Costa Rica Itinerary

Traveler: EM (solo, female)
Date of Trip: Spring 2009
Duration: Approx. 1 week
Cities: San Jose, La Fortuna, Monteverde, and Playa Jaco
Modes of Transportation: public long-distance buses, shared taxis with other travelers, and touristy Jeep-Boat-Jeep from La Fortuna to Monteverde
Trip Photos

San Jose
Lodging:
Costa Rica Backpackers- clean, safe rooms at a reasonable price and an excellent trip planning office to help you make reservations and plan trips for the following days. One complaint: I prepaid for two nights upon arrival (as required) but moments later made plans to leave the next morning for La Fortuna. The front desk would not refund the overpaid amount and they wouldn't let me use the money as credit for other services (food from the cantina, etc)! This was frustrating, but they did let me use some of the overpaid amount toward a night's stay at the end of my trip before flying back to the U.S. In all I was out about $12, but it would be nice if they were more flexible!
website: http://www.costaricabackpackers.com/
Food:
I ate at the cantina on the hostel's premises and bought some snacks from a grocery store about 4 blocks away. San Jose is a busy, fast, dirty and slightly sketchy city, so I reserved my adventurous wandering around for less confusing destinations.

Whitewater Rafting: I can't find the information about which tour group I took, but the hostel still organizes these trips, though I believe with another company. Any of the Eco Tour groups are fine and rates are pretty steady around $100 per person. This might seem steep, but it was a full day of activity and the company provided food and transportation before and after the rafting.

La Fortuna
Lodging- again, I have no idea where I stayed. The rafting company drove about 10 of us around La Fortuna in the evening, stopping at various guest houses and hostels (we could make requests or just ask the driver's opinion) to ask if they had vacancy. I shared a triple room with ensuite bathroom at a guest house with two other women for the night. We paid no more than $20 each and it was very comfortable, though nothing fancy.

Food- La Fortuna has a number of places to eat. I had dinner at a cafeteria that served everything from pizza to tacos to burgers and milkshakes. Prices were a little bit inflated for tourists and the quality was low, but that's pretty typical in Costa Rica.

Monteverde
Lodging- I stayed at Casa Tranquilo hostel in a bunk bed room with attached bath. There were six of us total in that room and by this time we all knew each other pretty well, so we basically got a "private" room for our party at hostel per bed rates! I think we paid about $10 or $15 per person, this included breakfast and they very nice family of owners helped us to make arrangements for zipline tours and taxis to the coast. None of us had researched this place beforehand, so I don't know if they have stopped offering the bunk-bed option or if it's just not advertised on their website, but now they advertise single and double rooms for as little as $20 per night with no mention of the bunk-bed room.
website: http://www.casatranquilohostel.com/index.htm

Food- we ate dinner at the Tree House about 1/2 mile away from the hostel. The main drag of the town has a number of places to eat with a variety of options, all a bit pricey for Central American standards but nothing unaffordable for American backpackers. My meal at the Tree House was about $15 or so and I had a drink and dessert. The restaurant also has computers guests can use before or after their meal to check email, etc.
website: http://www.treehouse.cr/

Playa Jaco
Lodging- I stayed in Playa Jaco for about 4 nights and loved every moment of it. The hostels in the beach towns often don't have their own websites, so I was skeptical but in the end very pleased with Las Camas Hostel. The owners are a young couple, very friendly and helpful. It isn't always perfectly clean, but very acceptable and comfortable. The rooftop area is a lot of fun and it's perfectly located near the beach, groceries, and markets. Best of all, this place seems to attract a great group of travelers to share your experience with. I would definitely visit again!
website/review: http://www.hostelz.com/hostel/105502-Las-Camas-Hostel

Food- there are tons of great places to eat in Playa Jaco including an outdoor pizza bar, local places to get fish dishes, rice and beans, etc. You really can't go wrong! If you want to hang out with travelers or find American food just pop into any place along the main drag. If you want a more local place ask the hostel owners about local places and they will direct you to small establishments on the cross streets near the beach and fish shops.

Other tips and tricks:

