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A Costa Rican Family Vacation

April 10, 2016 By Lauren 16 Comments

After a quick stopover in Chicago en route from Sydney to Latin America, I arrived into Liberia Airport in Costa Rica just in time to meet my parents, aunt, and uncle who arrived from Detroit. My family had a pretty tight radius within which they were willing to travel during the short time allotted by spring break, so we ultimately decided on a weeklong vacation to Costa Rica. I use the term “vacation” rather than “travel” for this post because that is truly what it was: an incredibly relaxing, luxurious vacation. It was a nice change from our usual backpacking style, and we had an absolute blast together.

Our vacation began in the beachside town of Tamarindo (aka Tama-gringo for all the Americans and Canadians that frequent the area). We used VRBO to rent a 2,100 square feet, three bedroom, 4.5 bathroom house with two private pools for the “inflated” Easter week price of $500 per night. We took one look at the lavish kitchen and industrial grill and decided to have all our meals in house.

One of the many lounge areas within the house
My 12-year-old-at-heart dad enjoying the pool
While the rest of us preferred to lounge around
No dunking! Where’s the lifeguard on duty?
Chris surprised us by shaving off his beard in phases
Despite my adoring smile, this “El Hombre” phase was my least favorite
The pools had multicolored lights and back-lit paintings by night
Making dinner together in this fantastic kitchen
One of our many delicious meals (which I was usually too busy enjoying to properly document)

Usually that meant the ladies making breakfast and my Uncle Bob doing wonders with salmon and seabass on the grill (while Chris and my dad supervised with Imperials and Pilsens in hand), but we decided to splurge for a private chef to come in and make us Easter dinner. And so we sat back and relaxed as Italian expat Francesco made us eggplant, lobster, and pineapple flambé. Let me tell you, I could get used to this.

The Italians sure know how to do eggplant
He warned us, but we still decided to stay to watch the lobster preparation
Thanking the lobsters for their service
Definitely a step up from the usual Easter ham
Flambé!
The pineapple in Costa Rica is pretty exceptional… and even better with ice cream
Our family feast

Although we were perfectly happy to stay in our little compound the whole time, we did venture out once to check out the local beach (despite our driver’s descriptions of the “cocodrilos” in the nearby bay) and for an ATV excursion around the area. Our ATV trip found the six of us tearing down dirt paths and ultimately emerging on a deserted beach, which our guide told us was at our disposal for testing the limits of our machines’ speed and agility. We also took the opportunity to jump into the blue water and wash some of the plentiful dust off ourselves.

Tamarindo during the dry season is a dusty brown
With plenty of cacti around
But there were bursts of beautiful color still to be found
This way to the beach
Our “before” picture… Very much before all the dust and sand
Learning how to shift gears in the ATVs
Midway into our ride and already pretty dusty (I promise you my legs are usually not that brown)
Happy ATVers exploring our own deserted beach
And maybe pulling a few u-eys and figure eights on the sand
Mom sitting pretty

This beach was a wonderful break in our dusty ride
There was even time for a bit of snorkeling
It took a moment for me to convince everyone that this was a snake and not a twig
Snake? I went the opposite way while the men couldn’t help but get a closer look
Preparing to tell (embellish?) the snake story later on
Back on the bikes where water + sand = human powdered donuts

For the second half of our trip, we ventured into the middle of the island to Arenal, an area known for its now-dominant volcano, a glistening lake, and bubbling hot springs. We stayed at a boutique hotel that had five on-site hot spring pools and, of course, a swim-up bar. Our hotel sent us across the street to a hot spring resort on our second day while the pools were being cleaned, and we had the entire resort to ourselves with a gorgeous view of the volcano.

Costa Rica is famous for its wildlife… like this coati we found on the side of the road
Further along, we spotted a group of people…
… who had found a sloth lazing in the tree
Lake Arenal
And the similarly-named volcano nearby
The view of the hot springs and volcano from our balcony
Making good use of the facilities
The resort across the street
Aunt Karen enjoying the therapeutic spring benefits
And the twins relaxing with an impromptu shoulder massage

Our number one to-do in Costa Rica was zip lining, and little did I know that I chose the most extreme tour operator for us to patron during our time in Arenal. Sky Adventures boasts seven zip lines that rise as high as 650 feet in the air and shoot you over the treetops at incredible speeds. My mom wore a GoPro for her rides, and the footage is awesome (including a heroic “Yeeeeeehawwww!” on her first ride). She was able to capture what it was like as you leave the platform and begin to accelerate along the line just as the ground drops off beneath you. Even my daredevil dad proclaimed it “the scariest thing I’ve ever done.” As someone who refuses to ride rollercoasters, I am pretty darn proud of myself for completing the trek.

