Affordable Trip to Costa Rica

This vacation itinerary was built for families who want to experience all of those things that make Costa Rica a famous destination around the world, but don’t have a large budget or long vacation time to travel. The itinerary includes it all: you would travel to Arenal Volcano, the most famous volcano region of our country; and you would also stay at the most beautiful beach destination called “Manuel Antonio Beach”, which was rated as one of the 10 most beautiful in the world. Also, your family will be very excited while sharing the adventures included, like zip lining in the rainforest, waterfalls viewing, volcano lava hike, wildlife observation, etc.

Your vacation starts when one of our reps picks you up at the San Jose International Airport, who will take you to the Country Inn & Suites Hotel which is about 10 minutes away. This hotel has a convenient location, at walking distance to restaurants and to a grocery store, in case that you need something for your family. If you would prefer to stay in a different hotel, just let us know your specific interests and we’ll be happy to arrange something different for you.

The second day of your vacation would be a great adventure, in which you will experience many sights and activities of Costa Rica in a single day. After leaving your hotel in the morning, you will travel to Arenal on a road we call “the scenic route”, because it offers a lot to see, compared with the regular direct route to Arenal. On this ride you will stop in a coffee plantation where your guide will show you the plants where the coffee grows and will give you a briefing of our Costa Rican Coffee, you will learn about the way we cultivate it, the way we harvest it and will taste a cup of some of the best coffee in the world. It is important to understand that on this tour we don’t visit the coffee processing plant, but the property where we stop earned the award of having the best coffee in the world in 2001 and 2002.

The ride continues by driving in between Poas Volcano and Barba Volcano, 2 of the biggest volcanoes in Costa Rica. Further ahead you will stop to admire a waterfall called “La Paz”, where we will give you some time for you to take some pictures. Shortly after you will stop by another waterfall viewing point called “San Fernando”, where there is also a bird-watching station; here we normally see many species of hummingbirds and other exotic types of tropical birds, including the rare “emerald toucan”. As the drive continues your guide will keep looking for other forms of wildlife that sometimes we find along the way, like monkeys, toucans, coatimundis and others.

The next stop would be at the famous iguana bridge, where you will have the chance to observe lots of green iguanas, but we also normally find sloths at a short walk from the bridge, quite an experience for the kids if they have never seen a sloth (lots of people come to Costa Rica just to see a sloth, it is relatively easy to find them here if you know where to look for them).

Once in Arenal, we will take you to have a typical Costa Rican lunch as part as the introduction to our country, and after lunch, you will participate of the zip lining tour in the rainforest, which is always a great adventure for all families. The tour consists of 9 cables immersed in the rainforest, where sometimes we get to see more wild animals. At the end of the last cable, you will have the opportunity to do a 50 meter-high rappel line (150 feet) that is done over the Arenal River; and right after the rappel you will participate of an indigenous tribe presentation that is done by real “Maleku” People, where you will learn about the traditions, customs and believes of our natives, quite an interesting cultural experience for the whole family.

At the end of the adventure activities, you will go to relax your muscles at the peaceful Paradise Hot Springs, where you will enjoy of the different hot springs ‘pools with various temperatures, which are surrounded by beautiful gardens of endless tropical plants.  This visit to the hot springs is a great treat for the whole family, after a long adventure day…

Afterwards, we will take you to the “Secreto La Fortuna” Hotel where you will stay for 2 nights. We have chosen this particular hotel because it’s located right in the town of La Fortuna, where you can easily walk to an endless array of restaurants with different types of food and because this hotel is located right in the heart of a regular Costa Rican neighborhood, where you and your family will be able to get a REAL feel of our culture, part of the purpose of visiting a foreign country.

On the third day of your vacation we will give you the whole morning for you to rest and recover from the great adventures you had the day before; but in the afternoon we will take you to do the “Arenal Volcano Lava Hike”, which is done right on the lava flow that came out of the volcano in the year 1,968 during the big eruption. This particular hike is by the way the closest point of allowance to the volcano, which is done at the base of it. It is important to understand that there are not trails or roads that go up to the summit of this volcano, because it is very steep and it is still a restricted area.

On the following day your trip continues to the Manuel Antonio National Park area, considered as The Most Beautiful Beach of Costa Rica. On this drive to Manuel Antonio you will also do a lot of sightseeing and stops to experience our country. On the way there we do a few stops in places where we normally observe some wild animals, like sloths, monkeys, crocodiles, scarlet macaws and others; as well as stopping in fruit stands for the whole family to learn about our delicious and exotic tropical fruits. This is a very interesting and scenic drive where you would have the chance to admire the gorgeous green highlands of Costa Rica and the low flat lands close to the coast; as a matter of fact, one of the stops we make during this drive is in a look-out point for you to take pictures of the beautiful Jaco Beach, the most developed coastal area of Costa Rica.

Once we arrive to Manuel Antonio Beach we would take you to do the check-in at Jungle Beach Hotel, a modest but comfortable accommodation with swimming pool and natural environment. The main feature of this hotel is the proximity to the beach and to the Manuel Antonio National Park, the main attraction of this whole area; but this hotel is also conveniently located at walking distance to several restaurants, shops and a grocery store.   

The fifth day of your vacation is free for you to explore the National Park or to enjoy of the beach, however, there are endless activities to be done in Manuel Antonio, like white water rafting, waterfall rappelling (highly recommend this one if you have the courage!), ocean kayaking, mangrove kayaking, parasailing, surf lessons, horseback riding, etc.; we would be happy to add any of these activities to your itinerary upon request.

Finally, on the last day of your trip we would take you to the San Jose International Airport for your flight back home.