• The long-distance buses are a good deal, even if they seem a little bit mysterious. I took a bus from Puntarenas to Playa Jaco for under $3 and a bus from Playa Jaco to San Jose (4 hours or so) for under $10! Locals are very friendly, so just ask where to buy tickets. The ticket seller will point you toward the bus stop, but this isnt' really necessary because you'll see a large crowd of people waiting and probably vendors selling ice cream and bags of drinking water (yes, really!) and such. The buses are safe and fairly comfortable, but the stops are not announced in any intelligible way. Make sure you know what landmarks to look for to find your stop. I missed my stop in Playa Jaco and had to walk almost a mile to my hostel, but ultimately it wasn't a big deal. Costa Ricans take these buses too, so you can always ask someone sitting near you if you've reached your destination.
• Check out Playa Hermosa on the Pacific Coast. It's about 5 miles from Playa Jaco and has more options for food and nightlife. I prefer Jaco for the slower pace and surfing, but Hermosa is definitely worth a day or evening visit.
• Costa Rican Spanish is very easy to understand because the accent causes the words to be pronounced very clearly. This is great for visitors, but don't assume that everyone speaks English (for one thing, it's rude!). Learn a few basic phrases and this will go a long way.
• Costa Rica is a little bit expensive by Central American standards, but it is still very affordable. Budget for more money than you plan to spend to allow yourself fun experiences like whitewater rafting, ziplining, ATV riding, etc. $50 or $100 for a day of activity might seem steep if you're a college student, but at the end of your trip you will be happy you spent the money if it was an activity you really wanted to take part in.
• Do lots of research if you must, but don't be afraid to just arrive in Costa Rica with only a vague plan. There are so many lodging and transportation options and so many people who make their living providing these services that the worst thing that could happen is you spend a relaxing day in a nice mountain or beach town waiting for the next bus. If all lodging options are completely full it's not unheard of for proprietors to let you "rent" the couch in the common area until a bed opens up.

Taking it Easy in Costa Rica: New York to San Jose to La Fortuna

New York City had grown tired of me. It was early 2009 and I was finishing up my law degree in Manhattan, taking part in the hustle and bustle, sharing germs with half the city on the subway every morning and dodging spring showers in my suit while running between classes and meetings. I needed an escape. I chose Costa Rica and I chose to take it on alone.

This was hardly my first trip abroad, but it was my first solo trip. My “ex with benefits” thought I, a petite 24 year old, was crazy to travel alone on a shoestring budget in a country where I didn’t know the language. Eventually it became our shared joke, calling it my “walkabout” after I explained my need to break free and have an experience all my own. Following this week of newfound independence, the voyager in me would never be the same.

My flight to San Jose left JFK Airport at o’dark thirty in the morning. Getting safely to the airport was an adventure in itself. This being Manhatten, my living in Spanish Harlem and making the brilliant decision to take the 6 train to the E train at 4:00 in the morning guaranteed that I would encounter some sketchy folks sleeping on the subway cars and one fellow in particular who used the corner of my train car as his toilet. After a morning like that, I felt I could take on anything!

I arrived in San Jose around noon and took a pre-paid shuttle to my hostel. In accordance with every guidebook I’d read about Costa Rica, San Jose met all of my expectations of being a busy, ugly, dirty city with very little to offer. However, my hostel was very comfortable and helped me to plan my activities for the rest of the week. Within an hour of checking in I had made plans to spend the following day whitewater rafting, then take a van to the cloud forests and volcano region of the country and eventually end up in Playa Jaco, a destination I’d had my heart set on, to chill out with some surfers for a few days.

The amazing thing about Costa Rica is the number of young, relaxed people traveling through all the time. We all go there for the same basic reason: to see something amazing and unwind from our lives in busier, more compressed parts of the world. So it is no wonder that I met two young women from Montreal within an hour of arrival who had made similar plans to mine. The next morning the three of us boarded a shuttle to go whitewater rafting together.



(click on photo above to link to my photo album for this trip!)
It was typical rafting trip devised for tourists. We were joined by college aged kids from all over the world including two German girls who shared our raft and a 20 year old woman traveling alone from Finland. That’s another thing I love about Costa Rica: solo travel is the norm and making friends has never seemed easier. We enjoyed a full day under the sun running the rapids of the Pacuare River, known for hair-raising Class V and VI rapids. Of course, this was a family event, so we only rafted up to Class IV and V at most and, in a raft, this is extremely safe. The tour group provided us with lunch, nothing special but it was nice to be fed. By the end of the day I was exhausted, exhilarated, sunburned, and ready for my bed. The day of rafting was followed by an included shuttle to La Fortuna to see the volcano Arenal and the hot springs. Altogether I paid $99 for the transportation, rafting, and two meals. Not too shabby!


La Fortuna is a beautiful little town in the middle of the rainforest, sitting at the feet of the Arenal Volcano. Typically visitors will hike the volcano trails and dip in the hot springs. Unfortunately, I arrived in La Fortuna to find terrible rainy weather, which really s tressed out my Type A personality. Then, after finding a triple hotel room to share with the two ladies from Montreal and getting cleaned up after my long day, my new “pura vida” self was overjoyed to spend the evening eating bad food at a cafeteria and chatting with new friends. The rain only got worse overnight, so I never did hike the Arenal Volcano or dip in the hot springs. Instead I chose to use what little time I had in Costa Rica (a week is NEVER enough!) to keep moving toward better weather and new experiences. My first few days in Costa Rica were a fantastic start to my first solo trip abroad: I arrived safely, made friends quickly, had an outdoor adventure, and had my first lesson in relaxing “off itinerary” and taking life a moment at a time.

Note: I didn't have a chance to take pictures during the rafting trip, so I snagged these from Google Images. Credit to: amerikaventure.com and travelpod.com.