Do’s and Don’ts in Costa Rica

Finally I find time to write a little about our holidays in Costa Rica.
Yes, it was time again to fly West and experience the magic of the carribean.

This was our tour:
Flight: Zurich – Frankfurt – Toronto – San Jose
San Jose – Puerto Viejo
Puerto Viejo – La Fortuna
La Fortuna – Monteverde
Monteverde – Samara
Samara – Santa Teresa / Playa Carmen
Santa Teresa – San Jose
San Jose – Montreal – Zurich

Two weeks were quite okay for this amount of travel, especially because we stayed at the last destination (Santa Teresa) quite a bit for surfing. And here some tipps:

Flight to San Jose: book early, and if you also fly over Canada, make sure you have a eTA.
From May 2017 there will be direct flights from ZRH to SJO with Edelweiss! This will make things much more convenient.

How to get around: Yes, also here: book early if you intend on renting a car. Unfortunately we were a bit late for high season and there was no single car available in the whole country. Rental companies are everywhere: Alamo and Adobe probably most popular (also outside of SJ)

Interbus: https://interbuscostarica.com brings you everywhere. The website is very user-friendly and it is quite luxury to be picked up from one hotel and it brings you to the next destinations. It always costs 50 USD/person. And almost every trip is between 4-6 hours, wherever you go in the country.

Puerto Viejo: what I liked the most in Puerto Viejo are the varieties of beaches you get there. It is quite easy to discover Puerto Viejo and surroundings by bicycle. From black beach (playa negra) to wavey beach (playa cocles) to calm beaches (playa grande)
The nightlife could go quite crazy there – it is a backpacker place, so expect some drunken tourists at anytime of the day or it explains the smell of weed from one or the other corner 😉

La Fortuna: So we drove across the whole country to get to La Fortuna. Unfortunately, we were a bit disappointed, because the volcano (that was the reason why we went there) was surrounded by clouds. During the whole three days we didn’t see much beside rain and clouds. The tour they are offering there was a hike through the rainforest and the “famous” hot springs. We rather called them ghetto-hot-springs. There were graffitis and also the place was not so cozy as you think of hot springs. But yeah, it was a fun experience, and with some alcohol everything was not too bad. I would probably not recommend the volcano to my blog readers, unless you are okay with maybe not seeing much or doing much there. Also from the pictures, I guess there are more picturesque volcanos around the globe.

Monteverde: Very important. If you are coming from La Fortuna, make sure you get a cheap-boat-cheap transportation directly to Monteverde. It will take almost half of the time when driving everything around the lake. For Monteverde make sure you have a rain jacket. The probability that it will rain is quite high. Of course – i mean what do you expect from a rainforest, right? 🙂
One of the highlights of Monteverde are the Ziplining Offers – uh and it was so fun. We chose the option with the longest zipline in South and Central America followed by a amazing Tarzan Swing. Wow and I didn’t expect it to be so adrenergic. Otherwise, there are nice trails, which you can do alone or go on a night-walk, where you may spot some animals. In Monteverde I have one important tipp: The restaurant Soda La Amistad – probably the best casado we had (with pork rib) and also the fajitas con pollo were amazing.

Samara: Yes, it is Beachtime again! After some rain and cold nights, we were happy to be back at the beach. I felt in love with Samara at first sight. The atmosphere, the restaurants, the sunsets, the waves, the breakfast places, our beautiful hotel and and and. I just really love the vibe of this little town. The surf was chill – nice longboarding session at high tides. On low-tide it is quite calm and nice to swim. Otherwise, I can also recommend the doctor there 😉 Freddy helped me to overcome my pneumonia, which was not so cheap though. Ohhh and we drunk so many coconuts/pipa there.

Santa Teresa/Playa del Carmen: Oh wow -what a nice place it found to start into the new year. Santa Teresa is well known for the surfer paradise. If you are a beginner you can give it a try in Playa del Carmen, the better you get the further you can go down to Santa Teresa.The more you walk the cheaper it gets for the surfboard rental. Some restaurant recommendations: Katana Asian Cuisine , Zula Restaurant, Pizzeria Playa del Carmen, Las Piedras Parrilada Argentina. Our hotel was also nice and can be recommended (but only if you have a car): Hotel the Place. Oh and very important: rent a Quad/ATV one day and drive to MalPais. It was a lot of fun.

SanJose: I have just three tipps: Hotel Fleur de Lys and Restaurant La Esquina de Buenos Aires. Instead of Taxi try Uber.