Four regions, one hire car, and a route that took us from rainforest canals, through cloud forests, to a beach so quiet the hermit crabs outnumbered the people. This is our real 12-night Costa Rica itinerary – an amazing family trip that we all enjoyed for different reasons: sloths, the sounds of the rainforest, white-water rafting, zip-lining above the canopy, and the idyllic Pacific coast.
I’ll take you through where we stayed, how we moved between places, some of the activities we did, and what twelve nights with two kids actually looked like on the ground.
In Costa Rica the locals say Pura Vida. Its literal translation is “pure life,” and you hear it daily – a greeting, a goodbye, an expression of gratitude. Every tour guide, hotel host, and the locals we met embodied this saying’s friendliness and optimism. It’s infectious, and I think we all brought a little of it home with us.
The route, at a glance: San José → Tortuguero → La Fortuna → Monteverde → Sámara → Liberia for the flight home.
Night 1: San José
We deliberately kept our stay in the capital to just one-night – flying in late, sleeping, and getting ready for a 5am start the next morning. We stayed at Hotel Auténtico, in a large family room with two king beds.
Booked on a bed and breakfast only basis, we did check out the restaurant on arrival and although the menu offered lots of choice and the meals other guests had looked delicious, we eventually decided against eating and went straight to bed to prep for our early wake up call.
Our main aim for this holiday was rainforests, wildlife and adventure; and our first stop, Tortuguero, promised both in abundance. I think if you have more time to play with, another night in the capital to recoup after the flight could work, but for us, still being on UK time and the solid first night’s sleep meant we were ready to get our adventures going.
Nights 2–3: Tortuguero
Tortuguero National Park can only be accessed by boat, so this leg of our journey was completely tour-led. The transfer to Tortuguero took around 3–4 hours, first by road with a breakfast stop at a restaurant on route, then around two hours by powered canal boat. The transfer in itself is an introduction to what the country holds – we spotted howler monkeys from the coach windows and the rich wildlife that can be spotted along the canals is eye opening – crocodiles, that’s all I’ll say at this stage. And this is all before we’d even checked in.
We stayed at Evergreen Lodge, right inside Tortuguero National Park, and as soon as we disembarked I was in my element. Rooms with no glass in the windows, just mesh – nothing between us and the rainforest. Stunning jungle grounds with all of the flora, fauna and wildlife I’d hoped to see surrounding us. At night, the rainforest was our lullaby; and in the morning, our wake-up call.
Two nights gave us a real rainforest deep dive: a sloth family just metres away, capuchin monkeys joining us for breakfast, a night-time green turtle nesting tour, and a hike up to Tortuguero Hill. Two nights was absolutely enough time to do everything we wanted, though I could easily have stayed a third and slowed the pace a little.
Nights 4–6: La Fortuna
The journey out of Tortuguero mirrored the journey in but we only went as far as the restaurant stop. After a filling buffet lunch of traditional Costa Rican food, we collected our hire car – a super smooth handover from National Car Rental – and made the easy two-hour drive to La Fortuna.
We stayed at the Hotel Monte Real, a small property at the heart of the town’s buzz, but also surrounded by rainforest on one side. Every room offers a stunning Arenal Volcano view and you’ll here the calming sounds of a small stream that runs along the back of the property, right next to the onsite restaurant. Breakfast was included and menu based (rather than a buffet option) with solid meal choices spanning eggs, traditional Pico and even pancakes for the kids. Local fruit was always available – and you’ll see throughout my Costa Rica content, the fruit here really is a thing for me.
La Fortuna is a buzzing town with plenty of restaurant, bar and activity choice. We stopped here for the famed Arenal volcano and had plans to explore it, but La Fortuna is also the gateway to adventure and we had several activities booked to test our nerves.
The stay here was three nights in total: a night-time frog and wildlife walk, an ATV jungle tour, a hike along Arenal Volcano’s old lava flows, hot springs at Ecotermales, and white-water rafting on the Río Balsa lay ahead – looking back I can hand on heart say, we were nowhere near ready for the fun in store!
