For most tours I travel to the destination prior to adding the trip to our tour offerings. However, Costa Rica was unique in that our first trip was in 2022, with Covid still in the picture. So, my first chance to see Costa Rica in person was this summer. I crashed the trip for a few days with my 9-year old daughter. Here are my thoughts…
Flying
One awesome aspect of the Costa Rica trip is it’s just under a 4 hour flight from most of our departure airports. All our other trips are overnight flights, some with a time change that can bring jet lag. This is a simple day trip that allows you to enjoy some of the travel days. Unfortunately, we got stuck in the Crowdstrike outage and our nice and easy 9pm arrival turned into 1:30 am. Short flights are always nice though.
Getting to know Costa Rica
We missed out on the San Jose portion of the trip so for us it was right to La Fortuna. This is a rainforest area about 3 hours north of San Jose. The bus ride was so cool on this windy road with bridges that fit only one car, pedestrians, dogs, etc. It was awesome for people watching. The rainforest is so surreal. This is a volcano in the picture here and luckily the clouds opened and we got to see the steam coming out the top for a few hours. Costa Rican people really impressed me. Lucy, our tour manager, really did great in explaining the culture. ‘Pura Vida’ is a way of living there and it means pure or simple life. It’s not just a saying. It’s obvious that they believe in this way of life, and I really liked it. They took pride in the way food was prepared, ingredients were sourced, and how things were made. I just felt comfortable, safe, and just ‘good’ for all of the trip. I never felt like a tourist and I just really enjoyed interacting with Costa Ricans.
Basketball
I was excited to get to watch a Basketball game vs San Carlos. Our teams 6-10-1 all-time in Costa Rica so I knew the competition would be good. Luckily I got to see a SAWUSA win. The gym was this cool metal barn with open air sides. In the picture here, behind the team benches was a bustling rainforest river. There were spiders crawling on the Gatorade jug. This was IN the rainforest! I took some time pre-game and walked around and watched a soccer practice and swim practice in the same facility. As always with the sports aspect my favorite part was just seeing how the games are played and reffed so differently than in the USA. The contrast of styles makes it very interesting to me. It’s a big part of why I love International sports travel.
Waterfall
I’d been to a few waterfalls before so I assumed this was more of a visual excursion to go ‘look’ at a waterfall. This was way better. It was, go get as close as you can to the waterfall! It looked easier than it was but after a long hike down (including crossing some suspension bridges and snakes) we got to swim with the fish upstream to the waterfall basin. The current was so impressive and powerful. It also had a great spot for an epic picture. We spent a good 2/3 hours on this excursion getting all the way down and then back up.
Zip-Line
Easily one of the best excursions I’ve ever done on a SAWUSA tour. We did seven zip-lines in total. The first couple were intense. We went over the top of the waterfall on the first one (if you were relaxed enough to look around). The second one… it was a kilometer long. That’s over a half-mile! Everyone in our group who wanted to do this excursion did it. We had a few (including myself) who didn’t really love heights and they had no problems being comfortable and safe. Between the lines were some short hikes too which added to the fun. Going over 50 MHP on zip-lines over the top of trees in a rainforest is about exactly as cool as I thought it would be, and then some. Like I said, one of the best excursions I’ve ever done on a tour. Maybe #1 overall.
Volcanic Hot Springs
I just spent 20 minutes looking for a picture to use for this section. I gave up trying to find a good one. Because there is no way one picture can explain this place. While calling it a ‘natural volcanic hot springs’ is technically true, in reality this is a water park. The volcano produces hot water that runs like 20 different pools. Most have swim up bars. There is a natural sauna, a cold plunge, restaurants, etc. Most of it is covered and all of it is awesome. Since I had my 9 year old with me, our tour guide Lucy told me there was ‘some things to do for kids’. I thought she meant like a water mushroom thing to play under. She way undersold it. There were some of the fiercest water slides I’ve ever been on. We hit up all the slides (my 9 year old 5 times each), about half the pools, and grabbed a drink at one of the swim up bars. We ate dinner at this resort as well. It was simply amazing and something I’ve struggled to explain to friends. This is one of those, ‘you have to see this for yourself to understand it’ type of places.
The Rest of the Tour
My daughter and I did a sloth park and headed back to San Jose to meet my partners for dinner and catch a flight home. The group headed for the Pacific Ocean for the last few days of the trip. They stayed at this cool resort on the beach. I enjoyed seeing their pics of monkeys, dinner shows, and sunsets. One thing that was glaringly obvious to me was the magic of group travel. We were only with the group for 48 hours. But, I missed them when we woke up Sunday and we went our separate ways. We hear this all the time from our travelers. Often we see tears and hugs on departure day – from people who were complete strangers just days earlier. Groups become so close on tour because these type of trips are just special in that way. I was exhausted (in part because of my 1:30 am arrival and also my youthful travel partner) but it was so worth it. We looked at pictures of the last few days and we felt like we were looking through old family albums. My first tour was in 2006. I honestly can still remember the faces and personalities of some of those folks, even though the names I’ve probably mostly forgot. This is the secret sauce of these types of trips. It was really cool to be reminded of that first hand.
Wrapping it Up...
Over dinner with my partners in Costa Rica I had a very clear thought. We need to take more travelers to Costa Rica next year. Like picking which of my kids is my favorite, it would be impossible to pick a favorite trip that we offer. But, I can easily say this… there isn’t a better one we offer! I came back from Costa Rica thinking two things, (1) I wish I stayed longer and (2) I can’t wait to tell our future guests about Costa Rica!
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