our adventure-filled surprise trip to Costa Rica itinerary
In case you missed the viral videos on my socials, I’ll give you a little recap! For Christmas, I knew Ryan was planning a big surprise for me, but that’s about all I knew. Every year, we visit Sun Valley, Idaho, to go skiing with family for New Years and that was what I was planning for. On Christmas, I opened a gift from Ryan that was just a piece of paper that said “we are not going to Idaho” and told me what to pack instead! I was so incredibly confused. He told me to pack hiking clothes and bathing suits? He also said I didn’t need my passport (but that I’d later learn was just to throw me off his scent!). The running joke was we were going to Scottsdale, Arizona (which my dad believed entirely). I still had no idea where we were going even as we breezed past airport security (Ryan made me stand far away enough from the ticket counter that I couldn’t hear but close enough so they could wave at me and verify my ID haha). He kept the boarding passes on his phone so I wouldn’t be able to sneak a peek. We stopped to get lunch and Ryan immediately started filming me (this was when I knew something was up). SURPRISE!!!! I was soooo shocked to see our best friends Drew and Susanna creep up behind me because those tricksters put up decoy Instagram stories of them skiing that morning. Drew revealed we were going to COSTA RICA! It’s always been a dream destination of mine so I was over the moon. I had never been on a big trip with friends before either! I couldn’t stop smiling. (Best gift ever, thank you my love). The whole itinerary of the trip was a secret, too! So every day Susanna and I woke up eager to find out what the plan was for the day. So now that it’s over I can finally share!
This was probably my favorite trip of all time: the friends, the adventures, the food. Everything was perfect and now Costa Rica has become quite possibly my #1 travel destination! This would truly be the perfect honeymoon destination for anyone who loves a mix of adventure and relaxation. Here’s everything we did — I linked as much as possible! Hope you enjoy and pura vida!
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Timing: End of December to top of January – over New Years! Apparently this is their busiest week of the year for tourism, but it never felt overly crowded anywhere we went!
Weather: Varied based on where you are! In San José and La Fortuna, it was high 70s during the day with occasional, brief, intense rain. And more damp in the jungle, of course! My clothes could not air dry hung up outside, but it wasn’t uncomfortably humid by any means. In Santa Teresa, it was in the low 80s with the same kind of quick downpours here and there!
Transportation: We flew from LA to San José via Alaska Airlines — practically the same flight time as us going to New York or Hawaii so this felt conveniently quick for a big international trip! Be aware that Uber/Lyft is illegal, yet still available. So do with that what you will! If you take an Uber, the driver might ask you to sit in the front seat so it doesn’t look like he is driving for Uber. We rented a car for most of the trip which I’d recommend since there are so many things to do and places to see!
Where we stayed: For the first leg of the trip we stayed at the AC Hotel Belen by the airport because our first excursion was east of San José while the rest of the trip was further west. Although the surrounding area was a bit corporate, the hotel itself was beautiful and in a convenient location. It was practically empty, too, so we had the gym, pool and breakfast almost entirely to ourselves. The best part about this hotel that Ryan didn’t know when booking is there is a permanent food truck pop-up in the parking lot serving multiple types of cuisines and open late! We had incredible Indian food and pretty good sushi here! I linked the other airbnbs below on the days we check in to them!
Day 1: Arrive in San José
Our flight arrived in San José very late at night so we took a squished Uber to the hotel, ate ice cream for dinner and went to bed!
Day 2: Recovery Day at the Hotel
We slept in, grabbed some breakfast at the hotel and hit the pool in the afternoon where we filmed some silly (and incredibly viral) videos. In the late afternoon, we went into the city to visit their local market. Personally, I’d skip this next time I visit Costa Rica, but happy we saw the city! We ate at an Italian restaurant before calling it an early night because our next surprise was bright and early!