Nights 7–8: Monteverde
The drive into Monteverde is perhaps the trickiest of the entire itinerary – badly potholed roads definitely reward patience on this drive. If you have plans to make it, leave yourself plenty of time and complete it in daylight hours.
A stop along the way is needed, particularly if you’re travelling with children, but given the concentration needed on the later part of the trip, the driver should also take a well earned break half way. Macadamia Y Café is worth an hour’s rest, and at approximately half way through the journey, it makes sense. We grabbed a table out back to take in the stunning views out over Arenal Lake, and enjoyed the best cold coffee and cookies we had all trip, in fact the cookies were perhaps the best we’d ever had (too big a statement?). Both flavoured with the cafe’s namesake, macadamia nuts, we sat in silence for a while, sharing our drinks and enjoying our chosen cakes.
I’d also hoped to be able to stop at La Piedra del Indio Waterfalls, but unfortunately, our caution over not running out of daylight for the drive meant we decided to skip it. We did stop at the visitors centre, and the pictures really did look worth the two hour tour they offered so I’d recommend an earlier departure from La Fortuna to build in more time for this if you can.
You can feel Monteverde hit you on the drive in, roads become a little steeper and the clouds roll in as the sun goes down. We stayed at Hotel Montaña Monteverde, an apartment-style offering sitting high in the cloud forest at 4,500 feet. Here the bird life really comes to greet you, with hummingbirds buzzing around the rooms and central buildings, collecting nectar.
The two nights we had here covered Treetopia Park’s hanging bridges and ziplines, absolute must dos if you visit Monteverde. Plus, we also squeezed in a chocolate-coffee-and-night-walk tour with Don Juan Tours, as well as a quick visit to the Bat Jungle.
Nights 9–12: Sámara
From Monteverde, it’s roughly three-hours to the Pacific coast, including a stop at Mi Finca for red macaw spotting. Something worth knowing if Monteverde is on your travel list: the winding roads gave our youngest a bit of motion sickness, something he doesn’t usually suffer with – worth planning for if that’s a concern for your family.
We spotted the surf before we found our hotel for the next four nights. Sámara is a small beach town; its size makes it feel a little undiscovered as although there are bars and restaurants lining the main road and parts of the beach, everything seems to shut relatively early – around 9/10pm. It’s certainly a family friendly area and the beach is beautiful – palm fringed with darker sand because of the country’s volcanic base. It’s dotted with sunbeds and shade for hire, as well as surf rental but, overall, I had the feeling that Sámara is not overtly touristy.
Hotel Belvedere was our base – a lovely, tropical feel, boutique property and perhaps my overall favourite of the trip. We slowed things down here with days on the beach and by the pool but with a couple of sea activities too: whale and dolphin spotting (including a rare Bryde’s whale sighting) and sea kayaking to Isla Chora, where the hermit crabs joined us for refreshments.
Departure: Liberia
From Sámara, our final two hours in the car took us to Liberia airport, where we dropped the hire car and picked up a shuttle for the flight home.
Costa Rica delivered above and beyond on every part of this itinerary. The things we assumed would be fun and interesting, absolutely were. The things we expected to be a little less exciting, weren’t – they delivered in ways I couldn’t have imagined. I’m so grateful we got to share those experiences and build those memories as a family.
Keep planning your trip:
- Tortuguero: Sloths, Turtles, and a Rainforest That Never Goes Quiet
- Self-Driving Costa Rica: What You Need to Know
- La Fortuna, Costa Rica: Frogs After Dark, ATVs Through the Jungle, a Volcano Hike and Hot Springs to Finish
- White-Water Rafting the Río Balsa in La Fortuna: My Son’s Number One Activity
Keep exploring:
- Borneo: Where I Finally Saw a Wild Orangutan
- Phnom Penh, Angkor Wat, and the Best Mango Salad I’ve Ever Eaten
- Hanoi: Two Nights, No Sights, and a Street BBQ I’ll Never Forget
Booking your own version of this route? Grab my free pre-booking checklist – the questions I ask before recommending any property.
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