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Our honeymoon in Costa Rica was our first trip to this beautiful country. We traveled all across the country from Pacific to Atlantic. For more on what we saw and where we stayed please read on.
HONEYMOON IN COSTA RICA: ITINERARY
- September 13, 2009: 1 night at Hotel Grano de Oro
- September 14, 2009: 2 nights at Laguna Lodge
- Two hour fishing excursion
- Boat tour and town tour in Tortugero
- September 16, 2009: 3 nights at Arenal Nayara Resort
- 1/2 day volcano tour
- Entrance to Tabacon Hot Springs w/ dinner
- September 19, 2009: 2 nights at Hotel Fonda Vela
- Zip line, sky walk and sky tram excursion
- September 21, 2009: 4 nights at Westin Reserva Conchal
Details
I had wanted to go to Costa Rica for our honeymoon but knew nothing about where to go so for the first time ever, I decided to contact a travel planner. I left the entire trip up to her. We were too busy planning the wedding and it was great to leave the honeymoon planning up to someone else. My husband and I are adventurous nature lovers, so the majority of the trip revolved around that aspect. We had transportation for the entire trip which included pick up/drop off at the airport and the many hotels as well as two different boat rides to get to our hotels. This made for a stress free honeymoon!
We left the day after our wedding. This means things were forgotten including all the money we had gotten from the dollar dance (which was going to be our spending money) and our camera. Two essential items: no problem for a honeymoon couple! We were newlyweds and my friend’s father slipped my husband a $100 bill at the reception. That $100 lasted us for 5 days! We ended up buying a disposable camera. I’m not sure you can even get those anymore! The pics were a little grainy but oh well.
We stayed in San Jose on the first night at Hotel Grano de Oro. We arrived late at night and basically just crashed. The hotel was lovely, but we didn’t have much time there to really enjoy it.
Tortuguero
For the next two nights we traveled to the Caribbean side to Tortugeuro and stayed at Laguna Lodge. Our excursions included fishing and boating down the canals, wildlife viewing including seeing the lizard that walks on water (the Jesus lizard), and visiting Tortugeuro village where we managed to buy a disposable camera. We also observed sea turtles nesting! The resort had a lovely pool which we would sneak into after hours. There were frogs and lizards all around the pool at night.
Arenal Volcano
Our next stop was in Arenal where we stayed for 3 nights at Arenal Nayara Resort. It is still to this day the best place I’ve ever stayed. We woke up to howler monkeys and a view of the volcano. Even though we went during the “green” or rainy season, we had unusually dry weather which allowed us to see the volcano from our room and poolside. We had a half day tour hiking up the Volcano and went to the hot springs at Tabacon which included dinner.
Monteverde Cloud Forest
We spent 2 nights in the cloud forest at Hotel Fonda Vela. The hotel had seen better days but I think it may have been renovated since we stayed there. We weren’t into birding as a hobby at the time but met a couple who told us there were Quetzals on the property. Looking back, we should have investigated this further!
Monteverde is where you want to zip line. We took a zip line tour with Sky Trek which also included a suspension bridge and hiking trails. Two of the lines went into a cloud and you couldn’t see the other side. A little scary but def an adrenaline rush. We’ve done a couple other zip lines since then and this was the best by far!
If you want to meet some characters, I’d highly recommend this hotel. We hung out with the locals there and even got to see the owner’s prized saddle (in his room). He had just gotten back from a funeral and somewhat resembled Johnny Cash (with the personality to match). While the hotel in Arenal was beautiful we are still talking about Hotel Fonda Vela.
Guanacaste
We wrapped up our trip with 4 nights in an all inclusive at Westin Reserva Conchal. This was your typical 4-5 star all inclusive. They have changed hands since we were there and it is now the Westin. We met many honeymoon couples there and we made some friends that I still keep in contact with today. There were the usual pool bars and typical shenanigans that go along with that. I will say that if you are an all inclusive person this place was great. Bonus: It is ADULTS ONLY!
We had such a great time on our honeymoon in Costa Rica that we have been back two more times. Check out our 2017 trip to the Osa Peninsula and our 2019 trip to Manuel Antonio and Uvita.
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