Getting our gear on
GoPro ready to go
Psyching ourselves up
A few howler monkeys greeted (warned?) us on the way up
Heading high up, knowing we have a long way to zip down
With no fear, mom goes first

Sadly, here’s where my photos end as I had to put our camera away once we started zip lining for fear of strangling myself. For those of you lucky (or unlucky) enough to be subjected to our family vacation video showings, you’ll get to see some exhilarating footage from the GoPro my mom was wearing. And, although zip lining was the pinnacle of our adrenaline-spiking activities in Costa Rica, our adventures were not done yet. The five of us (Chris stayed back at the hotel to catch up on some travel planning) set out to explore a magnificent waterfall in La Fortuna. After a sweaty hike down, we came to the foot of the waterfall and jumped into the icy water. While we got used to the numbing water, my dad entertained himself by trying to see how close he could swim to the base of the falls (Answer: not very close due to its thundering power).

Checking out the falls and how far we need to hike down
More than a few steps later…
… we made it to the bottom
Well that’s gorgeous
Dad’s fruitless attempt to reach the base of the falls
So he consoled himself by lazing in the rushing river

All in all, it ended up being quite the epic family vacation: a luxury compound, a private chef, ATV adventures, hot springs and swim-up bars, a picturesque volcano backdrop, heart-pounding zip lines, and waterfall hikes. I’d say we definitely crushed the road-tripping, bologna sandwich-toting, family vacation trip to Mount Rushmore mold.

Filed Under: Adventures Tagged With: Costa Rica, North America

Comments

  1. Jen says

    April 10, 2016 at 1:35 pm

    Lozza!!! Costa Rica remains one of my favorite trips! I’m so proud of you for ziplining; I bet you loved it! Those ATVs and swimming in the ocean afterward looked amazing! So glad your family could join you. It looks like you all had a wonderful week together. Miss you, pretty lady!

    Reply
    • Lauren says

      April 10, 2016 at 1:49 pm

      Thanks, Jen Jen!

      Reply
  2. Alison says

    April 10, 2016 at 1:37 pm

    AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! XOXOXOXO

    Reply
    • Lauren says

      April 10, 2016 at 1:50 pm

      Thanks, Aunt Al! Miss you!

      Reply
  3. Mom says

    April 10, 2016 at 6:44 pm

    Thanks for capturing Costa Rica 2016…it sure was fun!

    Reply
  4. Cindy says

    April 10, 2016 at 7:44 pm

    I’m so happy to see all of this. I’m currently planning a Costa Rica trip right now for this July. I honestly was just thinking the other day… Man, I wish Lauren would go to Costa Rica and talk about it on her blog so I could see some of the planning she would do! Dreams do come true 🙂 We’ll have 11 days. We were thinking 3 days in La Fortuna, 3 days in Monteverde and 3 days in Manuel Antonio, with a travel day on each end. Thoughts? We’re definitely going to be traveling more frugally than you guys did, but I know you usually travel pretty frugally as well. Where did you stay in La Fortuna? Would you recommend it? Thanks!

    Reply
    • Lauren says

      April 10, 2016 at 9:23 pm

      Ha, I’m so glad this helped! You will have a fantastic time. I will email you separately about it too!

      Reply
  5. Jill Costie says

    April 11, 2016 at 10:10 am

    Once again you made my weekend! I love reading these

    Reply
    • Lauren says

      April 11, 2016 at 6:38 pm

      Hurray! We just finished off the last of your snacks tonight too 🙂 YUM!

      Reply
  6. Sara Albert says

    April 11, 2016 at 10:42 am

    Awesome pictures. So proud of everybody for zip lining. Now you know what it is like to fly like a bird.

    Reply
    • Lauren says

      April 11, 2016 at 6:38 pm

      You would have been right there with my mom yelling, Yeehaw! I have no doubt 🙂

      Reply
  7. Bill Sirls says

    April 19, 2016 at 4:11 pm

    Awesome pics! Felt like I was there with you!

    Reply
    • Lauren says

      April 19, 2016 at 9:20 pm

      Thanks, Uncle Bill! Wait until you see the video!

      Reply
  8. Amy Bowerman says

    April 21, 2016 at 10:37 pm

    Wow Lauren and Family!! Got the blog info from Stella. What a wonderful and exciting vacation for your adventurous and blessed family!

    Reply
    • Lauren says

      April 22, 2016 at 7:36 am

      Thanks, Amy! So nice to hear from you!

      Reply
      • chloe says

        April 25, 2016 at 4:57 pm

        i love all the pics and by the way mis migliore is my 4th grade teacher you can and visited our class room this year

        Reply

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