Hey Everyone,
Welcome to my personal travel blog!
My name is Deniz. I’m from Istanbul and live in Berlin, where I work at a company. In 2020, just before Covid outbreak, I married my partner, and we moved to Berlin the same year. We live with our dog.
Living together in Berlin and overcoming challenges together has been great for us, allowing us to understand each other better. I believe traveling has the same effect. The more we travel together, the more our travel styles and life align. We try to take at least one long-distance trip each year. We have many places on our bucket list. Last year, I wanted to go to Japan, but my partner insisted on Costa Rica, and I am glad he did. It inspired me to write.
Pura Vida: A phrase you will often hear in Costa Rica, which means “pure life”. It captures a broader philosophy of appreciating simple things in life. We connected with this spirit as we took in all the beauty Costa Rica has to offer.
I drafted some of these notes on the day of the Turkish elections on May 14th, 2023. It was an important election for our country. It was also our last day in Costa Rica. Costa Rica is 9 hours behind Istanbul. It was 9 AM when I started writing, and the polls in Turkey had closed, and counting had begun. At that moment when I felt I should be in Turkey, I found myself in the garden of our hotel in Quepos, surrounded by a mini forest with the sounds of monkeys and birds. The weather was hot and humid, with the temperature I felt even higher. The hotel staff says it is hotter than usual for this time of the year. Our previous stop, Monteverde, also had unusually warm weather, and they mentioned seeing more tropical-climate-loving animals like iguanas in higher and cooler areas.
We booked our round-trip tickets from Berlin to San Jose with Air France and were very satisfied. The seats and the plane were comfortable, and the service and the food were excellent. We bought our tickets in November for the trip in May next year. If you can plan ahead, it makes a difference to book long-distance flights in advance.
December to April is the peak season in Costa Rica. This means high prices and increased crowds in the touristic areas. We chose May, known as the shoulder season, the transition period between the high and low seasons.
Weather forecasts in Costa Rica can change quickly. Tropical rain can start suddenly, and it can be very hot and humid. Although we chose our dates based on weather predictions, all kinds of weather are part of our travel experience. We were in Costa Rica from May 4th to May 14th 2023 and the weather was generally clear and sunny. It was cooler in the highlands. In Quepos and Manuel Antonio, the heat and humidity were very high. If you don’t like very hot weather like me, the cooler temperatures in the highlands and forests will make you very happy.
After buying our plane tickets, I started researching the route and places to visit. We bought a few books. Lonely Planet is my go-to first book, which I collect and love reading. There are also good online resources; Google and Tripadvisor reviews were helpful. We watched a dozen YouTube videos, but I didn’t like most of the vlogs and videos about Costa Rica, whether in Spanish or English.
When creating the itinerary, I considered the number of days we would stay, travel distances, how we would spend the days on the road, and what we wanted to see. I wanted to see Poas Volcano, La Fortuna, and Monteverde. These were must-visits on my list. Friends who visited the region before had told me that the capitals of Central and Latin American countries can be skipped. We also didn’t plan to see national museums or architectural landmarks on this trip. So, we didn’t spend any time in San Jose. Instead, we read about Costa Rican history online during our trip and talked to locals. We wanted to add a stop at the end of our trip to see the Pacific Ocean and swim in it. We chose Manuel Antonio for its beaches within a national tropical rainforest. We enjoyed it but there are other alternatives, especially if you are looking for a less touristic spot. We spent most of our time in the highlands, forests, and hiking trails – and absolutely and irrevocably fell in love with Costa Rica!
Our final itinerary was:
– San Jose – Overnight stay upon arrival
– Poasito village – Poas Volcano – 2 nights
– La Fortuna / Arenal – 3 nights
– Monteverde – 2 nights
– Quepos/Manuel Antonio – 2 nights
After finalizing the itinerary, our next job is to find hotels. Once the hotels were decided, we collected our ideas, places to visit, restaurants, and cafes in a shared Google page. This gives us a resource and we plan each day (helpful to see when to check in and check out from hotels and when we’ll be on the road), BUT we don’t strictly stick to the plan; some days and moments develop spontaneously.
In Costa Rica, you should pay attention to places that require advance tickets. Many national parks’ entrance tickets can be bought from the SINAC website. You need to buy these tickets in advance and choose the time slot for entry. A limited number of people can enter within a specific time frame to preserve natural heritage. Check out the SINAC website where you can find useful information. We generally bought our tickets a day in advance and found availability easily.
Quick Tips
– Renting a car will give freedom in Costa Rica. Especially if you only have 2-3 weeks, a car allows you to see more places. We reserved a car from Sixt a few weeks in advance but ended up renting from Budget after negotiating at San Jose Airport. We rented a 4×2 SUV and were comfortable. The roads were generally good, but in some parts of Monteverde, the roads were really bad or even non-existent. While 4×4 is recommended, we had no issues with our 4×2. Just don’t get a tiny car 🙂
– Route planning – Don’t decide based solely on map distances. Use Google Maps to calculate driving distances between locations. Places that seem close can be over 3 hours apart.
– Animal spotting – We saw many tropical animals. Seeing parrots, toucans, blue butterflies, iguanas, and agoutis made us very happy. But the goal was not keeping a scorecard. We avoided tours focused solely on spotting animals. From what I gathered, tourism is a crucial income source for the people there, but they also strive to prevent tourism and crowds from harming their nature. Still, many commercial tours promise animal sightings. Guidebooks and online resources usually describe the tour companies’ features; you can understand the content and quality of the tour by reading previous customers’ reviews.
– We joined one tour in Monteverde at 100% Aventure which I would highly recommend. We went there for a zipline tour but changed our minds before the tour started. We ended up joining a hanging bridges walking tour in the forest which we loved! There were only 2 friends other than us on the tour. Our guide was knowledgeable and respectful of nature. He helped us to spot big spider caves and sleeping owls that looked like a character from Winnie the Pooh 🙂
– Spend as much time as you can in Monteverde and the cloud forests; it was the best part of our Costa Rica experience. We felt lucky and in awe to see such a special nature.
– Hacienda Starbucks Farm – We debated on whether we should or should not visit this coffee lab. Starbucks has a big business in Costa Rica and owns coffee farms. They say that it supports local farmers too. I don’t know about that. In the end, we went to see the farm and their famous coffee shop. The views were stunning. Up to you to visit or not! I would not consider it as a crucial spot to see.
– Poas Volcano: Well… this IS a crucial spot to see if you can make time. We went to Poas and stayed there for 2 nights to see the volcano. It was worth it. We climbed the hill in the natural park where the volcano is located early in the morning (before 9 am). We were very lucky because a few minutes after we reached the hill, the clouds disappeared, and we saw the Tiffany-blue lagoon! Wow wow wow. It was my first time seeing an active volcano.
We then walked into the Poas National Park. The habitat and climate were very different. Volcano soil created a movie-like forest. It wasn’t raining but we saw raindrops hanging in the air. I’d recommend taking at least 1-2 hours to see this beautiful place if you are in the area.
– In La Fortuna, we spent one full day in a hot spring! This was not in our original plans but other than the volcano and the national park, we didn’t find interesting activities in this town. Our day at EcoTermales Hot Springs was fun and relaxing. The restaurant served great food which was included in our ticket. There are more luxury or bigger hot springs options in the area; we chose this one because we wanted a calmer atmosphere and we got what we wanted.
– Simple one: Enjoy the food, local fruits and coffee 🙂
Travel reads: “The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will be Glad That You Did)” by Philippa Perry