Day 3: White Water Rafting on the Pacuare River
Day 3 started very early in the morning! The boys told us to bring a bathing suit and water shoes so we had a little bit of a hint – we were going white water rafting! The company we booked the trip through is called Rios Adventure Travel. A shuttle came and picked us up and we had quite a drive (~2-3hours) before we arrived at a restaurant for breakfast with the rafting group. We ate gallo pinto (rice, beans, eggs, plantains, and cheese) for the first of many times and it was delicious! Then it was time to head down to the river! The Pacuare River is the #4 river for white water rafting in the world (which means we now have to visit #1-3). Our guide’s name was Albert – he was very polite when giving us directions, always saying thank you after we paddled. We rafted through class III and IV rapids and straight up got waterboarded a few times in the front. We only lost Drew once! It was intense, but one of the most fun times I’ve had in my life. I cried happy tears on the river just looking around at my husband, my friends and the beautiful river. I just knew I was experiencing a moment I’ll remember and cherish forever. We stopped to have lunch on Albert’s beautiful property that overlooks the river. There was beautiful landscaping and flowers with hundreds of butterflies and terrifying spiders. We continued rafting where we got to go under beautiful waterfalls and float down green, lush canyons. Afterwards, we dried off and celebrated with beers before heading home in the shuttle van. Definitely the highlight of the trip for Ryan and I. When we got back, Susanna and I hung out at the pool while the boys napped. For dinner, we walked to dinner at Zaika Indian Restaurant and went to bed!
Day 4: La Fortuna
We grabbed some breakfast at the food trucks by the hotel before getting on the road to go to La Fortuna! (There was lots of nap time in the car opportunities on this trip). From the town, you can see the beautiful Arenal Volcano when the sky is clear. We arrived at our Airbnb, Villa Toucan, and grabbed lunch at a “soda” or café across the street. In the afternoon, we put on our hiking clothes for a new surprise. Just a short drive and we made it to the La Fortuna Waterfall! In the parking lot, a kind man gave us his binoculars to show us our first sloth (or oso perezoso which literally translates to lazy bear) and some monkeys! We then walked down hundreds of stairs to the beautiful waterfall. There had been too much rainfall that week for us to be able to swim in the waterfall, but we could still get pretty close. The views of the waterfall and jungle here are incredible. We then had to head back to the airbnb to shower for our next surprise adventure! We turn onto some super scary dark road in a residential area which definitely made us all a little nervous. We arrived at the excursion which was…a night walk tour through the rainforest! Susanna and I were just about shitting ourselves, but we put on a brave face and headed into the dark with the boys and flashlights. We walked through the pitch black jungle and saw tons of spiders, centipedes, and cute frogs. Grateful we did not see any snakes at this point. Our guide was very knowledgeable and stoked on everything we found. He even ate some termites for some reason. After the night hike, we went to eat pizza at La Cava before heading to bed for another early day!
Day 5: A New Year in La Fortuna
Another early morning! We were off to our next surprise adventure: hanging sky bridges through the forest at Místico Park! I’m very glad Ryan had us get here early because as it got later, the bridges were crowded! We walked on 11 hanging bridges with beautiful views and walked down to a waterfall. Ryan filmed a nature documentary of leaf-cutter ants and we saw tons of animals: birds, monkeys, and two poisonous snakes (which Drew and I got a little too close to accidentally). Afterwards, we went and got breakfast in town at my second favorite breakfast spot on the trip: Red Frog Coffee Roasters. Almost every meal required multiple mango or coffee smoothies on this trip. After eating, we took a quick nap since it had been non-stop for days.
In the afternoon, we were ready for our next surprise: ziplining on the volcano! As soon as we got all of our gear on for ziplining, it started to pour down rain. It was comical how drenched we all were as we rode up the volcano in an Indiana Jones style car to the top of the ziplines. By some miracle, once it was our turn to zipline the rain had stopped! We ran through the ziplines like lightning: one after the other. Some of the ziplines were incredibly long and a little bit scary, but so much fun. Although we had an amazing time, only Susanna’s photos really reflected that haha. Afterwards, our guide showed us our second sloth of the trip!
