A week in Costa Rica is not enough but the time we spent here was great. The reason for only spending a week here was because of the budget. Definitely more expensive country, but we managed to still live within our means and only had to extend our daily budget a little. It has this higher price tag due to it being more of a nice/luxurious holiday destination and we definitely found ourselves surrounded by more Americans and families on holiday. But man, I understand why, this country was beautiful and every town we went to had something really special about it.
Our journey began in Ometepe, Nicaragua and ended in Liberia, Costa Rica. And it was simple five step program:
- Santa Crus (Ometepe Island) –> Moyogalpa (Ometepe Ferry)
- Taxi @ 150$NIC ($4.50US)
- Moyogalpa (Ometepe Ferry) –> San Jorge
- Ferry @ 50NIC ($1.50US)
- San Jorge –> Rivas
- Taxi @ 25NIC ($
- Rivas –> Peñas Blancas (the boarder)
- Chicken Bus @ 30NIC ($0.90US)
- Peñas Blancas –> Liberia
- Bus @ 1775CRC ($3.10US)
Liberia
We arrived here in the middle of the afternoon and had to walk around a few different hostels before we found one that wasn’t full- something that has not even happened to us. To foreshadow, we did not learn a lesson from this mistake. We ended up staying for one night at Congos Hostel and one night at Hostel Pura Vida, both great hostels with great amenities.
We did not actually do much in the city of Liberia apart from walk around. But we did take a day trip to the beach at Playa Del Coco, which was an incredibly beautiful beach with some of the bluest water I have seen in a long time! The restaurants were definitely more expensive so we had to scavenge around to find food for around $4.
Puntarenas
We then had one night at Puntarenas. We chose this location so we could break up the journey to MonteVerde, and we were pleasantly surprised by this old fishing town. It had a long beach walk where you could take a stroll up to the lighthouse at the end, cats littered the beach and there were lots of little restaurants you could pop into. I do not remember the name of the place we stayed, it was a random and cheap hotel that we found whilst walking around.
I would definitely recommend spending some time in this small beach town, if we had more time (and money) I would have loved to have spent more time wandering the area.
Monteverde
We then had two nights in Monteverde. We stayed at the Hostel La Suerte which was run by the nicest people and had amazing facilities, with a delicious free breakfast! Unfortunately, the day we arrived there was a massive wind storm that was at its worst (in my opinion) throughout the two nights we spent. This meant our visit to the cloud forest was not the most cloudy but it was still a beautiful landscape and nice (yet touristy) town to spend a couple of nights. We found a great and cheap little restaurant where the owner was super friendly and I found myself wanting to go back to just speak to her!
San Jose
We then had two nights in San Jose. We were actually only going to spend one but ended up loving the city as we walked around in the evening so decided to allow ourselves to have full day exploring the city. We walked for miles and saw all the city had to offer, including lunch for $1! We stayed at the Relax Hostel which was one of the best hostels, it had a ‘dive bar in london’ feel yet also had massive lockers with plug sockets and private bathrooms. I loved just hanging out in this hostel and could’ve easily spent my days lounging around.
Our time in Costa Rica, although brief was amazing and I am really glad I got to see just a snippet of what this country has to offer. I see myself wanting to come back and explore this country when I have a bigger budget- especially the coast!
OH, and as we were on our bus to Panama, we drove over a bridge and I saw a crocodile. Which was a pretty awesome way to end my time in this country! Thank you so much for reading this blog post, my previous post was about Guatemala, its history and politics which was one of my favourite posts I have written.
globallygrace.wordpress.com 
Cool post. Sounds like a great place to visit.
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thank you! It really is 🙂
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