Before we starting having kids, we made the decision to continue traveling once we did have children. Since we loved our Costa Rican honeymoon so much and felt as though it would be a great destination for a small child, we set our sights on visiting the beautiful country again in December when our oldest was just under a year old.

To read more about what we did on our honeymoon in La Fortuna/Arenal and Manuel Antonio, visit The Start to a Pura Vida Life.

We arrived in Liberia Guanacaste International Airport and rented a car from Hertz. From there, we drove to the W Costa Rica-Reserva Conchal in Playa Conchal which was a little over an hour drive.

Car Rental: we highly recommend renting a 4-wheel drive vehicle while you’re in Costa Rica if you’re able because 1) the prices were reasonable, 2) you can rent a car seat, 3) you can be extremely flexible with your schedule which we know is necessary when you have a baby, and 4) Costa Rica is an extremely easy country to drive in (so long as you don’t cross paths with a waterfall that’s taken out the road…more on that later…).

Hotel: we highly recommend staying at the W Costa Rica-Reserva Conchal. The views were spectacular, the room was spacious, and the staff was more than welcoming. They had a crib ready on our arrival, as well as a pack of baby shampoo and a little stuffed animal. We finished our 5-day trip feeling as though we were leaving behind family.

The following day, we ate breakfast at the hotel and then retrieved our car so we could drive to Diamante Eco Adventure Park. We knew during research of the trip that the drive should only be about 45 minutes from the hotel. However, when we keyed the location into our phones using one of the mapping apps, it told us that it was going to take 1 hour and 15 minutes. That didn’t seem right so we keyed the location into another mapping app which confirmed only a 45-minute drive. Since that drive was 30-minutes shorter, we went that route. We were wrong.

About 15 minutes down a winding, single-lane road and 10-minutes from our destination, we were stopped because…there was a waterfall flowing over the road. The only vehicles that were getting through were large, 4-wheel drive vehicles which we definitely did not spend money on. We ended up having to turn back around and take the original route which added about an hour to our journey since we had already gone a completely different direction. However, once we finally got to Diamante Eco Adventure Park, it was well worth the journey. We got to see all types of animals including monkeys and sloths. At the time of our trip, there was also a sloth baby that was 11 months old; just like our daughter at the time.

The next couple of days, we spent time at neighboring beaches and the hotel pool. On our drive to Parque Nacional Marino Las Baulas, we stopped at a wonderful breakfast spot called Cafe Mar Azul where we ate one of the local meals of gallo pinto (beans and rice) and fried plantains.

Around sunset one of the evenings, we met up with Kristen from Samba to the Sea Photography in Tamarindo. Both Kristen and her puppy were nothing short of baby whisperers. They both had our daughter smiling from ear-to-ear the entire time Kristen was capturing pictures of our family. To this day, she has taken some of the best pictures we’ve seen taken by a professional family photographer. We highly, highly recommend contacting her for your family photos if you’re ever in the area.

The next day, we drove a little over an hour from our hotel to go on the Palo Verde Boat Tour. At the time of our tour, the trip was $60 USD per adult and $5 per infant. This was a great tour to take on with a young child. We felt safe on the boat and there were a wide array of animals and greenery to look at. At the conclusion of the tour, we journeyed back at the National Reserve Cipanci where we were offered a traditional meal for lunch.

The final excursion we went on during our trip was the night before our departure to see leatherback turtles nesting. During our trip, Las Baulas Marine National Park, near Playa Grande was offering tours. However, we recommend researching a week or two leading up to your trip to identify where the turtles are nesting. Once we arrived, our tour guide left us to talk among ourselves for about 45 minutes while he went out to find the location of one of the turtles. From there, we walked 45-minutes to an hour to get to get to the location. 10-minutes from the location, we had to turn off our white lights and turn on red lights to guide us in the darkness.

“Thousands of years ago, there was no civilization at all on these shores.  When the giant leatherback sea turtles found their way to this shore at dark, there was no light to be seen.  So they would lumber up without being seen and secretly deposit their eggs above the high tide line.  So nowadays, if a turtles makes the trek to these shores but sees light, it gets confused and thinks it is on the wrong shore, so it turns and heads back out to sea.  The eggs then become non-viable and are absorbed by the body.  This is why the Cost Rican governments prohibits any development along the shores of their nesting grounds.” -Excerpt from “Giant Sea Turtle Tour!”, https://www.specialplacesofcostarica.com/sea-turtle-tour/.

Witnessing a turtle laying eggs in real-time is indescribable. There were about 20 people surrounding the turtle and the only sound that could be heard was the ocean waves crashing in the background. This is something you can’t miss if you’re in Costa Rica during nesting season!

Tip: Do NOT forget your mosquito spray like we did. We figured since we would be walking on a beach, the mosquitoes would be far and few between. Don’t ask us why we thought that. We were eaten alive.

We hope you take the opportunity to visit Costa Rica with your family. There are so many areas that will make for a memorable trip. You’ll love the people, the food, and the beauty of the country. We believe you’ll also truly get to experience the Pura Vida lifestyle while you’re there, just like we did.