Then we went off for our final La Fortuna adventure! We packed up our bathing suits and drove about 20 minutes to a public natural thermal river in the jungle called El Choyin! This is a common spot for a tourist scam where they ask you to pay for parking on a public street, but we were prepared for that so we brought about $4 just to not make a big deal out of it. This was the second highlight of the trip for me. It was like sitting in a hot tub in the rainforest – incredibly clean feeling and warm and the rocks created a jet-like feeling! As the sun began to set, Ryan and Drew pulled out their next surprise. The two of them snuck off earlier and bought tealight candles so we could stay in the river together after dark. It was the most romantic scene, I happy-cried again immediately. It felt so special the only thing I can relate it to was when Ryan proposed. We had some heart to heart conversations and enjoyed the candlelight in the river for hours after everyone else had left. Since it was New Years, we did our best to stay up late after that! We had dinner at an incredible sushi restaurant in La Fortuna called Kappa Sushi, but were too exhausted to stay up for midnight. Happy new year!
Day 6: Santa Teresa
Another early morning – because there’s no time to waste in Costa Rica! We grabbed some pastries on the way out of La Fortuna before driving to Puntarenas where we’d catch the ferry to the peninsula. The ferry situation was a little bit chaotic, but proud Ryan faced the creepy horrible car dungeon for us. Once we made it to the other side, we had about an hour and a half windy, bumpy drive to Santa Teresa. This town was otherworldly. People riding ATVs with their surfboards, gorgeous restaurants, stunning beaches – truly paradise. We stopped to eat lunch: arepas, burgers, tacos and smoothies at Munchies. We finished up quickly because we were in a rush to make it to our Airbnb check-in with our host! When we pulled up to our Airbnb, Susanna and I genuinely thought our Airbnb must be behind this one – it was unreal. The most stunning home on the hill with a gorgeous view of the beach, backyard, pool, and outdoor shower. It’s called Casa Lu and if you can’t find it on Airbnb, you can book directly through Cala Vacation Homes. Hands down the most beautiful place I’ve stayed on vacation, I felt like a princess. Ryan and I settled in while Drew rushed to surf and Susanna ran by the beach. We watched the first of Santa Teresa’s incredible sunsets and headed into town for dinner to end the night.
Day 7: Santa Teresa
Our first chill day of the trip! We woke up and went to Ani’s for breakfast. Normally, we don’t repeat restaurants on vacation...but we ate at Ani’s 4 times over the course of our 2.5 days here haha. The food and vibes were perfection. Then we spent the rest of the day at the beach: swimming and surfing. While Drew was out riding the big boy waves, Ryan caught a few in the smaller waves and I stood up once, too! Susanna and I went shopping in the local shops and bought some cute new swimsuits at Pawo. We stayed at the beach until there was no light left and went back to our Airbnb to clean up. For dinner, we ate at one of the most popular spots in town called Somos. The drinks, live music and food here were all incredible. Happy tears were shed again at dinner in front of a packed restaurant.
Day 8: Tortuga Island
Another early morning! We drove to the town of Montezuma about an hour and a half away to join our final excursion: a boat trip to Tortuga Island. We couldn’t see anything on the snorkeling portion, but we laughed it off. We spent a few hours on the island drinking piña coladas, swimming and napping. On the way back, we heard lots of dolphin facts from a kid from South Carolina. We all think we could have skipped this excursion and just stayed in Santa Teresa. We heard from other tourists that the waterfall/ziplining trip near Montezuma was something we can’t miss next time so look into that! We rushed back to Santa Teresa to catch the last hour of daylight at the beach and boogie board! We had a little wine and pool happy hour at the airbnb before heading back into town for dinner. For dinner, we went to a beautiful restaurant called Nami. The power went out so we got to enjoy a restaurant full of candlelight and the sounds of rain.
Day 8: Back to San José
We woke up super early to soak up every minute of the beach we could before we had to leave. Breakfast at Ani’s one more time of course! We then hit the road, unsure if we were going to make the ferry, but luckily it all worked out! We had a long travel day driving back to San José and everyone was pretty exhausted. We said our bittersweet goodbyes and dropped off Susanna and Drew at the airport. Ryan and I ate at the food trucks by the hotel one more time before going to bed.
And that was a wrap on Costa Rica! If you have any questions please shoot me a message!
Pura Vida!
xoxo, squid
