This is in no way a regrets post – our time in Costa Rica was amazing and we now have the best memories of our adventures as a family. It honestly remains one of my favourite destinations, and I’m still recommending Costa Rica to everyone who’ll listen as a great family trip destination.
That said, no trip is perfect, and I think the best thing for future travel plans is to learn from previous trips so that you can inform the next one. What worked? What created stress? At what point did patience start to strain? This detail is important and can definitely help improve your next adventure.
So, after four regions, twelve nights, and a self drive responsibility, there are a few things I think it might help you to know before you plan your own Costa Rican adventure.
The pacing
12 nights was a great length for us. We covered a lot in that time – four regions, so many insanely fun adventures, and importantly, each area provided a different perspective on the destination. However, our downtime throughout the trip, particularly the first three regions – Tortuguero, La Fortuna and Monteverde – was next to nothing. We kept moving. Every day was full and we enjoyed every minute. With hindsight though, that pace did catch up with us in Sámara. We’d planned for this to be the relaxing section of the trip – beach and pool days with a couple of ocean excursions – but the pace we’d been moving at up until this point did affect the first day or two here. Once we’d stopped, tiredness crept in. Just a little. Not to our detriment, and in no way did it affect the fun, but I did notice it. And, I’d imagine for families of smaller children, it could possibly have been more difficult to manage.
And, with younger children in mind, I would add additional days to each of the four regions we visited to allow for a slower pace, more time for pool and rest. I think this would help to balance the action versus relaxation, meaning you don’t only run on the excitement of the trip, because at some point that adrenaline will certainly crash.
There isn’t anything I’d cut from our trip. In fact, I would add days to each area. Tortuguero simply because of its diversity – its wildlife and rainforest location just means there is so much to explore. You have to really love this sort of activity – I really do – and I would have loved to have done a deeper rainforest trek. Plus, for us and our self drive itinerary, an additional day in La Fortuna and Monteverde would have allowed us to spread activities to one per day with downtime for the rest of that day.
I would always recommend allowing a full day for travel from one place to the next if you are self driving. There are some great stops on the road – whether it’s a cafe for a snack or a stunning waterfall and walk – plan for these ahead of schedule and leave plenty of time to fit them in. I thought I’d planned ahead but on both of our longer road trips, we missed a stunning waterfall stop. One due to time, the other due to roadworks.
I think it’s also wise to consider a second night in San José. We didn’t spend any time in the capital at all, arriving late and leaving early the next morning for Tortuguero. This worked fine for our family, and I don’t feel like we missed seeing anything. It worked to our advantage in many respects as we were still on UK time so the early morning wake up for our Tortuguero transfer wasn’t to0 much of an issue. We were fuelled by the excitement of arriving and everyone slept really well during that first night due to the long flight. However, I fully acknowledge the positives of an additional night to recover from the flight, so do consider this, especially if you’re not used to travelling an itinerary based holiday like this.
The route order
The order we travelled made absolute sense for the regions we visited. We started out with the most active areas and ended with some relaxation – I would 100% do it this way again. Starting with Tortuguero also makes sense because of its remote location and distance from San José. We also set this up as more of a guided tour, rather than self exploration, so it provided a very safe, grounded introduction to Costa Rica – we picked up plenty of info on the destination so that by the time we were out on our own, we felt we had a bit of knowledge to work with.
The return flight from Liberia also ensured the route made sense. Driving back to San José for a return flight may well impact the region choice. For us, it was perfect.
One thing we’d skip
I’ve really thought about this one – what didn’t really wow us? Were we ever a bit ‘meh’ about an activity? The honest answer is, no. Some of us enjoyed certain activities more than others. I think we’d all agree white water rafting was the top activity we did, but in second place? We’d definitely all pick something completely different.
The smallest thing we did was the Bat Jungle exhibit in Monteverde. It was quite late in the day, they were almost ready to close and we’d missed the guided tour. And, even within that context, the kids loved it. They spent quite some time following the bats with their torches, pointing out the different species and asking interesting questions of the manager. It was a small thing we used to fill an hour but it surprised us, and for that reason alone, I wouldn’t remove it.
One thing we’d give more time to
Overall, I think I’d extend the entire holiday by three, possibly four days, to give more time to each area. Costa Rica truly delivers, and as a destination it deserves your time.
An additional night and day in Tortuguero , for me, is a given. I’d do another jungle trek, a longer one that could take me even deeper into the rainforest. Another night falling asleep to the sounds of the rainforest would also be an absolute delight.
I would also give Monteverde another night. The drive in and out really does take some concentration and it’s a long one. Although we found it fine, I believe an extra night and day here, would have balanced that a little better.
If you’ve read any of my other Costa Rica content, you’ll also feel my disappointment at missing the waterfall stops. So, of course, I’d ensure these happened if we were to have our time again.
The self-drive call
Driving Costa Rica ourselves gave us freedom. We could move under our own steam, add to our itinerary as we chose to, and it was really safe. Generally, good roads – just Monteverde to consider here – and I think overall, it saved us a considerable amount financially in comparison to private transfers and taxis as needed.
I’ve put together a more detailed post on driving Costa Rica, which you can have a look at here – Self-Driving Costa Rica: What You Need to Know.
One thing we’d pack differently
Without wanting to sound smug, we were really prepared for Costa Rica from a packing perspective. If I were to pack differently, I’d honestly pack less. We took far too many general clothes for what was actually needed. In Tortuguero we lived in our “jungle pants’ and they made many more appearances in La Fortuna and Monteverde.
Key packing must haves include: a good, comfortable pair of walking boots, a sturdy raincoat with hood (and consider something that can fit over a backpack if you’re carrying one regularly), a pair of lightweight long trousers or “jungle pants” as we came to refer to them, a cap/hat, sunglasses, binoculars for wildlife spotting, bug spray – a high Deet level is a must, and of course factor 50.
I would also recommend you pull together a solid medical kit with everything you know your family needs, plus some precautionary must haves for stomach upsets (Diocalm and electrolytes for example), small cuts (antiseptic cream, plasters/coverings), cream for inflamed/infected insect bites, travel sickness medication for the car journeys. A small pair of scissors and tweezers will also be useful.
Still, we’d book it again tomorrow
I hope you can feel my love for Costa Rica, even in this piece which is a reflective take on how we could improve our experience. I can hand on heart say it’s a truly ‘wow’ destination and it gave us everything we wanted from our trip, and more. We are still talking about the activities now, reminiscing and wishing we were back on the Río Balsa or looking down onto the cloud forest from our zip lines. It really is Pura Vida and I’ll never get bored of telling people about our experience and recommending this country to anyone interested in visiting.
Keep planning your trip:
- Pura Vida! 12 Nights in Costa Rica, from Caribbean Coast to Pacific Coast by Car
- Tortuguero National Park: Sloths, Turtles, and a Rainforest That Never Goes Quiet
- 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
- Self-Driving Costa Rica: What You Need to Know
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