out of the hill. I heard the food was not the best and overrpriced so we just went for sunset and drinks. I highly recommend getting a drink here – the ambiance is great!
For dinner, we were ready for some pasta and headed too Victoria’s. The restaurant itself was so pretty and the food was delicious. We split a pasta and a pizza! There was live music, a ton of candles and the ambiance was great.
Day 6: Manual Antonio
Another early day but headed to do something fun: ATVs! There are so many ATV companies, but we were set up with one from our hotel so I wasn’t able to catch the name of it. To be honest I wasn’t the most excited for this activity, but it was SO FUN! So if you are on the fence, this is your sign to do it!
We took a bus through the palm tree plantations and once we got there, we were fitting for our helmets and were able to practice a little before hitting the road. Michael started driving and I rode. We went through the palm trees, rivers, fields, and it was so fun! After a while we stopped and hiked to a waterfall to cool off. Then it was my turn to drive back. I was a little apprehensive, and we had a couple close calls – but we survived! We were greeted back at the home base with a traditional lunch and it was a great time!
We spent the afternoon at the pool before getting ready for our last night in Costa Rica. We knew we wanted a nice dinner for our last evening and we decided on Ronny’s Place. This place is a must for watching the sunset and red snapper! It was delicious!
After dinner we hopped around some of the many bars in the area for live music. Manual Antonio is definitely a little more lively compared to the other 2 towns we stayed at.
Day 7: Home
We drove the 3 hours back to San Jose and caught our flight home. We had such a lovely trip!
I think Costa Rica is a great destination if you are new to traveling! It is such an easy country to navigate, everyone speaks English, and it is extremely touristy. It was a beautiful country with great people and food!
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